Smithfield Decretals, f. 49v: Reynard the bishop

Smithfield Decretals, British Library, Royal MS 10 E IV, folio 49v. The preaching fox again, and this time he has been promoted. Reynard wears a bishop's miter and grips a crozier as he preaches to a flock of geese and other birds, every one of them a potential meal. Set beside the Maastricht fox in this gallery, it shows how one joke about greedy clergy turned up in workshops in the Low Countries and in London alike.