Folly is of course right in pointing out that liturgical ceremonial and ecclesiastical protocol were developed under the influence of court procedures. Cardinals, in particular, grew from parish priests of the Roman titular churches, a status which still gives them the right to elect the bishop of Rome, into ecclesiastical princes, with privileges of jurisdiction and dress to match their new status.
In the Enchiridion and elsewhere, Erasmus frequently makes the point that ecclesiastical titles denote not power or status but function.