This brings to mind the ape in the iron cage in the thaumaturgist's tower in the Sample Dungeon. The article even mentions "clerics" keeping apes to show off the church's prosperity.
http://www.medievalists.net/2013/09/18/preventing-monkey-business-fettered-apes-in-the-middle-ages/
Speaking of the ape in the thaumaturgist's tower, I wonder if Poe as well as REH was an inspiration. In the encounter, Holmes specifically mentions that the ape may try to escape out the window, down the tower and into the streets. Reading that passage recently brought to mind the orangutan in Poe's "Murders in the Rue Morgue" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Murders_in_the_Rue_Morgue).
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