Minecraft wiki entry for Villager, associated text: Like other mobs, villagers have four slots for worn armor, separate from their inventory. An adjacent dispenser can equip armor, elytra, mob heads or carved pumpkins to a villager, but the armor is not rendered (except for carved pumpkins and mob heads). The equipment functions as normal; for example, a villager wearing an armor piece enchanted with Thorns can inflict Thorns damage to attackers, and a villager wearing Frost Walker boots is able to create frosted ice. If a villager is converted into a zombie villager, the armor it was wearing is dropped, though it may be able to pick it up and equip it again.