Women's Use of Religious Literature in Late Medieval England
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WOMEN'S USE OF RELIGIOUS LITERATURE IN LATE MEDIEVAL ENGLAND Anne Marie Dutton This dissertation is submitted in fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of York Centre for Medieval Studies October, 1995 ABSTRACT Little scholarly attention has been directed to the subject of women's activities as readers, listeners, and owners of the religious literature circulating in late medieval England. This dissertation examines women's access to and use of such literature from c. 1350 to c. 1500. My main sources are wills and probate inventories (both of which sometimes mention books), and extant manuscripts and incunabula known to have been owned or used by women. I argue that the female audience of religious literature was composed primarily of women religious and laywomen from the nobility and gentry, and, in the fifteenth century, from the mercantile elite. Such women formed networks that facilitated the exchange and sharing of books. Middle English treatises of spiritual guidance addressed to women construct celibate readers, thereby ignoring married women, and thus, to a large extent, laywomen. These writings also attempt to limit women's critical responses to the text. A study of the corpus of religious literature actually in women's hands reveals not only that laywomen and female religious participated in a common literary devotional culture, but also that this culture went beyond what was written or recommended for them. I present two case studies of women book owners - a laywoman, Anne Harling (c. 1426-1498) and a nun, Sibilla de Felton, abbess of Barking from 1394 until her death in 1419. These two women, despite their different life-styles, shared religious and secular concerns, and I argue that both used the religious literature in their hands not only for spiritual benefit but also for political advantage. 2 "[History] tells me nothing that does not either vex or weary me. The quarrels of popes and kings, with wars or pestilences, in every page; the men all so good for nothing, and hardly any women at all." Jane Austen, Persuasion, vol. 5 of The Novels of Jane Austen, ed. R. W. Chapman, 3rd edition revised by Mary Lascelles (London, 1969), p.108. 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Tables 5 Acknowledgements 6 Author's Declaration 7 List of Abbreviations 8 Introduction 11 1 The Female Audience of Religious Literature 46 2 Constructing Female Readers and Female Reading 88 3 Devout Books for Devout Ladies 135 4 Secular Reading: 187 Anne Haling and London, British Library MS Harley 4012 5 Enclosed Reading: 225 Sibilla de Felton and the Nuns of Barking Abbey Conclusion 259 Appendix 1: 264 Extant Manuscripts and Incunabula Known to Have Been in Women's Hands Appendix 2: 267 Religious Texts Noted in Wills and Inventories Appendix 3: 274 Religious Texts Found in Extant Manuscripts and Incunabula Known to Have Been in Women's Hands Appendix 4: 284 Contents of London, BL MS Harley 4012 Appendix 5: 287 Books Surviving from Barking Abbey (Essex) Bibliography 288 4 LIST OF TABLES Table 1.1: 61 Proportion (%) of the social status of women involved in transmissions of books noted in wills and inventories Table 1.2: 66 Types of books bequeathed to and by women Table 1.3: 69 Proportion (%) of the social status of women involved in transmissions of devotional literature noted in wills and inventories Table 1.4: 75 Proportion (%) of the recipients of books bequeathed by women Table 3.1: 139 Proportion (%) of different types of religious literature owned by women religious Table 3.2: 140 Proportion (%) of different types of religious literature owned by laywomen Table 3.3: 141 Proportion (%) of different types of religious literature owned by unknown women Table 3.4: 143 Proportion (%) of known languages of devotional texts Table 3.5: 144 Proportion (%) of known languages of scriptural texts Table 3.6: 145 Languages of devotional texts noted in wills and inventories: proportions (%) among texts for which the language is known 5 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS In the course of four years' work on this thesis, I have incurred many debts. I would first like to thank Professor Felicity Riddy and Dr P. J. P. Goldberg, who supervised my research, and who were unstinting with advice, information, and encouragement. I am particularly grateful to the librarians and staff of the libraries and archive repositories to which my research has taken me: The British Library, The Bodleian Library, Cambridge University Library, The National Library of Scotland, The Bibliothêque Nationale in Paris, Lambeth Palace Library, York Minster Library, Downside Abbey, Alnwick Castle, Cardiff Public Library, Glasgow University Library, Nottingham University Library, University College Oxford, Magdalen College Oxford, All Souls College Oxford, Corpus Christi College Oxford, Gonville and Caius College Cambridge, St John's College Cambridge, Corpus Christi College Cambridge, Trinity College Cambridge, Sidney Sussex College Cambridge, The Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, The Public Record Office, The Norfolk Record Office, The Essex Record Office, and The Borthwick Institute of Historical Research in York. I would like to thank the many scholars and friends who have given generously of their time and knowledge, especially Professor Alistair Minnis, Professor Mark Ormrod, Dr Pat Cullum, Ms Jocelyn Wogan-Browne, Dr David Smith, Mrs Ann Rycraft, Mr Bernard Barr, Mrs Deirdre Mortimer, Dr Rosalynn Voaden, Ms Katherine Lewis, and Ms Anna Cheifetz. I am very grateful to Mr Sebastian Sutcliffe, of St John's College, Oxford, for sharing some of his doctoral research with me. My research was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, who awarded me a Doctoral Fellowship, by the Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals of the United Kingdom, who provided me with an Overseas Research Studentship, and by the University of York, who gave me a University Scholarship for Overseas Students. The Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York, awarded me a research grant to cover some of my travelling expenses. For all of this beneficence I am very grateful. Writing a doctoral thesis is a lonely task. During my years at York I was fortunate to live and work in supportive communities. My family and friends in Canada and England gave love and encouragement, resigning themselves to high telephone and travel bills, and reminded me that life exists outside the world of medieval women's use of religious literature. Finally, I would like to thank my husband, Dr Andrew Sedman, for asking innumerable questions about medieval women, manuscripts, and texts, as well as offering new insights, for valuable assistance with statistics, for sorting out computer hitches, and for believing in me. This thesis is dedicated to Anne Harling, who inspired me. 6 AUTHOR'S DECLARATION Some of the research presented in Chapters 1 and 3 was presented at the Women and the Book Conference, held at St Hilda's College, Oxford, August, 1993, and was published in the conference proceedings: Anne M. Dutton, "Passing the Book: Testamentary Transmission of Religious Literature to and by Women in England, 1350-1500," in Women, the Book and the Godly, ed. Lesley Smith and Jane H. M. Taylor (Cambridge, 1995), 41-54. Some of the research presented in Chapter 4 was presented at the seventh York Manuscripts Conference, held at the University of York, July, 1994, and will appear in the conference proceedings. Throughout this thesis all dates have been given in new style and historic county boundaries (pre-1974) have been used. Forenames of medieval men and women have been modernized, while surnames have only been modernized if they are particularly common (and thus appear with a variety of spellings) or are based on place-names. In transcriptions from manuscript sources abbreviations have been expanded and are shown by italics, and modern punctuation has been imposed. In quotations from modern printed sources the text has been reproduced as it appears in the printed edition. Title of medieval texts have been modernized except where texts are known exclusively by their medieval titles (e.g. Pore Caitiff). 7 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS Add. Additional BIHR York, Borthwick Institute of Historical Research BL British Library Cavanaugh Susan H. Cavanaugh, "A Study of Books Privately Owned in England 1300-1450" (Ph. D. Dissertation, University of Pennsylvania, 1980). CCR Calendar of Close Rolls CIPM Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem CPR Calendar of Patent Rolls DNB L. Stephen and S. Lee, eds. Dictionary of National Biography, 21 vols. (London, 1937-8). EETS es Early English Text Society, Extra Series EETS os Early English Text Society, Original Series EETS ss Early English Text Society, Supplementary Series Ker, MLGB N. R. Ker, ed., Medieval Libraries of Great Britain: A List of Surviving Books, 2nd ed. (London, 1964). Ker, MMBL N. R. Ker, ed., Medieval Manuscripts in British Libraries, 4 vols. (Oxford, 1969-199) Ker, Supplement N. R. Ker, ed., Medieval Libraries of Great Britain: A List of Surviving Books, Supplement to the Second Edition, ed. Andrew G. Watson (London, 1987). IPMEP R. E. Lewis, N. F. Blake, and A. S. G. Edwards, eds., Index of Printed Middle English Prose (New York, 1985). IMEP A. S. G. Edwards, gen. ed., The Index of Middle English Prose, (Cambridge, 1984-). 8 IMEV Carleton Brown and Rossell Hope Robbins, The Index of Middle English Verse (New York, 1943). Jolliffe P. S. Jolliffe, A Check-List of of Middle English Prose Writings of Spiritual Guidance (Toronto, 1984). Lagorio and Sargent Valerie M. Lagorio and Michael G. Sargent, "English Mystical Writings," in A Manual of the Writings in Middle English, gen. ed. A. E. Hartung, vol. 9 (New Haven, 1993). LALME Linguistic Atlas of Later Middle English NCC Norwich Consistory Court NRO Norfolk Record Office PCC Prerogative Court of Canterbury PMLA Publications of the Modern Language Association PRO Public Record Office Raymo R.