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English Wayfaring Life in the Middle Ages (XIVth Century)

Chapter 35: VII (p. 115) THE DRESS OF THE WORLDLY MONK
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A scholarly survey reconstructs the nomadic and itinerant aspects of fourteenth-century English life by foregrounding petitions, year-books, statutes, and other archival records rather than relying solely on literary accounts. It traces routes of travelers, the institutions and informal customs that regulated movement, and the economic, legal, and social encounters that punctuated journeys, from markets and fairs to inns and courts. Close readings of documentary evidence illuminate dangers, hospitality practices, and administrative responses, while pen-and-ink sketches and examples illustrate daily patterns and the methodological case for archival reconstruction.

VII (p. 115) THE DRESS OF THE WORLDLY MONK

According to the Council of London (1342): “. . . Militari potius quam clericali habitu induti superiori, scilicet brevi seu stricto, notabiliter tamen et excessive latis, vel longis manicis, cubitos non tegentibus [tangentibus in Labbe] sed pendulis, crinibus cum [two words not in Labbe] furrura vel sandalo revolutis, et ut vulgariter dicitur, reversatis, et caputiis cum tipettis miræ longitudinis, barbisque prolixis incedere, et suis digitis annulos indifferenter portare publice, ac zonis stipatis pretiosis miræ magnitudinis supercingi, et bursis cum imaginibus variis sculptis, amellatis [annellatis, L.] et deauratis, ad ipsas patenter cum cultellis, ad modum gladiorum pendentibus, caligis etiam rubeis, scaccatis et viridibus, sotularibusque rostratis et incisis multimode, ac croperiis [propriis, L.] ad sellas, et cornibus ad colla pendentibus, epitogiis aut clocis [this word not in L.] furratis, uti patenter ad oram, contra sanctiones canonicas temere non verentur, adeo quod a laicis vix aut nulla patet distinctio clericorum.” Wilkins’ “Concilia Magnæ Britanniæ,” London, 1737, vol. ii. p. 703; also in Labbe, “Sacrosancta Concilia,” year 1342, vol. xxv. col. 1170.

According to the Council of York (1367): “Nonnulli . . . vestes publice deferre præsumpserunt deformiter decurtatas, medium tibiarum suarum, seu genua nullatenus attingentes . . . ad jactantiam et suorum corporum ostentationem.” Labbe, ibid. vol. xxvi. col. 467–8. {433}