Clergy, Masculinity and Transgression in Late Medieval England

Where did the secular clergy of the later Middle Ages fit into the gender order of their time? In the previous chapter Robert Swanson discussed medieval theoretical, and especially theological, conceptions of the gender identity of the clergy; in this chapter I shall explore some of the practical implications of the acquisition of clerical gender identity through the examination of a series of detailed case studies from late medieval England. In particular, I shall discuss the means by which gender identity was inculcated, ways in which clerical gender identity contrasted and conflicted with lay societal ideas of appropriate masculine behaviour, and the responses (of both laity and clergy) to transgressions of expected clerical behaviour.