Shame on Meed.

Meed’s “shameless” confession to the friar (B.3.43-44) shows WL’s knowledge of the doctrine promulgated by Innocent IV in the anti-mendicant bull Etsi Animarum (1254), that shame is an important aspect of penance because of the embarrassment in having to confess to a priest one sees regularly — a psychological difficulty absent when one confesses to an itinerant friar. Shame was considered a requirement for the sacrament; its importance was stressed by Richard FitzRalph in numerous sermons preached in the 1350s and in his Defensio Curatorum, delivered in 1357 and translated by Trevisa sometime between 1387 and 1398.