That's very interesting. Thanks for posting!
Julian of Norwich came to mind not as a scribe but as having been one of the earliest known and credited English writers. I would imagine her works would have been transcribed by other nuns and found some interesting information at
http://www.umilta.net/tablet.htmlTowards the bottom is this: These texts were read and copied in the midst of a living community of prayer and contemplation, and one that continues today at Stanbrook and at Colwich. But the Sisters had to fight with every weapon of love and obedience to preserve their manuscripts, including their manuscript of Julian of Norwich's Showings. In 1655, they were ordered by Dom Claude White, then President of the English Benedictine Congregation, to surrender their contemplative books which were perceived 'to containe poysonous, pernicious and diabolicall doctrine'. The Abbess and the Sisters prostrated themselves before Dom White, refusing, in charity, to surrender their books (one of them their exemplar manuscript of Julian's Showings ),
We humbly beseech your Very Reverend Paternity to pardon us that we do not answer you in the simple word of I or No, we having given your Paternity many reasons why wee could not answer I, and as for No, without the necessary circumstances wee feared it might carry a show of disrespect to your Very Reverend Paternity to whom we owe and desire to perform all dutifull obedience and respect.(5)
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Looks like Dom Claude White was "poysonous", not the contemplative books.
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