Honesty was deemed to be more of a sin than a virtue, since it made people feel uncomfortable or at least it made the most powerful folks feel uncomfortable.
Before then it is not necessary because no one has sex outside wedlock, he insists (under pressure he concedes that some might sin but society would collapse were they to be condoned).
And away she went boldly; but she had not got farther than the churchyard gate before she saw the red shoes dancing before her; and she was frightened, and turned back, and repented of her sin from her heart.