Medieval Anchorites in their Communities
Title Details

272 Pages

23.4 x 15.6 cm

7 b/w, 2 line illus.

Series: Studies in the History of Medieval Religion

Series Vol. Number: 45

Imprint: D.S.Brewer

Medieval Anchorites in their Communities

Edited by Cate Gunn and Liz Herbert McAvoy

  • Description
  • Contents
  • Author
  • Reviews
Essays challenging the orthodox opinion of anchorites as entirely divorced from the world around them.

Much of the research into medieval anchoritism to date has focused primarily on its liminal and elite status within the socio-religious cultures of its day: the anchorite has long been depicted as both solitary and alone, almost entirely removed from community and living a life of permanent withdrawal and isolation, in effect dead to the world. Considerably less attention has been afforded to the communal sociability that also formed part of the reclusivelife during the period,
The essays in this volume, stemming from a variety of cross-disciplinary approaches and methodologies, lay down a challenge to this position, breaking new ground in their presentation of the medievalanchorite and other types of enclosed solitary as playing a central role within the devotional life of the communities in which they were embedded. They attest also to the frequent involvement of anchorites and other recluses in local, national and, sometimes, international matters of importance. Overall, the volume suggests that, far from operating on the socio-religious periphery, as posited previously, the medieval anchorite was more often found at theheart of a sometimes intersecting array of communities: synchronic and diachronic; physical and metaphysical; religious and secular; gendered and textual.

CATE GUNN has taught in the Continuing Education and LiteratureDepartments of the University of Essex; LIZ HERBERT MCAVOY is Professor of Medieval Literature at Swansea University.

Contributors: Diana Denissen, Clare Dowding, Clarck Drieshen, Cate Gunn, Catherine Innes-Parker, E.A. Jones, Dorothy Kim, Liz Herbert McAvoy, Godelinde Perk, James Plumtree, Michelle Sauer, Sophie Sawicka-Sykes, Andrew Thornton OSB,
Introduction - Liz Herbert McAvoy and Cate Gunn
'O Sely Ankir!' - E.A. Jones
The Anchoress of Colne Priory: A Solitary in Community - Cate Gunn
Anchorites in their Heavenly Communities - Sophie Sawicka-Sykes
Rule Within Rule, Cell Within Cloister: Grimlaicus's Regula Solitariorum - Andrew Thornton
English Nuns as 'Anchoritic Intercessors' for Souls in Purgatory: The Employment of A Revelation of Purgatory by Late Medieval English Nunneries for Their Lay Communities - Clarck Drieshen
'In anniversaries of ower leoveste freond seggeth alle nihene': Anchorites, Chantries and Purgatorial Patronage in Medieval England - Michelle M. Sauer
'Item receyvyd of ye Anker': The Relationships between a Parish and its Anchorites as seen through the Churchwardens' Accounts - Clare Dowding
The Curious Incident of the Hermit in Fisherton - James Plumtree
Was Julian's nightmare a Mare? Julian of Norwich and the Vernacular Community of Storytellers - Godelinde Gertrude Perk
Anchoritic Textual Communities and the Wooing Group Prayers - Catherine Innes-Parker
The Anchoress Transformed: On wel swuðe god ureisun of God almihti and þe wohunge of ure lauerd in the Fourteenth-Century A Talkyng of the Love of God - Diana Denissen
Ancrene Wisse and the Egerton Hours - Dorothy Kim
Bibliography
Index

CATE GUNN is an independent scholar who has written on thirteenth-century anchoritic and pastoral literature.

LIZ HERBERT MCAVOY FLSW is Professor Emerita of Medieval Literature at Swansea University and Honorary Senior Research Associate at the University of Bristol.

"An accessible entryway into its topic, the role of hermits, anchorites, and the like in medieval society. Anyone interested in anchorites could pick up this volume and find something compelling or relevant." SEHEPUNKTE
"[T]his book represents a high achievement in scholarship, especially its contribution towards proving the communal sociability of rural and urban anchorites in medieval communities." READING RELIGION
"Will certainly widen the horizons of any readers beyond the well-known anchorite Julian of Norwich and her writings." THE RICARDIAN

Hardcover

9781843844624

June 2017

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9781787440296

June 2017

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Title Details

272 Pages

2.34 x 1.56 cm

7 b/w, 2 line illus.

Series: Studies in the History of Medieval Religion

Series Vol. Number: 45

Imprint: D.S.Brewer