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The practice of anchoritism - religious enclosure which was frequently solitary and voluntarily embraced, very often in a permanent capacity - was widespread in many areas of Europe throughout the middle ages. Originating in the desert withdrawal of the earliest Christians and prefiguring even the monastic life, anchoritism developed into an elite vocation which was popular amongst both men and women. Within this reclusive vocation, the anchorite would withdraw, either alone or with others like her or him, to a small cell or building, very frequently attached to a church or other religious institution, where she or he would - theoretically at least - remain locked up until death. In the later period it was a vocation which was particularly associated with pious laywomen who appear to haveopted for this extreme way of life in their thousands throughout western Europe, often as an alternative to marriage or remarriage, allowing them, instead, to undertake the role of 'living saint' within the community.

This volume brings together for the first time in English much of the most important European scholarship on the subject to date. Tracing the vocation's origins from the Egyptian deserts of early Christian activity through to its multiple expressions in western Europe, it also identifies some of those regions - Wales and Scotland, for example - where the phenomenon doesnot appear to have been as widespread. As such, the volume provides an invaluable resource for those interested in the theories and practices of medieval anchoritism in particular, and the developmentof medieval religiosity more widely.

Dr LIZ HERBERT MCAVOY is Senior Lecturer in Gender in English and Medieval Studies at Swansea University.

CONTRIBUTORS: Anneke B. Mulder-Bakker, Gabriela Signori, M. Sensi, G. Cavero Dominguez, P. L'Hermite-Leclercq, Mari Hughes-Edwards, Colman O Clabaigh, Anna McHugh, Liz Herbert McAvoy.

Christian spirituality --- anno 500-1499 --- Europe --- Hermits --- Christian life --- Church history --- History --- Conduct of life --- Eremitic life --- Conduct of life. --- 271.791 --- -Anchorites --- Eremites --- Persons --- Hermitages --- Recluses --- Anachoreten. Stylieten. Kluizenaars. Eremieten. Reclusen --- -Christian life --- -Anachoreten. Stylieten. Kluizenaars. Eremieten. Reclusen --- -271.791 --- 271.791 Anachoreten. Stylieten. Kluizenaars. Eremieten. Reclusen --- -271.791 Anachoreten. Stylieten. Kluizenaars. Eremieten. Reclusen --- Anchorites --- Monastic and religious life --- Christianity --- Christians --- Discipleship --- Religious life --- Theology, Practical --- Middle Ages, 600-1500 --- Hermits - Europe - History - To 1500 --- Christian life - Europe - History - Middle Ages, 600-1500 --- Hermits - Europe - Conduct of life --- Church history - Middle Ages, 600-1500 --- Ermites --- Anchoritic traditions. --- Anchoritism. --- Living saint. --- Medieval Europe. --- Medieval anchoritism. --- Medieval religiosity. --- Permanent capacity. --- Pious laywomen. --- Reclusive vocation. --- Religious enclosure. --- Solitary life. --- Western Europe. --- Civilization, Medieval.

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Julian of Norwich --- Julian, --- Criticism and interpretation. --- Criticism and interpretation --- 091 JULIAN OF NORWICH --- 091 =20 --- Handschriftenkunde. Handschriftencatalogi--JULIAN OF NORWICH --- Handschriftenkunde. Handschriftencatalogi--Engels --- 091 =20 Handschriftenkunde. Handschriftencatalogi--Engels --- 091 JULIAN OF NORWICH Handschriftenkunde. Handschriftencatalogi--JULIAN OF NORWICH --- anno 500-1499 --- Great Britain --- I︠U︡liana, --- Juliana, --- Norwich, van, Juliana --- Julian of Norwich. --- Juliana de Norwich --- Julienne de Norwich --- de Norwich, Julienne --- Iuliana Norvicensis --- Julian, - of Norwich, - b. 1343. - Revelations of divine love --- Julian, - of Norwich, - b. 1343 - Criticism and interpretation --- Julian, - of Norwich, - b. 1343 --- Spirituality --- Theology --- Book

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"During the Middle Ages, the arresting motif of the walled garden - especially in its manifestation as a sacred or love-inflected hortus conclusus - was a common literary device. Usually associated with the Virgin Mary or the Lady of popular romance, it appeared in myriad literary and iconographic forms, largely for its aesthetic, decorative and symbolic qualities.This study focuses on the more complex metaphysical functions and meanings attached to it between 1100 and 1400 - and, in particular, those associated with the gardens of Eden and the Song of Songs. Drawing on contemporary theories of gender, gardens, landscape and space, it traces specifically the resurfacing and reworking of the idea and image of the enclosed garden within the writings of medieval holy women and other female-coded texts. In so doing, it presents the enclosed garden as generator of a powerfully gendered hermeneutic imprint within the medieval religious imaginary - indeed, as an alternative "language" used to articulate those highly complex female-coded approaches to God that came to dominate late-medieval religiosity.The book also responds to the "eco-turn" in our own troubled times that attempts to return the non-human to the centre of public and private discourse. The texts under scrutiny therefore invite responses as both literary and "garden" spaces where form often reflects content, and where their authors are also diligent "gardeners": the apocryphal Lives of Adam and Eve, for example; the horticulturally-inflected Hortus Deliciarum of Herrad of Hohenburg and the "green" philosophies of Hildegard of Bingen's Scivias; the visionary writings of Gertrude the Great and Mechthild of Hackeborn collaborating within their Helfta nunnery; the Middle English poem, Pearl; and multiple reworkings of the deeply problematic and increasingly sexualized garden enclosing the biblical figure of Susanna."

Christian spirituality --- Christian church history --- Old English literature --- anno 1200-1499 --- anno 1100-1199 --- Christianity --- literature [writings] --- walled gardens --- Medieval [European] --- literature [documents] --- Enclosed garden (Allegory) --- Christian art and symbolism --- Gardens --- Literature, Medieval --- Women in literature. --- Christianity in literature. --- Literature, Medieval. --- Religious aspects --- Christianity. --- History and criticism. --- Women authors --- Women authors.

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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 reclusive life 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 medieval anchorite 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 the heart 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 Literature Departments 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,

Anchors --- Ships --- History. --- Equipment and supplies --- Hermits --- Church history --- History --- Anchorites --- Eremites --- Persons --- Hermitages --- Recluses

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248 "04/14" --- Spiritualite. Ascese. Mystique. Theologie ascetique et mystique. Devotion--Middeleeuwen --- Philosophy and psychology of culture --- Religious studies --- anno 500-1499 --- Great Britain --- Church history --- Hermits. --- Ermites --- Heremieten --- Hermits --- Eglise --- Histoire --- Anchorites --- Eremites --- Persons --- Hermitages --- Recluses --- Christianity --- Middle Ages, 600-1500 --- Middle Ages, 500-1500