Reading medieval anchoritism ideology and spiritual practices

205 Pages·2012·2.063 MB·English

by  Hughes-Edwards, Mari

Religion & Culture in the Middle Ages
Reading Medieval
Anchoritism
Ideology and Spiritual Practices
Mari Hughes-Edwards
University of Wales Press
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RELIGION AND CULTURE IN THE MIDDLE AGES
Reading Medieval Anchoritism
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Series Editors
Denis Renevey (University of Lausanne)
Diane Watt (Aberystwyth University)
Editorial Board
Miri Rubin (Queen Mary, University of London)
Jean- Claude Schmitt (École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris)
Fiona Somerset (Duke University)
Christiania Whitehead (University of Warwick)
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RELIGION AND CULTURE IN THE MIDDLE AGES
Reading Medieval
Anchoritism
IDEOLOGy AND SPIRITUAL PRACTICES
MARI HUGHES-EDWARDS
UNIVERSITy OF WALES PRESS
CARDIFF
2012
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© Mari Hughes-Edwards, 2012
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any material form
(including photocopying or storing it in any medium by electronic means and whether
or not transiently or incidentally to some other use of this publication) without the
written permission of the copyright owner. Applications for the copyright owner’s
written permission to reproduce any part of this publication should be addressed to the
University of Wales Press, 10 Columbus Walk, Brigantine Place, Cardiff CF10 4UP.
www.uwp.co.uk
British Library CIP Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978-0-7083-2504-9 (hardback)
978-0-7083-2505-6 (paperback)
e- ISBN 978-0-7083-2506-3
The right of Mari Hughes-Edwards to be identified as author of this work has been
asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 79 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents
Act 1988.
Printed by CPI Antony Rowe, Chippenham, Wiltshire
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Contents
Series Editors’ Preface ix
Acknowledgements xi
Abbreviations xiii
Introduction 1
I ANCHORITIC SPIRITUALITy IN ISOLATION:
THE ENGLISH ANCHORITIC GUIDES
1 Introducing the Guides 15
2 Anchoritic Enclosure 32
3 Anchoritic Solitude and Sociability 41
II ANCHORITIC SPIRITUALITy IN CONTExT:
ENGLISH ANCHORITISM AND THE WIDER MEDIEVAL WORLD
4 Anchoritism and Asceticism 59
5 Anchoritism and Contemplative Experience 81
Conclusion 108
Notes 111
Appendix: Guidance Text Overview 159
Select Bibliography 169
Index 185
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Et ad astra doloribus itur
(Prudentius, Cathemerinon, 10: 92)
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This book is dedicated to my parents
William George and Marian Joyce Hughes-Edwards
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series editors’ PrefaCe
Religion and Culture in the Middle Ages aims to explore the interface between medi-
eval religion and culture, with as broad an understanding of those terms as possible. It
puts to the forefront studies which engage with works that significantly contributed to
the shaping of medieval culture. However, it also gives attention to studies dealing with
works that reflect and highlight aspects of medieval culture that have been neglected in
the past by scholars of the medieval disciplines. For example, devotional works and the
practice they infer illuminate our understanding of the medieval subject and its culture
in remarkable ways, while studies of the material space designed and inhabited by
medieval subjects yield new evidence on the period and the people who shaped it and
lived in it. In the larger field of religion and culture, we also want to explore further the
roles played by women as authors, readers and owners of books, thereby defining them
more precisely as actors in the cultural field. The series as a whole investigates the
European Middle Ages, from c.500 to c.1500. Our aim is to explore medieval religion
and culture with the tools belonging to such disciplines as, among others, art history,
philosophy, theology, history, musicology, the history of medicine, and literature. In
particular, we would like to promote interdisciplinary studies, as we believe strongly
that our modern understanding of the term applies fascinatingly well to a cultural period
marked by a less tight confinement and categorization of its disciplines than the modern
period. However, our only criterion is academic excellence, with the belief that the use
of a large diversity of critical tools and theoretical approaches enables a deeper under-
standing of medieval culture. We want the series to reflect this diversity, as we believe
that, as a collection of outstanding contributions, it offers a more subtle representation
of a period that is marked by paradoxes and contradictions and which necessarily
reflects diversity and difference, however difficult it may sometimes have proved for
medieval culture to accept these notions.
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