The calling to become an anchoress is less well known. An anchoress (men were called anchorites) was a woman who took a special vow, in addition to the other monastic ones, to remain in one limited locale, apart from the rest of the world. In the earlier years of Christianity, remaining in place meant that a woman, or a man, could live in a specific hut or cave. Later, it often, but not always, meant spending their lives in one room, frequently next to the chapel where they could observe Mass and take Communion through a small hole in the wall. Since an anchoress wished to practice an even more reclusive and austere life than most nuns of the period, her request had to be accepted by the local bishop and the head of the convent to which she was attached. When approved, her reception into her new vocation was called “entombing” to signify her death to the world.
Although they may have wished for a more solitary life, many anchoresses were not, in fact, “dead to the world.” Some parents gave daughters as an oblate (meaning a gift) to a convent to be raised and educated by an anchoress, who was considered especially wise and holy because of her severe vows. One such oblate was Hildegard von Bingen, who was educated and brought up by Jutta, an anchoress at the Benedictine convent of Disibodenberg. Hildegard later left the enclosed cell to become the head of her own convent as well as advisor to both spiritual and secular notables. Many anchoresses did weaving and similar commercial crafts to raise money for their convent. Still others had visitors who came to the open but curtained window in their cells to seek their advice. Julian of Norwich is one example and is mentioned in the autobiography of Margery Kempe, who sought the anchoress’ opinion on the verity of her own visions. (Julian’s response was quite kind.) Thus an anchoress was not exactly lonely, and servants were usually assigned to take care of her mundane and earthly needs such as the bringing of meals, the washing of clothes, and the removal of the nightly slops.
Bibliography
For those who would like to know more about the life and period involved in this particular book, the following are some of the sources I consulted which may be of interest. As always, I blame any and all errors of fact or interpretation to the demands of fiction, at best, and to my ignorance, at worst.
Ancrene Wisse: Guide for Anchoresses, trans. Hugh White, Penguin, 1993.
John Cummins, The Hound and the Hawk: The Art of Medieval Hunting, Phoenix Press, 1988.
Brian K. Davidson, The Observer’s Book of Castles, Frederick Warne, 1979.
Joseph & Frances Gies, Life in a Medieval Castle, Harper & Row, 1974.
P. W. Hammond, Food and Feast in Medieval England, Alan Sutton Publishing, 1995.
Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love, trans. by Elizabeth Spearing, Penguin, 1998.
Margaret Wade Labarge, A Baronial Household of the Thirteenth Century, Barnes & Noble, 1965.
Henrietta Leyser, Medieval Women: A Social History of Women in England 450-1500, St. Martin’s Press, 1995.
Nicholas Orme, Medieval Children, Yale University Press, 2001.
Sir Maurice Powicke, The Thirteenth Century: 1216-1307, Oxford University Press, 1962.
Michael Prestwich, Edward I, Yale University Press, 1997.
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