I. THE ANCHORITE
I . Adjoining Parish Churches

The author of the Ancren Riwle makes a play upon the word ancre; she is " anchored under the church as an anchor under a ship, to hold the ship so that neither waves nor storms may overwhelm it". Enclosed persons were usually attached to some church in order that they might derive spiritual advantages from it, and at the same time confer spiritual benefits upon the parish. Being a holy place, it was suitable for a dedicated person, and it was also a frequented spot for one who lived partly upon alms. The churchyard not only stood [74] for a wilderness, but seemed a fitting habitation for one, as it were, dead to the world.
The most celebrated anchorite of mediaeval England was, perhaps, Wulfric, enclosed for twenty-nine years at Haselbury, a village near Crewkerne. Wulfric was born at Compton, probably Compton Martin. He became priest of Deverill near Warminster, but at that time he was more addicted to sport than to spiritual exercises. Upon his conversion, he determined to devote himself entirely to a life of contemplation and rigorous asceticism at Haselbury--"burying himself in Christ in a cell adjoining the church ". Sir William FitzWalter had a great respect for his saintly neighbour; he sent provisions to him and visited him from time to time. Wulfric numbered among his intimate friends Osbern, the village priest; William, a lay-brother of Ford Abbey; and Brichtric, who seems to have joined him as a disciple or attendant. During the reigns of Henry I and Stephen, he exercised a powerful influence, not only in his own neighbourhood but also at the court. The story of Wulfric as prophet and wonder-worker is related elsewhere.
Wulfric died in 1154, and was buried in his cell by the Bishop of Bath who had visited him on his death-bed. The monks of Montacute sought to obtain possession of the saint's body, but Osbern the priest interposed, and the remains were translated to the adjoining church. Miracles subsequently took place there, and the shrine became a place of pilgrimage. The north chapel is still known as " Wulfric's aisle ".
Another interesting recluse was Lauretta, Countess of Leicester. Her mother and brother were amongst those persons " miserably famished " at King John's command. Her father, William de Braose, a man of singular piety, escaped, and died in an abbey in France. Lady Lauretta wedded Robert Fitz Parnell, Earl of Leicester, who, after distinguishing himself in the Crusades, died in 1204, and the widowed countess eventually retired into solitude at St. Stephen's, Hackington.
A more familiar name is that of Katherine of Ledbury. She was the daughter of John Giffard, Baron of Brimsfield, and was born in 1272. Her husband, Nicholas, Baron Audley, died in 1299, leaving her with two young sons and a daughter.^[1] [75] No more is heard of the Lady Audley until 1312, when she gave away into lay hands a portion of her maternal inheritance. Since the deed is witnessed at Ledbury by the bishop and the vicar, it may be presumed that she had already taken up her abode there, or was about to be enclosed by the bishop. In 1323, " Katherine de Audele, recluse of Ledbury," was receiving 30 [pounds]a year through the sheriff, and as the sum was paid out of lands which were in the custody of her husband's executor, it seems probable that she had made some arrangement about her property in order to obtain a pension.
Around these prosaic facts the following poetic legend grew up. In obedience to a vision which bade her not to rest until she came to a town where the bells should ring untouched by man, Katherine and her maid Mabel wandered from place to place, following out of Worcestershire into Herefordshire the hoof-marks of the lady's mare which had been stolen--prints still shown in the sandstone at Whelpley Brook. The expected miracle was manifested at Ledbury, and there, it may be under the shadow of the bell-tower, the Lady Katherine determined to remain. The story is familiar through Wordsworth's sonnet :--
When human touch (as monkish books attest)
Nor was applied nor could be, Ledbury bells
Broke forth in concert flung a down the dells,
And upward, high as Malvern's cloudy crest;
Sweet tones, and caught by a noble Lady blest
To rapture! Mabel listened at the side
Of her loved mistress: soon the music died,
And Catherine said, Here I set up my rest.
Warned in a dream, the Wanderer long had sought
A home that by such miracle of sound
Must be revealed:--she heard it now, or felt
The deep, deep joy of a confiding thought;
And there, a saintly Anchoress, she dwelt
Till she exchanged for heaven that happy ground.
The title " Saint" Catherine of Ledbury is a late addition to the tale, suggested, doubtless, by the dedication-name of the hospital of St. Katharine, a house founded years before the birth of Katherine de Audley.
There were also cells attached to many town churches. The foundation of some of these was so remote as to be lost in obscurity. Chester, for example, had an anchorage by the collegiate church of St. John. The tradition handed down by [76] Giraldus Cambrensis was, that King Harold, sorely wounded, fled from Senlac to Chester, " and Iyued there holily an ankers lyf in Seint Iames celle faste by Seint Iohn his chirche, and made a gracious end''.^[2]
At Oxford there were six or seven churches where recluses were dwelling between 1180 and 1280.^[3] One, Matthew, was enclosed at Holywell, outside the town. It was said to have been revealed to this holy man that the church of Dorchester contained the bodies of two Saxon bishops. He heard a voice saying: Birinus in pavimento, Bertinus retro ostium; and when the relics were discovered, miracles occurred--a dead man came to life, a leper was cleansed, and one learnt to speak French in three days. These startling events were duly recorded at an inquiry held by the archbishop in 1224. Soon after this, Henry III issued an order for a reclusorium to be made at Holywell church of which he was the patron. Another was founded at St. Budock's-:-
" Intimation to R[obert Grosseteste] bishop of Lincoln that, yielding to the prayers of Alice, the bearer, who has made a vow to serve God in some solitary place, the king has granted that on the north side of the church of St. Bodhuc, Oxford, she may build herself a cell, where she may for her life serve God and the Blessed Virgin."
In the quietude of the closet, many a solitary strove to shut out the city's turmoil. Edward III gave alms to eight anchorites, as well as to three hermits, in London and the suburbs.^[4] It was the same in other cities, e.g. Norwich, Lincoln, York. By comparing scattered records, it is possible to gather a few facts about some of these persons. There was, for example, a cell at St. Leonard's, Exeter. In 1397, the bishop commissioned John Dodyngton, canon of Exeter, to enclose a certain Alice in a house in the cemetery. Three years later, when the canon died, he bequeathed 40s. to her. That same year the bishop permitted Alice Bernard to choose a confessor with plenary powers. The rector of Little Torrington left to her 20s. and a book of sermons in English. Another bequest was made as late as 1430.
[77] F ifteenth-century wills abound in references to persons living the solitary life. Lord Scrope bequeaths money to anchorites in twenty villages and market towns, as well as to those in and about London and York, and to any others found within three months of his death.

(2) In Conventual Houses

The great Benedictine communities of Crowlancl, Durham, Westminster, Worcester, and Sherborne had their solitaries, as had also many other monastic houses. Mottisfont Priory was founded by William Briwer, and his brother, a wonder-worker known as "the holy man in the wall," probably dwelt in the precincts of that monastery. Even the more secular hospital might be used as a place of seclusion. The Bishop of Exeter founded a cell by the chapel of St. Laurence, Crediton, and appointed Brother Nicholas as the first inmate. Alice was enclosed at the church of St. Giles in the suburbs of Hereford (1321); and clearly this was the hospital, for a will of the previous year mentions not only the anchorite of St. Giles but the brethren and sisters there. With the assent of the master and brethren of Holy Innocents' outside Lincoln, the king, as patron, permitted Elizabeth de Elm to become a recluse by the chapel of the hospital. Probably the infirm materially benefited by the presence of such persons in their precincts.
The Austin Friary at Droitwich had a cell on the south side of the choir of the conventual church. It was founded by Thomas Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, who stipulated that the candidate nominated by the founder's heirs, should be religious and devout, of the same order as the convent, or willing to submit to the prior; and that he should not be a burden on a house which was pledged to poverty.
. The White Friars and the Black Friars favoured the solitary life. The Carmelites of Norwich had two cells. Thomas Bradley (p. 163) dwelt in that next the entrance of the friary. Dame Emma, daughter of Sir Miles Stapilton, was probably enclosed in the chamber under Holy Cross chapel, set apart for women. She was buried in the church of the friary in 1442. Other Carmelite nuns took similar vows, e.g. Alice Wakleyne of Northampton, Margaret Hawten, Joanna [78] Catfelde of Lynn, and Agnes Gransetter of Cambridge. Bale mentions elsewhere that Mistress Alice Wakelyn, a woman of illustrious family, died on 13 June, 1426, and was succeeded by Margaret Hawton, who died on 17 November (the year is not recorded).
Dominican friars were enclosed at Lynn, Lancaster, Newcastle, Arundel, and Canterbury; and Dominican sisters at Norwich, Bristol, and Worcester.

3. Adjoining Chapels

There were cells attached to chapels which were neither parochial nor directly monastic. Henry II pensioned Geldwin, inclusus of St. Aedred at Winchester, and Richard, of St. Sepulchre's, Hereford. Henry III appointed others to several royal free chapels, including those of the fortresses in London and Dover. In 1237, he ordered the Constable of the Tower to admit Brother William to the cell by St Peter's church in the bailly which was dedicated to St. Eustace. Idonea de Boclaund afterwards occupied this chamber, and received the daily dole of a penny, and every year a robe. Emma de Skepeye was enclosed by the church of St. Mary in Dover Castle (1234). Twenty-three years later, the king, before setting sail from Dover, ordered that the customary alms (three halfpence a day) should be made to her for life.
In the tower of Bristol Castle there was a chapel and anchorage dedicated to St. Edward. Directions were sent by Henry III for certain alterations in the fortress:--
"Block up the doors of the chapel beside our great hall there, and let a door be made in the chancel towards the reclusorium: in which reclusorium let there be made an altar in the chapel of the blessed Edward, and above that reclusorium in the turret let the chamber of the clerks be made".
A chaplain, probably a recluse, was to perform masses for the soul of Alienora of Brittany, the king's cousin.
During the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries, a succession of solitary women dwelt in the chapel of St. Helen by the castle at Pontefract. They were in receipt of a pension from the lords of the town.^[5]
Cells were frequently situated in places of thoroughfare, e.g. "in the midst of the town " at Wakefield, at the end of Frenchgate Street in Richmond, by bridges at Doncaster and Derby. Speed's plan of Kendal marks the Ankeriche, which tradition describes as a small beehive hut, concealed by fences from the road which encircled it.

II. THE CELL

The place of seclusion is called indifferently domus anachoritae, reclusorium, inclusorium, reclusagium, and anchoragium. Since English sources of information are scanty on this subject, we are obliged to turn to foreign writers. Grimlaic in his Regula Solitariorum^[6] directs that the dwelling be very small and surrounded, if possible, by an enclosed garden. Two anchorites might share a single chamber. If the recluse had disciples, they dwelt in a separate apartment and served him through the window. The cell communicated with the church; but if the inmate were a priest, he also had a consecrated oratory. A Bavarian Rule directs that the cell be of stone, 12 feet square. Through one window, towards the choir, the recluse partook of the Blessed Sacrament; through another, on the opposite side, he received his food; a third, closed with glass or horn, lighted the dwelling.^[7]
In the Ancren Riwle, particular instructions are given concerning the windows. " Hold no conversation with any man out of a church window, but respect it for the sake of the holy sacrament which ye see therethrough." Communication was held through a parlour window, small, narrow, and always fast on every side.^[8] Even when the recluse unclosed her shutter, she was hidden by a curtain--a black cloth bearing a symbolic white cross. " The black cloth also teacheth an emblem, doth less harm to the eyes, is thicker against the wind, more difficult to see through, and keeps its colour better against the wind and other things."
The house, which might consist of several apartments, often [80]included an oratory in which Mass was celebrated from time to time. There was an austere simplicity about the building Abbot Aelred did not approve of covering the naked walls with pictures and carvings, or of decking the chapel with a variety of hangings and images: such ornaments savoured of vanity. He decreed that the altar should have upon it only a fair white cloth and a crucifix:-
"Now shal I shewe the how thou shalt arraye thyn oratory. Arraye thyn autier with white Iynnen clothe, the whiche bitokeneth both chastise and symplenesse.... In this autere sette an ymage of cristis passion, that thou may have mynde and se hou he sette and spredde his armes abroad to resceyve thee and al mankynde to mercy, if thai wil axe it. And if it plese the, sette on that oo side an ymage of our Lady, and a nother on that other syde of seynt John."^[9]
The Rites of Durham contains a description (1593) of one such chamber within the cathedral. It was a loft, evidently a wooden structure, close to the high altar and behind St. Cuthbert's shrine:--
" At the east end of the North Alley of the Quire, betwixt two pillars opposite, was the goodlyest faire porch, which was called the Anchoridge, havinge in it a marveillous faire roode, with the most exquisite pictures of Marye and John, with an altar for a Monke to say dayly masse; beinge in antient time inhabited with an Anchorite. . . . The entrance to this porch or anchoridge was upp a paire of faire staires adjoyninge to the north core of St. Cuthbert's Feretorie."
There was also an anchorage adjoining Chichester Cathedral. William Bolle, rector of Aldrington, resigned his benefice, and obtained permission to construct a cell and retire thither. It was agreed that after his death it should pass into the bishop's hands. The chamber, 29 feet long and 24 feet wide, communicated with the Lady chapel.
The anchorite attached to Sherborne Abbey dwelt in the chapel of St Mary le Bow on the south of the thirteenth-century Lady chapel (now part of the School). An inmate of this place is mentioned in the codicil to the will of Lady Alice West: " Also, for hit was for-yete byfore in this testament, I [81] bequethe to the Reclus of Shirbourn, whos Surname is Arthour,^[10] xls. for to do and to preye as othere Reclus forseyd Shulleth don and preye".
The cell at Worcester was next the cathedral on the north, between the porch and the west end. In a fifteenth-century account-book of the priory is an entry of xs paid: " for brycks, Iyme, and sonde, to y^e repa' con of y^e anckras house by y^e charnel howse".^[11]
There was no rule as to the situation of such dwellings. The records are apt to be vague, as, for instance, that a religious woman abode " in a remote corner of the church". Information is sometimes supplied incidentally, e.g. a testator of Faversham desires to be buried on the north side of the churchyard, opposite the door of the anchoress. Occasionally, however, some particulars are given. Juliana, anchoress of Worcester, dwelt at the north-west corner of the church of St. Nicholas, in an angle of the churchyard, bounded by the main street and by a side street. She petitioned for the enlargement of her courtyard, and the king, satisfied that this would not be to the nuisance of the city, granted permission to widen the court on three sides, by 7, 5, and 4 feet, respectively.^[12] Situated in a busy thoroughfare (now " The Cross") it was conspicuous to all passing to and from the Foregate.
Writing of the Norwich church of St. John Baptist, Timberhill, Blomefield says: "Anciently a recluse dwelt in a cell joining to the north side of the steeple, but it was down before the Dissolution". The anchorage at St. Edward's was also on the north. From numerous examples it seems that the ascetic would deliberately forego the sunshine with the rest of Nature's gifts. Rare instances occur of a brighter aspect. The Westminster anchorage was on the south side of the chancel of St. Margaret's.^[13] The cells at Droitwich and Polesworth [82] were also on the south. That at the west end of Crewkerne church was still standing in the seventeenth century.
Although so many recluses were dwelling "under the eaves of the church," the church itself has in many cases been rebuilt, and no traces of the cell can be found. Thus even in ancient buildings (for example, in St. Michael's and St. Peter's at St. Albans) there is no clue as to the position of the annexed chambers. In none of the eleven fine churches described by Mr. McCall in Richmondshire Churches have indications of cells been found, although recluses are known to have dwelt in three of those parishes, viz. Burneston, Kirkby Wiske, and Wath. It must not be forgotten, however, that the dwelling might stand apart in the churchyard, as at St. John's, Chester.
. In several churches architectural features confirm the records. Two cells in the south have been described by Mr. P. M. Johnston, and three in the north by Mr. J. R. Boyle.
Hartlip (Kent).--That of Hartlip (Plate XXVI), where a certain Robert was anchorite, remains at the west end of the north aisle.
. Hardham (Sussex).--The same writer^[14] traces the site of a chamber on the south side of the chancel, which may have been the abode of the recluse to whom the bishop bequeathed half a mark in 1253. All that remains is a thirteenth-century squint.
Newcastle-upon-Tyne.--The vestry on the north of the church of St. John Baptist seems originally to have been an anchorite's house. This conjecture is supported by a document, dated 1260, confirming to Christiana Umfred a place (locum inclusionis) in St. John's churchyard to be her habitation for life. The original grant had been made by the bishop, prior, and convent of Carlisle (patrons of the mother-church of St. Nicholas), with the assent of the mayor and burgesses. Christiana probably witnessed the services through the crossshaped opening shown in Plate XXVII, which is about I4 feet above the present floor. The chamber was probably of two stories. There is a blocked thirteenth-century window on the north. It may be observed in passing that the cell founded in [83] Gateshead churchyard in 1340 was replaced by a vestry, which retains the name Anchorage.
Staindrop.--Mr. Boyle describes a chamber with an ancient fire-place over the vestry of this church. At the head of the stone newel staircase is a square-headed window of three lights, the mullions of which are cut askew from east to west in order to command the high altar.
Chester-le-Street.--This church has retained what is probably the most complete anchorite's house remaining in England. It is at the west end of the church, on the north side of the tower, partly within and partly beyond the ancient walls. Two of the four rooms, one above the other, have been formed by walling off the western bay of the north aisle. This inner room is about 18 by 10 feet, whilst the two outer rooms are about 10 feet square. The recluse's upper chamber had a hagioscope commanding the altar in the south aisle; the slit on the church side is only about 10 inches high and I or 2 inches wide. The west window consists of a large slab pierced with four rectangular openings and a lances. Below the floor is a well, which is probably ancient. There appears to have been an outside stairway to the upper story of the outer room, which has a window and a slit aperture. There is no architectural clue to the date of " the ankers house," which is mentioned in the Chantry certificate of 1548. Its subsequent history is told in chapter xiv. The house contains several doors, windows, and recesses, but it has suffered under alterations, and is now used for heating apparatus and lumber. The small upper chamber, once a museum of antiquities, contains a fine sculptured Saxon cross-shaft.
York:All Saints', North Street.--At the west end of the north aisle are the supposed traces of a two-storied cell, which was inhabited by a recluse famous during the reign of Henry VI (p. 35). Both the upper and lower windows command the high altar.^[15]
It may be well to mention certain supposed cells, which have not at present been authenticated by documentary evidence.
Bengeo (Herts) and Chipping Ongar (Essex).--These [84] ' ankerholds" were investigated by Mr. J T. Micklethwaite and Mr. Dewick.^[16] In both cases openings were found in the north walls, and above them holes which might have held the timbers supporting a lean-to building. At Chipping Ongar traces of a shuttered lances window were discovered.
Letherhead (Surrey).--The foundations of a chamber on the north side of the chancel were excavated by Mr. Johnston, and were described and illustrated in the Surrey Archeological Collections (XX).
Compton.--Another Surrey church has a chamber annexed to it on the south side. A narrow window communicates with the churchyard, but the outer doorway is blocked. The arch of the inner doorway, leading into the church, springs from the capital of the sanctuary arch. The hagioscope, deeply splayed, is so close to the high altar as to be over the aumbry adjoining the piscine; it is cruciform, of graceful and uncommon design.
Michaelstow (Cornwall).--On the north side of the chancel are traces of a cell. About 4 feet 8 inches from the floor is a diamond-shaped stone, pierced with a quatrefoil aperture.^[17]
Traces of the anchorage, then, may reasonably be sought near the chancel. It might be an upper room, but a chamber in the tower or over the porch was a most unlikely abode for the recluse. Since the term "leper's window" has become discredited, there is a tendency with some to describe any inexplicable low-side window as an " anchorite's squint ". It is well to bear in mind that even where a habitable room exists, with fire-place, seat, or book-desk, it may have been a sacristy or a priest's lodging. There is abundant opportunity for research on this subject, and it is much to be desired that architects should follow up the clues supplied by records.

VIII. ORDER AND RULE [85]

What sawest thou before thee wven thou didst vow thyself to this manner of life ?--Rule of St. Aelred

Do you now ask w hat rule ye anchoresses should observe ? Ye should by all means, with all your might and all your strength, keep well the inward rule, and for its sake the outward.... The outward rule may be changed and varied according to every one's state and circumstances . . . it is only a slave to help the lady to rule the heart. �Ancren Riwle.
The eremitical life, it has been truly said, `" was once a career, and not the abdication of all careers ". Recluses were therefore set apart for their vocation, whether they were regular or secular clergy, nuns, or men and women who had as yet taken no vows. A monk might become
a hermit by permission of his abbot, but he could only be admitted to the order of an anchorite by the joint consent of his superior and of the bishop. A lay person required the sanction
of the bishop before taking either step.

I. HERMITS

II. ANCHORITES

Turning to the stricter order, we find that the permission of the bishop of the diocese was required before any person could be enclosed. A notable exception was Wulfric of Haselbury; for "without any appointment of the bishop, with no solemnity of benediction, but by the authority of the Holy Spirit who dwelt within, he buried himself with Christ in a cell close to the church". A canon of St. Edmund (1233) enacted that anchorites should not be made without the bishop's special approval; and Lyndwood, commenting on this clause, observes that assistant bishops may not give the [91] requisite licence, nor may an abbot enclose a person on his own authority.^[27]
It was also necessary to obtain the consent of the incumbent and patron of the church to which the person was to be attached. Henry III permitted Celestria to be enclosed at his chapel of Kingesham (probably Kingsholm in the manor of King's Barton at Gloucester), the sheriff having signified that this would not be detrimental to the Crown The approval of the patrons was not sought by the parishioners of St. Michael's, Bristol, and the chronicler of Tewkesbury therefore records that: "Both the townsmen of Bristol and the anchoress intruded into the cell (reclusagium) of St. Michael on the hill without Bristol confessed that they had acted presumptuously and contrary to justice, and sought forgiveness from Robert, the Lord Abbot".
The prefatory note to the Sarum Office declares that no one ought to be enclosed without the will of the bishop, who was to cause the candidate to be instructed and warned how he should examine his conscience and consider his motives, whether he is setting himself to please God, or to acquire gain or the praise of man. Nor was the applicant accepted without close investigation. A commissary was appointed to inquire into the circumstances of the case, not only as to the suitability of the proposed place, but as to the person's estate, whether maiden, married, or widow, and, above all, concerning her character. Sometimes the mandate included permission to induct the candidate, should the examination prove satisfactory. The following charge was given by the Bishop of Worcester concerning Lucy, who was eagerly desirous to inhabit the cell upon St. Brandan's Hill, near Bristol:--
"John by the mercy of God Bishop etc. greeting, to our beloved son Master John de Severley, Archdeacon of Worcester, peace and blessing.
" Lucy de Newchirche has approached us many times with earnest and humble devotion, as was clear to us from her appearance and demeanour, asking to be enclosed in the hermitage of St. Brandan at Bristol in our diocese. But as we have no knowledge of the life and conversation of the said Lucy, we commit to you, in whose trustiness, diligence, and caution we have full confidence, an enquiry [92] from men and women worthy of credit with regard to the converseation this Lucy, and whether you would consider her to be of pure and praiseworthy life, and whether she excels in those notable virtues which ought to prevail in persons who give up the life of the world. And if at a day and time appointed, at your discretion and in accordance with law and reason, for her examination, you should find her to be resolutely and firmly set on the pure purpose with regard to which we have burdened your conscience in the presence of God, we commit to you our power, so far as by the divine law we can, of enclosing her, either personally or by deputy as an anchoress in the aforesaid hermitage.''^[28]
Since the bishop himself had been impressed by Lucy's earnestness, it is probable that she was enclosed. Barrett cites a deed referring to land near St. Brendan's which the anchoress held. Who the petitioner was does not appear; but two years previously a certain Lucy de Newchurch, from the diocese of Hereford, obtained a papal indult to choose a confessor who should give her plenary remission at the hour of death.
The would-be anchoress might be some maiden "without the habit of a nun" who desired to devote herself to religion in the village where she had been brought up, as, for example, Matilda de Campden, who sought to be enclosed in the churchyard at Chipping Campden. She might be one who, like Emma Sprenghose of Shrewsbury, "from childhood always affected, and still affects, the solitary life". She might be already in a convent. A nun of Stainfield, Beatrice Franke by name, petitioned the Bishop of Lincoln to be enclosed at Winterton Church; the Abbot of Thornton, therefore, released her from her previous vows and proffered to her new vows at high mass in that church. The anchoress might even be some matron. A curious case is that of the vowess Emma Cheyne--"late the wife of the recluse of Bury St. Edmunds, aged sixty-eight years and professed for twenty-two years in the order of widowhood and daily persevering in honest conversation "--who dwelt at St. Peter's, Cornhill.^[29]
The applicant might be one of the regular or secular clergy. William de Pershore, priest, sought permission to be enclosed in the parish of Wickwar, and he eras given a dispensation to [93]
build a little house for that purpose, subject to the consent of the rector as patron of the church. Robert Cherde, a Cistercian monk of Ford, who desired to become a solitary at Crewkerne, brought letters from his abbot, and made his petition in person before the bishop at Wells.
In certain cases it was thought advisable to fix a period of probation. In May, 1403, the Bishop of Exeter commissioned the Abbot of Hartland and Rector of Southill to place Cecilia Moys in a house in the cemetery of Marhamchurch, assigning her until Christmas as a time of probation.
The ceremony was performed by the bishop or his deputy. The Bishop of Lichfield empowered his Suffragan, Robert Prissiness (1376) to administer Holy Orders, etc., and to enclose anchorites.^[30] Episcopal prerogative might, however, be overruled by papal privilege. Richard Gilbard, an Augustinian canon of Longleat, obtained licence "to choose and remain in any hermitage in the realm in order to lead therein a solitary life" (1399).^[31] The Mendicant Orders were free from episcopal jurisdiction. John Toker, a Franciscan, gained permission to be enclosed, without licence of his superiors, at Buckland; he was fifty years of age and had been a friar since he was thirteen. Carmelite recluses were professed before the Provincial of the Order. Again, the Abbot of St. Albans enclosed members of the community at will. He himself celebrated the solemn mass when (at the instance of Edward IV and his queen, and "at the supplication of divers magnates dwelling in the king's household ") Elizabeth Katherine Holsted was admitted to the anchorage at St. Peter's.^[32]
As a general rule, however, the bishop was, by virtue of his office, the guardian of every solitary in his diocese. The Archbishop of York made himself responsible for a religious refugee from Scotland. The nuns of Coldstream having been dispersed (probably in 1296, when Edward I made his headquarters in their house) Beatrice de Hodesak, for this just and reasonable cause, left the nunnery by permission of the bishop and prioress. She afterwards, with the licence of Archbishop Thomas, became an anchoress at Sprotburgh, near Doncaster, at the house adjoining St. Edmund's chapel by the bridge. It [94] had been founded by Lord Fitzwilliam, who provided yearly for each of the women five quarters of corn. When Beatrice settled there about the year 1300, her companion was that Sibil de Lisle who had been enclosed in 1294 by the Abbot of Kirkstall. Beatrice probably died before 1328, when the Dean of Doncaster was commissioned to enclose Joan, daughter of William of Easingwold, who desired to live with Dame Sibil.^[33]
There are numerous liturgical forms for the enclosing of anchorites. The earliest extant seems to be that entitled Ad recluendum Anchoritam, in a fragmentary twelfth-century Pontifical.^[34] Of later examples, Cambridge has several-the Clifford Pontifical (Plate XXVIII) at Corpus Christi College, the Chichele Pontifical at Trinity, the Sarum Manual at St. John's, and the Russell Pontifical in the University Library. In this chapter we draw chiefly upon three published offices, namely, those found in the Exeter Pontifical belonging to Bishop Lacy (1420-55), the York Pontifical of Archbishop Bainbridge (1508-14), and the Sarum Manual (printed in 1506).^[35]
The "Order of enclosing servants or handmaidens of God," according to the Sarum Use, provided that the candidate before being admitted to the cell, should fast and make his confession, and should keep vigil throughout the preceding night. On the morrow the bishop or his commissary made an exhortation to the people and to the one who was about to be enclosed, and the office opened with versicles and psalms. The celebrant proceeded to mass, which included special prayers. After the Gospel theincludendus, having offered his taper to burn upon the altar, stood at the altar-step and read his profession in a clear voice. He then made the sign of the cross with a pen on the roll, and placing it upon the altar with bended knee, prayed. Next came the sprinkling and blessing of the habit, in which the newly-professed was clad. Whilst he lay prostrate before the altar, the celebrant chanted over him Vent; Creator Spzrzt~s, when, Mass being finished, all, including the novice who carried his taper, moved in procession [95] towards the cell. The bishop advanced, and, taking him by the hand, led him to his habitation, whilst the clerks chanted alitany. The bishop, having hallowed the altar and house, went out and brought in the incluvdendus, and after solemn prayers and benedictions, he--now the inclusus ---was left alone. The bishop recited the antiphon in a loud voice, audible, may be, in the utter silence of the cell, the door of which had been firmly shut. After united prayer for the solitary, the procession formed again and returned into the church.
The Exeter Office bears a general resemblance to the foregoing. The opening rubric directs that the would-be recluse, if a clerk, should prostrate himself barefoot in the midst of the choir; if a layman, he should lie outside the gate of the choir; if a woman, in the western part of the church, where women are wont to worship. Having recited certain psalms and a litany, the bishop and his ministers should come to the prostrate person, with cross, thurible, and holy water, and after sprinkling and censing him, the bishop, with another venerable person, should raise him up. Holding a taper in each hand, the candidate should listen devoutly as this lection was read from Isaiah: "Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpass". The Gospel was taken from St. Luke: "Jesus entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet, and heard His word," etc. Having read the form of profession, the candidate should kneel at the altar-step, repeating thrice: "Receive me, O Lord, according to Thy word". After further prayers, "let the bishop make a discourse to the people, explaining the manner and form of living of a recluse, and let him commend the person about to be enclosed to the people that they may pray for him". The Mass of the Holy Spirit was now celebrated, by the includendus himself, if he were in holy orders, but if not, by the bishop or by another priest. The bishop, having led the novice to the door of the rec~sorinnz, was to enter, and consecrate the whole house by prayers, holy water, and censing. He should then go out to the waiting person and say: "If he wishes to enter, let him [96] enter". The bishop then began to perform rites which were designed to impress upon the devotee the fact that in a strict sense he was henceforth dead to the world. The office of extreme unction was performed, with the commendation of the soul, lest death should anticipate the last rites. "These things being done, let the grave be opened, entering which, let the recluse himself, or another in his name, sing: This shall be my rest for ever ". Dust was scattered with the words: From dust wast thou created, etc. Before going out, the bishop made a final exhortation, and the door of the house was built up.
"We left her, as is believed, in peace and calm of spirit, in the joy of her Saviour": so it was reported of the nun Beatrice (p. 92), who almost from her youth had craved for this life.
In this solemn manner the self-dedicated person was admitted to the " order " of an anchorite, as it was termed. It was "in the order of an ancresse" that one Margery made her profession in 1521 in the church of the Blackfriars, in the following words:--
"I sister Margerie Clyute offereth and giueth myselfe to the mercie of Godd in the order of an Ancresse to lyue in his seruice after the rule of an ancresse and here in the presence of you worthy father in Godd Thomas Bishop of Lydene^[36] I make myne Obedience to the worshipful father in Godd lord Ric. fits James Byshop of London and to his successours".
This word "order" often occurs in documents, but, in the Ancren Riwle, recluses were warned against using the term in a limited sense: "If any ignorant person ask you of what order ye are, as ye tell me some do . . . answer and say that ye are of the order of St. James," that is to say, of those who keep themselves unspotted from the world.
The recluse's Rule of Life consisted of friendly counsel rather than rigid regulations. Several such books of instruction were written in England for English women � by an abbot, by some unknown churchman, by a layman-hermit, and by an Augustinian canon.
. (a) Rule of Aelred (Twelfth century). � The Regula, Informacio [97] or Inslitutio Inclusarum^[37] was compiled by Aelred of Rievaulx, "a man glowing with enthusiasm for the solitary life". It is dedicated to his sister, who had long besought him for a form of living. He says in his preface that being her brother after the flesh and in spirit he could not refuse her request, but he would she had asked one wiser and more experienced than himself: "Natheles after that simple felynge that god bath youen me I shal write to the a forme gadert out of holy fadirs tradition". The first chapter is entitled: "How the eremitical life was appointed ". Looking back to the ancients, many of whom dwelt alone in the wilderness, Aelred inquires wherefore this life was undertaken. Some, he says, find it harmful to live in a crowd, and profitable to be in solitude; finding in the world a freedom of loveliness and possibility of wandering, they think it safer to be confined within a cell. Aelred gives wise counsel on spiritual and material matters, extracts from which will be found in succeeding chapters. After giving some details as to dress, he adds: "These things, dear sister, I have written at thy request concerning the mamler of outward conduct, not on account of zeal for antiquity, but for the shortness of our time here on earth; setting forth a certain form of life adapted for weaker sisters, leaving to the stronger ones to go forward unto fuller perfection". The humble abbot concludes with a personal plea: "If any one shall have profited by the discourse of this book, let her render back to me this return for my labour and study: that she may intercede for my sins with my Saviour whom I love, with my Rewarder for whom I look, with my Judge whom I fear".
(b) Ancren Riwle^[38] (thirteenth century).--The Rule bearing this name is a handbook of devotion, conduct, and household management. The author was familiar with Aelred's work and quotes from it (p. 122). He was the personal friend of those for whom he wrote--"my dear sisters, women most dear to me". He enjoins the three-fold vow of obedience, chastity, and constancy of abode. They must be guided by an inward [98] law--that of love which regulates the heart. Mere outward rules might vary according to each one's estate and circumstances. The precepts contained in the book are, he declares, written for themselves alone: other anchoresses must not say that he, by his own authority, makes new rules for them. The regulations may be changed at will for better ones: "In regard to things of this kind that have been in use before, it matters little ".
The question of authorship has yet to be solved. It was formerly attributed to Richard Poer, Bishop of Salisbury (1217-29,but the evidence is insufficient. The preface to one imperfect Latin copy, preserved at Magdalen College, Oxford, states that Bishop Simon of Ghent (1297-1315) wrote it for his sisters, anchoresses at Tarrent, but this is clearly a translation and the original English work is of considerably earlier date. The researches of Prof. Koelbing and Dr. Thummler will doubtless contribute much to the question of date and authorship. Their critical edition is to be published by the Early English Text Society (see note on p. 100).
The writer was a man of high ideals, a practical person, with sound judgment and clear insight. A marked gift of sympathy is shown by his tender, delicate, and understanding instructions. Careful thought and infinite labour were bestowed upon the work:--
"In this book read every day, when ye are at leisure-every day less or more; for I hope that if ye read it often it will be very beneficial to you through the grace of God, or else I shall have ill employed much of my time. God knows, it would be more agreeable to me to set out on a journey to Rome, than to begin to do it again."
(c) Form of Perfect Living ^[39] (fourteenth century).--This treatise was written by Richard Rolle for his friend, Dame Margaret. It is an intimate spiritual letter rather than a set rule. The second chapter (often found as a separate tract) deals with the solitary life, its peculiar trials and joys. Of its mystical teaching the following is a specimen:-- .
"For that thou hast forsaken the solace and the joy of this world, and taken thee to solitary life . . . I trow truly that the comfort of Jesus Christ and the sweetness of His love, with the fire of [99] the Holy Ghost that purges all sin, shall be in thee and with thee, leading thee and teaching thee how thou shalt think, how thou shalt pray, what thou shalt work, so that in a few years thou shalt have more delight to be by thyself and speak to thy love and thy spouse Jesus Christ, that is high in heaven, than if thou wert lady here of a thousand worlds. Men ween that we are in pain and penance: but we have more joy and very delight in a day than they have in the world all their life. They see our body, but they see not our heart, where our solace is. If they saw that, many of them would forsake all that they have, for to follow us. "
(d) The Scale (or Ladder) of Perfection^[40]' written by Walter Hilton, an Augustinian canon who died in 1396. It deals with the life of action and of contemplation, but especially with the latter. He addresses it to a woman "closid in a hous," and reminds her that the cause of her bodily enclosure is that she might thereby the better come to a " ghostly closynge ". Since her estate required of her to be contemplative, it behaved her to be right busy both night and day with travail of body and of spirit, in order to come as nigh as she might to that life.
(e) Book for Recluse^[41] (fifteenth century), containing advice based upon various reasons for embracing this life, whether (I) intention of living at her own will without labour, (a) fervent repentance, (3) avoidance of sin, or (4) desire for Divine contemplation. The first counsels of the preface aim at changing the purpose of any whose first motive had been temporal solace, comfort, independence, acquisition of goods. The remainder of the book is entirely devotional. The first part contains plain teaching drawn from the Old and New Testaments. Prayer is illustrated by David and Hezekiah, Moses and Joshua, Elijah and Elisha; repentance, by David, Peter, Mary Magdalene, and "the publican asking mercy". The second part is a call to praise, and treats of the excellence and might and goodness of God as maker and keeper of all things. There is pathos in the suggestion made to one so straitly shut up that she might stir her heart to praise by thinking upon the merry noise of birds in their sweet song, the delight of flowers and fruits, the usefulness of beasts, which follow without fail the [100] law of nature and are every year marvellously renewed to the behoof of man. But chiefly was she to meditate upon "the glorious Passion of our Lord ". The third part, which is unfinished, contains sacramental teaching.
The Order and Rule have necessarily been dealt with only in outline. Details of the outer life will now be considered, whilst an account of the inner life with its trials and discipline is reserved for a subsequent chapter.

Note on the "Ancren Riwle".

Since going to press Professor Gollancz has called my attention to a fourteenth-century version of this Rule, recently edited by Joel Pahlsson (The RecInse, University of Lund, 1911). The original is found at Magdalene College, Cambridge (MS. Pepys, 2498). It is addressed to men and women, and several of the intimate touches of the Ancren Rzwle are omitted, e.g allusions to the circumstances of the three sisters (see pp. 97-8, 105-6, 109, 131, 136 of this volume). In place of the homely allusion to the scullion Slurry, the Camb. MS. preaches the patient endurance of insolence from underlings. "Our lay-brethren" and "our order" are not mentioned, but the religious of the later version include friars. The Camb. MS. inserts passages which are wanting in the Cottonian; but the full practical directions found at the end of the latter are given in briefest outline. The compiler describes himself as "him that drew it out into this language".

IX. CONCERNING THE: BODY

A bird sometimes alighteth on the earth, to seek his food for the need of the Resh.... Even so, the pious recluse, though she fly ever so high, must at times come down to the earth in respect of her body--and eat, drink, sleep, work, speak, and hear, when it is necessary, of earthly things.�Ancren Riwle.
ALTHOUGH the true solitary was chiefly occupied with the affairs of the soul, either he himself or his neighbours were bound to take thought for his bodily needs. The possession of a little plot of land enabled the hermit to be more or less independent, but the anchorite could not maintain himself. The hermit's absorbing interest in his garden was even supposed to become an obstacle to his spiritual progress. in the Hortus DeIiciarum, compiled by a German abbess in the twelfth century, the ladder to perfection is depicted in symbol, with the climbers and their respective hindrances. Among men of religion, the hermit is foremost, although his gardenhas proved a stumbling-block; whilst the anchorite is kept back by sloth, represented by a bed'^[42]

I. FOOD

The early hermits lived a primitive life as tillers of the soil, and their food consisted of herbs, roots, grain, and fruit. Godric of Finchale used to refuse the gifts of food offered to him, and cultivated his garden as long as he was able; we read of his planting and grafting, and of his crops. He also kept cows, and in his old age, lived almost entirely upon milk. Robert of Knaresborough was another hermit-husbandman. He fared frugally, but one day he was left hungry, for robbers invaded his dwelling and stole his bread and cheese. After a time he was granted as much land as he could dig, and later, as much as he could till with one plough. He was also given two horses, two oxen,.and two cows. Robert's parable was an ear of corn (p. 153); and the miracles ascribed to him are [101] the miracles of a farmer. He tames the wild cow, and yokes to his plough the stags which trample his corn:-
Hertes full heghe of hede and horn
Vsed to come to Robertt corn . . .
He wentt and wagged att them a wand
And drake thise dere hame w^t hys hand.
This legend and also that of a counterfeit cripple, who begged a cow from St. Robert, were depicted in a window set up in Knaresborough church in 1473.^[43]
In some cases the hermit had no land to cultivate. Richard Rolle, for example, was homeless. At first he was provided with food and shelter by Sir John and Lady de Dalton, but when they died, he became a wanderer, dependent upon alms. Ill-clad and ill-shod, he suffered severely from exposure. At times he subsisted on mouldy bread, and had but a scant supply of water. Yet Richard did not refuse proper sustenance when it was provided. He had eaten and drunk of the best, not for love of good food, but for nature to be sustained in God's service. He would not appear unto men to fast, but conformed himself to them with whom he dwelt, fearing lest he should feign holiness, and win praise. He advised the contemplative not to attempt too much fasting, lest "for febilnes of body he myght not synge".^[44] Enemies were therefore not slow to say that he would not abide but where he might be delicately fed; whilst as a matter of fact he frequently suffered exhaustion from abstinence.
Flesh was rarely tasted by the hermit. It was lawful to partake of it on the three great festivals, and on the four following days; also in time of sickness, or strenuous work-- "for grete labore past or labor for to come yf nede ax yt". At the commandment of the bishop or patron, he might indulge in meat for a single day. He was directed to fast three days in the week, and on Friday upon bread and water. He was also required to observe seasons of abstinence, namely, forty days before Christmas and Easter, and nine days before Whitsunday and Michaelmas.^[45]
[103]In one Rule interesting directions are given under the heading Of provision in his cell:--
"If a hermit dwells in a borough, town, or city, or nigh thereto, where each day he can well beg his daily food, let him before sunset distribute to Christ's poor that which remains of his food. But if he abides afar, as in a country village or a desert spot one or two miles from the abode of men, let him make provision for one week strictly from Sunday to Sunday, or he Nay begin on another day of the week; and if aught remains over, let it be given to the poor forthwith, unless on some ground he can excuse himself in the sight of God, as that he is sick or weak, or that he is tending a sick man, or is busy at home with works Hill or spiritual which are well pleasing to God."^[46]
This encouragement to town hermits to beg their bread was mischievous. Langland complains that there were false hermits living in idleness and ease by others' travail (p. 61-2). More than one Rule, however, devoted a clause to manual labour, and impressed the apostolic saying: "He that laboreth not, owght not to ete".
Anchorites, on the other hand, could not support themselves. There are, indeed, two chapters in Aelred's Rule (VI., XI.) to the effect that the recluse should live by the labour of her hands, or, if she were not in want, bestow the price upon the church or the poor. But if either sickness or tenderness did not allow this, let her, before she is enclosed, seek out certain persons from whom day by day she may receive food.
The bishop was careful not to license anyone unless he was satisfied that sustentation was secure and permanent; indeed, if the solitary were in want, the burden of maintenance fell upon the bishop, as in the case of a clerk ordained without a title.^[47] Archbishop Arundel granted permission for the enclosure at Broughton (Lincoh1sllire) of the monk John Kyngeston, " ccording to the appointment and disposition of certain venerable friends of his".
Maintenance was provided in money or in kind. The allowance varied according to the person's estate. During the century 1160-1260 royal pensioners were usually granted 1/2d. or 1d. a day; but Adam, a recluse at Gloucester, had the liberal dole of 2d. a day, paid out of the farm of the city. [104] The ample yearly allowance of 100s. was made to the anchoress of Iffley, who also frequently received oaks for her fire. Other donors gave smaller sums, even 1d.. or 2d. a week, supplemented, perhaps, by food, fuel, or clothes. In some cases, anchoresses received a grant of corn, but this was often commuted for a money payment.
The recluse lived on simple foods, chiefly vegetarian. The rules direct that she have potage made of herbs, peas, or beans, furmity sweetened with milk, butter, or oil, and fish seasoned with apples or herbs. On Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday, Lent meals only were allowed. During Lent she might have one kind of potage daily, but on Fridays only bread and water. No flesh or lard was eaten except in great sickness. The hour of the meal was noon, but in Lent, not until after vespers.^[48] Langland says that he will give alms to anchorites " that eten nought but at nones, and no more ere morrow".^[49]
The inmate of a cell which was dependent upon a monastic house usually received a corrody, or fixed allowance of food and clothing; thus in the compotus rolls of Worcester Priory are entered the portions of bread and ale given out to two recluses. About the year 1235 it was ordained that the anchoress of St. Michael's church at St. Albans should enjoy the corrody left to the abbey by Adam the Cellarer. At Whalley the provision seems liberal. The sum of 3d. a week was paid to the three inmates of the cell, who received every week seventeen loaves such as were usually made in the monastery, and seven loaves of an inferior sort (each loaf to weigh fifty shillings sterling), with eight gallons of beer. At the feast of All Saints they were given ten large stock fish, one bushel of oatmeal, and one bushel of rye. For the lighting and warming of the house oil, turfs, and faggots were provided.
. Some persons contributed towards their maintenance. Agnes Booth or Shepherd (a nun of Norton Priory) was enclosed at Pilling in Garstang, a chapelry of Cockersand. Eight years later, in 1501, the following entry occurs in the rental: "M^d yet Annes Scheperte hasse payn to James y^{e [105]} Abbott of Cokersand for her Iyuing--ii^{s iid} to me & vi^s viii^d to ye Convent".
The necessaries of life were sometimes provided from the manor-house. The ladies for whom the Ancren Riwle was written were maintained in an unusual degree of comfort:--
" For ye take no thought for food and clothing, neither for yourselves nor for your maidens. Each of you bath from one friend all that she requireth; nor need that maiden seek either bread, or that which is eaten with bread, further than at his hall."
The writer adds emphatically that "many others know little of this abundance, but are full often distressed with want".
The recluse was warned not to grumble at her meat and drink, were it ever so stale; if it were actually uneatable she might ask for more palatable food, but reluctantly and tactfully; for it were a sin to cause men to say: "This anchoress is dainty, and she asks much". Only sheer necessity should drive her to make a request: "yet humbly show your distress to your dearest friend". If fragments could be spared from her meals, she should send them secretly to poor women and children who had laboured for her. Waste, untidiness, and neglect of household duties were forbidden. The category of faults to be confessed included these: "Dropping crumbs, or spilling ale, or letting a thing grow mouldy, or rusty, or rotten; clothes not sewed, wet with rain, or unwashen; a cup or a dish broken, or any thing carelessly looked after which we are using".

II.. CLOTHING

In a convent it was customary, for uniformity's sake, that all should be attired alike; "but wherever a woman liveth, or a man liveth by himself alone, be he hermit or anchorite, of outward things whereof scandal cometh not, it is not necessary to take so much care". Foolish people, supposing that the "order" consisted in kirtle or cowl, would question recluses about the colour and cut of their garments, as though religion were a matter of a wide hood, or of a black, white, or grey cowl.
As the visible sign of separation, however, a habit was essential. No man felt himself a hermit until he had assumed some distinctive dress. Even that most unconventional of [106] solitaries, Richard Rolle, when about to flee from home, persuaded his sister to send to him in the wood two garments and his father's raincloak, whereof he fashioned a habit and hood. Putting off his own clothes, he put on his sister's white tunic. Above this he wore her grey tunic, thrusting his arms through the holes which he had left by cutting out the sleeves; and over all he drew on the cloak, "so that, in some measure, he might present a confused likeness to a hermit". Sir John de Dalton then provided him with "garments suitable to a hermit". Long afterwards, when he was established as a hermit, his friends removed a tattered habit, mended it, and put it on again, whilst he was in spiritual absorption.^[50]
. The Rules direct that the hermit's dress be according to the bishop's ordinance; it must not too closely resemble that of any order, lest it cause offense.. "Let hys clothyug be humyle and not curies.... And yf he wyll of devosyon were next hys flesh a cylyce it ys laufull." He was to wear plain shoes without hose, or else go barefoot. In his coat or kirtle, girded with a cord, he slept, and he was at length buried in it: "and he shall be graved when he ys deaf in hys habyt as he gothe".
The habit varied as considerably as did the office. It usually consisted of loose garments of sober hue, caught up with a cord. A wall-painting at Rampton shows a hermit with sleeved surplice, tippet, and skull-cap. Another type of dress is shown in Fig. 6.
There was no regulation dress for the anchoress. Against the winter she was to have a pitch, a thick garment made of skins; and in summer, a kirtle with a black mantle. The head-covering was not to be of fine texture or varied colour, but of a mean black. If the ladies dispensed with wimples, they should have capes and veils. Clothing was to be simple and serviceable. " Because no man seeth you, nor do ye see any man, ye may be well content with your clothes, be they white, be they black; only see that they be plain, and warm, and well-made-skins well tawed; and have as many as you need, for bed and also for back." Underclothing was to be of coarse linen or woollen material. Shoes must be thick and warm, but in summer recluses were at liberty to go barefoot. [107] They might wear no ring, brooch, ornamented girdle, or gloves.
The male anchorite probably wore some clerical garb. Symon, of Allhallows, London Wall, is represented in the frontispiece of his book as a priest (Fig. 7).
Offerings were sometimes made to the recluse in the form of garments. Wulfric of Haselbury, scantily clad in his chilly cell, received a welcome gift from Bristol:--
"The man of God was very frequently benumbed with extreme cold, to such a degree that a certain man from the neighbourhood of Bristol, being warned by a vision, sent to him a new covering of foxskin wherewith he should cover himself. For the Lord said to him in a vision: 'My servant Wulfric is tortured with cold, but thou, indeed, art pleasantly warm; get up as quickly as possible and send this covering with all speed'. And so it was done."
But mantles which men might make, mice might mar. As Wulfric sat one day in his cell, he observed that his cloak had been gnawed by a mouse. "May the mouse perish which has thus presumed to damage my mantle!" The words were no sooner uttered than, behold, the creature, starting out from the wall, fell dead at the feet of the recluse. Seized with cormpunction, Wulfric called the priest and humbly confessed that his thoughtless curse had slain the mouse. The priest exclaimed in reply: "Would that a like anathema might utterly exterminate all the mice of this district!"
By a will, dating from the time of King John, a super-tunic of bifle was left to Dame Lucy, who was enclosed in the churchyard of Bury St. Edmunds. The anchorite of Colemanschurch in I.ondon received from a canon of St. Martin's two fur garments. Geoffrey le Scrope made a substantial legacy to the anchorite of Holy Trinity, Lincoln, namely, 20s., a tunic furred with calaber with a double hood, and a cloak furred with grist A priest of Lynn made a grim gift to the anker in the friary (1504):-
" I beqwethe to the sold Fryer William a blak vestment and a blak clothe steynyd with an ymage of deth. And I wyll the sam cloth be set vpon my hers in the day of my buryyng. Item I beqwethe to the seid Fryer William a red cloth that Iyeth on my bed.''^[51]
About the recluse's toilet a word must also be said. Some of the extreme ascetics with their unchanged haircloth-shirts seem almost to have gloried in dirt and squalor. So absorbed were they in an ideal of holiness that they ignored the practical needs of the poor body. It was well that rigid discipline included immersion in cold water. The Rules gave no encouragement to personal neglect. One directs: "Wash yourselves as often as ye please". Another quotes a saying of St. Bernard: "I haue louyd pouerte but y neuer louyd fylth".^[52]

III.. PROPERTY

To forsake all was the initial step of the hermit's career. The rhyming chronicler puts typical words into the mouth of Ive, the companion of Robert of Knaresborough:-
I wyll forsake all thatt I se
Fadyr and freed and folowe the
Gold and goods ryches and rents
Towne and toure and tenement
Playng and prosperyte
In pouerte for to won wyth the.
But although the recluse's renunciation of the world included houses and land, fresh grants were made to him for his maintenance. St. Robert gave up his own inheritance; but, as hermits, both he and his successor, Ive, came to possess considerable property, held in trust for the relief of the poor.
The solitary was sometimes the owner, but usually the life-tenant, of the cell. He frequently granted it to some religious house, e.g. Geoffrey, hermit of Mosehude (a place not identified), granted his house there and all his possessions to the Knights Templars. Personal property he might dispose of at will. Robert, an inmate of the Cripplegate cell, London, was ministered to during the last months of his life by William de Wyntreburn, who received by the old man's will the sum of 30s., three messuages, and sundry small rents. William, hermit of Linstock, owned six cattle and a little money. He bequeathed two cows to Carlisle Cathedral, in the precincts of which he wished to be buried; another he devised to his parish church of Stanwix; the price of a fourth was to be divided amongst the priests and clerks who should conduct [109] his obsequies. Twenty shillings was to be expended on the bridge over the Eden, and a few legacies were made to friends.
Hermits were, as we have seen, sometimes married men, or widowers, and family claims were not disallowed. There is a reference in the Bridlington Cartulary (c. 1220 to the hermit's wife, and also to their son who did homage for his father's land at Bridlington. Thomas Wyllcys, of Ewelme, left 20s. to his daughter. Simon Cotes (p. 63), whose wil1 is witnessed by his son, left to him all moveable goods; but his house and chapel at Westbourne, built upon ground which he had inherited, he bequeathed for the use of a successor who should carry on his work.
Whilst the hermit might own his three acres and a cow, the anchorite might not possess such things as would tend to draw the thoughts outward. Enclosed women were warned against becoming absorbed in household cares. There are women, says Aelred, who are busy gathering worldly goods, cattle and wool, and in multiplying pence and shillings. They arrange food for their beasts, and at the year's end they reckon their number and price; then follow buying and selling, which lead to covetousness and avarice.^[53] The Ancren Riwle is still more explicit:--
" e shall not possess any beast, my dear sisters, except only a cat. An anchoress that hath cattle appeareth as Martha was, a better housewife than anchoress; nor can she in any wise be Mary, with peacefulness of heart. For then she must think of the cow's fodder, and of the herdsman's hire, flatter the heyward, defend herself when her cattle is shut up in the pinfold, and moreover pay the damage. Christ knoweth, it is an odious thing when people in the town complain of anchoresses' cattle. If, however, any one must needs have a cow, let her take care that she neither annoy nor harm any one, and that her own thoughts be not fixed thereon."
Trading is condemned: "an anchoress that is a buyer and seller, selleth her soul to the chapman of hell". She was forbidden to gather alms in order to give away.
The alms of visitors or passers-by were dropped into a box placed near the cell; Langland says that "at ancres there a box hangeth". Hoccleve refers (c. 1411) to this popular form of largesses:--
[110] To every chirche and recluse of the tonne
Bad hem eeke of golde gene a quantite.^[54]
The hermits and anchorites of Lynn were regularly assisted from the funds of the Trinity Gild. Among the expenses incurred at John Paston's burial in I 466 was an alms of 40d. to the ancors of Carrow by Norwich. Small annuities were sometimes provided. In the schedule of charges incumbent on St Alban's Abbey in keeping the anniversary of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, occurs this entry: "Item to a ankres at Sent Petur chirch, a nother at Sent Mich. the seid day, yerly, to euerych xxd.". Alms were frequently bestowed upon these religious women of St. Albans.^[55] When the prioress of St. Mary de Pr� was paying certain estate-charges, she set aside a few pence by way of charity (1487-9): " Item spente at the ankers of Seint Petres when I sawe the fermours indentures of Bemond iiijd.". When passing through the town in 1502 Elizabeth of York gave 3s. 4d. to the anchoress of St. Peter's, and the following year, 26s.8d. to the anchoress of St. Michael's.
During the fifteenth century, alms were so liberally bestowed that money became a snare. A Harleian MS. (2372) of that period shows that the anchoress was tempted to live in comfort, to receive poor folks and pilgrims. and to support needy cousins:--
" Some Recluses in these dayes [dwell] net in wildernesses but in the citees that they may there receyue large almes wher of thei may horde greet meynee [i.e. company] and helpe and promote more largely her kyn and her freendes than thei myghte in othir estat and Iyue more delicatly than thei were likly haue coon in securer plyt."
Although the Ancren Riwle speaks disparagingly of "rich anchoresses that are tillers of the ground, or have fixed rents," the recluse did, for the sake of maintenance, retain houses and lands and receive rent for them. Not infrequently she made over her property to a religious house, accepting in lieu thereof a definite allowance for life; thus the abbey of Oseney made yearly payments to Childlove, anchoress of Faringdon. Margaret, of St. Ldward's, Norwich, issued charters, sealed with her own seal, whereby she conceded land to Langley Abbey, [111] and the abbot in return granted her 6s. a year.^[56] If such agreements were not kept, a plea might be sent to the itinerant justices, or a petition lodged in chancery. The case of Cecily, recluse of St. James's, Colchester, is entered on the Assize Roll (1272); the abbot of St. Osyth's, who had not fulfilled his promise to pay her an annual rent of five quarters of wheat, undertook to do so, and to pay arrears. Aline of Wigan fell on evil days. Her benefactor, Sir Robert Holand, being involved in the rebellion of 1321-2, forfeited his property; hence "la povre recluse" lacked the sum of 30d. which he had granted annually for her sustenance. Aline, unable to obtain her allowance from John Travers or John de Lancastre, who had charge of the forfeited lands, at length appealed to the King for restitution. The law recognized the right of enclosed persons to hold property, if need be, and to defend it.^[57] The learned judge Littleton, writing in the time of Edward IV, declares that albeit the recluse could not leave his cell to appear in court--"for this kind of Order always dwells separate and apart from civil life"--yet he could appear by attorney, on the principle that "inability suspends the operation of the law". ^[58]
If the solitary fell into a condition of helplessness, the bishop constituted himself her guardian. When Dame Joan of Blyth was weak and poverty-stricken, Archbishop Wichwane took her under his protection, and arranged for the administration of her affairs, lest she should suffer loss. "She is now fallen into sickness, so that she scarcely possesses things needful for her bodily welfare, and has been obliged to give up those lawful occupations in which she formerly spent her time." The archbishop deputed the vicar to look after his poor parishioner and her household, directing "that in all things both with regard to persons and goods, while she survives or when she is taken away from our midst, they be kept in all honesty and always treated with discretion, as we will that an account shall be required of you concerning the matter ".
[112] Although goods and chattels could be disposed of at will, they seem usually to have been given for pious purposes. Robert, the anchorite of Hartlip, gave a silver chalice to the cathedral church of Rochester. Two enclosed monks of Westminster Abbey caused it to be enriched with paintings.^[59] "Brother John Myrymouth spent 26s. 8d. upon an altar-piece for St. Benedict's chapel. The more famous Brother John London provided a painting above the altar of St. John Baptist; he is also named among the benefactors of Syon monastery. Dame Agnes Vertesance, of St. Michael's church at St. Albans, bestowed upon the shrine of St. Alban a gold ring.^[60] An inventory of the goods of Allhallows, London Wall (1501) includes this item: " A grett paxe with iij Images of sylver by the gyfftt off the Anker". Successive recluses were liberal donors to the fabric fund. The sum of 4s. 6-1/2d. was paid by "the ankyr Syr Symon of the gaynes of a stance of ale whiche he gave to the cherche". On another occasion he gave 9s. 3d., "the gyft of dyuersse men and women of ther dewocion at dyuersse tymys". When a new aisle was being built, he lent its., and gave its,, besides supplying the scaffolding.^[61] .
The treasures of the cell were usually of a devotional character, consisting of sacred vessels, rosaries, and relics. A set of beads (i Par Pater Noster Geinsid de gete) was left to the anchorite of Westminster by Lord Scrope; another, of mestyiden guarded with Calsedonys was given by a Norwich citizen to the anker of the White Friars. The relics of the parish church at Tavistock included "a little cross of silver, the gift of John Armytt in which is a piece of the holy cross"; and there the anniversary of the donor, John the hermit, was kept.
The possessions of the solitary might, however, be given to friends, or even sold. Sir Brian Stapelton owned a silver basin with an image of Our Lady in alabaster which had belonged to the anker of Hampole.^[62] Another testator (John de Dodyngton, canon of Exeter and rector of Crewkerne) mentions in his will "a cup with a cover, formerly the property of one Stephen, a recluse" (1400).^[63] Thomas Coke, the [113]anchorite-priest, dwelling in Kexby chapel, sold a missal and a great portifer to Sir Thomas Ughtred, who agreed that the priest should have them in his keeping during his lifetime.
After the death of Margaret, anchoress of Richmond, a dispute arose respecting the disposal of her property (1490). It was settled that, after her debts were paid and the anchorage (which belonged to the burgesses) repaired, the remainder of her goods should go to the Grey Friars, from whom she had received the habit; whilst the effects of her successor were to pass to Easby Abbey. In some cases the enclosed person was able to make a will, witness that of Katherine Dytton, of St. Albans (1437).^[64]

IV. BURIAL

In early days it was customary for the cell to become the tomb of its tenant, whether hermit or anchorite. We read in the lives of Bartholomew, Godric, and Robert how each was buried in his oratory in a tomb prepared by himself, which had for years served as a solemn reminder of the end.
Sometimes, however, the solitary was buried elsewhere. Tynemouth Priory claimed the body of Henry of Coquet. When Roger of hIarkyate died, his body was borne to St. Alban's Abbey and was placed with honour "in an arched tomb built into the south wall of the church, hard by the choir of the brethren". In the same spot Sigar of Northaw was also buried. When Henry III visited St. Albans in 1257, he gave offerings at various shrines, including rich cloths for that of these famous monks.^[65] Over the recess of their traditional tomb (Plate XXX) is the inscription:
Vir domini uerus iacet hic Heremita Rogerus
Et sub eo clarus meritis Heremita Sigarus.
Human remains have frequently been found on the sites of hermitages. In the Hermitage Field at Tarporley, the plough turned up a stone coffin containing a skeleton. Local tradition tells of a burial-ground at Oath Farm, in or near a field called Chapel Five Acres. In 1328 the sick recluse of Oath petitioned that when he died he might not be buried [114] in his cell as the custom was, but in Aller churchyard or elsewhere.
During the fifteenth century it seems to have become usual to bury the hermit in his parish church or in any other cemetery that he willed. One of the hermits of Newbridge in Ickburgh desired to be interred in Munford church porch, another at the Chapel-in-the-Fields, Norwich. Robert Leake of Blythburgh was buried before the font. There is at Wellingham a mono mental brass inscribed Hic iacet enim Thomas Leeke Heremita; this is clearly the memorial of Thomas Leek who at the beginning of the sixteenth century was hermit of Weasenham, close to Wellingham.
In the case of the enclosed person, the tomb was sometimes prepared before his admission to the cell, and lay ever open to his gaze (p. 96). The same custom prevailed when the Ancren Riwle was written. The anchoress was bidden not only to meditate upon death but actually to scrape up earth every day out of the pit. "She . . . bath her death always, in a manner, before her eyes." At the close of the fourteenth century, one of the Westminster recluses was buried in the oratory adjoining his chamber, in a leaden coffin with iron clasps. The keeper of Westminster Palace suborned a plumber of the convent, who, after flinging the mortal remains into the well in the cloister-cemetery, removed the coveted chest to the palace. Divine retribution fell on both partakers in this act of sacrilege.
Few churches have preserved monuments of the solitaries who dwelt under their shadow. The tradition that Lady Lauretta was buried at Hackington church under the large stone on the altar steps is recorded by Hasted. There is at St. John's, Lewes, the curious memorial of Magnus the Dane.^[66] The inscription (which is supposed to date from the thirteenth century) is built into the wall on fifteen stones arranged in a double semi-circle.
CLAUDITUR HIC MILES, DANORUM REGIA PROLES;
MANGNUS NOMEN EI, MANGNAE NOTA PROGENEI:
DEPONENS MANGNUM, SE MORIBUS INDUIT AGNUM,
PREPETE PRO VITA, FIT PARVULUS ARNACORITA
which may be rendered: "Here is enclosed a soldier of the [115] royal race of Denmark, whose name Magnus bespeaks his noble lineage: laying aside his high estate, he assumes the demeanour of a lamb, and exchanges a life of ambition for that of a lowly anchorite".
In Lower Quinton church (Gloucestershire) is the tomb of Joan, Lady Clopton, who (from the use of the word clauditur in her monumental inscription) is supposed to have been enclosed there after the death of Sir William Clopton. The fine brass lies on an altar tomb at the east end of the south aisle. The costume shows the veiled head-dress with the barbe, the sign of widowhood. In the chancel of Faversham church is the brass of William Thornbury, the vicar, who is said to have been preparing to become a recluse in 1472. The meaning of the inscription is obscure, but it seems probable that he retired to live in solitude in his " chapel and parvise situated in the corner of the churchyard," described in his will.^[67] .
The year 1846 saw the death of two recluses at Allhallows, London Wall. The sum of 6s. 8d. was paid by the churchwardens " ffor the Beryuge of the nue Ancker, that is to say, for the grete Bell for his knyll ".

XIII. LIITERARY RECLUSES

The solitary [ ] is enough to be learned, not one who needs to be taught; also he ought otherwise and leaned in the Divine law, [ ] may know whence he may bring forth things new and old. �Grimlaic, Regula Solitariorum (ninth century).

THE solitary, from St. Jerome onwards, has usually been depicted in art as a student, holding a book. There is a tradition that a British recluse (Eremita Brytannus), living in the time of Ina, King ot Wessex, collected the history of his country, and especially the deeds of King Arthur.^[68] It is not unlikely that the story itself was handed down by one of those hermits who are represented as playing so important a part among the Knights of the Holy Quest.
The historian Gildas is said to have been a hermit (p. 10). His Liber de Excidio Britanniae was written about the year 560, and from this book Bede drew in the earlier chapters of his history. Alcuin describes Gildas as "the wisest of the Britons," and the epithet "the Wise" passed into common use. He seems to have acquired his learning in Gaul, and he afterwards became a teacher in Wales. Gildas also wrote a book of the Four Gospels, wrought in gold and silver, which was held in great estimation.^[69]
. We owe the famous Lindisfarne Gospels in part to Aethelwald, who succeeded Cuthbert in his island-hermitage (chapter I.), and to Billfrith, another priest who lived the solitary life. The Latin inscription declares that ," Eadfrith, Aethilwald, Billfrith, and Aldred have wrought and adorned this book of the Gospels for God and St. Cuthbert". There is a further note in Saxon characters about the work of the goldsmith: "And Billfrith the anchorite, he wrought the metal work of [167] the ornaments on the outside thereof, and decked it with golf and gems, overlaid also with silver, unalloyed metal ". When, during a voyage, this precious volume accidentally fell overboard, its miraculous recovery was attributed to the merits of St. Cuthbert and of the makers of the manuscript, namely, Bishop Eadfrid, the venerable Aethilwald, and also of the hermit Billfrith, "whose skill in craftsmanship had executed the splendid work, for he was one of the first artists of his day". The names of these two men, Oediluald and Billfrith, recur in the list of benefactors of the church of Durham.^[70]
Plegmund, "a religious man, well instructed in sacred lore, and renowned for his wisdom, lived as a hermit before he was summoned to assist King Alfred (p. ~6). It has, Indeed, been supposed that the transcription of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, and possibly a part of the composition itself, was his work, and this work he may have done during his years of seclusion. He was one of the four men of learning who were always about the Court, and were ready night and day to read before the King when he had aught of leisure. In Alfred's preface to his translation of Gregory's Pastoral Care, he acknowledges the assistance of Plegmund, Asser, and others, who had expounded to him the author's meaning:--
"I began, among other various and manifold troubles of this kingdom, to translate into English the book which is called in Latin Pastoralis, and in English Shepherd's Book, sometimes word by word and sometimes according to the sense, as I had learned it from Plegmund my archbishop, and Asser my bishop, and Grimbold my mass-priest, and John my mass-priest. And when I had learnt it as I could best understand it, and as I could most clearly interpret t, I translated it into English, and I will send a copy to every bishopric in my kingdom."
The manuscript addressed to Plegmund himself is preserved in the British Museum. This hermit-archbishop is described by a later chronicler as "a right noble man of letters".^[71]
Dunstan, a more famous ecclesiastic, statesman, and scholar, once lived in seclusion within the precincts of Glastonbury Abbey, in a cell attached to the ancient church of St. [169]
Mary. The eleventh-century chronicler, sbern, visited this cell or den, which he describes as being more like a tomb than a human habitation. It seems incredible that it measured only 5 feet by 2-1/2 feet. In this narrow dwelling the gifted young solitary studied the Scriptures, transcribed and illuminated manuscripts, and even, so it is said, practiced various arts, such as casting bells and making organs. Several books and a musical composition have been attributed to Dunstan, but, as Bishop Stubbs points out, not a single literary monument survives: "he has left, beyond a few lines of writing, the endorsement of a charter, and the prayer put into the mouth of a kneeling figure in an illumination, no writings whatever". In due course the anchorite became Abbot of Glastonbury, and finally Archbishop of Canterbury.^[72]
Passing on to the Norman period, we find that the student was still found in the cell. The literary Herbert de Losinga, first Bishop of Norwich (1095-1119) wrote to his well-beloved Guy (Wido), the anchorite, commending his manner of life, and giving him counsel in a deferential manner. In the course of the letter he alludes to Guy's studious habits:--
"Thou reclines" in the company of the Prophets and Apostles, and thy soul is refreshed and gladdened by the meat and drink of heavenly doctrine. Nor are modern authors who serve up the heavenly banquet wanting to thee; thou hast an abundance of them, proportioned to the ardour of thy zeal for study and thy diligence in reading."
Perhaps the cultured bishop envied his friend these uninterrupted opportunities for study and contemplation; for, even as he writes, his colleagues call him away to the workshop of the world, so that he closes with the brief but earnest request: "Lend me, a sinner, the hand of your prayers to lift me up".^[73]
The solitary, however, was not of necessity a monk with a monastic education: he was sometimes an illiterate layman. A curious illustration of this general lack of learning is furnished by the story of the Welsh pilgrim, Wechelen. At the Holy Sepulchre Wechelen vowed to lead the solitary life, and on his return he was enclosed at Llowes in Radnor. He [170] witnessed the services in the adjoining church, but, knowing no Latin, he could comprehend little of their meaning. He therefore besought the Lord with tears to vouchsafe him a knowledge of the Latin tongue. One day, exhausted and hungry, he fell asleep, and on awaking, beheld on his altar a loaf, which he blessed and ate. That evening for the first time he understood what was being read at vespers. On the morrow, after mass, he called the priest to come to the window with his missal; and as the priest read the gospel of the day, the anchorite expounded the meaning correctly in his native tongue, after which they conversed in Latin. "And from that day to this," said Wechelen to Giraldus, "I have continued to speak it." "But," he added naively, "the Lord, who gave me the Latin tongue, did not give me the Latin syntax, but only so far as to understand others and be understood by them." For Wechelen spoke without regard to case, mood, or tense. Thus, when he desired to express that he had been on pilgrimage, he would say: "Ego Ire Hi'erosoliman et visitare sepulchrum amore mei; et quando redire, ego ponere one in hoc carcere pro amore Domini mei qui mori pro me ". Although not skilled in Latinity, the anchorite of Llowes was the friend and adviser of the learned archdeacon of Brecknock, who, before retiring to a life of study, went to seek his approval and blessing. Criraldus besought Wechelen to pray for him that he might understand the Holy Scriptures. "Och ! och !" cried the unlettered recluse, grasping the scholar's hand, "say not understand, but keep: vain, vain is it to understand the word of God, and keep it not."^[74]
Godric of Finchale was to a great extent self-taught. As a young pedlar, his only lore was the Paternoster and Creed. Bent on acquiring religious knowledge, he frequented the churches of Carlisle, until some kinsman gave him a book, which he set himself to learn fully. This book was the valued " Psalter of St. Jerome," which he carried about with him and read continually. For a while he acted as doorkeeper in the church of St. Giles at Durham; afterwards he resorted to the cathedral church of St. Mary, where he picked up some psalms arid hymns from the school-children. He is said to have [171] composed an English hymn.^[75] It is possible that the simple hermit was at heart a poet like Caedmon, and that as he knelt in worship, some songs in the mother-tongue rose to his lips. The hymn to the Blessed Virgin and the story of its supernatural origin were recorded by Reginald of Durham and Roger of Wendover. One day--so we are told--when Godric was praying before the altar of the Blessed Virgin, she appeared to him and placed her hands upon his head. She then sang, and taught him to sing, a metrical prayer which he afterwards imprinted firmly in his memory.
Seinte Marie, crane virgins,
Moder Jesu Christ Nazarene,
Onfo, scild, help thin Godrich,
On fang, bring heali wide the in Godesrich.
Seinte Marie, Christes hour,
Meidenes clenhed, moderes flour,
Delivere mine sennen, regne in min mod,
Bringe me to blisse wit thi selfe God.
These verses he was bidden to use whenever he was fearful of being overcome by pain, sorrow, or temptation. He seems also to have written a song to St. Nicholas, the patron-saint of his seafaring years, the words and music of which arc preserved.^[76]
The literary recluses of mediaeval England include Simon Stock, the hymn-writer, and Thomas Scrope, the historian; Geoffrey, the grammarian, and George Ripley, the alchemist; Margery Kempe and Julian, the mystics; Richard Rolle, composer of poetry and prose, and Symon, compiler of a manual of meditations.
The early life of St. Simon Stock is a tangled web of legend. He is said to have died at a great age in 1265, but the earliest notice containing his name and a few particulars dates from about the year 1425; nor is it until the end of the fifteenth century that stories are related of his wonderful infancy, of his ascetic boyhood spent in the "stock" of a tree, or of the visions which sent the young solitary first to study at Oxford and then to join the Carmelites upon their arrival in England. All that is certain is that he did become General of the Order in 1247. The prose writings of Simon Stock have been lost. They included Letters, and Canones,the latter probably the acts of the General Chapter of 1259. Simon is believed to have been the author of the rhymed antiphons Flos Carmeli and Ave Stella Matutina, which are found in the Carmelite breviary. The fine poem Alma Redemptoris Mater, sometimes attributed to him, is much older. ^[77]
The learned Carmelite Order produced during the fifteenth century two notable scholarly recluses. Thomas Scrope, a White Friar of Norwich--the preacher referred to in the last chapter--was a student from his youth. His Sermones de decem praeceptis contain the substance of his teachings. He wrote an account of his mission as legate to Rhodes, and also books entitled Compendium historiarum et iurium. His principal works were upon the Carmelite Order.^[78]
George or Gregory Ripley seems to have been an anchorite of the Carmelites. Some consider that there were two men of this name,--a canon of Bridlington who wrote upon natural philosophy and occult science, and a friar of Boston, who wrote religious poetry and biography. Since George Ripley compiled lives of St. Botulph and St. John of Bridlington, it is not unlikely that he had been associated with Boston and Bridlington. In the absence of proof to the contrary, it is permiscible to follow Bale in identifying the alchemist with the anchorite. Bale says that George Ripley was at first a canon of Bridlington. From his youth he had been interested in exploring "wonderful effects and mysterious workings". In order to acquire knowledge, he travelled in foreign parts, and !welt several years in Italy. He studied the ancient philosophers and mathematicians, Plato, Aristotle, Hermas, Bacon, and others. On his return, he obtained a dispensation from choir service for purposes of study, and eventually became a recluse. He wrote a work called The Castle with Twelve Gates, treating of calcination, solution, congelation, and [173] similar phenomena. His Medulla Alchimiae was widely studied. After his death he was regarded as a necromancer and magician.
The first English-Latin dictionary was compiled in 1440 by a Dominican of Lynn, Geoffrey, "the Grammarian". It is true that a note in one copy of an early edition declares that: "the name of the compiler of this book is Brother Richard Fraunces,^[79] enclosed within four walls for Christ's sake," but this statement is at variance with other authorities. Another copy is inscribed: "The author of this work was Geoffrey, called Grammaticus, friar of the Order of St. Dominic".^[80] The writer introduces himself as a recluse of the Friars Preachers of Bishop's Lynn, ignorant and unskilled, more fit to learn than to teach, but desirous of helping young students. He calls his work "a store-house of poor clerks,"Promptuarium Parvulorum, or more correctly, Promptuarium Parvulorum Clericorum, and confesses that it is but a brief compendium of earlier grammarians. "The author describes with simple earnestness in his Preambulum the troubles of aspiring scholars, who, amidst the prevalent barbarism of his times, thirsted for knowledge like harts for the water-brooks, and in vain sought for guides." He desires his book to be a mirror wherein should be clearly reflected the meaning of English and Latin words:--
"I humbly with prayers entreat all pedagogues, teachers, and masters, that when they have examined this little work, they will approve what may by God's assistance have been rightly written, and will piously correct and emend what is written ill or erringly; since humble grammarians and boys may look on this short volume as on a mirror, and find freely and immediately the common words which belong to the Latin tongue".
Looking into this mirror, we see the following words indicative of the solitary life:--
Ankyr (recluse), Anachorita.
Ermytage, Her(e)mitorium.
Ermyte (eremyte), Heremita.
Recluse (or ankyr), supra, Anachorita.
[174] The dictionary was printed by Pynson in 1499, and afterwards by by Wynkyn de Worde.^[81] The compilation of a Latin-English dictionary, entitled Medulla Grammatice, has been ascribed to Geoffrey. He is also supposed to have written a book of hymns, and treatises on the writings of John de Garlandia and other authors.
To the works of Richard Rolle of Hampole frequent allusion has already been made. He went to the University of Oxford " where, when he had made great progress in study, he desired more fully and more deeply to be instructed in the theological doctrines of Holy Scripture, rather than in physics or in the teaching of secular science."^[82] The young hermit was no profound scholar, but he was well read. His facility of expression was remarkable. It was reported, indeed, that he could exhort and write on different themes at the same time. He was once writing in his cell when guests arrived who begged him to offer them a word of edification. He did so: "yet in no way did this make him cease from writing for two hours continuously, but, with the same speed as before, he continued to write . He wrote hastily, when possessed with his subject, and his style is unpolished, disconnected, ejaculatory, sometimes even incoherent; but his originality and vivacity caused his work to live." His strength lies in his lyric fervour, in the truth of his feeling, in the depth of his inner life, in graphic descriptiveness, in happy illustration from nature, life, his own experience; . . . he excels in terse sentences, epigrammatically pointed and full of antithesis, which often convey truths far m advance of his time and of almost modern impress."^[83] .
No attempt can be made here to discuss the writings of Richard of Hampole. Prof. Horstman has made many of them accessible, and it is understood that Miss H. E. Allen is about to publish the result of her exhaustive researches into his works and those of his followers. The Melum (or Melos Contemplativorum) deals with the glory of the saints, and especially of solitaries. Vehement and sweeping denunciation [175]of abuses stamp it as the work of a youthful reformer, who feels bitterly towards all authority. The Incendium Amoris^[84] also treats of the contemplative life, but it is devotional rather than controversial, and is mellowed and mature in tone. The writer shows a self-restraint; and his impassioned love is no less strong, though more serene. So greatly was this work appreciated that it was afterwards (1435) turned into English at the request of Dame Margaret Heslyngton, a recluse--"to the askyuge of thi desyre, Systre Margarete," says the translator, Richard Misyn, who is variously described as hermit and as prior of the Carmelites of Lincoln.^[85]
The Incendium Amoris (like the Melus) contains some personal notes. It was written in early manhood, when the experiences set forth in it were fresh in his memory. The writer describes the stages of his inner life-the sinful follies of his youth, the penitence and "lyfe-chaunging," the temptations and self-discipline that followed thereupon, the gradual development of the soul, and its phases of rapture. Nearly three years after his conversion, Richard was sitting in a chapel, delighting in meditation, when he suddenly experienced a strange sensation of the burning heat of spiritual love. Some months later, as he sat in the same chapel singing his evening psalms, he heard the sound of chanting above him and himself burst into ecstatic song (see Frontispiece). Earnestly desiring to kindle in all manner of folk the same unquenchable love, he makes it the subject of a book, offered not to philosophers and divines "lappyd in questions infenyte, hot unto boystus and untaght, more besy to con lure god then many thinges to knawe".
Richard Rolle was a voluminous writer, and his works, transcribed into other than his native northern dialect, were scattered far and wide. The possessions of Lord Scrope, named in his will (1415) included the incendium Amoirs and also "an exposition on Judica me Deus which Richard the hermit composed and wrote." The monastery of Syon, which possessed many of his books, treasured a Melum, written with his own hand.^[86] He is reputed to have written Meditations on
[176] the Passion, and Treatises on the Ten Commandments, on the Paternoster, and on Prayer, besides paraphrases and expositions of Scripture in English. The Pricke of Conscience, which has long been attributed to him,^[87] contains counsels to the soul upon life, death, and judgment. In a church at York (All Saints', North Street) is a window depicting the end of the world (Plate XXXVI). Below each panel is a couplet from this poem. The representations of fire and flood, earthquake and falling stars, of the rending of tombs and coming together of bones, are quaint but vivid, and they follow the author's description of the last fifteen days.^[88]
The compiler of the Officium de S. Ricardo describes the influence of Richard Rolle as a devotional writer:--
"Admirable, indeed, and very useful, were the occupations of this holy man-in holy exhortations by which he converted a very great number to God; in his mellifluous writings and treatises and little books composed for the edification of his fellow-Christians, which should all re-echo the sweetest harmony in the hearts of the devout."
Richard of Hampole excelled in books of instruction and devotion composed for religious persons, and particularly for solitaries. A careful scribe who collected his works cites the source from which his text of the Judica me Deus is derived. It was copied from a book in the possession of a hermit whom he had visited at Christmastide in 1409: Ricardus heremita dixit in libro quem habuit heremita de Tanfeld.^[89] The Commentary on the Psalter was written at the request of Margaret Kirkby, the recluse of Ainderby. To the same lady, his "dear disciple," was dedicated the letter of sympathetic advice, called the Form of Perfect Living (p. 98), which became a popular tract. He bids her, however, not to covet books overmuch: "hold love in heart and in work, and thou hast all that we may say or write".
Mention must be made of a work occurring in whole or in part in many manuscripts, which sometimes purports to be a [177]
"boke maad of Rycharde hampole heremyte to an Ankeresse''.^[90] It contains ninety-one chapters, and that numbered eighty-three is entitled: "How an anker schal haue [behave] hyr to hem that comen to hir". The work is none other than Hilton's treatise upon the contemplative life, called The Scale of Perfection (p. 99).
Walter Hilton was an Austin canon of Thurgarton, and died in 1396. The following account of one "Walter the recluse," which occurs in a catalogue of " English Learned Men that were Augustin Friers," may possibly refer to Walter Hilton, although the otherwise unknown friar is said to have flourished in 1280, a century before the Augustinia canon:--
"Walter the Recluse, educated among, and afterwards became one of the Eremites of St. Augustine, and being already sufficiently instructed in Secular Learning, he apply'd himself to Divinity, and became a great Proficient in both Heads, being put to teach others, he succeeded so well, that many of his Scholars became notable Doctors. But whilst he liv'd Recluse from Human Conversation, being much addicted to Solitary Life, he wrote Pious Meditations. Of a Soli'tary Life: Of the Contempt of the World."'^[91]
The works of Richard Rolle and Walter Hilton were much appreciated by anchoresses, who were often well-educated women. The ladies for whom the Ancren Riwle had been written were bidden to read books of devotion in English or French. Reading was encouraged as a relief and help to the oppressed spirit:--
"Often, dear sisters, ye ought to pray less, that ye may read more. Reading is good prayer. Reading teacheth how, and for what, we ought to pray; and prayer afterwards obtaineth it. In reading, when the heart feels delight, devotion ariseth, and that is worth many prayers. St. Jerome saith, let doily reading be always In thy hard. Sleep may fad pox thee as thou lookest thereon, and the sacred page meet thy droopz~zg face; and thus long and intently must thou read. Everything, however, may be overdone. Moderation is always best."
We owe to an anchoress of Lynn a fragmentary mystical work, and to an anchoress of Norwich, one of the finest contributions to sacred literature. About Margery Kempe nothing is known but what we can glean from the treatise upon contemplation "taken out of the bake of Margerie Kempe of Lynn". Of this fragment no manuscript is known. One copy alone has been traced, a tiny quarto of eight pages, printed by Wynkyn de Worde about 1501, preserved in the University Library, Cambridge. This was reprinted with slight variations by H. Pepwell in 1521,^[92] and he appended this note: "Here endeth a short treatise of a devout ancress called Margery Kempe of Lynn ". In the dialogues between her soul and God, she reveals herself as a zealous self-disciplined woman, eager to suffer more for His sake, but restrained from undue asceticism and outward observances by her realization of His desire for her love alone. We learn how she overcame her loathing of lepers (p. 121); with what sympathy she regarded suffering even in animals; how earnestly she desired that there should be more priests in Lynn to conduct God's worship; how she agonized in prayer for men and women of evil life, and also "for all Jews and Saracens, and all heathen people, that they should come to Christian faith". During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, there were several anchorages in Lynn (see Appendix), but which was the abode of Margery the mystic is so far unknown.
Even of Dame Julian of Norwich we know comparatively little, but happily her record of religious experience is complete. The Revelations of Divine Love describe with considerable skill and power certain "showings" vouchsafed to her during the severe illness of which mention has already been made. Two distinct versions of this work are found.^[93] Mr. Harford has recently edited the shorter and simpler one which he considers to be the original. The more elaborate version (which has eighty-six chapters instead of twenty-five) omits some trifling details of the illness, but is in every other respect considerably fuller. Julian herself tells us that almost twenty [179] years after the time of the showing, she was still deriving instruction from it, and was gradually learning its meaning.
The Amherst MS. is inscribed with these words:--
" Here is a vision, showed by the goodness of God to a devout woman, and her name is Julian, that is recluse at Norwich, and yet is on life, anno domini mccccxiij. In the which vision are full many comfortable words, and greatly stirring to all that desire to be Christ's lovers. "
Julian was an anchoress at St. Julian's, Norwich, a church which was under Carrow nunnery. She was a humble woman, with no opinion of the intellectual and spiritual gifts, which caused a later writer to describe her as theodacta, profunda, ecstatica. She calls herself "a simple creature, unlettered".
"God forbid that ye should say, or take it so, that I am a teacher, for I mean not so-no, I meant never so. For I am a woman unlearned, feeble, and frail; but I know well this that I say I have it of the showing of Him that is Sovereign Teacher. But truly charity stirs me to tell you it. For I would God were known, and my even-Christians sped, as I would be myself, to the more hating of sin and loving of God. But, because I am a woman, should I therefore leave [it alone], that I should not tell you the goodness of God, since I saw in the same time that it is His will that it be known ? Then shall ye soon forget me that am a wretch, and do so that I let you not, and behold Jesus that is Teacher of all."^[94]
The central scene of the Vision is Christ's Passion--in the light of which Julian ever after interprets all the mystery of life. The problems of the existence of evil and pain had long weighed upon her pure, compassionate spirit: "Thus, in my folly, afore this time often I wondered why by the great foreseeing wisdom of God the beginning of sin was not letted: for then, Bethought, all should have been well". She was shown that sin was permitted because it was "behovable": and that "all manner of thing shall be well". Still was her heart troubled: "Ah, how might all be well, for the great hurt that is come, by sin, to the creature?" Then did Christ make clear to her that all sin and suffering should surely be turned to profit by virtue of His Passion.
[180] Dame Julian reveals the secret "beholdings" and "beseechings" of her own soul. Now she unfolds high aspirations: "God, of Thy Goodness, give me Thyself . . . and if I ask any thing that is less, ever me wanteth". Now she utters the agonized longing of her heart, and asks relief in her intense yearning for the welfare of a friend's soul: "I desired to learn assuredly as to a certain creature that I loved, if it should continue in good living, which I hoped by the grace of God was begun". This human thirst for fuller knowledge was not to be satisfied, nevertheless she was taught not to be greatly distressed for any manner of thing: "for all shall be well". Herself secure in love and strong in faith, she explains faith thus "It is nought else but a right understanding, with true belief, and sure trust, of our being: that we are in God, and God in us, whom we see not".
As to the full meaning of the revelation, Julian expressly tells us that it only dawned upon her gradually as she meditated upon this, the supreme experience of her life:--
"And from that time that it was showed, I desired oftentimes to learn what was our Lord's meaning. And fifteen years after, and more, I was answered in ghostly understanding, saying thus: Wouldst thou learn thy Lord's meaning, in this thing? Learn it well: Love was His meaning. Who shewed it thee? Love. What shewed He thee? Love. Wberefore shewed it He? For Lve. Hold thee therein and thou shalt learn and know more in the same. But thou shalt never know nor learn therein other thing without end. Thus was I learned that Love was our Lord's meaning."^[95]
Symon "the Anker of London Wall "was enclosed at the city church of Allhallows." Sir Symon" or "Master Anker" is frequently mentioned in the churchwardens' accounts. He was the compiler of The Fruyte of Redempcyon,^[96] an English manual containing meditations on the life of Christ, with appropriate prayers and thanksgivings. The woodcut reproduced in the text (Fig. 7) is from this work: within a church, a priest (doubtless intended for the author) kneels at the feet of Christ. The book is introduced by Symon to his readers thus:-
[181] "Here foloweth prayers and full deuoute contemplacyons with thankynges of all the benefytes gyuen to mankynde, and specyally in the werke of our redempcyon, of the incarnacyon and passyon of cryste, called the fruyte of redempcyon. And fyrst it putteth a prayer to moue the mynde of man to laude god."

What the pious priest saw "with the inward eye of his mind," that he set down for the help of the others, knowing that there were few books of devotion in the vulgar tongue. One example will suffice to indicate the manner of his teaching. A short meditation "Of the oblacyon of the thre holy kynges," closes with this prayer: "Benygne Jesu I praye ye to sende me grace spyrytually to offre these gyftes to the. The pure golde of perfite lone. The swete encens of deuoute prayer. And the clene myrre of mortyfycacyon of my frayle flesshe." In the postscript the anchorite adds a personal touch, and pleads for the prayers of such as had derived benefit from his work:--

"O all ye seruauntes of god vnto whose handes this deuoute lytell treatyse shall come, yf ye fynde swetnesse or deuocyon in Jhesu cryste therby, laude ye god therfore, and of your charyte praye for the Anker of London wall wretched Symon, that to the honour of Jhesu cryst and of the virgyn his moder Mary hath compyled this mater in englysshe for your ghostly conforte that vnderstande no latyn.

Deo gracias."

The book was put forth with the approval of the Bishop of London, Richard Fitzjames (1506-22), who stated that he had himself studiously read it, and recommended it to all true servants of Christ--"to theyr great consolacyon and ghostly conforte, and to the merytes of the deuoute fader compounder of the same".
Here then, at the eve of the Reformation, we leave Symon, the last of our literary recluses, a simple student of the Scriptures.

APPENDIX A
THE OFFICE FOR THE ENCLOSING OF ANCHORITES
(according to the Use of Sarum)

[Manuale ad Usum Sarum (Surtees S. 63), 37*-43*. The office is " Servitium Includendorum," from the York Manual.]

THE SERVICE OF THOSE WHO ARE TO BE ENCLOSED

In what manner those who approach the order of anchorites ought to Approach and to order themselves, that which follows according to the Use of Sarum will make clear. No one ought to be enclosed without the advice of Ithe Bishop; but let him be taught and warned of the Bishop or some older presbyter that he must devoutly examine his own conscience, and in particular whether he desires holiness with a good or bad purpose, if he desires it to please God or tl attain wealth or the praise of men, lastly whether he have strength and endurance of mind enough to avail against the crafts of the evil enemy, and against manifold mischiefs of that sort. When he shall have promised to bear such thing for the kingdom of God, and to set his hope on God alone, let the Bishop, or a presbyter by command of the Bishop, enclose him. But let the one who is enclosed learn not to think highly of himself as though he deserved tl be set apart from the mass of mankind; but let him rather believe that it is provided and appointed for his own weakness that he should be set far from the companionship of hiss neighbours, lest by more frequent sin he should both himself perish and do harm to those who dwell wiith him, and should thus fall into greater damnation. Let him therefore think that he is convicted of his sins and commtted to solitary confinement as to a prison, and that on account of his own weakness he is unworthy of the fellowship of mankind. This rule must be observed with both sexes.

HERE BEGINNETH THE ORDER OF ENCLOSING SERVANTS OR HANDMAIDENS OF GOD

. Let him who is o be enclosed take care that he be confessed of all his sins which he can remember, and that on the day before the day of his enclosure he be refreshed only with bread and water. On the night following that day, he is bound to watch devoutly in prayer with his light burning in a monastery near his cell. On the morrow, after an exhortation to the people and to the one who is to be enclosed, the Bishop or priest must begin this Responsorium: Let us amend our ways. The choir goes on � For the [194] amendment of our sins of ignorance, lest, taken suddenly by the day of death, we seek time for repentance, and find it not. Hear us, O Lord, and have mercy, for we have sinned against thee.
Verse. Help us, O Lord our Saviour,and for the glory of thy name deliver us, O Lord. Hear us, O Lord.
After thist the Bishop or Priest prostrating himself on the carpet before the altar shall with the clerks, begin these Psalms: vi, lxxxviiii with Gloria Patri, xx with Gloria Patri, xxxii, xxxv, xxxviii; xli; xliii, lvi, cii, ciii, I-5 (only), cxxx, cxxxi; cxliii. Lord have mercy upon us. Christ have mercy upon us. Lord have mercy upon us.
Our Father, etc. And lead us not, etc. But deliver, etc.
O Lord, my God, save thy servant (or thy handmaid):
Which putteth his trust in thee.
Let not the enemy prevail against him:
Nor the son of wickedness draw nigh to hurt him.
Be unto him, O Lord, a strong tower:
From the face of the enemy.
Send him help, O Lord, from thy holy place:
And strengthen him out of Sion.
O Lord, hear my prayer:
And let my cry come unto thee.
The Lord be with you. Let us pray.
Spare, O Lord, spare thy servant JV. whom thou hast redeemed, O Christ, with thy blood, and be not angry with him for ever. Who livest, etc.
Another prayer with Let us pray.
O God of boundless mercy and great goodness, forgive his sins and heal all his weakness of soul, that having received forgiveness of all his sins he may rejoice in thy goodness. Through Christ, etc.
Let us pray.
Almighty and everlasting God, have mercy on thy servant N. and of thy great goodness guide him in the way of eternal life, that by thy grace he may love those things which are pleasing to thee, and may go on from strength to strength.
Prevent us, O Lord, in all our doings with thy gracious favour, and further us with thy continual help, that all our work may be begun, and ended in thee. Through our Lord, etc.
After this let the Bishop or Priest vest himself in a Chasuble and let any Mass he wills be at once begun; so that this prayer following be said for the one to be enclosed, with a single Per Dominum, and a single Oremus.
O God, who cost cleanse the wicked and wiliest not the death of a sinner; we humbly beseech thy majesty that in thy goodness thou wilt guard thy servant N. who trusteth in thy heavenly aid, that he may ever serve thee, and no trials may part him from thee. Through our Lord, etc.
After the Gospel the one who is to be enclosed must over his taper [195] which must always burn above the altar during the Mass. And the one who is to be enclosed must stand before the altar step and read his profession in a loud voice: if he is a layman some servant must read it for him. The profession must be of this sort:--
I, brother or sister N. offer and present myself to the goodness of God to serve in the order of an anchorite; and according to the rule of that order I promise to remain henceforward in the service of God through the grace of God and the guidance of the church and to render canonical obedience to my spiritual fathers.
Then must the one who is to be enclosed make the sign of the cross on the deed of his profession with a pen, and placing it on his knees upon the altar, let him pray after the Bishop or Priest in this manner:--
Antiphon. Confirm, O Lord, that which thou hast wrought in us, from thy holy temple which is in Jerusalem. Alleluia, Alleluia. Let [God] arise.
Afterwards let the Bishof or Priest say:-
Let us pray.
O God, who cost quicken thy servant who has turned from the vanity of the life of this world to the love of thy heavenly calling; cleanse the thoughts of his heart, and pour upon him thy heavenly grace, that trusting in thee, and guarded by thy mighty power, he may fulfil that which by thy grace he has promised, and the work of this life well done, he may attain at last to that which thou hast vouchsafed to promise to those who trust in thee. Through Christ, etc.
Then shall the Bishop or Priest bless the habit suitable to his profession with this prayer:--
We mark the sign of our Lord Jesus Christ on this garment that his profession may be kept, and that the Holy Spirit may rule in the heart and soul and in all the doings of him who receives it. Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.
Then shall he sprinkle both the habit and him who receives it with holy water: and when he gives the habit let him say when it is being put on:--
May God put off from thee the old man with all his works, and may God clothe thee with the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
And let all answer: Amen.
When he who is to be enclosed is clad in his habit, let him immediately prostrate himself before the altar step and let him remain thus prostrate in prayer until he be summoned by the Bishop or Priest to communion. After that let the Bishop or Priest chant over him still lying prostrate this hymn:--
Veni, Creator Spiritus, etc.
Verse. Send out thy Spirit and they shall be made: and thou shalt renew the face of the earth.
The Lord be with you. And with thy spirit.
Let us pray.
O God, who wiliest not the death of a sinner, hut rather that he should [196] repent and be cleansed; we humbly beseech thy mercy for this thy servant who has forsaken the life of the world, that thou wouldest pour upon him the help of they great goodness that, enrolled among thy chaste ones, he may so run the course of this present life that he may receive at thy hand the reward of an eternal inheritance. Through Christ, etc.
Then shall the Bishop or Priest going to the altar finish the Mass for the one who is to be enclosed.
Secreta. We beseech thee, O Lord, that by the power of these holy mysteries thou wilt cleanse us from all our faults, and wilt grant to thy servant N. forgiveness of all his sins. Through our Lord, etc.
Postcommunio. May the sacraments which we have received, O Lord, make us pure, and grant that thy servant 1V. may be free from every fault, so that he whose conscience by sin is accused may rejoice in the fulness of pardon from on high. Through our Lord.
. When the Bishop or Priest shall have communicated, let him also communicate the one to be enclosed. When Mass is finished, let the aforemsaid taper be handed to the one who is to be enclosed; and when a procession has been formed, let the Bishop or Priest, vested in a chauble, go before, then let him take by the hand the one to be enclosed carrying the taper, and let him lead him in goodly sort to his dwelling. Let the clerks meanwhile go before, singing a Litany. When they have reached the dwelling and the Litany is finished, the Bishop or Priest shall leave the one to be enclosed outside the dwelling and shall enter the dwelling alone, beginning, with holy water, the Antiphon Purge me, or I saw water, as time permits.
. Then let him hallow and bless the dwelling with the following prayers.
. This prater shall be said over the altar with Let us pray.
O Lord, holy and merciful Father, who hast neither beginning of days nor end of years, whose greatness is bounded only by thy will; O God whose majesty the heaven of heavens cannot contain; we bless thee and humbly beseech thee that this altar may be such an one as that which Abel the forerunner in suffering, being slain by his brother, moistened and hallowed with fresh blood. May this altar be to thee, O Lord, like that which Abraham our father, who was permitted to see thee, made; on which the High Priest Melchisedech set forth the pattern of a prevailing sacrifice. May this altar be to thee like that which Moses hallowed with seven days' purification and sanctified it with a threefold blessing; as thou didst say unto him: Whosoever toucheth this altar shall be holy. On this altar then may all wantonness be destroyed, and every lust be smitten down; and there be offered, instead of turtledoves, the sacrifice of purity, and for young doves the sacrifice of innocence. Through our Lord.
The Blessing on the house:--
Hearken, O Lord, to our prayers, and let the clear light of thy presence shine upon this house. Let a full measure of thy blessing fall upon those who dwell therein by thy grace, that, dwelling in all sobriety in these temples made with hands, they may ever be temples of thy Spirit. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
[197] Another prayer with Let us pray.
Hear us, O Lord, Holy Father, eternal God, that if there be any thing against us or opposed to us in this house of thy servant N. it may be cast out by the power of thy divine majesty. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, thy Son, who with thee liveth and reigneth, In the unity.
Another with Let us pray.
Bless O Lord, this house and this place, that in it may dwell health, holiness, chastity, power, victory, devotion, humility, gentleness, meekness, fulfilment of the law and obedience to God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. And let a full measure of thy blessing rest upon this place and upon all who dwell therein in thee, that, dwelling in all sobriety in these temples made with hands, they may ever be temples of thy Spirit. Through our Lord Jesus Christ thy Son, who with thee liveth and reigneth in the unity of the Holy Spirit One God.
After this, let the Bishop or Priest go forth and lead in the one who is to be enclosed bearing his light, beginning this Responsorium:--
The kingdom of the world. 7'he choirgoes or'-and all the glory of it have I despised for the love of my Lord Jesus Christ, whom I have seen, whom I have loved, on whom I have believed, whom I have chosen for myself.
Verse. My heart has indited a good matter I speak of my work for the King. Whom I have seen.
When this has been sung with its verse, let the Bishop or Priest say:--
The Lord be with you and Let us pray.
We beseech thee, O Lord, Holy Father, almighty and everlasting God, that thou wilt vouchsafe to pour the spirit of blessing upon this thy servant that, endued with power from on high, he may be enabled both to gain thy glorious gifts and to set an example of good living to others.
Response. Amen.
Also another blessing over him.
May the Lord Jesus Christ be by thy side, to defend thee. Amen. May he be within thee, to refresh thee. Amen. May he be about thee, to keep thee safe. Amen. May he be before thee, to lead thee forth. Amen. May he be above thee, to bless thee. Amen. Who with God the Father and the Holy Spirit liveth and reigneth, In the unity.
Another blessing.
May God the Father bless thee. Amen. May God the Son preserve thee. Amen. May he guard thy body. Amen. May he save thy soul. Amen. May he enlighten thy body. Amen. May he direct thy mind. Amen. And lead thee forth to everlasting life. Amen. Who in threefold perfection liveth and reigneth one God for ever and ever. Amen.
. After this, let the Bishop or Priest go forth from the house, the recluse alone remaining within and keeping strict silence, while he is being firmly enclosed from without, and in the meanwhile let the Bishop or Priest begin an Antiphon after this fashion in a loud voice:--
We have received thy mercy, O God, in the midst of thy temple.
Psalms xlviii, cxvi, cxlvii; cl, with Gloria Patri.
Let the Antiphon be repeated. We have received, O God.
When the Antiphon is finished, let the Bishop or Priest cause them all to pray for him, that Almighty God, for whose love he has left the world, and caused himself to be shut up in a most strait prison, may so guard him and strengthen him in that service, that after death he may be found fit to live with him lo all eternity.
Our Father, etc. And lead us not, etc. But deliver, etc.
Show forth, O Lord, thy mercy towards us.
That our peace may be in thee.
The Lord be with you. Let us pray.
We beseech thee, O Lord, to defend this thy servant, and through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary and all the company of heaven, increase in him thy manifold gifts of grace, that being set free from the temptations of this world, he may have help in this life, and in the world to come everlasting joy. Through Christ.
Let us pray.
. Almighty God, unto whom all hearts be open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid, cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of thy Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love thee and worthily magnify thy holy name. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Let us pray.
Almighty and everlasting God, guide us, we beseech thee, in all our doings with thy most gracious favour, that in the name of thy beloved Son we may worthily serve thee in all good works. Who with thee liveth and reigneth in the unity of the Holy Spirit one God for ever and ever.
Then let them all depart to enter idle the Church, the Choir singing some Responsorium with its versicle concerning the Saint in whose name and honour the Church is founded, ending at the choir step by the Priest saying a verse and prayer on the same subject. And if it be a Church of Saint Mary this Responsorium must be said:-
Happy art thou, O holy Maiden Mary, and most worthy of all praise. Because from thee arose the sun of righteousness, Christ our God. In Eastertide: Alleluia.
Verse. Pray for the people; mediate for the clergy; intercede for womenkind who honour thee; that all who join in thy service may feel thy comfort. Because from thee arose, etc.
. Verse. Holy Mother of God, Mary ever Virgin. i
Strengthen our weakness, we beseech thee, O merciful God, and grant that we who plead in the name of Mary the maiden Mother of God may by the aid of her prayers be freed from all our sins. Through the same Christ our Lord.

APPENDIX B
[199] THE OFFICE FOR THE BENEDICTION OF HERMITS
(According to the Rule of St. Paul the first Hermit)

[Transcribed by Mr. F. C. Eeles from a sixteenth century Pontifical in his possession. It was written for Thomas, titular Bishop of Lydence, who was suffragan to Richard Ritz James, Bishop of London, in I52I, and afterwards to Cuthbert Tunstall.]
[Folio 68.
. Forma et ordo qualiter heremita a seculi vanitate cordialiter conuersus faciet professionem que ab episcopo vel eius commissario fieri potest quocunque celebri festo ad hoc ordinato. Primo episcopus ex more sacris vestibus indutus peragat missam vsque ad evangelium et interim dum Alleuia Tractus vel sequenc[ia] dicitur conuersus deuote veniens in vestibus consuetis portansque scapulare et alia vestimenta [fo. 68v professioni heremitice conueniencia super brachium sinistrum incedendo nudis pedibus vsque ad gradum altaris et ibidem nudato capite genuflectendo ea ponat ad pedes episcopi vel eius commissarij. Episcopo statim cum circumstnatibus hunc. Psalmum. Alteratim premittentibus Mierere mei. / deus secundum magnam isericordiam tuam cum gloria patri et [fo. 69 sicut erat. Dicto psalmo episcopus sedendo alloquatur eum de proposito castitatis et examinando de obseruacione regulari eiusdem concensum publice requirendo Declaretque omnia alia que sibi videntur ad salutem anime illius esse oportuna Quibus secundum dei timorem completis legat conuersus professionem / suam vel spiscopo ipsum docente dicat [fo. 69v hoc modo episcopo in cathedra sedente vultu ad populum conuerso
Ego N non coningatus promitto et voueo deo beate marie et omnibus sanctis in presencia reuerendi in christo patris et domini. N.N. episcopi propositum castitatis perpetue iuxta regulam beati pauli. In nomine patris et c[etera]
Deinde faciat signum crucis in fine professionis et tradat episcopo Tunc / dicat episcopus hance oracionem super eum prostratum [fo. 70.

Oremus

PRAESTA quesumus omnipotens deus huic famulo tuo . N. renuntianti seculi pompis gracie tue ianuas aperi qui despecto diabolo confugit sub titulo christi lube uenientem ad te serene vultu suscipi ne de eo valeat inimicus triumphare tribue huic infatigabile brauium auxilij tui mentem eius lorica fidei circumda vt/felici muro vallatus mundum se gaudeat euasisse. Per [fo. 70v. dominum.

[200] Oremus

DEUS qui filios israel in heremi solitudine manna ad pascendum celeste quadraginta annis manare fecisti quique vitam heremiticam tam per filium tuum quadraginta diebus et quadraginta noctibus prophetas et sanctos in heremo degentes tibi in heremo placere monstrasti concede propicius vt/famulus tnus . N. similem pro modulo suo eligens vitam sic in [fo. 71 proposito heremitice discipline mores suos mutet aptet et componat quatinus perseueranter proficiens ad huius vite perfeccionem attingere et ad gaudia per fectorum valeat peruenire. Per eundem
Sequitur benediccio vestium cum
.
[V] Dominus vobiscum
R[es.] Et cum [spiritu tuo].

Oremus

DEUS eternorum bonorum fidelissime promissor certissime /per- [fo. 71v. solutor qui vestimentum salutare et indumentum iocunditatis tuis fidelibus promisisti clemenciam tuam suppliciter exoramus vt hec indumenta humilitatem cordis et contemptum mundi significandus quibus famulus tuus sancto visibiliter est informandus proposito propicius benedicere digneris vt et castitatis habitum quem te inspirante suscepturus est te protegente custodiat et quem vestimen/tis venerande professionis induis perpetualiter beata [fo. 72 facias inmortalitate vestiri Per dominum et c[etera]
DEUS bonarum virtutum dator et omnium benediccionum largus infusor exaudi preces nostras vt hanc vestem quam famulus tuus pro conseruande castitatis signo se ad cooperiendum expossit benedicere et consecrare digneris ad laudem et gloriam nominis tui. per christum dominum nostrum R[es.] Amen. / [fo. 72 v
Deinde aspergatur aqua benedicta et postea det ei habitum episcopus et dum induit dicat.
Exuat te dominus veterem hominem cum actibus suis et induat te nouum hominem qui qui secundum deum creatus est in iusticia et sanctitate veritatis
R[es.] Deo gracias
Deinde dicat episcopus si fuerit literatus vel in materna lingua
FRATER ecce dedimus tibi habitum heremiticum cum quo/monemus [fo. 73 te viuere caste sobrie et sancte in vigilijs in ieiunijs in laboribus in precibus in misericordie operibus et habeas vitam eternam et viuas in secula seculorum Amen
Cui conuersus . r[espondit]. genuflectendo deuote sic.
Et ego reuerende pater in nomine domini nostri Ihesu christi illum recipio promittens me secundum posse michi a deo collatum uestrum preceptum fideliter seruaturum adiuuante dei gracia et sanctorum eius oracione benigna
. Tunc/sequantur benedicciones super eum prostratum cum [fo. 73v

.Oremus.

FAMULM tuum domine tue custodia muniat pietatis vt castitatis sancte propositum quod te inspirante suscepit te protegente semper illesum custodiat. Per dominum

[201] Oremus

ADESTO domine supplicacionibus nostris ut hunc famolum tuum benedicere digneris cui in nomine sancto tuo habitum religionis/impo- [fo. 74 nimus vt te largiente et deuotus in ecclesia persistere et vitam percipere meretur eternam. Per dominum
Deinde episcopus conuersus ad onentem dicat hunc ympnum.
Ueni creator spiritus. ut supra in benediccione vidue et dicatur vsque ad finem. deinde dicatur
Kyrieleyson
C hristeleyson
Kyrieleyson
Pater noster
[V] Et ne nos [inducas in temptacionem].
[R] Sed libera [nos a malo. Amen.]
[V] Saluum fac/sernum tuum. . [fo. 74v
[R] Deus mous sperantem in te.]
[V] Mitte domine ei auxilium de sancto.
[R] Et de syon tuere eum.]
[V] Esto ei domine turris fortitudinis.
[R] A facie inimici eius.]
[V] Domine exandi [oracionem meam].
[R] Et clamor meus ad te veniat.]
[V] Dominus vobiscum. Et cum spiritu tuo.]

Oremus