Anchorite

Anchoress is the female form. A recluse; a person persuaded by faith to reject the world and live in isolation. Sometimes such persons were immured, wholly confined and even literally walled in. Before one could be 'bricked in' permission was required from a bishop. One of his duties would be to officiate, for which ceremonies in *pontificals survive. Indeed, an anchoress received the last rites, and had the office of the dead said over her. She then entered her cell and was bricked in, accompanied at each stage by various prayers. Strange as it may seem today, such women felt they were entering a community. The *Ancrene Riwle makes plain, as it praises the feeling of communality, that the anchoresses communicated with one another through servants, described as 'maidens', who carried spoken messages to and fro between the cells. These cells typically had three windows, a private altar, and a bed and crucifix. One of the windows gave a view of the altar of the church to which the cell was attached; a second window opened into servants' quarters through which food and, presumably, a chamber-pot were passed; the third and smallest, known as the 'parlour' window, faced outwards and was used to speak to visitors. This was the smallest so as to minimise the temptation implicit in seeing the outside world. This last was similar to the *fenestra parvula of Gilbertine monasteries. The Ancrene Riwle offers the following as definition of an anchorite: 'an anker is called an anker . . . [for being] anchored under the church like an anchor under the ship [to hold it] so that waves and storms don't overturn it'. [< Gr. anakhoro = to withdraw]