Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 11.djvu/229

 NOTICES OP ARCHAEOLOGICAL PUBLICATIONS. 195 fourth century. This kind of sohtary Hfe, in course of time, gained such a footing in the West, that the council " in Trullo," in 692, and that of Frankfort, in 787, found it expedient tolegisLate respecting those who would devote themselves to it. Whatever may have been its intermediate history, there were in tliis country, during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, many anchorites of both sexes, who gave themselves up to holy meditation and religious exercises in lonely seclusion. They are often called recluses ; yet the Latin designations were not uncommonly " inclusi " and " inclusaj.'' There was no invarial)le rule to which they were subject : some affected far greater degrees of mortification tlian others. The ceremony of inclusion was attended with a solemn service,^ and it could not take place without tbo sanction of the bishop of the diocese. In cases of the greatest strictness the anchorite was locked in for life, and the bishop placed his seal upon the cell. Occasionally tbo entrance was closed with masonry. Only in cases of necessity, or by the order of the bishop, was the devotee to remove, or even the cell to be opened. This confined abode was called an ankerhouse, or ankerhold. Before inclusion it was obligatory on the bishop, not only to inquire as to the fitness of the applicant for such a life, but also to con- sider the probability of the anchorite receiving sufficient nourishment from the alms of the pious. ^ The cells were, therefore, usually placed either near monasteries, or in towns, and commonly, if not always, adjoining churches, so that the elevation of the host might be seen from them. They were sometimes within monasteries or nunneries : thus we find mention niade of " Dame Alice Derby Ancresse " within the nunnery of Clemen- thorpe." In these cases they were, doubtless, contiguous to the church. Such a cell had generally two or more small apertures called windows, one to witness the celebration of the mass, and receive the Eucharist, another for conversation with visitors, and we read of a third for light. A few examples of anchorholds in churches seem to remain, as in the south transept of Norwich Cathedral ; at Wilbraham, Cambridgeshire, in the tower ; and at other places over porches and vestries ; but some apartments, so considered, may have been priests' lodgings. It is most probable that many anchorhouses were wooden structures in the churchyard, close to the church, so that the anchorites dwelt, as the author of this rule says (p. 143), " under the eaves of the church." These abodes were more or less com- modious, or we might say, incommodious, according to the degree of mortification that the votary chose to undertake. The anchorites of this period are not to be confounded with hermits, who were free to wander where they pleased, and seem to have availed them- selves of the privilege: " Ilereniita) solivagi — ancboretaj conclusi," says Giraldus Cambrensis. They also differed essentially from monks and nuns, properly so called ; for these lived by rule, in a community, and were civilly dead ; while the anchorites dwelt alone, had no prescribed rule, and retained their civil riglits, incUuling the rights of property."^ Yet the term nun is sometimes found applied to an anchoress, and hermit to an " Anker;" and their cells are sometimes called hermitages ; which has tended not a little to mislead desultory readers. The laws of this country recognised the t. Aii- seen a form of such service with rubrical ' gli:i S:ierii, ii. ilW. directions. '^ Lyiiwode, fol. loo vu, Edition 1325, ^ Ljnwode, foi. 15o vo, Edition 152o. Littleton, s. 434.  Mado. Foiin. Anyl. p. 437.
 * In the ILirl. Coll. No. 873, may be ? Epist. ad Stoiih. Arehiep. C.-