Scenes and Characters of the Middle Ages: Third EditionCutts, Edward Lewes
History
Scenes and Characters of the Middle Ages: Third Edition
Cutts, Edward Lewes
Civilization, Medieval; Middle Ages -- Social life and customs
There was a similar hermitage for several female recluses in the
churchyard of St. Romauld, Shrewsbury, as we learn from a document among
the Bishop of Lichfield's registers,[147] in which he directs the Dean of
St. Chadd, or his procurator, to enclose Isolda de Hungerford an anchorite
in the houses of the churchyard of St. Romauld, where the other anchorites
dwell. Also in the same registry there is a precept, dated Feb. 1, 1310,
from Walter de Langton, Bishop, to Emma Sprenghose, admitting her an
anchorite in the houses of the churchyard of St. George's Chapel, Salop,
and he appoints the archdeacon to enclose her. Another license from Roger,
Bishop of Lichfield, dated 1362, to Robert de Worthin, permitting him, on
the nomination of Queen Isabella, to serve God in the reclusorium built
adjoining (_juxta_) the chapel of St. John Baptist in the city of
Coventry, has been published _in extenso_ by Dugdale, and we transcribe it
for the benefit of the curious.[148] Thomas Hearne has printed an
Episcopal Commission, dated 1402, for enclosing John Cherde, a monk of
Ford Abbey. Burnett's "History of Bristol" mentions a commission opened by
Bishop William of Wykham, in August, 1403, for enclosing Lucy de
Newchurch, an anchoritess in the hermitage of St. Brendon in Bristol.
Richard Francis, an ankret, is spoken of as _inter quatuor parietes pro
christi inclusus_ in Langtoft's "Chronicle," ij. 625.
CHAPTER III.
ANCHORAGES.
Just as in a monastery, though it might be large or small in magnitude,
simple or gorgeous in style, with more or fewer offices and appendages,
according to the number and wealth of the establishment, yet there was
always a certain suite of conventual buildings, church, chapter refectory,
dormitory, &c., arranged in a certain order, which formed the cloister;
and this cloister was the nucleus of all the rest of the buildings of the
establishment; so, in a reclusorium, or anchorhold, there was always a
"cell" of a certain construction, to which all things else, parlours or
chapels, apartments for servants and guests, yards and gardens, were
accidental appendages. Bader's rule for recluses in Bavaria[149] describes
the dimensions and plan of the cell minutely; the _domus inclusi_ was to
be 12 feet long by as many broad, and was to have three windows--one
towards the choir (of the church to which it was attached), through which
he might receive the Holy Sacrament; another on the opposite side, through
which he might receive his victuals; and a third to give light, which last
ought always to be closed with glass or horn.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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