[161] Another example still in existence is the hermitage at Warkworth, Northumberland, partly of masonry and partly scooped out of the rock. It was apparently enlarged by its successive inhabitants, but seems from the style of the windows and carvings to belong mostly to the fourteenth century.
[162] “The Metrical Life of Saint Robert of Knaresborough,” ed. Haslewood and Douce, Roxburghe Club, 1824, p. 36. Cf. “Rotuli Chartarum in Turri Londinensi asservati,” ed. T. D. Hardy, 1837, p. 158, where King John is seen bestowing on one Robert, in 1205, “locum in quo heremitorium sancte Wereburge sedet” (the famous St. Werburga, abbess of Ely, seventh century). He does so “pro amore Dei et pro salute anime nostre.” He grants, “in puram et perpetuam elemosinam,” the “heremitorium de Godeland” to the monks of Whitby, Oct. 26, 1205, ibid, p. 159.
[163] Both sorts generally lived by themselves, but the recluse never left his cell while the hermit could roam about. “Issue Roll of Thomas de Brantingham,” ed. Devon, p. 393, 44 Ed. III; the same king gives also 20s. “in aid of her support” to “Alice de Latimer a recluse anchorite,” ibid. p. xxxvi.
[164] “Teste Rege, apud Westmonasterium, 1º die Octobris [1399].” Rymer’s “Fœdera.”
[165] See, for an example of a hermit settled at the corner of a bridge, an Act of resumption which formally excepts a grant of 14s. yearly to the “Heremyte of the Brigge of Loyne and his successours,” 4 Ed. IV, “Rolls of Parliament,” v. p. 546. Another example is to be found in J. Britton, “On Ancient Gate-houses,” “Memoirs illustrative of the History of Norfolk,” London, Archæological Institute, 1851, p. 137, where hermits are mentioned who lived on Bishop’s Bridge, Norwich, in the thirteenth century and after.
[166] See before, pp. [41] ff.
[167] See above as to the part taken by the clergy in the collection of offerings, and in the care and maintenance of bridges, chap. i.
[168] 12 Rich. II, chap. vii, “Statutes of the Realm.” A sample of a hermit’s vow, with an analysis of a fourteenth-century text describing the ceremony for the consecration of a hermit, is in E. L. Cutts, “Scenes and Characters of the Middle Ages,” 1872, pp. 98, 99. A list is given, p. 111, of the still subsisting English hermitages.
[169] “Piers Plowman,” Skeat’s edition, Text C, passus i. l. 30; passus x. l. 195.
[170] Ibid., passus x. l. 188.