[CHAPTER IV]
HERMITS AND ANCHORITES
There is one branch of ecclesiastical history which has been curiously neglected, that, namely, concerned with the anchorite, ankret, anchoress, or ankress. That is to say, it is generally concluded that a hermit and an anchorite are the same persons. One might as well think that a monk is the same as a friar.
There was nothing to prevent a hermit setting up his cell wherever he pleased; yet there were certain places where a hermitage was a recognised institution, and the hermit was, so to speak, presented as to a living. Thus, there was a hermitage outside the City wall at Aldgate, one at Bishopsgate, one at Cripplegate, one at Charing Cross, one at St. Laurence Jewry; a hermitage was often found at a bridge, and by the roadside, in a forest, or in any place not too secluded, because a hermit lived upon alms, and had therefore of necessity to reside near the haunts of men. The character and reputation of the hermitage depended entirely upon the character of the occupant, and therefore varied from time to time. William of Langland speaks of “fals hermits,”—“But these hermits who build their dwelling by the highway, of yore were workmen, weavers and tailors, and carters’ knaves, and graceless clerks. They kept full hungry house and had much want, long labour and little earning, and at last espied that liars in friars’ clothing had fat cheeks. Therefore these unlearned knaves left their labour and clothed themselves in cloaks like clerks, or as if they were of some Order, or else prophets.”
Hermitages were not occupied continuously; if one hermit died, his cell was vacated, and not necessarily filled up. A few of these hermitages remain, as, for example, that of Warkworth, which is a very striking monument. On the other hand, an anchorite was a recluse; he was shut up and separated from the world; he never came out of his cell. Before a man or woman was allowed to become an anchorite he had to obtain a license from the Bishop, who also required of the Rector or Vicar of his church, of the Abbot or Prior of the House, that the anchorite should be properly supplied with food. The hermit was free to roam—solivagus; the anchorite was shut up—conclusus. The difference between the hermit and the anchorite is drawn clearly by R. Sharpe (Calendar of Wills, ii. 33).
“An Anchorite’s cell—or ankerhold, as it was sometimes called—was usually in or near a church, although not always: it was so situate that the recluse might see the altar and hear the service, and its door was locked and often walled up, one or more iron-barred windows being left open by which he could receive the Communion and the necessaries of life. He was often a priest and much resorted to as a confessor, as, indeed, were also some hermits. The latter, however, commonly followed a trade or occupation.
Although anchorites were not hermits, ankerholds were sometimes called hermitages, and the distinction between the two classes of religious is not always preserved in the Husting wills. Thus we have in one will a reference made to the tenement of the hermit of Cripplegate—a hermitage founded by Mary de St. Pol, Countess of Pembroke, for the soul of her unfortunate husband Aylmer de Valence—and in another a bequest made to the anchorite at Cripplegate, as well as to the anchorite at Holborn. That both classes were held in high esteem by the citizens of London is shown by the numerous bequests made to every anchorite and every hermit in or near London. Besides the anchorites or hermits at Cripplegate and Holborn, we have special mention made of the hermit in the meadows beyond the Thames, the hermit near Charing Cross, and the hermit near Bishopsgate: the anchorite living in the Church of St. Peter, Cornhill; Friar John Ingram, the anchorite near the hospital of St. Katharine in the neighbourhood of the Tower, previously described in the will of Geoffrey Patrik (1371) as the hermit living at a place called ‘le Swannesnest’ near the Tower; and, in the same will, Friar Richard de Swepeston, the hermit near the Church of St. Laurence in the Jewry, and Geoffrey his companion. The mention of a companion for a hermit seems incongruous, but it appears from a rule for solitaries drawn up by Grimlaic, an anchorite priest in the ninth century, or perhaps somewhat later, that several were permitted to dwell together in one enclosure and have communication by a window, provided the cell of every one was separate.”
Of ankresses there were many. Such was Juliana of Norwich, whose book of Ejaculations has been preserved: such was the anchoress of Bishopsgate, who received 40s. a year from the Sheriffs of London. Such was Christina of St. Alban’s: such were the anchoresses of St. Giles, St. Benedict, and St. Mary de Manny.
The frequent mention in the Calendar of Wills of the anchorites in and around London shows that there were always many of these inclusi, and that they were held in great respect; but since men, evidently not wealthy, left money to all, it is certain that there were not anchorites and ankresses attached to every church. So few of the old London churches are left that it is impossible to look to them for much information on this point. It is said that traces of the anchorite’s cell may still be seen in the Inner Cloisters of Westminster Abbey, but for my own part I have failed to distinguish them. They should be part of the ruins of St. Catherine’s Chapel. If, however, we turn to the village churches about the country, we find indications which point to the anchorite’s cell as well as to other things.
Thus, it is not uncommon to find in the chancel of many churches built before the fifteenth century low side windows, sometimes with shutters, sometimes without. These are commonly called lepers’ windows, and one is told how the lepers, forbidden to enter the church, were allowed to assist in the mass by looking through the window at the altar. The Cambridge Camden Society called them lychnoscopes.