ANCRENE RIWLE (« Rule of the Anchorites »). - Ascetic treatise by an unknown author, dedicated to recluses and hermits, composed before 1225. A distinguished literary and historical document, also on account of the prose in which it is written (a Wessex dialect), it has been attributed by a recent hypothesis (J. R. C. Hall, Selections from Early Middle English, II, Cambridge, p. 375) to St. Gilbert of Sempringham (between 1135 and 1154).
After an introduction, in eight parts (divine service, custody of the heart and the senses, monastic life and its related virtues, external and internal temptations, confession, penance, love, domestic rules) the precepts and counsels of a life devoted to prayer and work are set out in an organic synthesis. The hermits dealt with here did not live in complete solitude, since the A. R. is addressed to three women living a common life. The text, in a simple and bare form, original and lively, abounds in picturesque touches of realistic description. The spiritual doctrine is marked by good-natured wisdom and moderation: for example, the hermit is advised against the use of the hairshirt and excessive abstinence, and is permitted to keep a cat beside her for company.
Bibliography3 worksSeveral manuscripts of it exist in the British Museum. Fundamental edition (with critical introduction and version in modern English): The A
BIBL.: Several manuscripts of it exist in the British Museum. Fundamental edition (with critical introduction and version in modern English): The Ancrene Riwle, ed. and trans. by James Morton, London 1853. Recent edition in The Medieval Library, London 1924, with a preface by Card. A. Gasquet; G. Meunier, s. v. in DSp, fasc. 1, col. 548 ff.; G. L. Brezzo, La regola delle Anacorete, in Pagine Cristiane aut. e moderne, no. 24 (1936), with an erudite historical-doctrinal proem (pp. 1-27).
Guidi, Augusto. “Ancrene Riwle (« Regola delle Anacorete »).” In Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. I, col. 1177. Città del Vaticano: Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1948. https://azioneromana.com/article/ancrene-riwle-regola-delle-anacorete.
MLA
Guidi, Augusto. “Ancrene Riwle (« Regola delle Anacorete »).” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. I, Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1948, col. 1177. Azione Romana, https://azioneromana.com/article/ancrene-riwle-regola-delle-anacorete.
BibTeX
@incollection{ec1_ancrene_riwle_regola_delle_ana,
author = {Guidi, Augusto},
title = {Ancrene Riwle (« Regola delle Anacorete »)},
booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica},
volume = {I},
pages = {1177},
note = {Cited by column},
publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico},
address = {Città del Vaticano},
year = {1948},
url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/ancrene-riwle-regola-delle-anacorete}
}
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