ANCRENE RIWLE

A medieval code of rules for the life of anchoresses or recluses. The Ancrene Riwle, or Ancrene Wisse, was written specifically for three sisters (not nuns) who had retired to a life of prayer and penance. Seven copies of the text are extant in English. The best-known is the British Museum Cotton Manuscript Nero A.xiv, which furnished the basis of James Morton's original edition for the Camden Society in 1853. Two French versions, several Latin versions, and some adaptations of material taken from the Rule show the popularity of this much-read classic of Middle English prose. The Early English Text Society is well on its way toward offering reliable texts of all manuscripts of the Rule, along with critical apparatus. Once these editions are available, a full investigation of the relationships between the manuscripts can be begun, and a solution of problems connected with the Rule may be possible. Date, authorship, place of composition, and names of the women for whom the Rule was written are unknown. The general approach to these questions, particularly that of date, is being made through a study of the theological background of the work. Scholars agree generally that the original text (probably not extant) existed in English not long after 1200.

The Ancrene Riwle contains interesting details of domestic arrangements and the daily horarium of medieval recluses. Commonly an anchoress lived alone, but the three sisters addressed here lived within a single enclosure in separate cells. Each had a window looking into the sanctuary of the adjoining church so that she could see the Blessed Sacrament exposed over the altar. The parlor window, through which she spoke to visitors, was to be heavily draped. The author warns his spiritual charges against possible abuses from outside their cloister. Daily life consisted of prayer (chiefly oral), spiritual reading, and plain sewing. The two meals permitted were to be eaten in silence. Each anchoress had a "maiden" to look after her material needs. She was responsible for instructing her servant in religion and general behavior.

The Ancrene Riwle is divided into eight parts: Divine Service, Keeping the Heart, Moral Lessons and Examples, Temptation, Confession, Penance, Love, and Domestic Matters. The first and last parts form the "outer rule"; and the other parts, the "inner rule."

The style and tone show that the author had rather wide scholarly interests. He refers to the Bible, Lives of the Fathers, Cassian, Gregory the Great, works of Anselm and Bernard; he quotes Ovid and Seneca; he appears to know Geoffrey of Monmouth's History. He seems, moreover, from the practical, moral aim of the work, to have been kindly and devout. His prose is easy, lively, and concrete, with imagery suggestive of the world of feudalism. He stresses the inner life that the outer rule is to foster. The Ancrene Riwle throws light on the religious aspirations of late 12th-century England, and reflects indirectly much secular life of the time.

The Ancrene Riwle is one of six prose treatises in the Katherine Group, so-called from a work in the group, Lifode of Seint Katheryn. The Katherine Group is evidence that after the Conquest a "school" of Middle English prose writing continued the Old English homiletic prose tradition. The works in the Katherine Group are in the same dialect and are somewhat uniform in style. The Ancrene Riwle is the outstanding member of the group.

Bibliography: Ancrene Wisse: Parts 6 and 7, ed. g. shepherd (London 1959–60). j. e. wells, ed., Manual of the Writings in Middle English, and supplements 1–8 (New Haven 1916–41). f. w. bateson, ed., Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature, 5 v. (Cambridge, Eng. 1940–57). Modern Humanities Research Association, Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature (Cambridge, Eng. 1921—), see v. for 1938.

[m. m. barry]