Hermits and Recluses in English Society, 950–1200
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 23769207 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Tom Licence (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2011 |
| Publication date | 2011-01-06 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | BOOK |
| Venue | Hermits and recluses in English society, 950-1200 (SOURCE_BOOK) |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199592364.001.0001 |
| OpenAlex | W1570595515 |
| ISBN | 9780199592364 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 11 |
In the central Middle Ages, English society lavished unprecedented attention on a category of would-be outcasts who repudiated its ambitions and spurned its aspirations. Hermits and recluses (collectively 'anchorites') had their own, very different, vision of how life should be lived, and yet nobles retained them on their estates, parishioners did their bit to support their local recluses, and every tier of society from the peasantry up to royalty journeyed to rural hermitages for prayer, advice, and spiritual instruction. Anchorites were everywhere, dotted across the landscape, striving to restore humanity's broken image, in their own lives and in their clients. The respect that came of their endeavour grew from a heightened sense of the conflict between society's worldly concerns and its spiritual ideals, in the minds of their admirers. This book sets out to discover why anchorites rose to prominence, in the context of European monasticism and trends in spirituality. In the past, historians linked their rise to many different things: to the impact of the Norman Conquest; a crisis of identity in the monasteries; to the discovery of the individual; to a reaction to the profit economy; and to a new need for 'holy men' (or holy women) to minister to a changing society. Investigating the avenues by which anchorites gained their reputation, and pinpointing their function in relation to society, this new inquiry puts these hypotheses to the test, in a study of English society in the central Middle Ages.
Aesthetics · Ancient history · Archaeology · Art · CONQUEST · Context (archaeology) · Humanity · Political science · Prayer · Relation (database) · Sociology · History · Law · Medieval Literature and History · Philosophy · Religious studies
Social Plurality and Monastic Diversity in Late Antique Hispania (Sixth to Eighth Century)
The Cerne Giant in Its Early Medieval Context
Hermit Libraries
Teaching the Teachers
The Early Texts of the Cult of Saint Guthlac
Gregory the Great as Intermediary Figure between East and West
Each way means loneliness—and communion’
Perfection and Pragmatism
Rereading The Wife’s Lament with Dido of Carthage
Strange in His Ways, Strange in His Words”
Charisma of Ascetic Saints in the Hagiography of the 12th Century
| Unique citing works | 11 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,85 |
| Citation span | 2013 - 2024 (12) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 8 |