Ancrene Wisse and Vernacular Spirituality in the Middle Ages
Distributed for University of Wales Press
208 pages
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5-1/2 x 8-1/2
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© 2008
Ancrene Wisse and Vernacular Spirituality in the Middle Ages is an introduction to the Ancrene Wisse—an important thirteenth-century guide for recluses who, for religious reasons, withdrew from secularity in order to lead an ascetic and prayer-oriented life. This volume considers the broad religious context in which the Ancrene Wisse was written and broadens that context by addressing issues of readership, drawing comparisons between lay piety and sermons, and challenging some of the long-held views on Ancrene Wisse’s specifically female readership, articulating a place for the monastic classic in the developing literature of vernacular spirituality.
Denis Renevey
“ . . . an argument that takes into consideration the most up-to-date information on the text and its contexts.” –Denis Renevey, Chair of Medieval English, Université de Lausanne
Contents
Introduction
Part I The religious context
1 The Fourth Lateran Council
2 Eucharistic theology
3 The female religious movement: anchorites and beguines
4 Anchoritic spirituality
5 Lay piety
Part II Pastoralia and vernacular pastoral literature
6 Pastoralia
7 The rhetoric of preaching
8 Beguine sermons
9 Pastoral literature
Part III Ancrene Wisse: text and context
10 The rhetoric of Ancrene Wisse
i. Structure
ii. Exempla and similitudines
11 Ancrene Wisse: asceticism and contemplation
12 Reading Ancrene Wisse as vernacular spirituality
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
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