Lives of the Anchoresses: The Rise of the Urban Recluse in Medieval Europe (review)

Anneke B. Mulder-Bakker dissects the phenomenon of the medieval anchoretic life. The author profiles five recluses whose lives serve as a touchstone for religious trends in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries: the mother of Guibert of Nogent (d. after 1104); Yvette of Huy (1158–1228); Juliana of Cornillon (1192–1258); Eve of St. Martin in Liège (d. after 1264); and Lame Margaret of Magdeburg (ca. 1210–1250). Mulder-Bakker argues that recluses/anchoresses were individuals not educated in Latinate, clerical culture but people who "could articulate the feelings and needs of the community of believers and enter into discussion with Church leaders on an equal footing" (p. 16). She defines these individuals as "common theologians." The geographical region of her research constitutes mainly Brabant and Liège. The chronological boundaries consider the historical backdrop of the Gregorian Reform, the struggle between lay and clerical religious authority, and the place of women in the Church. Mulder-Bakker concentrates on female recluses because out of the two hundred recluses who lived within the geographical and chronological boundaries of her study only five were men.

The unnamed mother of Guibert is the subject of Chapter Two. Entering a cell at the male abbey church of St. Germer-de-Fly, Guibert's mother was perceived to be a prophetess. Mulder-Bakker explains that this was not uncommon as anchoresses were associated with sapientia, a way of knowing God through revelation. This contrasted with scientia which was transmitted knowledge of God through the media of formal education and Latin literacy associated with clerical culture. The recluse's sapientia was "a gift" for the community allowing anchoresses to play a pastoral role comparable to the parish priest. This point is developed in Chapter Three with the vita of Yvette of Huy. This vita was written by Hugh of Floreffe, a Premonstratensian canon and Yvette's personal friend. After marriage, motherhood, and widowhood by the age of 18, she became a recluse. Yvette's example demonstrates anchoresses' quasi-priestly function in their ability to inspire people through moral and charismatic authority.

Chapter Four examines Juliana of Cornillon and her involvement in the establishment of the feast of Corpus Christi. The themes in this chapter consider the tensions and similarities between "common" and "learned" theology showing Juliana to combine both approaches in her promotion of Corpus Christi. Mulder-Bakker holds that Juliana was the "intellectual author" of the Corpus Christi office; but the evidence provided indicates that she was an editor of the liturgical text, not its author (p. 91).

Chapter Five analyzes Eve of St. Martin, a companion of Juliana. Her life demonstrates how recluses, due to their ascetic lifestyles, were exempt from the social limitations put on other women while remaining an integral part of the community's religious identity. This is further highlighted in Chapter Six, which treats Lame Margaret of Madgeburg. Handicapped from birth, Margaret took her decision at twelve to enter the anchorhold, where she acted as spiritual guide to the Madgeburg community. With the evidence of fifteen extant manuscripts of her vita and the fifteenth-century reformers Aligt Bake's claim that Margaret's life inspired her, Mulder-Bakker demonstrates that anchoresses had a great impact on individuals beyond their immediate chronological and geographical communities.

Weaving together strands of anchoretic practices that emerge from the lives of the five women, Mulder-Bakker articulates in Chapter Seven themes common to these anchoresses and perhaps to others whose experiences are not recorded. These themes include: the interdependence between anchoretic women and male ecclesiastical authority; the devotional influence of anchoresses on the laity; and the importance of the anchoress as "living saint" in late medieval society. In the "Epilogue" she returns to the point raised in Chapter Three—that anchoresses played a priest-like role in their towns and cities. In examining the life...