Knocking in the Usual Manner: Inquiries, Interrogations, and the Desire for Advice in Anchoritic Culture

This article examines the culture of inquiry as it shaped the lives, communities, and ultimately the reputations of anchorites in the later Middle Ages. It argues that the questions and requests that were presented to anchorites existed within, and were powerfully shaped by, a culture of gossip. Indeed, gossip networks and the questions that were posed by anchorites’ visitors mutually shaped each other. They did so to such an extent that anchorites and their supporters exploited this culture of inquiry—though questions remained elusive in their meaning and intentions—as a way of continually reactivating the culture of gossip that attached to anchorites. At the same time, the regulatory injunction against excessive speech here served its function admirably, since anchorites were often imperiled by the very questions through which a reputation for holy and prophetic counsel was generated. The argument draws its evidence largely from regulatory and hagiographic witnesses.