ancrene riwle is a manual of instruction for

Later versions include those adapted for audiences including male and female monastic houses and devout lay people. By the time of this revision, there was a group of twenty or more anchoresses spread over the west of England, and the scribe added the line: You are the anchoresses of England, so many together, twenty now or more. James Priory in Wigmore, which is about forty kilometres north-west of Worcester. The Corpus edition is a copy written by a scribe from north-west Herefordshire which was in Anglian territory. Our translation is from the original Nero edition collated with Editions T and C. There seventeen manuscripts, nine versions containing all or part of the text in its original English, four versions in Anglo-Norman French, and four Latin translations. Dobson speculated that the author might have been Brian of Lingen, based on an anagram, who is thought to have been an Augustinian canon of Wigmore Abbey, who might have been the brother of the original three readers. The author was possibly a Dominican friar the order was founded in and reached this area around considering the practices put forward in the document, although E. It cannot come from the Eastern Midlands because of the distinctive way it spells OE y and eo. We know this as the language does not show late West Saxon features or verb endings of more northerly dialects. It was written in Middle English for the spiritual instruction of three young women, sisters, well-born but with restricted educational opportunities compared to men, and it was composed in a region which valued English literary culture. Ancrene Riwle is a sophisticated work of great charm and accomplished style, widely considered to be the greatest Early Middle English prose work. Both the psychological and physical elements of devotion and conduct are discussed, reflecting the changes that took place in religious doctrine in the 12th century: The rules of formal prayer were subordinated to the private meditations of the individual.

In eight sections, different aspects of the anchoresses' life are dealt with in an accessible way. The author, a chaplain, may according to some theories have been an Augustinian priest of Wigmore Abbey in north-west Herefordshire. It was written in the early 13th century c. Ancrene Riwle also known as Ancrene Wisse is a 'manual for anchoresses', explaining the different aspects of religious rule and devotional conduct.

Ancrene riwle is a manual of instruction for