Ancrene Wisse

Ancrene Wisse (also known as the Ancrene Riwle or Guide for Anchoresses) is an anonymous monastic rule (or manual) for female anchorites ("anchoresses") written in the early 13th century.

The work consists of eight parts. Parts 1 and 8 deal with what is called the "Outer Rule" (relating to the anchoresses' exterior life), while Parts 2–7 deal with the "Inner Rule" (relating to the anchoresses' interior life). The didactic and devotional material is supplemented by illustrations and anecdotes, many drawn from everyday life.

The adoption of an anchorite life was widespread all over medieval Europe, and was especially popular in England. By the early thirteenth century, the lives of anchorites or anchoresses was considered distinct from that of hermits. The hermit vocation permitted a change of location, whereas the anchorites were bound to one place of enclosure, generally a cell connected to a church.

Ancrene Wisse was originally composed for three sisters who chose to enter the contemplative life. In the early twentieth century, it was thought that this might be Kilburn Priory near the medieval City of London, and attempts were made to date the work to the early twelfth century and to identify the author as a Godwyn, who led the house until 1130. More recent works have criticised this view, most notably because the dialect of English in which the work is written clearly originates from somewhere in the English West Midlands, not far from the Welsh border.

An important step forward was taken by Geoffrey Shepherd in the production of his edition of parts six and seven of the work, in which he showed that the author's reading was extensive. Shepherd linked the author's interests with those of a generation of late twelfth-century English and French scholars at the University of Paris, including Peter the Cantor and Stephen Langton. Shepherd suggested that the author was a scholarly man, though writing in English in the provinces, who was kept up to date with what was said and being written in the centres of learning of his day.

EJ Dobson produced the most influential modern reassessment of the origins of the work, however. Dobson argues that the anchoresses were enclosed near Limebrook in Herefordshire, and that the author was an Augustinian canon at nearby Wigmore Abbey in Herefordshire named Brian of Lingen. Bella Millett has subsequently argued that the author was in fact a Dominican rather than an Augustinian, though this remains controversial.

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