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ANCREN RIWLE

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Originally appearing in Volume V01, Page 952 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ANCREN RIWLE , a See also:

Middle See also:English See also:prose See also:treatise written for a small community of three religious See also:women and their servants at Tarent Kaines (Tarrant See also:Crawford), at the junction of the See also:Stour and the Tarrant, See also:Dorset. It was generally supposed to 1 Scanty remains of the See also:ancient See also:town walls, of a gymnasium near the See also:harbour and of the See also:amphitheatre are still extant. 2 It was connected by a road with the Via See also:Flaminia at Nuceria (Norcera), a distance of 70 M.date from the first See also:quarter of the 13th See also:century, but See also:Professor E. Kolbing is inclined to See also:place the Corpus Christi MS. about the middle of the 12th century. The See also:house of Tarrant was founded by See also:Ralph de Kahaines, and greatly enriched about 1230 by See also:Richard Poor, See also:bishop successively of See also:Chichester, See also:Salisbury and See also:Durham, who was See also:born at Tarrant and died there in 1237. At the See also:time when the Ancren Riwle was addressed to them the anchoresses did not belong to any of the monastic orders, but the monastery was under the Cistercian See also:rule before 1266.3 There are extant seven English See also:MSS. of the See also:work, and one Latin, the Latin version being generally supposed to be a See also:translation. The Latin MS., See also:Regula Anachoritarum sive de vita solitaria (Magdalen See also:College, See also:Oxford, No. 67, fol. 50) has a prefatory See also:note:—Hic incipit prohemium venerabilis patris magistri Simonis de Gandavo, episcopi Sarum, in librum de vita solitaria, See also:quern scripsit sororibus suis anachoritis apud Tarente. But Bishop See also:Simon of See also:Ghent, who died in 1315, could not have written the See also:book, if it See also:dates, at latest, from the See also:early 13th century. It has been tentatively attributed to Richard Poor, who was connected with Tarrant, and was actually a benefactor of the monastery. But the See also:adoption of Prof.

Kolbing's early date would almost destroy Poor's claim. The Ancren Riwle is written in a See also:

simple, non-rhetorical See also:style. The severity of the See also:doctrine of self-renunciation is softened by the affectionate See also:tone in which it is inculcated. The book contains rules for the conduct of the anchoresses, and gives liturgical directions for divine service; but the greater See also:part of it is taken up with the purely spiritual See also:side of See also:religion. The rules for the See also:restraint of the senses, for See also:confession and See also:penance, are subordinated to the central See also:idea of the supreme importance of purity of See also:heart and the love of See also:Christ. The last See also:chapter deals with the domestic affairs and See also:administration of the monastery. Incident-ally the writer gives a picture of the See also:manners and ideas of the time, and provides an See also:account of the doctrine then generally accepted in the English See also:church. A ncren Riwle was edited for the See also:Camden Society by the Rev. See also:James See also:Morton in 1843 from the See also:Cotton MS. (See also:Nero A xiv.). A.See also:collation of this See also:text with the MS. by E. Kolbing is printed in the Jahrbuch See also:fur romanische u. engl.

See also:

Spy. and Lit. xv. 18o seq. (1876). The Ancren Riwle (ed. See also:Abbot F. A. Gasquet, 1905) is available for the See also:ordinary reader in The See also:King's See also:Classics. There are three English MSS. of Ancren Riwle in the Cottonian collection in the See also:British Museum, numbered Nero A xiv., See also:Titus D xviii., and See also:Cleopatra C vi. Nero A xiv. is written in pure See also:south-western See also:dialect. Portions of this text are printed in See also:Henry Sweet's First Middle English Primer (Oxford, 2nd ed., 1895), which contains a grammatical introduction. MS. 402 in the libraryof Corpus Christi College, See also:Cambridge, contains the earliest version of Ancren Riwle, entitled Ancren Wisse, and dating (according to E.

Kolbing in Englische Studien, 1886, vol. ix. 116) from about 1150. The See also:

language shows considerable traces of the Midland dialect. MS. 234 in See also:Caius College, Cambridge, contains a considerable portion of the Ancren Riwle, but does not follow the See also:order of the other MSS. For its exact contents see Kolbing, in Englische Studien, iii. 535 (1880). A more recently discovered version in Magdalene College, Cambridge, in 1VIS. See also:Pepys 2498, is entitled The Recluse, and is abridged and differently arranged. It is written in English of the latter See also:half of the 14th century (see A. C. Paues in Englische Studien, See also:xxx.

344-346, 1902). A Latin version (Cotton MS. See also:

Vitellius E vii.), and a See also:French copy (ibid. F vii.) were seriously damaged in the See also:fire at See also:Ashburnham House, but both MSS. have been recently restored. The Latin MS. (Codex lxvii.) at Magdalen College, Oxford, is probably a copy of another Latin text, for it contains obvious slips. See also R. Wulker, " See also:Heber See also:die Sprache der Ancren Riwle and die der Homilie: Hali Meidenhad," in Beitrdge zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache and Literatur (See also:Halle, 1874, i. 209), giving an See also:analysis of the See also:differences in dialect between the two See also:works; and See also:Edgar See also:Elliott Bramlette, " The See also:Original Language of the Ancren Riwle," in Anglia, xv. 478-498, arguing in favour of a • Latin original.

End of Article: ANCREN RIWLE

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