Ankara : The Department of History, Bilkent University, 2007.Thesis (Master's) -- Bilkent University, 2007.Includes bibliographical references leaves 128-138Anchoritic treatises, or rules for anchorites, have been accepted as one of the
main sources for the analysis of the solitary life in the anchorhold since the
beginning of modern anchoritic studies. However, it is certain that scholarship on the
solitary life has been more inclined to focus on the anchoresses’ cells as social
phenomena rather than as a personal experience and therefore focused on the place of
hermits and anchoresses in the Catholic Church, their functions in medieval society
and the systems founded to support them financially. This thesis analyses anchoritic
guides written in England from eleventh to fourteenth centuries to observe the
changes in the attitudes of the authors towards their primary audiences and by this
way concerns itself with the life in the anchorhold and the possible changes in the
meaning and basic elements of the solitary religious pursuit for both the authors and
the primary audience of the anchoritic rules. By a close analysis of the images,
motifs and some highly important themes of the texts such as enclosure and virginity
the thesis aims to find out the shifts in the discourses of the authors and comments on
the possible reasons for these changes. The thesis in the end reaches the conclusion
that the regulations for the life of an anchoress were shaped around the general
tendencies and contemplative trends of the period, as well as the personal
inclinations of the advisors. Therefore it rejects the idea that the anchoritic life was a
static, standard one, showing no sign of change and reform over the centuries.Erkoç, SedaM.S
