Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-ndw9j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T01:16:14.877Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Relics and the Recluse’s Touch in Goscelin’s Miracles of St. Edmund

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 January 2022

Get access

Summary

OFTEN RANKING LAST in the order of the bodily senses, touch was frequently associated with baseness and carnality; it therefore needed careful guardianship. A notable example of the anxiety surrounding this sense comes from the thirteenth-century guide for anchoresses, Ancrene Wisse (Guide for Anchoresses). In a section of the text concerning touch or feeling (felunge), the author juxtaposes the fleshly suffering of the Lord incarnate with the daily sacrifices required of the anchoresses, in order to reinforce the high standards they must meet: “God's hands were nailed to the cross; by those nails I entreat you, anchoresses […] keep your hands inside your windows!” (Godes honden weren ineilet o rode; þurh þe ilke neiles Ich halsi ow, ancres […] haldeþ ower honden inwið ower þurles!) He is disgusted by the thought of even writing about the “fondling or any kind of touching between a man and an anchoress” (honlunge oðer ei felunge bitweone mon ant ancre) as if the very portrayal of such an act could inspire sensual transgression. Yet, later in the text, he encourages his female readers to “flee” (flih) in meditation or “creep” (creop) in supplication into the open wound in Christ's hand, “dug into by the blunt nails” on the cross (idoluen wið þe dulle neiles). By imaginatively enclosing herself within the saviour's wound, the reader of Ancrene Wisse is urged to create an additional barrier between the outside world and her inner purity. Ironically, the anchoress could evoke the visceral image of Christ's wounded flesh to escape the carnal. The example suggests that touch, per se, was not always associated with moral corruption: if the heart was pure, the hands could also be clean.

Ancrene Wisse's discussion of the five outer senses—how they should be guarded and directed towards a spiritually edifying purpose—has prompted some critical reflection on anchoritic touch. While Alexandra Barratt somewhat reductively viewed the text's evocation of Christ's hand wound as an “excuse for a bizarre and macabre conclusion in which anchoresses are warned to keep their hands to themselves,” later work by Catherine Innes-Parker, Elizabeth Robertson, and Nicholas Hoffman has explored the nuanced portrayal of touch as a gateway for both sin and salvation.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Amsterdam University Press
Print publication year: 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×