Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index


  • Record Number: 3326
  • Author(s)/Creator(s): Watson , Nicholas.
  • Contributor(s):
  • Title: Ancrene Wisse, Religious Reform and the Late Middle Ages [The author examines later Middle English texts that borrowed heavily from the "Ancrene Wisse." For the most part their authors were interested in adapting the anchoritic life for devout lay men and women. In some cases the texts have a pronounced puritan streak. The "Ancrene Wisse's" theme of living a life of perfection appealed to many reformist authors in fourteenth century England. Title note supplied by Feminae.].
  • Source: A Companion to "Ancrene Wisse."  Edited by Yoko Wada.  D. S. Brewer, 2003.  Pages 197 - 226.
  • Description:
  • Article Type: Essay
  • Subject (See Also): Adaptations Ancrene Wisse, Middle English Devotional Work Devotional Literature Ecclesiastical Reform Lay Piety Theology Vernacular Language
  • Award Note:
  • Geographic Area: British Isles
  • Century: 14- 15
  • Primary Evidence:
  • Illustrations:
  • Table:
  • Abstract:
  • Related Resources: Nicholas Watson's essay "Ancrene Wisse, Religious Reform and the Late Middle Ages," focuses on the text's importance to vernacular writers and readers in the period c. 1370-1450, when most of the surviving Middle English religious prose was written (197).
  • Author's Affiliation: Harvard University
  • Conference Info: - , -
  • Year of Publication: 2003.
  • Language: English
  • ISSN/ISBN: 0859917622