Anchorites, wise folk, and magical practitioners in twelfth-century England

Licence, Tom (2021) Anchorites, wise folk, and magical practitioners in twelfth-century England. History, 106 (373). pp. 709-726. ISSN 0018-2648

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Abstract

This article considers the role of anchorites in twelfth-century England in relation to the less familiar categories of wise folk and magical practitioners. It examines previously unpublished evidence for the presence of healers, wise women and other magical practitioners in Anglo-Norman England and asks whether anchorites took on some of their roles. It also discusses whether their clients were primarily interested in the anchorites’ spiritual credentials, or in their ability to fulfil the roles elsewhere taken on by magical practitioners. Though our surviving pen-portraits of anchorites tend to represent them as saints in an authoritative mould, this article seeks to blur boundaries between anchorites as holy men and women and the kinds of practitioners who did not win the approval of clerical authorities.

Item Type:	Article
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Arts and Humanities > School of History
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Research Groups > Medieval History
Depositing User:	LivePure Connector
Date Deposited:	05 Jan 2022 12:31
Last Modified:	31 Oct 2024 00:48
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/82893
DOI:	10.1111/1468-229X.13227

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