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Medieval anchorites embraced the most extreme and punishing form of solitude known to the medieval world--enclosure in the same four walls for life--in order to forge a closer connection with God. As a way of understanding the lives, beliefs, and experiences of anchorites, Reading Medieval Anchoritism explores guides to the anchorite life that were published in England throughout the Middle Ages. Mari Hughes-Edwards surveys five centuries of the guides' negotiations of four anchoritic ideals--enclosure, solitude, chastity, and orthodoxy--as well as two vital spiritual practices, asceticism and contemplative experience. The book explodes the long-standing myth of the anchorhold as solitary death-cell, revealing it instead as the site of potential intellectual change and spiritual growth.