Long-Distance Love: The Ideology of Male-Female Spiritual Friendship in Goscelin of Saint Bertin's <i>Liber confortatorius</i>

Abstract

Eve of Wilton first encountered Goscelin of Saint Bertin as a child at the aristocratic nunnery at Wilton. Goscelin probably served as the abbey's chaplain, and, upon first meeting Eve, he was struck by her spiritual beauty. They shared a close friendship for approximately fifteen years (ca. 1065-ca. 1080), with Goscelin acting as Eve's tutor, before the churchman fell out of favor with the bishop of Wiltshire and was banished. Before he was able to return, Eve had left England for the church of Saint Laurent du Tertre in Angers, where she became an anchoress.1 When Goscelin discovered that his beloved had left without a proper farewell, he was deeply saddened. And so he wrote his Liber confortatorius (Book of Encouragement) for his absent friend. In it he referred to himself and to Eve as possessing a joint singular soul [unice anime], emphasizing their shared spiritual intimacy, a theme that appears throughout the text.2 Indeed, in the Liber Goscelin articulated a fervent love, friendship, and longing that few other high medieval discourses on friendship can rival. The Liber confortatorius was written in an epistolary format meant to instruct and comfort Eve as she lived in solitude, yet the work was equally important to Goscelin himself, as it helped him come to terms with his sense of loss at Eve's unannounced departure.3 He obviously missed Eve's