Uncovering Difference: Encoded Homoerotic Anxiety within the Christian Eremitic Tradition in Medieval England

Abstract

Within the branch of medieval monastic literature for both men and women written for hermits and anchorites, there is a consistent undercurrent of concern regarding deviant sexuality, particularly same -sex desire but also varied problems such as masturbation and nocturnal emissions. The concerns regarding same-sex desire take a number of forms, from the overt to the covert, but become clearest in three areas: the dangers of enclosure, of overindulgence, and of idleness. These themes appear in texts composed for both sexes. For instance, yElred of Rievaulx's ( 1 109-67) Rule for a Recluse, 2l text supposedly written for his sister, an anchoress, specifically warned against progressive lesbian activities (simple teaching between women transformed into kisses and desire ) , while Richard Rolle's ( 1 300-1 349 ) Form of Living, written for the anchoress Margaret Kirkby, approached bodily desires in a more restrained and general manner, warning more generally against fleshly temptation. Similarly, the anonymous Rule of Saint Columba (supposedly formulated in the sixth century) for men hinted at same -sex possibilities, whereas the fifteenth-century Rule of Saint Celestine, attributed to Pope Celestine V, specifically warned against homosexual desire caused by looking lustfully at a servant. Though the degrees of directness and the method of delivery varied in each, the shadow of homoerotic desire loomed in the background. Besides communal monastic living (called cenobitic), the Middle Ages offered other options for living a consecrated religious life withdrawn from the world, including the life of an anchorite (remaining in one place, called anchoritic) and the life of a hermit (mostly wandering from a central location, called eremitic), though both overlapped each other in numerous ways. Nevertheless, according to late medieval understanding, if not by strict definition, anchorites and hermits were two separate vocations.1 A hermit usually