Originally published in Bradshaw's Journal (Bradshaw & Blacklock) vol.2 #7 [33] (18 Dec 1841).
Were a class of persons celebrated in ecclesiastical history, who generally passed their lives in cells, from which they never removed. Their habitations were, in many instances, entirely separated from the abodes of other men, sometimes in the depths of wildernesses, in pits or caverns; at other times, several of these individuals fixed their habitations in the vicinity of each other, when their cells were called by the collective name of laura; but they always lived personally separate. Thus the laura was distinguished from the cœnobium or convent, where the monks lived in society on a common stock; and the anchoret differed from a hermit, although his abode was frequently called a hermitage, inasmuch as the latter ranged at liberty, while the former rarely, and, in many instances never, quitted his cell, But a convent was sometimes surrounded by a laura, to which the more devout or the more idle of the monks would ultimately retire.
Paul the Hermit is said to have been the first person who devoted himself to this kind of solitude. In all ages and in all countries, retirement from the world has been considered as facilitating the attainment of a virtuous life, as adding strength to strong characters, and enabling the mind to follow out great ideas without interruption The prophets prepared themselves in solitude for their tasks; the Pythagoreans, Stoics, Cynics, and Platonists recommend the self-denial and the quiet happiness of the solitary sage. Vasari calls solitude the delight and school of great minds.
In many parts of the East, where a sombre religion throws over life a melancholy shade, it has been thought, from time immemorial, a religious act to quit for ever the busy world, and even to add bodily pain to the melancholy of solitude. This spirit, which still prevails in the East, passed over, with many other Oriental ideas, doctrines, and customs, to the early Christians, and the state of the world, in the beginning of the Christian era, was peculiarly fitted to favour its growth. The continual prevalence of bloody wars and civil commotions, at this period, must have made retirement and religious meditation agreeable to men of quiet and contemplative minds. Accordingly, we find, in the first centuries of our era, very eminent and virtuous men among the anchorets, as St. Augustin. This spirit, however, as might have been expected, soon led to fanatical excesses. All the horrid penances of the East were introduced among Christian hermits; and we find, at the close of the 4th century, Simeon Stylites passing thirty years on the top of a column, without ever descending from it, and finally dying there. In fact, the spirit of retirement raged like an epidemic among the early Christians in the East.
In Egypt and Syria, where Christianity became blended with the Grecian philosophy, and strongly tinged with the peculiar notions of the East, the anchorets were most numerous; and from those who lived in cells, in the vicinity of a church, such as Moore describes in the Epicurean, the convents of a later period sprung, which were filled with inmates anxious to escape from the tumult and bloodshed, which marked the beginning of the middle ages.
Early in the seventh century, the councils began to lay down rules for the order of anchorets. The Trullan canons say—"Those who affect to be anchorets shall first, for three years, be confined to a cell in a monastery; and if, after this, they profess that they persist, let them be examined by the bishop or abbot, let them live one year at large, and, if they still approve of their first choice, let them be confined to their cell, and not be permitted to go out of it but by the consent and after the benediction of the bishop, in case of great necessity." Frequently, at this period, the monks of various abbeys would select from among them a brother, who was thought to be most exemplary in his profession, and devote him to entire seclusion, as an honour, and to give him the greater opportunity of indulging his religious contemplations.
In Fosbrook’s Monachism, 4to, 1817, the ceremony by which the anchoret was consecrated to seclusion from the world is described at length. The cells in which the anchorets lived were, according to some rules, only twelve feet square, of stone, with three windows. The door was locked upon the anchoret, and often walled up. The cell which is said to have been occupied by St. Dunstan, at Glastonbury, was, according to Osborn, in his life of that monk, not more than five feet long, two and a half feet broad, and barely the height of a man. Here the recluse passed his time in ingenious self-torture;—in eternal silence, heavy chains, severe flagellations, singing psalms in cold water during winter nights, &c.
This species of devotion, originally introduced, as we have said, from the warm climate of the East, found many more adherents in the south of Europe than in the north. With the revival of science, and the consequent diffusion of more liberal views, the strictest kind of anchorets have almost entirely disappeared. Few men now retire to any seclusion more strict than that of a convent. Some persons, who pass a solitary life in the neighbourhood of Rome, call themselves anchorites; but in India, the practice still prevails in all its severity.