Anchoress Quotes

Question 1

Here,

Answer 1

Here, like Swallow, I was a body without a body.

Question 2

My coverlet

Answer 2

My coverlet at home was fine linen damask worked with gold and blue flowers

Question 3

I was here

Answer 3

I was here to forget my old life and I had longed for this rough lodging

Question 4

She was

Answer 4

She was so much like Emma

Question 5

If only

Answer 5

If only someone would tell me how to behave, surely my heart would follow

Question 6

For a

Answer 6

For a moment I saw Ma

Question 7

Despair

Answer 7

Despair is a sin

Question 8

I wanted

Answer 8

I wanted to shout at him [Father John]

Question 9

We were

Answer 9

We were so different. Emma was angry at God, at Pa, at Father John, even sometimes at baby Alfred

Question 10

Her stillness

Answer 10

Her stillness, her quiet acceptance of my tears, her certainty that God would help me, that was what I wanted

Question 11

You owe

Answer 11

You owe it to me to help, girl

Question 12

I hadn’t thought

Answer 12

I hadn’t thought suffering would be like this, so ordinary, so dull, so endless

Question 13

Think of it

Answer 13

Think of it as submission to me, the man you are sworn to obey.

Question 14

I knew of

Answer 14

I knew of holy women so pure they had no flow of blood at all; they left behind their bodies, becoming more like men, or angels.

Question 15

Sir Thomas

Answer 15

Sir Thomas, a man who offered me … not spiritual children like patience, love and humility, but bodies of flesh wrenched out of me, babies that would suck away my life

Question 16

All possessions

Answer 16

All possessions and debts had passed to him: houses, land, money, sheep. And me.

Question 17

At school

Answer 17

At school he had been taught to see through the Devil’s enticement, the beauty of the female form, to the true nature of woman as lustful and tempting

Question 18

Daughters

Answer 18

‘daughters of Eve’, ‘gateway of sin’, ‘foul flesh’, ‘deformed male’

Question 19

I had not

Answer 19

I had not suffered enough. I had not committed myself to death

Question 20

Women needed

Answer 20

Women needed to think of God as a husband, given their natural desires

Question 21

Union

Answer 21

Union with Christ paradoxially meant virginity

Question 22

I was alone

Answer 22

I was alone with him, as I had been then. But this time there was a stone wall between us

Question 23

Don’t think

Answer 23

Don’t think it was all your victory, all your way

Question 24

He used you

Answer 24

He used you, Sarah… like a whore

Question 25

Women are

Answer 25

Women are by nature drawn to lust

Question 26

It’s sin

Answer 26

It’s sin, not how God made us

Question 27

I was tired

Answer 27

I was tired of being told what to do

Question 28

Laws are

Answer 28

Laws are made by the rich, aren’t they, Sister? For the rich

Question 29

My sister

Answer 29

My sister had questioned everything… it was all open to question for her

Question 30

On May Day

Answer 30

On May Day I opened my curtain for it [the world] to come in

Question 31

You make me

Answer 31

‘You make me sin’ … ‘Whatever you’ve done, you’ve chosen. I can’t make you do anything.’

Question 32

My cell

Answer 32

My cell was my body, my skin began and ended with these walls

Question 33

I had tried

Answer 33

I had tried to keep Thomas away … I had let him stay, I had looked at him

Question 34

You were not

Answer 34

You were not created in the image of God as man was. It is man who is mind and soul, woman who is body.

Question 35

Tertullian

Answer 35

Tertullian … says that a virgin remains always a woman, otherwise she would be a third kind, a monstrosity

Question 36

[Augustine says]

Answer 36

[Augustine says] that even in those who are women in body, the manliness of their souls hides the sex of their flesh … A woman can almost become a man

Question 37

It’s a law

Answer 37

It’s a law made for landholders and Devil take the poor like my old parents. You see if I’m right, Ralph had said

Question 38

You know

Answer 38

You know that it’s not my place to say what he can do. He owns this village and this cell. I must be grateful to him and pray for him

Question 39

His love

Answer 39

His love was a pain deep in my belly

Question 40

Sir Thomas came

Answer 40

Sir Thomas came to inspect his property

Question 41

Even powerful

Answer 41

Even powerful, wealthy men - perhaps those men more than others - worried about what they couldn’t see or touch, especially when death began to stalk them

Question 42

The confessor

Answer 42

The confessor had failed in his duty to ensure the anchoress was sufficiently well taught so that she would be able to guide her maids in a holy way of life

Question 43

I know she

Answer 43

I know she didn’t drown herself. She were angry, Father, not shamed

Question 44

How had he

Answer 44

How had he found himself here, defending women against all he knew, against the words he had copied?