L’ermite est celui qui se retire du monde pour rencontrer Dieu. Le phénomène accompagne l’Eglise tout au long de son histoire. En Champagne et en Lorraine, l’anachorétisme apparaît particulièrement dynamique à trois époques : fin Ve siècle-fin VIIe siècle, fin Xe-XIIe siècle et fin XVIe-fin XVIIe siècle. Cette dernière ère constitue l’âge d’or du mouvement.Les raisons du renouveau de l’érémitisme dans la seconde moitié du XVIe siècle sont multiples. Toutefois, la production littéraire du temps fait l’apologie de la solitude. Le succès de courants spirituels (dévotio moderna et spiritualité espagnole) favorables à la solitude est réel. Les facteurs conjoncturels favorisent le phénomène. Les guerres de Religion, la Ligue conduisent au désir de rompre avec un monde de brutalité. Intervient également l’état du clergé régulier. Dirigé vers la pastorale ou pas encore réformé il ne satisfait pas ceux recherchant la solitude, d’autant que les règles monastiques constituent pour certains un cadre par trop rigide. Enfin, par leur aura, quelques ermites suscitent des vocations. Au XVIIe et au début du XVIIIe siècle, la littérature et les arts diffusent une image positive de l’ermite. Mais il s’agit d’un ermite ancien ou lointain. L’ermite contemporain subit de critiques, la première d’entre elle étant une indépendance d’état et d’esprit malvenue dans une société d’ordre. En conséquence, l’encadrement des solitaires dans les premières décennies du XVIIe siècle prend la forme extrêmement originale de congrégations diocésaines d’ermites à Langres (1623) et Toul (1655 et 1676).Les 410 ermitages répertoriés en Lorraine est en Champagne à l’aube du XVIIIe siècle montrent le succès de l’érémitisme. Mais le résultat n’est pas homogène dans l’espace. L’érémitisme est surtout présent et actif dans les diocèses de Toul, de Metz et de Langres. Les diocèses de Verdun, Reims et surtout Châlons et Troyes s’avèrent nettement moins touchés. Là influent les particularismes locaux : l’importance du protestantisme et du jansénisme dans ces diocèses crée une concurrence spirituelle défavorable à l’érémitisme et la personnalité de l’évêque, lorsqu’il n’est pas favorable aux ermites, tel Le Tellier à Reims prend tout son poids. L’étude des ermitages dans la géographie du sacré ébranle le mythe de l’ermitage loin de tout. L’ermite, issu le plus souvent des catégories sociales moyennes ou inférieures, a un itinéraire de vie parfois complexe (veuvage, pauvreté). Sa spiritualité, souvent commune à celle du peuple chrétien, s’avère parfois exceptionnelle et il est alors vu comme un saint.La décennie 1670 marque nettement le début d’une ère défavorable aux ermites. L’archevêque de Reims puis les évêques de Metz et de Verdun interdisent toute vie érémitique dans leurs diocèses. Les Lumières moquent les ermites dans leurs forêts. Pourtant, leur qualité est établie. L’érémitisme décline au XVIIIe siècle et disparaît quasiment durant la Révolution. Les ermites sont expulsés et les ermitages saisis puis vendus. Quelques ermites sont encore avérés au XIXe siècle. Souvent l’ermitage est détruit après la mort du dernier ermite et ne subsiste que la chapelle. L’érémitisme disparait physiquement pendant que la littérature et l’art perpétuent un ermite imaginaire. / Hermit leaves the world for meeting God. This fact that accompanied the Church all the long of her history. In Champagne and Lorraine, eremitical life appears especially dynamic at three times : end of 5th century to end of 7th century, end of 10th to 12th century and end of 16th to end of 17th century. This last era is the golden age of the movement. Reasons of revival of eremitical life in the second half of 16th century are manies. Books praise of solitude. The success of spiritual currents (dévotio moderna and spanish spirituality) favorable to solitude is real. Climate factors favour the movement. Wars of Religion, the League lead to the desire to leave a world of violence. The state of regular clergy plays a part too. Send to the pastoral or not yet reformed, it is not satisfactory for peoples who search solitude, all the more that monastic rules are for some peoples a too rigid framework. Finally, some hermits have an aura and arouse vacations.In the 17th and in the beginning of the 18th century, literatur and arts spread a positiv picture of hermit. But it’s mean an old or faraway hermit. The contemporary hermit is criticized. The first is an independent spirit out of place in an order society. So, supervision of hermits in the first decades of the 17th century is made by diocesan congregations at Langres (1623) and Toul (1655 and 1676).The 410 hermitages listed in Lorraine and Champagne at the beginning of the 18th century show the success of eremitical life. But the result is not homogenous in the space. eremitical life is principally present ant active in dioceses of Toul, Metz and Langres. Dioceses of Verdun, Reims and above Châlons and Troyes are clearly less concerned. Here play regional idiosyncrasies : importance of protestantism and jansenism in these dioceses create a spiritual competition unfavorable to eremitical life and the personality of the bishop, when he’s in disfavor about hermits, as Le Tellier at Reims, take a big importance.The study of hermitages in sacred geography shake the myth of hermitage faraway of all. The hermit, often born in lower or middle social classes, has a career sometime complex (widowerhood, poverty). His spirituality is often the same of Christian people but sometime exceptional and he is seeing as a saint.The 1670 decade is the beginning of a time disfavor to hermits. The bishops of Reims then Metz and Verdun forget hermits in their dioceses. The Age of Enlightenment makes fun of hermits in their woods. Nevertheless their quality is proved. Eremitical life declines at the 18th century and miss practically behind the French Revolution. Hermits are expelled and hermitages sold. Some hermits exist at the XIXth century. Often, the hermitage is broken after the death of the last hermit. Only the chapel remains. Eremitical life miss physically but literature and art perpetuate an imaginary hermit.

The hagioscope—a small tunnel or opening usually set at eye-level in a church wall—is a complex and multifaceted device that appears in Europe during the late medieval period. Despite an increased interest in the  history of the senses, the hagioscope has been overlooked until now. Drawing from Hans Georg Gadamer’s ideas  about hermeneutics, Jacques Le Goff’s work on Purgatory, and the medieval intellectual Peter of Limoges’ thoughts on vision, this study aims to shed light on why the hagioscope appeared when it did and how it may  have been used.   This case study of the hagioscope concerns the known hagioscopes with connected cells on the island of Gotland.  It is introduced with two themes that combined, create a conceptual understanding of the hagioscope: the first is the device as a physical boundary or spatial division in a church room resulting from changes in theology and liturgy and the second is the device in the context of a medieval discourse on visuality, derived from the widespread thirteenth century treatise, De oculi morali. With this understanding in mind, the last chapter presents and discusses previous theories on the Gotland hagioscopes. In contrast with previous research, this thesis proves that the cells of Gotland are clearly of two different kinds: earlier cells are small, lack windows and have trefoil-shaped hagioscopes and a deep niche that significantly distances the observer from the nave. Later cells are bigger, equipped with a single window, have a niche spatially closer to the nave, and have differently shaped hagioscopes.

Abstract, Ancrene Wisse, "Guide for Anchoresses" A Czech Translation (2015) Klára Petříková Ancrene Wisse (Guide for Anchoresses) is a remarkable work of the Middle English literature dating back to the first half of the 13th century. Its author (presumably a Dominican) conceived it as "spiritual life guidelines" for three sisters of a noble origin who decided to renounce the world. Besides its didactic purpose, its character is meditative and contemplative. Riveting in its style, its rich metaphors and heightened sensibility link it with the later tradition of the English mystical writers (Julian of Norwich), The work abounds in quotations, paraphrases of the continental monastic authors (St. Augustine, Bernard of Clairvaux). Surviving in seventeen manuscripts, it had been quoted till the Renaissance and its importance is further confirmed by a contemporaneous translation into Latin and French. Present translation aims to introduce this work to the Czech readers and to put it in its historical, social and literary context.