It would be hard for our modern day world to imagine withdrawing from the comfortable surroundings we enjoy every day to dedicate our lives to trying to become closer to God, but during the middle ages this path in life was not so uncommon. Religious groups themselves were copious, and more organized groups, such as different sects of nuns and monks, outnumbered the informal groups of hermits and anchorites. The later group chose a more rigorous path to find God, embracing the severity of stark and uncomfortable surroundings to carry on their spiritual battles. While both men and women participated in the anchorite devotion, women far outnumbered the men in any given century (Hasenfratz). .
Deliberately seeking seclusion, anchoresses felt that their figurative death to the outside world would allow them to seek God in an undisturbed environment, and carry on a spiritual war within their confines. The "Ancrene Riwle" was written as a handbook for anchoresses and was originally intended for three sisters who chose at a young age to become anchoresses. Written sometime in the thirteenth century, probably between 1225 and 1240 (Hasenfratz), the author of the "Ancrene Riwle" is unknown, but historians have made cases for Simon of Ghent, Richard Poor, Gilbert of Sempringham, Robert Bacon, the hermit Godwine, and Brian of Lingen, though "none of these attributions has proved ultimately very convincing" (Hasenfratz). Whoever the author, he writes a series of rules for the anchoresses to follow in their daily lives and quest for a pure soul. .
The rules in the "Ancrene Riwle" were divided into eight parts, but truly could be categorized into two parts consisting of the rules of the inner self and the rules of the outer self. The first seven rules deal with the inner self, and the eighth and last deal with the outer self, or "how one ought to conduct oneself outwardly: how to eat and drink, dress and sing, sleep and keep vigil" (Ackerman).