Toshihiro Karino

In the religious movement in the Middle Ages hermits played a very important role. They lived and practiced austerities outside the monastery, because they found the monks who resided there too irresponsible.<br /> The hermits followed the apostolic life as set down in the Acts of Apostles. The majority of them were not solitaries, but formed communities with companions or with a group of disciples. Some of them not only lived in seclusion but also preached in the streets. Many ordinary people who lived with ceaseless fear of impoverishment revered the hermit living in self-imposed poverty.<br /> Many of the hermits fought the corrupt practice of simony, and some urged the people to action to remove simoniacal clergymen from office. Furthermore, the people were stimulated by the hermits into supporting the religious movement.<br /> The hermits who were active outside the Church and monasteries considerably broadened the religious movement in the Middle Ages, a movement in which, a hundred years or so later, Mechthild of Magdeburg would play a key role.