among the Papists, a person shut up in a small cell of an hermitage, or monastery, and cut off, not only from all conversation with the world, but even with the house. This is a kind of voluntary imprisonment, from a motive either of devotion or penance.

The word is also applied to incontinent wives, whom their husbands procure to be thus kept in perpetual imprisonment in some religious house.

Recluses were anciently very numerous. They took an oath never to lift out of their retreat: and having entered it, the bishop set his seal upon the door; and the recluse was to have every thing necessary for the support of life, conveyed to him through a window. If he was a priest, he was allowed a small oratory, with a window, which looked into the church, thro' which he might make his offerings at the mass, hear the ringing, and answer those who spoke to him; but this window had curtains before it, so that he could not be seen. He was allowed a little garden, adjoining to his cell, in which he might plant a few herbs, and breathe a little fresh air. If he had disciples, their cells cells were contiguous to his, with only a window of communication, through which they conveyed necessaries to him, and received his instructions. If a recluse fell sick, his door might be opened for persons to come in and assist him, but he himself was not to stir out.