Richard Rolle of Hampole

The English prose and verse writer Richard Rolle of Hampole (ca. 1290-1349) gave the first formal expression to English mysticism and exerted a very important intellectual influence on the 14th century.

Richard Rolle of Hampole was neither a priest nor a monk but a simple layman. Born in the vicinity of Thornton-le-street, the son of William Rolle, a gentleman of Richmondshire, he was sent to Oxford by Thomas de Neville, who saw great intellectual promise in the boy. Rolle progressed well in his studies until at the age of 19 he had a deeply moving mystical experience of love and union with God. He returned home intent on serving God by contemplation as a hermit. He borrowed two gowns from his sister and a rain hood from his father to make a habit and tried to set up a hermitage in the nearby woods. He had an unsatisfactory time of it until one day he was recognized by John de Dalton, son of his former benefactor, as he donned a surplice in the Dalton chapel and, with ecclesiastical permission, preached a moving sermon. The Nevilles set him up on the estate with shelter, food, and suitable clothing.

It was not long before Rolle discovered that curious and intrusive friendship can destroy those essentials of a contemplative life, solitude and peace of mind. For a time he sought over the countryside for what he needed. At length he found a spot near the Cistercian convent of St. Mary's at Hampole. Here his freedom was unhampered, and he settled down for a course of contemplative prayer. His experiences could not be contained, and they overflowed in passionate writing. At first he wrote in Latin, the language of the learned. Little by little, as his reputation for holiness spread, he was asked for advice and guidance. Since many who appealed to him were simple people, he turned to English, the vigorous, malleable Northumbrian dialect. His manuscripts were widely distributed and highly prized, some of the more than 400 extant being passed down in wills as family heirlooms.

Rolle died in Hampole in 1349, perhaps from the plague which was ravaging the country at the time. He had built an enduring reputation for holiness which encouraged the nuns at St. Mary's to write an office in view of a probable canonization. It is from this office that we learn most of the details of his life.

Rolle's writing was a stupendous achievement. Of the English prose tracts, some running to 10,000 words, the following are outstanding: The Form of Perfect Living, Ego dormio et cor meum vigilat, A Commandment of the Love of God, and the Commentary on the Psalter. With these, his Latin works, his many shorter prose tracts, and his many versified themes, he influenced people as dissimilar as the great mystic Walter Hilton and that bumbling seeker for true sanctity Margery Kempe. His style is passionate and personal but controlled by moderation, reasonableness, and a sense of humor.

Further Reading

Two indispensable works on Rolle are George C. Heseltine, Selected Works of Richard Rolle, Hermit (1930), which contains both prose and verse, and Hope E. Allen, English Writings of Richard Rolle, Hermit of Hampole (1931), which includes good biographical notes. Much background information about mysticism as a Christian phenomenon is in Gerard Sitwell, Spiritual Writers of the Middle Ages (1961), and David Knowles, The English Mystical Tradition (1961).

Additional Sources

Hodgson, Geraldine Emma, The sanity of mysticism: a study of Richard Rolle, Norwood, Pa.: Folcroft Library Editions, 1977. □

Richard Rolle of Hampole , c.1300–c.1349, English religious writer, a Yorkshire hermit. He wrote mainly in Latin, but his English works are important for the history of the language. Some of Rolle's Latin works were translated after his death into English, thus becoming disseminated and influential as popular manuals of spiritual life. The most important of these were De emendatio vitae (tr. The Mending of Life ) and Incendium amoris (tr. into Middle English, The Fire of Love, 1896; same, with modern spelling, 1913; new tr., 1935; the 1896 and 1913 editions include The Mending of Life ). The Form of Perfect Living was composed in English. Besides some English lyrics there is a translation of the Psalms (ed. by H. R. Bramley, 1884) that circulated throughout England. Rolle is often regarded as typical of English mystics (see mysticism ); his writings are characterized by tender, burning love of God and of Jesus and Mary, with constant allusions to sweetness and music; there is much lyrical analogy with human affection. The Pricke of Conscience, a long, devout poem in Northern Middle English, was formerly ascribed to him, but some modern scholars consider his authorship doubtful.

Bibliography: See R. H. Benson, A Book of the Love of Jesus (several editions); F. M. M. Comper, The Life of Richard Rolle with His English Lyrics (1928, repr. 1969).

Rolle of Hampole, Richard (c.1300–49), English hermit and spiritual writer. He appears to have been a native of N. Yorkshire and to have studied at Oxford. At the age of 18 he became a hermit; he spent the last years of his life near the convent of Cistercian nuns at Hampole.

The canon of his writings contains: (1) biblical commentaries; (2) Latin treatises, including Incendium Amoris and Emendatio Vitae (both later translated into English);(3) English treatises, including The Form of Living, written for the recluse Margaret Kirkby; and(4) a number of English poems. His authorship of the English Meditations on the Passion is uncertain. The contemplative life, in his view, begins with the experience of ‘the opening of Heaven's door’ and is thereafter characterized by ‘heat’, ‘sweetness’, and ‘angel-song’.

Rolle, Richard, of Hampole (c.1300–49), one of the principal 14th-cent. English mystical writers, in prose and poetry. He became a hermit and lived at various places in Yorkshire, finally at Hampole near a Cistercian nunnery where he had disciples. Among these was Margaret Kirkeby who became an anchoress and to whom a number of his major English works (notably The Forme of Perfect Living) are addressed. The essential element in his mysticism is personal enthusiasm, rather than the rationalism of the more classical mystical writings. Among the large canon of his works are the Meditations on the Passion, Ego Dormio, and The Commandment of Love. (See Anglo-Latin literature.)