Life
Born into a small farming family and brought up at Thornton-le-Dale near Pickering, he studied at the University of Oxford, where he was accompanied by his patron Thomas de Neville, the Archdeacon of Durham. He showed little interest in the scholastic disputations of the time, displaying a devotion to study of the Scripture; he also learnt Latin during his time there. Rolle left Oxford at age eighteen or nineteen. Fearing he had ceded too greatly to temptation in his youth, and that he would transgress further, he adopted the life of a hermit shortly afterwards. He had his cell first at Pickering, and then in the North Yorkshire parish of Ainderby. Rolle, guided by his conscience, was often misunderstood and repelled by others. He briefly housed with a squire, John Dalton, whose wife disapproved of him, and he found no more favour with the bishop or monks, having to frequently change abode. The laity were cautious of him, and he found it difficult to approach women, who thought ill of his intentions.
| "I felt within me a merry and unknown heat...I was expert it was not from a creature but from my Maker, as it grew hotter and more glad." |
| —Rolle on his first mystical experience. |
Two years and eight months after becoming a hermit, Rolle had his first mystical experience. Around a year later, he felt similarly after listening to a choir, and he began to take less interest in all things temporal. Rolle then made his way to Sorbonne, which specialised at the time in Bibilical exegesis and pastoral theology, feeling that his attendance at the university was not inconsistent with his lifestyle. In fact, Rolle's time in Paris proved to be of great value in his life, much of which was taken up by contemplation, as he acquired an adeptness in theology. On the contemplative life, he wrote, "There are many active men better than some contemplatives", though, "the best contemplatives are better than the best actives". Rolle may have been ordained as a priest in his time at Sorbonne. In the years after, he spent much of his time on the moors of Richmondshire, exposing himself to a harsh climate, and in the process strengthening his communion with God and his discipline in his conduct. Although he was still met with hostility from the clergy, and he conceded that he was awkward with men, he became acquainted with some parish priests, and William Stokes, a Doctor of Divinity, during this time.
Rolle was wary of his relationships with women as well, although he found greater success with them, especially in the last nine years of his life, when he inhabited a cell near the Cisterian nunnery of Hampole. Because of his time spent here, where he was director of the inmates, he is sometimes known as Richard Rolle of Hampole, or de Hampole. He wrote The Form of Living and his English Psalter for a nun there, Margaret Kirkby (who later took up a similar life to Rolle, as an anchoress), and Ego Dormio for a nun at Yedingham. Rolle died in 1349, the first year that the Black Death came to England, and it may have been the cause of his death.
He wrote in both Latin and English (his first work, Melum, was of alliterative Latin); many works are attributed to him, but it has been questioned how many are genuinely from his hand. In particular, The Pricke of Conscience, once attributed to him, is now thought to have been written by an anonymous author in the 14th century. Some of his writings were printed in the sixteenth century, by Wynkyn de Worde.
In one of his best-known works, The Fire of Love or Incendium Amoris Rolle provides an account of his mystical experiences, which he describes as being of three kinds: a physical warmth in his body, a sense of wonderful sweetness, and a heavenly music that accompanied him as he chanted the Psalms. The book was widely read in the Middle Ages, and described the four purgative stages that one had to go through to become closer to God: described as open door, heat, song, and sweetness. Because of the wide proliferation of his works, there was a movement to have him canonized. As many of his works were concerned with personal devotion, some, with considerable alterations, were used by the Lollards.
The level of financial support that Rolle enjoyed was a new development in the treatment of religious recluses.
Read more about this topic: Richard Rolle
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