Richard Rolle was born about 1300 at Thornton-le-Dale in Yorkshire and was sent to Oxford with the help of a patron. At about eighteen he left the university and, taking two of his sister's tunics and his father's rain hood, made himself a hermit's habit. A local squire, John Dalton, took him in and gave him a cell, and he began a life of solitude, prayer and writing.
He moved from place to place in the north of England, counselling those who sought him out. In Latin he wrote The Fire of Love and other works describing the heat, sweetness and song (calor, dulcor, canor) that he knew in contemplation. In English he made a Psalter with a commentary and wrote short guides to the love of God, among them The Form of Living for the anchoress Margaret Kirkby.
Richard Rolle in the library (1 work)
- Richard Rolle: The Form of Perfect Living and Other Prose Treatises — 14th century; translation 1910
The English hermit's counsel on loving Jesus with all the heart: his short prose treatises in modern English.