ROLLE, RICHARD (RICCARDO DI HAMPOLE, BRITO; RICCARDO EREMITA). — Hermit and mystic, born probably around 1290 in the county of York, died at Hampole on 29 September 1349. The few biographical details concerning R. derive almost entirely from the Office of st. Richard Hermite, compiled at the end of the fourteenth century to promote his canonization. He studied for some time at Oxford, then, dressed as a pilgrim, withdrew to a solitary life, lodging in a cell provided by the wealthy Dalton family; there he composed some of his earliest works. Toward the end of his life he was at Hampole, where he died, probably of the plague.
He is among the greatest English mystics of the fourteenth century. He wrote Latin and English, prose and verse, with equal facility and equal fervor. For him, the stages of mystical experience, the highest individual experience, are represented, in ascending order, by calor, canor, and dulcor. Among his most important Latin works is the Melum contemplativum, still partly in manuscript; others are the Incendium amoris and the Emendatio vitae. Of the English works, written during the final period of his life and addressed in part, in epistolary form, to the recluse of Hampole, Margery Kirkeby, the most perfect is The form of living or, in its Latin title, Forma vivendi (in prose interspersed with verse); also noteworthy are Ego dormio et cor meum invigilia (in English verse), the Cantus amoris, The Psalter (substantially reworked later, including by Lollards), and several other mystical lyrics. R. is also the author of delightful English apologues, presented in the form of “bestiaries.” His influence on English literature and spiritual life up to the schism was very extensive. His work possesses outstanding literary merits.