18 Facts About Richard Rolle

Richard Rolle is known as Richard Rolle of Hampole or de Hampole, since at the end of his life he lived near a Cistercian nunnery in Hampole, now in South Yorkshire.

At first Richard Rolle chose to live as a recluse in a forest at Thornton but he soon left, fearing his family would restrain his life of solitude.

Richard Rolle then fled, the legend claims, crying that her brother had gone insane.

Dalton himself was arrested and his lands confiscated in 1322; the lack of mention of this fact in accounts of Richard Rolle's life makes it likely that he was no longer living with Dalton by this point.

One theory is that Richard Rolle spent the early 1320s at the renowned Sorbonne, becoming well-trained in theology, and perhaps being ordained there.

Whether or not Richard Rolle studied in Paris, it is probable that most if not all of this time was spent in Richmondshire, either living with his family at Yafforth, or, given the uncertain political conditions in the region at the time, wandering from patron to patron.

Around 1348, Richard Rolle knew the Yorkshire anchoress Margaret Kirkby, who was his principal disciple and the recipient of much of his writings and would be important in establishing his later reputation.

Richard Rolle died in Michaelmas 1349 at the Cistercian nunnery at Hampole.

Richard Rolle died of the Black Death, but there is no direct evidence for this.

Richard Rolle was buried first in the nuns' cemetery at Hampole.

Richard Rolle wrote in both Latin and English, with his English works apparently all dating from after c 1340.

The precise dating of Richard Rolle's works is a matter of much modern dispute.

In one of his best-known works, Incendium Amoris, Richard 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.

Richard Rolle's works are often classified into commentaries, treatises and epistles.

Richard Rolle inspired a flourishing cult, especially in the north of England, which was still active at the time of the English Reformation.

Richard Rolle's works were widely read in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, more so even than Chaucer.

Richard Rolle was criticised by Walter Hilton and the author of The Cloud of Unknowing; a defence of Rolle's work was written by the hermit Thomas Basset in the late fourteenth century against the attack of an unnamed Carthusian.

Richard Rolle was defended by various religious figures, however, and the Incendium Amoris or Fire of Love is mentioned as one of the books Margery Kempe had a priest read aloud to her to increase her devotion.