ROLLE DE HAMPOLE, RICHARD (d. 1349), English hermit and author, was born near the end of the 13th century, at Thornton (now Thornton Dale), near Pickering, Yorkshire. His father, William Rolle, was perhaps a dependant of the Neville family. Richard was sent to Oxford at the expense of Thomas de Neville, afterwards archdeacon of Durham. At Oxford he gave himself to the study of religion rather than to the subtle ties of scholastic philosophy, for which he professed a strong dis taste. At the age of 19 he returned to his father's house, and, making a rough attempt at a hermit's dress, he ran away to follow the religious vocation. At Dalton, near Rotherham, he was recognized by John de Dalton, who had been at Oxford with him. After satisfying himself of Rolle's sanity, Dalton's father provided him with food and shelter and a hermit's dress. Rolle then entered on the contemplative life, passing through the pre liminary stages of purification and illumination, which lasted for nearly three years, and then entering the stage of sight, the full revelation of the divine vision. He is very exact in his dates, and attained, he says, the highest stage of his ecstasy four years and three months after the beginning of his conversion.
Richard belonged to no order, though he seems to have de sired to form a rule of hermits, but met with much opposition. He finally contented himself with advising those who sought him out. He began also to write the songs and treatises by which he was to exert his widest influence. He settled in Richmond shire, 12 miles from the recluse Margaret Kirkby, whom he had cured of a violent seizure. To her some of his works are dedicated. Finally he removed to Hampole, near Doncaster, where he died on Sept. 29, Richard Rolle had a great influence on his own and the next generation. In his exaltation of the spiritual side of religion over its forms, his enthusiastic celebration of the love of Christ, and his assertion of the individualist principle, he represented the best side of the influences that led to the Lollard movement. He was himself a faithful son of the church, and the political activity of the Lollards was quite foreign to his teaching. The popularity
of his devotional writings is attested by the numerous existing editions and by the many close imitations of them.
A very full list of his Latin and English works is given (pp. 36-43) in Dr. Carl Horstmann's edition (1895-96) of his works in the Library of Early English Writers.
Richard Rolle's Latin treatises, De emendatione vitae and De incendio amoris, the latter one of the most interesting of his works, because it is obviously largely autobiographical, were translated 35) by Richard Misyn (ed. R. Harvey, Early English Text Soc., 1896 and by F. M. M. Comper in 1914). The De emendatione de vitae was also edited with an introduction, by D. Harford (1913). The Pricke of Conscience was edited (1863) by Richard Morris for the Philological Society. His Commentary on the Psalms was edited by the Rev. H. R. Bramley (Oxford, 1884). Ten prose treatises by Richard Rolle were edited by G. Perry for the Early English Text Society in 1866, rev. ed. 1921. Partial ed. of his Latin works are Paris (I5io), Antwerp (1533), Cologne (1535-36), Paris (1618) ; and in vol. xxvi. of the "Bibliotheca Patrum Maxima" (Lyons, 1677). The office, which forms the chief authority for Rolle's life, was printed in the York Breviary, vol. ii. (Surtees Soc., 1882), and in Canon Perry's edition referred to above. The Meditatis de passione Domini was edited in 1917, with introduction, by H. Lindkvist, and the Officium et Miracula by R. M. Woolley in 1919. See Richard Rolle's Version of the Penitential Psalms, with his Commentary (1928) ; The Mirror of Gifts: from the works of Richard Rolle (ed. H. R. Cross, 5928).