The Fire of Love

The Fire of Love Author(s): Rolle, Richard (1290-1349) Misyn, Richard (Translator) Publisher: Methuen & Co. Ltd., London Description: Heralded as one of the great English mystics of the Middle Ages, Richard Rolle©s religious adventures have been vener- ated since the 14th century. In the Fire of Love, Rolle describes his divine encounters by dividing the nature of the experience into three unique stages. Rolle describes the first stage as the sensation of spiritual fire, a glowing presence accompanied by a feeling of physical warmth in his chest. Rolle says that the second stage is marked by an overwhelm- ing sense of peace and joy, a taste of sweetness in his soul. Finally, Rolle explains how in the third stage the glorious song of angels resounds, signifying his union with God©s divine love. Rolle©s artistic re-telling of his encounters enlightens us to the powerful religious experiences of Christian mystics during the medieval period. Emmalon Davis CCEL Staff Writer Subjects: Christian Denominations Roman Catholic Church Practical religion. Christian life i Contents THE FIRE OF LOVE 1 INTRODUCTION 2 Abbreviations 12 Preface Section 13 EDITOR'S PREFACE 13 METHOD AND AIM OF THIS MODERNIZATION 15 SOURCES 17 TREATMENT OF WORDS 20 BIOGRAPHICAL 23 (i) RICHARD ROLLE 24 RICHARD MISYN 25 THE LEGENDA 27 Lection I. 28 LECTION II. 29 LECTION III. 30 LECTION IV. 31 LECTION V. 32 LECTION VI. 33 LECTION VII. 34 LECTION VIII. 35 LECTION IX. 38 Prayers 40 HERE BEGIN THE MIRACLES OF THE BLESSED HERMIT RICHARD. 41 LECTION I 42 LECTION II 43 LECTION IV 44 ii ALL THE MIRACLES OF RICHARD: 45 THE FIRE OF LOVE OR MELODY OF LOVE, AS TRANSLATED BY RICHARD 47 MISYN IN 1435 A.D. FROM THE 'INCENDIUM AMORIS' BY RICHARD ROLLE OF HAMPOLE: AND NOW DONE INTO MODERN ENGLISH PROLOGUE OF RICHARD MISYN 48 PROLOGUE OF RICHARD ROLLE 49 THE FIRE OF LOVE 51 BOOK I 52 CHAPTER I 53 CHAPTER II 55 CHAPTER III 57 CHAPTER IV 59 CHAPTER V 61 CHAPTER VI 63 CHAPTER VII 65 CHAPTER VIII 67 CHAPTER IX 69 CHAPTER X 72 CHAPTER XI 74 CHAPTER XII 77 CHAPTER XIII 79 CHAPTER XIV 81 CHAPTER XV 85 CHAPTER XVI 88 CHAPTER XVII 90 CHAPTER XVIII 93 CHAPTER XIX 95 CHAPTER XX 97 CHAPTER XXI 99 CHAPTER XXII 101 CHAPTER XXIII 103 CHAPTER XXIV 105 iii CHAPTER XXV 107 CHAPTER XXVI 109 CHAPTER XXVII 112 CHAPTER XXVIII 114 CHAPTER XXIX 117 CHAPTER XXX 120 BOOK II 122 CHAPTER I 123 CHAPTER II 125 CHAPTER III 127 CHAPTER IV 129 CHAPTER V 132 CHAPTER VI 135 CHAPTER VII 139 CHAPTER VIII 142 CHAPTER IX 145 CHAPTER X 150 CHAPTER XI 153 CHAPTER XII 157 THE MENDING OF LIFE 160 CHAPTER I 161 CHAPTER II 164 CHAPTER III 166 CHAPTER IV 168 CHAPTER V 172 CHAPTER VI 173 CHAPTER VII 175 CHAPTER VIII 176 CHAPTER IX 178 CHAPTER X 179 CHAPTER XI 180 CHAPTER XII 184 iv Notes 188 Prologue of Richard Rolle. 189 THE FIRE OF LOVE—BOOK I 190 BOOK II 197 BIBLIOGRAPHY 199 Glossary 202 v This PDF file is from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library, www.ccel.org. The mission of the CCEL is to make classic Christian books available to the world. • This book is available in PDF, HTML, ePub, Kindle, and other formats. See http://www.ccel.org/ccel/rolle/fire.html. • Discuss this book online at http://www.ccel.org/node/2895. The CCEL makes CDs of classic Christian literature available around the world through the Web and through CDs. We have distributed thousands of such CDs free in developing countries. If you are in a developing country and would like to receive a free CD, please send a request by email to [email protected]. The Christian Classics Ethereal Library is a self supporting non-profit organization at Calvin College. If you wish to give of your time or money to support the CCEL, please visit http://www.ccel.org/give. This PDF file is copyrighted by the Christian Classics Ethereal Library. It may be freely copied for non-commercial purposes as long as it is not modified. All other rights are re- served. Written permission is required for commercial use. vi THE FIRE OF LOVE THE FIRE OF LOVE THE FIRE OF LOVE OR MELODY OF LOVE AND THE MENDING OF LIFE OR THE RULE OF LIVING BY: RICHARD ROLLE Translated by Richard Misyn from the “Incendium Amoris” and the “De Emendatione Vitae” of Richard Rolle, hermit of Hampole METHUEN & CO. LTD. 36 ESSEX STREET W.C. LONDON Second Edition First Published . April 2, 1914 Second Edition . 1920 Editorial notes: this edition is not identical to the print source. Most of the footnotes have not been reproduced, and in a few cases words have been modernized by substituting the footnote contents for the archaic word that was the target of the footnote. The table of Legenda has been simplified. 1 INTRODUCTION INTRODUCTION INTRODUCTION THE MYSTICISM OF RICHARD ROLLE BY EVELYN UNDERHILL The four great English mystics of the fourteenth century—Richard Rolle, Walter Hilton, Julian of Norwich and the anonymous author of “The Cloud of Unknowing”—though in doctrine as in time they are closely related to one another, yet exhibit in their surviving works strongly marked and deeply interesting diversities of temperament.1 Rolle, the ro- mantic and impassioned hermit; his great successor, that nameless contemplative, acute psychologist, and humorous critic of manners, who wrote “The Cloud of Unknowing” and its companion works; Hilton, the gentle and spiritual Canon of Throgmorton; and Julian, the exquisitely human yet profoundly meditative anchoress, whose “Revelations of Divine Love” are perhaps the finest flower of English religious literature—these form a singularly picturesque group in the history of European mysticism. Richard Rolle of Hampole, the first of them in time, and often called with justice “The father of English Mysticism,” is in some aspects the most interesting and individual of the four. Possessed of great literary power, and the author of numerous poems and prose treatises, his strong influence may be felt in all the mystical and ascetic writers who succeeded him; and some knowledge of his works is essential to a proper understanding of the currents of religious thought in this country during the two centuries which preceded the Reformation. Sometimes known as the “English Bonaventura,” he might have been named with far greater exactitude the “English Francis”: for his life and temperament—though we dare not claim for him the unmatched gaiety, sweetness, and spiritual beauty of his Italian prede- cessor—yet present many parallels with those of the “little poor man” of Assisi. Both Francesco Bernadone and Richard Rolle were born romantics. Each represents the revolt of the unsatisfied heart and intuitive mind of the natural mystic from the comfortable, the prudent, and the commonplace: its tendency to seek in the spiritual world the ultimate beauty and the ultimate love. Both saw in poverty, simplicity, self-stripping, the only real freedom; in “carnal use and wont” the only real servitude. Moreover, both were natural artists, who found in music and poetry the fittest means of expression for their impassioned and all-dominating love of God. Francis held that the servants of the Lord were nothing else than His minstrels. He taught his friars to imitate the humility and gladness of that holy little bird the lark; and when sweet melody of spirit boiled up within him, would sing troubadour-like in French to the Lord Jesus Christ. For Rolle, too, the glad and eager life of 1 Richard Rolle was probably born about 1290 and died in 1349: “The Cloud of Unknowing” was written in the second half of the fourteenth century: Walter Hilton died about 1396: Julian of Norwich was born in 1343, and was still living in 1413. 2 INTRODUCTION birds was a school of Christian virtue. At the beginning of his conversion, he took as his model the nightingale, which to song and melody all night is given, that she may please him to whom she is joined. For him the life of contemplation was essentially a musical state, and song, rightly understood, embraced every aspect of the soul’s communion with Reality. Sudden outbursts of lyrical speech and direct appeals to musical imagery abound in his writings, as in those of no other mystic; and perhaps constitute their outstanding literary characteristic. Further, both these impassioned minnesingers of the Holy Ghost made the transition from the comfortable life of normal men to the ardours and deprivations of the mystic way at the same age, and with the same startling and dramatic thoroughness. They share the same horror of property and possessions, “the I, the me, the mine.” In each, personal religion finds its focus in an intense and beautiful devotion to the Name of Jesus. Francis was “drunken with the love and compassion of Christ.” “The mind of Jesu” was to Rolle “as melody of music at a feast.” For each, love, joy, and humility govern the attitude of the self to God. Each, too, adopted substantially the same career: that of a roving lay-missionary, going, as Rolle tells us in “The Fire of Love,” from place to place, dependent upon charity for food and lodging, and trying in the teeth of all obstacles to win other men to a clearer view of Divine Reality a life surrendered to the will of God. Each knew the support of a woman’s friendship and sympathy. What St. Clare was to St. Francis, that Margaret Kirkby the recluse of Anderby was to Rolle.

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