(Chapter 12)

Emendatio Vitae was probably Rolle's last work in Latin and written for a member of the secular clergy. Over one hundred manuscripts survive either in Latin or in seven distinct English versions (none by Rolle). The Emendations twelve chapters chart a path from conversion to contemplation. The eleventh chapter – drawing on Richard of St Victor's De Quattuor Gradibus Violentae Caritatis – describes the three grades of love: insuperable, inseparable, singular (but Rolle passes over Richard's fourth grade of amor insatiabilis, where the soul realizes that its desire is unattainable in this life). Rolle's twelfth chapter defines approaches to contemplation, in which his notion of spiritual song has its place. Inclusive, systematic, useful: the Emendatio accessibly distils mystical teaching within a style and presentation that bespeaks, without expanding upon, the author's experience.

Of contemplacioun

Contemplacioun or contemplatyf lyf hath thre partes. The firste is redinge, the secunde preyinge, and the thridde is meditacioun. In redinge speketh God to us; in preyere we speken with God. In meditacioun aungeles comen doun to us and techen us that we erren not; in preyere thei styen up and offren oure preyeres unto God, enjoyinge of oure profite, the whiche ben messangeres now bitwixe God and us. Preyere is a meeke affeccioun of the soule directe into God, the whiche – whan it cometh to him – it hath delite and it cometh not from him but constreyned. Meditacioun of God is to be taken after redinge and preyere, where the halsinge of Rachel is.