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Rolle's ‘Form of Living’ and ‘The Pore Caitif’
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 July 2016
Extract
The compiler of the fourteenth-century Middle English manual of popular religious instruction known as The Pore Caitif was somewhat erratic in his acknowledgment of the sources from which he drew the various sections of his fourteen tracts. Although he excerpted passages from Rolle's Encomium nominis Jesu, Emendatio vitae, and Form of Living, he never mentioned Rolle by name or recorded the titles of the books. In one tract, only, ‘Of Vertuous Patience,’ did he state: ‘Al ϸis sentence seiϸ a seynt in his boke’ (fol. 85r). I have dealt elsewhere with the four Pore Caitif tracts which draw on Rolle's Emendatio vitae. In this paper, I will examine the nature and extent of the indebtedness to The Form of Living.
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The author wishes to express gratitude to the National Endownent for the Humanities for a summer stipend which enabled her to research the materials necessary for the writing of this article.Google Scholar
1 For a basic description of this work, see my article ‘The Pore Caitif: An Introductory Study,’ Traditio 10 (1954) 529–548. An edition of the text is available in my diss. (Fordham, 1954), ‘The Pore Caitif, Edited from MS. Harley 2336 with Introduction and Notes.’CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2 Quotations are from MS British Museum, Harley 2336.Google Scholar
3 See my article ‘Ϸe Seynt and His Boke: Rolle's Emendatio Vitae and The Pore Caitif,’ to be published shortly in 14th-Century English Mystics Newsletter. Google Scholar
4 Horstman, C. in Yorkshire Writers (London 1895) I 3, and Hope Emily Allen in Writings Ascribed to Richard Rolle, Hermit of Hampole, and Materials for His Biography (New York 1927) 406 and English Writings of Richard Rolle, Hermit of Hampole (Oxford 1931) 161, 163, both note the indebtedness of The Pore Caitif to Rolle's Form of Living. Neither, however, explores the nature and extent of that indebtedness.Google Scholar
5 Quotations are from the edition of The Form of Living in Allen's English Writings of Richard Rolle 119.Google Scholar
6 Cf. my article Ϸe Seynt and His Boke,’ cited in n. 3 above.Google Scholar
7 Cf. the opinions of Hope Emily Allen in Writings Ascribed 201–202, and Clare Kirchberger in Richard of Saint Victor, Selected Writings on Contemplation, tr. Kirchberger, Clare (London 1957) 220–221. The definitive Latin text of De IV gradibus violentae caritatis is the edition of Dumeige, Gervais in Ives ‘Epitre a Severin sur la charite,’ de Saint Victor, Richard, ‘Les Qautre Degres de la Violente Charite’ (Textes Philosophiques du Moyen Age 3; Paris 1955) 89–200.Google Scholar
8 The Incendium Amoris of Richard Rolle of Hampole, ed. Deanesly, Margaret (Manchester 1915) 179–191.Google Scholar
9 ‘De emendatione peccatoris,’ ed. de La Bigne, Marguerin in Maxima bibliotheca veterum patrum et antiquorum scriptorum ecclesiasticorum (Lyons 1677–1707) XXVI 615–616. This work is cited under its usual title ‘Emendatio vitae.’Google Scholar
10 Allen, , English Writings 69–70.Google Scholar
11 Ibid. 105–106.Google Scholar
12 Ibid. 80. Hope Emily Allen also cites mention of the three attributes in Rolle's Commentary on the Canticles, Melos amoris, Super Apocalypsim, Super mulierem fortem, the Psalters and Contra amatores mundi; canor alone is in Judica me Deus; calor and dulcor are in Job. Cf. Writings Ascribed 71, 84, 117, 154, 160, 179–181, 207, 108, 140.Google Scholar
13 The Cloud of Unknowing and the Book of Privy Counselling, ed. Hodgson, Phyllis (EETS os 218; ch. 45).Google Scholar
14 Ibid. ch. 48.Google Scholar
15 Hilton, Walter, The Scale of Perfection , ed. Underhill, Evelyn (London 1923) 114.Google Scholar
16 Ibid. 59.Google Scholar
17 This work is available in Allen, Writings Ascribed 529–537. Cf. especially 531ff.Google Scholar
18 Wilmart, André, ‘Le “Jubilus” sur le nom de Jésus dit de Saint Bernard,’ Ephemerides liturgicae 57 (1943) 274.Google Scholar
19 David Knowles, Dom, The English Mystical Tradition (New York 1961) 54–55.Google Scholar
20 Pepler, Conrad, The English Religious Heritage (St. Louis 1958) 162.Google Scholar
21 Ibid. 161–162.Google Scholar
22 I have used MS Harvard Eng. 701 for the text of the poem. It is one of four Pore Caitif MSS which retain the original northern end-rhymes, and among the 25 Pore Caitif MSS which I have examined it is unique for its correct reading of ‘wakingis.’Google Scholar
23 Allen, , English Writings 160.Google Scholar
24 Allen, , Writings Ascribed 226, 276, 289–290.Google Scholar
25 This work by Hugh of Strasbourg was long attributed to Albertus Magnus, St. and may be found among the latter's works: Opera omnia XXXIV (Paris 1895) 3–261. The passage in question is on p. 172.Google Scholar
26 English Writings 161.Google Scholar
27 Opera omnia I (Paris 1836) 1125–1126. The chapter glosses Deut. 6.5, Matt. 22.37, and Rom. 8.28. The similarity is very general.Google Scholar
28 Of the possible sources cited, only the ‘Sermo XIX super Cantica Canticorum’ of St. Bernard in Opera omnia I (Rome 1957) 111, and his ‘De diligendo Deo,’ PL 182.991, seem likely. St. Augustine speaks of air and light only, in The City of God 11.10, Basic Writings of St. Augustine, ed. Oates, Whitney J. (New York 1948) II 153. Richard of Saint Victor has only the rays of the sun in ‘Benjamin Minor,’ PL 196.180.Google Scholar
29 Acts 5.41, 2 Tim. 3.12, Acts 14.22, Phil. 1.29, Ps. 31.13–14.Google Scholar
30 The English Text of the Ancrene Riwle, ed. Day, Mabel, EETS os 225.80.Google Scholar
31 Ibid. 81.Google Scholar
32 ‘Homiliae in Ezechielem prophetam,’ Hom. 2, PL 76.954.Google Scholar
33 ‘Expositio in Evangelium S. Lucae,’ PL 92.470–471. Bede, however, seems to owe the ideas to Gregory. Cf. Hom. 2, PL 76.953.Google Scholar
34 Cf. Cuthbert Butler, Dom, Western Mysticism (London 1922) 35ff. for characteristics of Augustinian contemplation.Google Scholar
35 Yorkshire Writers II xxxv.Google Scholar
36 Incendium amoris 206.Google Scholar
37 Emendatio vitae 618.Google Scholar