e end of that
time, through prayer, contemplation and self-denial, he had attained the
three stages of mystical life which he describes as _calor_, _dulcor_,
_canor_; (heat, sweetness, melody.) The next period of his life was less
easy. Having left the protection of the Daltons, and being without those
means of subsistence which are within the reach of priest or monk, this
hermit depended for his daily bread on other men's kindness. Not that he
was a useless person: apart from the utility of a life of Prayer, he
could point to counsel and exhortation given; to the existence of
converts consequent upon his ministrations. To add to his difficulties,
he preached a doctrine of high pure selflessness with which, the average
man, in all times, seems to have no abundant sympathy: and to crown all
he was endowed by nature with a sensitive temper. His remarkable gifts
forced him into public notice; his cast of thought and his temperament
were not calculated to win him ease or popularity. Professor Horstman is
peculiarly severe to those among his enemies and detractors "who called
themselves followers and disciples of Christ." The insertion here of
this painful passage would introduce a jarring note; moreover, the raked
embers of past controversy seldom tend to the spiritual improvement of
the present. An interesting judgment by Professor Horstman on Rolle's
place in mysticism is too long for quotation; but the following sentence
may be taken as the pith of it:--"His position as a mystic was mainly
the result of the development of scholasticism. The exuberant luxuriant
growth of the brain in the system of Scotus called forth the reaction
of the heart, and this reaction is embodied in Richard Rolle, who as
exclusively represents the side of feeling as Scotus that of reason and
logical consequence; either lacking the corrective of the other
element."

It is consoling to know that Rolle's last years were passed in peace, in
a cell, near a monastery of Cistercian nuns at Hampole, where the nuns
supported him, while he acted as their spiritual adviser.

In the book mentioned above, Fr. Hugh Benson has translated some of
Richard Rolle's Poems, and certain devotional Meditations. In this
Volume, four of his Prose Treatises have been selected from the rest of
his works, in the belief that they may supplement those parts of Rolle's
writings with which, those who are interested in these phases of
thought, are already familiar.

The firs