The Mending of Life
Richard Rolle's Emendatio Vitae, written during the final decade of his life as England's most prominent hermit, represents his most systematic attempt to chart the path of spiritual transformation. Composed between 1340 and 1349 for fellow contemplatives and devout laypeople seeking deeper communion with God, this Latin treatise emerged from Rolle's decades of solitary prayer and mystical experience in the Yorkshire countryside.
The work maps spiritual progress through twelve chapters that move from initial conversion to advanced mystical union. Rolle begins with the fundamental requirement of genuine repentance and proceeds through stages of moral purification, contemplative prayer, and the cultivation of divine love. He emphasizes three mystical phenomena that marked his own spiritual journey: calor (supernatural warmth), dulcor (divine sweetness), and canor (celestial song). Unlike purely academic treatments of mysticism, Rolle grounds his teaching in practical instruction for prayer, particularly the contemplation of the holy name of Jesus. He argues that authentic spiritual amendment requires both rigorous self-discipline and passive receptivity to God's transforming grace, warning against the twin dangers of presumptuous activism and spiritual sloth.
Emendatio Vitae became one of the most widely copied mystical texts of late medieval England, influencing generations of contemplatives including the anonymous authors of The Cloud of Unknowing and the Scale of Perfection. Its synthesis of affective mysticism with practical guidance established a distinctly English approach to contemplative spirituality that emphasized warmth and feeling alongside theological precision. Modern readers seeking systematic instruction in contemplative prayer will find Rolle's attention to both the psychological dimensions of spiritual growth and the primacy of divine love particularly valuable, though those uncomfortable with medieval ascetical practices or supernatural phenomena may find his approach foreign.