The English prose and verse writer Richard Rolle of Hampole (ca. 1290-1349) gave the first formal expression to English mysticism and exerted a very important intellectual influence on the 14th century.

Richard Rolle of Hampole was neither a priest nor a monk but a simple layman. Born in the vicinity of Thornton-le-street, the son of William Rolle, a gentleman of Richmondshire, he was sent to Oxford by Thomas de Neville, who saw great intellectual promise in the boy. Rolle progressed well in his studies until at the age of 19 he had a deeply moving mystical experience of love and union with God. He returned home intent on serving God by contemplation as a hermit. He borrowed two gowns from his sister and a rain hood from his father to make a habit and tried to set up a hermitage in the nearby woods. He had an unsatisfactory time...