Companion to the English prose works of Richard Rolle : a selection / from the edition by Carl Horstman.

¶ Here is to say of [luffe].

Fro now forth begynnes a maner of homelenes forto grofe be-twyx god & manes saul, & also a maner of kyndlyng of luf, in so mekill þat oft-tymes he feles hym not only be viset of gode & comford in is comyng, ¶ bot oft-tymes al-so he feles hym fild with anunspekabull ioy. Þis homlenese & kyndlyng of lufe first feld Lya wen, after þat Leuy was borne, scho cryde & saide with a gret ioy: ¶ «Now sall my hosband be coupuld to me.» Þe trew spose of oure saule is gode, ¶ and þen are we trule cupuld to gode, wen we dragh nere hym be sothfast luf: & reght os after hop comes luf, so after Leuy comes Iudas, þe ferth son. Lya in is birth cride & sayd: ¶ «Nowe sall i schryf to oure lorde», & þerfor in þe stori is Iudas calde «schryft»: ¶ also man saule in þis degre of luf offers it clerle to gode and says: «now sall i scryf to oure lorde«; for befor þis felyng of luf in a mans saule all þat he dose is don more for agh þen for

luf, ¶ bot in þis state a mans saule feles gode so swet, so mercifull, so gud, so curtas, tru & kynd, so fathfull, so lufle & so homle, þat þare lefes no yng in hym, ¶ might, wytte, kunyng or will, þatyn he offers it clerle, frele, and homele to hym. ¶ Þis schryft is not onle of syne, bot of þe gudnes of gode: gret tokunyng of lufe is ¶ wen a man tels to gode þat he is gode; of þis schryft spekes Dauid in þe sautere & says: «mas it knawn to gode, for he is gude».—

¶ Nowe haf we sayde of þe faure sonse of Lya, ¶ and after þes scho laft beryng of childer till a nothere tyme. And so a mans saule wenes þat it suffice to it, wen it feles þat it lufs [þe trew godes]. & so it is to saluacion, bot not to perfeccion. ¶ For it fals to a perfite saule [both] to be enflawmede with þe fire of luf in þe affeccion, & also to be illumynde with lyght of knawyng in þe reson.