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

Contemplacion biforen Terce.

BI-ffore terce, þou schalt þenken of þe Passion and of þe Comynge of þe holigost. Of þe passion: hou Ihesus was such tyme dispoylet al naked and bounden to a piler in Pilatus hous, and beoten him þat from his hed to his feet was not laft on hol stude. Þenk also hou Pilat sende him to Heroudes, and he forleet him and cloþed him in whit, in signe þat he heold him a fool, and sende him aȝeyn to Pilat. And Pilat wolde haue lete him gon, but furst he wolde

chastisen him in þe Manere þat þei duden þeues þat scholden be leten gon: and his knihtes token him, and gedereden to-gedere þe peple for to be-holden him, and duden on him a Mantel of red, & ȝ[e]uen him a staf in stude of Ceptre, and a Coroune of þornes on his hed, and kneleden biforen him and gretten him. Bote for al þis, wolde not þe Iewes leten him beo quyt, but Pilat, for to payen hem, dilyuerede hem [a þeef] and tok hem Ihesus to crucifyen wiþouten gult. / Þou schalt also þenken þat such tyme of þe day sende vre lord þe holygost to his disciples in liknesse of ffuir [& tonges], þat fulde hem of wordes and langages, and loue. And þat was þe rihte ordinaunce of God; ffor whi? in two Maners deceyuede þe wikkede gost ffurst Mon in Paradys, wiþ tonge, & wiþ coldnesse of his venym, and þerfore com þe holigost In tonge aȝeyn þe entisement of þe deuel, In fuir for to destruyȝen þe coldnesse of his venyn.