Rolle, Richard

Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature by John W. Cousin

(1290?-1349)


Hermit and poet, b. at Thornton, Yorkshire, was at Oxf. Impressed by the uncertainty and the snares of life he decided to become a hermit, a resolution which he carried out with somewhat romantic circumstances. He wrote various religious treatises in Latin and English, turned the Psalms into English verse, and composed a poem--The Pricke of Conscience--in 7 books, in which is shown the attitude of protest which was rising against certain Papal pretensions and doctrines.

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