ABSTRACT
The medieval English mystics, like all other mystics, are faced with the problem of having to express the union with the divine in a language which proves to be inadequate because it is limited to earthly things. A further preliminary consideration in examining the metaphorical language of English mysticism is that late medieval mysticism was a movement which encompassed the whole of Europe and which was sustained by a lay public. Anyone who, like Richard Rolle, is imbued with a very intense mystical experience will wish to communicate it to others, and will therefore make every effort to find a language which is capable of transmitting this intensity as far as is possible, so that the wish for a similar experience will be awakened in the reader. Rolle’s most important Latin works must therefore be included in any examination of medieval English mysticism.
