ABSTRACT
Richard Rolle insists that he can only find the rest which is absolutely vital for any experience of God if he is in a sitting position: ‘For sittand am I in maste rest, and my hert maste upwarde.’ Whilst in English mysticism the image of man leaning on God is quite common, the converse is only found in Rolle, who thus again demonstrates his originality and his great freedom in the use of mystical figurative language. The idea of mystical sleep, which is akin to the motif of rest, is also erotically coloured in the author of the Talkyng of þe Loue of God, for the soul uses the language of a worldly lover when speaking to Christ: ‘A midde þi loue I. wol me don. bi twene to þin armes, and þexe wol I. slepen and waken.’ The joining of man with God is experienced as a spiritual death and rebirth.
