ABSTRACT
The two chapters that follow examine the effects of deification on each of these writers’ literary voices. Chapter 5 discusses whether Rolle lays claim to a form of sacred eloquence in his later Latin work Contra Amatores Mundi. This chapter draws particularly on Mary Carruthers’ work on the ductus of a text. It aims to show that in Contra Amatores Mundi Rolle puts the stilling of the mind to literary effect, doing so in the context of Desert spirituality, which also influenced his thought in the texts discussed in Chapter 3. It is the contention of this chapter that in Contra Amatores Mundi Rolle writes the deifying process of stilling the mind into the fabric of the text, crafting within it a sweet ductus, drawn from his own experience of sweetness. It is argued that Rolle invites the readers to still their own minds as they focus their sensual attention and desires on God in ways that mimic his own experience.
