SUS Christ, he bearded
the rough Men of Kent, and (according to Robert of Brunne) reaped, as
his immediate reward, a string of fishtails hung on his habit, though
later, the conversion of these sturdy pagans. It was doubtless, too, the
spirit which inspired the best men and women in the English Church,
before they began to confuse the spheres of Faith and Reason, and to
disregard S. Hilary's warning about the difficulty of expressing in
human language that which is truly "incomprehensible,"--incomprehensible
in the old sense, as in the Athanasian Symbol, "Immensus Pater, immensus
Filius, immensus Spiritus sanctus"; till, indeed, men forgot, for all
practical purposes that infinity transcends the grasp of finite minds
(in fact, as well as in placidly accepted and then immediately neglected
theory); and can be apprehended only, and that imperfectly, by the best
aspirations of a heart, set of fixed purpose on that high goal.

To the modern Englishman, immersed in business anxieties, imperial
interests and domestic cares, the invitation repeated so often by
Richard Rolle, to love GOD supremely, may seem incalculably unreal and
remote, even though he might hesitate to confess it baldly. But what if
the Englishman who so loved GOD, were also the greater Englishman? And
what answer does history return to that plain question?

"Richard Rolle," Professor Horstman does not hesitate to write "was one
of the most remarkable men of his time, yea, of history. It is a strange
and not very creditable fact that one of the greatest of Englishmen has
hitherto been doomed to oblivion. In other cases, the human beast first
crucifies, and then glorifies or deifies the nobler minds, who swayed by
the Spirit, do not live as others live, in quest of higher ideals by
which to benefit the race; he, one of the noblest champions of humanity,
a hero, a saint, a martyr in this cause has never had his resurrection
yet--a forgotten brave. And yet, he has rendered greater service to his
country, and to the world at large, than all the great names of his
time. He rediscovered Love, the principle of Christ. He reinstalled
feeling, the spring of life which had been obliterated in the reign of
scholasticism. He re-opened the inner eye of man, teaching contemplation
in solitude, an unworldly life in abnegation, in chastity, in
charity.... He broke the hard crust that had gathered round the heart of
Christianity, by formalism and exteriority, and restored the