"Sed rudibus et indoctis" : women, orthodoxy, and the Rosebery Rolle Manuscript.

Abstract

This thesis discusses one manuscript of Richard Rolle, the Hermit of Hampole. It asserts that Rolle’s Prose Psalter was compiled specifically for a woman’s private devotion and thus sheds light on both the authors and the readers of the growing devotional movement in late medieval England. Furthermore, by contextualizing Rolle’s work within this devotional movement, as well as by examining the themes and reception history of his texts, this study argues that Rolle was not a precursor to the Lollard movement. He was, instead, an orthodox product of the political and theological situation of the period. Finally, because the passage of verse at the end of the Roseberry Rolle Manuscript Psalter has never been seen before, this thesis provides a translation of the text, an analysis of the text, and ends by raising several questions that deserve further study.