With Rolle began a movement of devotional piety, which, as might be expected from its strong appeal to the emotions, was taken up first among religious women; and signs of a striving for effect in his style suggest that the hermit was not indifferent to the admiration of his followers. He brings to his teaching more heart than mind. He escapes the problems of the world, which seemed so insistent to his contemporaries, by denying the world's claims. His ideas and temperament are diametrically opposed to those of the other great figure in the religious life of fourteenth-century England—Wiclif, the schoolman, politician, reformer, controversialist. Yet they have in common a sincerity and directness of belief that brushes aside conventions, and an enthusiasm that made them leaders in an age when the Church as a whole suffered from apathy. A. LOVE IS LIFE. Cambridge University Library MS. DD. 5. 64, III (about 1400) f. 38 a. <L>uf es lyf þat lastes ay, þar it in Criste es feste, For wele ne wa it chaunge may, als wryten has men wyseste. Þe nyght it tournes intil þe day, þi trauel intyll reste; If þou wil luf þus as I say, þou may be wyth þe beste. Lufe es thoght wyth grete desyre of a fayre louyng; 5 Lufe I lyken til a fyre þat sloken may na thyng; Lufe vs clenses of oure syn; luf vs bote sall bryng; Lufe þe Keynges hert may wyn; lufe of ioy may syng. Þe settel of lufe es lyft hee, for intil heuen it ranne; Me thynk in erth it es sle, þat makes men pale and wanne; 10 Þe bede of blysse it gase ful nee, I tel þe as I kanne: Þof vs thynk þe way be dregh, luf copuls God and manne. Lufe es hatter þen þe cole; lufe may nane beswyke. Þe flawme of lufe wha myght it thole, if it war ay ilyke? Luf vs comfortes, and mase in qwart, and lyftes tyl heuenryke; 15 Luf rauysches Cryste intyl owr hert; I wate na lust it lyke. Lere to luf, if þou wyl lyfe when þou sall hethen fare; All þi thoght til Hym þou gyf þat may þe kepe fra kare: Loke þi hert fra Hym noght twyn, if þou in wandreth ware; Sa þou may Hym welde and wyn, and luf Hym euermare. 20 Iesu, þat me lyfe hase lent, intil Þi lufe me bryng! Take til Þe al myne entent, þat Þow be my ȝhernyng. Wa fra me away war went, and comne war my couaytyng, If þat my sawle had herd and hent þe sang of Þi louyng. Þi lufe es ay lastand, fra þat we may it fele; 25 Þarein make me byrnand, þat na thyng gar it kele. My thoght take into Þi hand, and stabyl it ylk a dele, Þat I be noght heldand to luf þis worldes wele. If I lufe any erthly thyng þat payes to my wyll, And settes my ioy and my lykyng when it may comm me tyll, 30 I mai drede of partyng, þat wyll be hate and yll: For al my welth es bot wepyng when pyne mi saule sal spyll.