Certain points about
Rolle are of special interest and distinguish him from other mystics and
seers. One is that for him the culminating mystical experience took the
form of melody, rhythm, harmony. He is the most musical of mystics, and
where others "see" or "feel" Reality, he "hears" it. Hence his
description of his soul's adventures is peculiarly beautiful, he thinks
in images and symbols of music, and in his writings we find some of the
most exquisite passages in the whole literature of mysticism, veritable
songs of spiritual joy. In the _Fire of Love_, perhaps the finest of his
more mystical works, he traces in detail his journey along the upward
path. This is very individual, and it differs in some important respects
from other similar records. He passed through the stage of "purgation,"
of struggle between the flesh and spirit, of penitence and aspiration,
through "illumination," until he reached, after nearly three years, the
third stage of contemplation of God through love.[55]
In this condition, after about a year, "the door of heaven yet biding
open," he experienced the three phases to which he gives the names of
"calor, canor, dulcor," heat, song, and sweetness.
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