Ebook: The secret within: hermits, recluses, and spiritual outsiders in medieval England

In considering the origins and evolution of the English mystical tradition, Riehle begins in the twelfth century with the revival of eremitical mysticism and the early growth of the Cistercian Order in the British Isles. He then focuses in depth on the great mystics of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries - Richard Rolle (the first great English mystic), the author to 'The Cloud of Unknowing', Walter Hilton, Margery Kempe, and Julian of Norwich.