Richard Methley, also known as Richard Firth or Richard Furth (c.1451–1527/8), was a monk of the

Carthusian The Carthusians, also known as the Order of Carthusians ( la, Ordo Cartusiensis), are a Latin enclosed religious order of the Catholic Church. The order was founded by Bruno of Cologne in 1084 and includes both monks and nuns. The order has its ...

house of

Mount Grace Priory Mount Grace Priory is a monastery in the parish of East Harlsey, North Yorkshire, England. Set in woodlands within the North York Moors National Park, it is represented today by the best preserved and most accessible ruins among the nine houses ...

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

. He is remembered for his writings - some original, and some translations. Little is known about his life. He seems to have been born near

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...

(surnames were generally taken from the village of birth, so it is likely he was born in the village of

Methley Methley is a dispersed village in the City of Leeds metropolitan borough, south east of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is located near Rothwell, Oulton, Woodlesford, Mickletown and Allerton Bywater. The Leeds City Ward is called Kippax ...

, seven miles south-west of Leeds on the road to Pontefract in Yorkshire), but proof is lacking and his dialect casts doubt on this identification. He entered Mount Grace aged about 25, seemingly spending the rest of his life at that same house, since his writings give no indication that he was ever resident in another house of the Order. He wrote primarily for his fellow Carthusians, and so his writings are in

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

except for a short

Middle English Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English p ...

letter. Methley's own surviving writings date mainly from the 1480s. They have all been printed in modern editions. Methley produced a Latin glossed translation of

The Cloud of Unknowing ''The Cloud of Unknowing'' (Middle English: ''The Cloude of Unknowyng'') is an anonymous work of Christian mysticism written in Middle English in the latter half of the 14th century. The text is a spiritual guide on contemplative prayer in the ...

in 1491 for his fellow Carthusian Thurstan Watson. He also then began a Latin glossed translation of the Middle English version of ''The Mirror of Simple Souls'', though he was unaware that the work had been written by the executed heretic

Marguerite Porete Marguerite Porete (; 13th century1 June 1310) was a French-speaking mystic and the author of '' The Mirror of Simple Souls'', a work of Christian mysticism dealing with the workings of agape (divine love). She was burnt at the stake for heresy i ...

. Edmund Colledge and James Walsh prepared an edition of these texts in the 1960s, but it was never published. He died, almost certainly at Mount Grace, at some point in the year before 3 May 1528, when his name was entered among the deaths recorded at the Carthusian general chapter.Michael Sargent, ‘Methley , Richard (1450/51–1527/8)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008.

References

Further reading