THE SECOND of Rolle's vernacular treatises was a shorter work of plain instruction which is known today by the title The Commandment. Unlike its predecessor Ego Dormio, which had sought to woo the reader to become the lover of Christ through the use of affective language, The Commandment engages the lover of God in a more sober and formal discourse. The text itself follows a fairly simple narrative structure. Rolle opens the work with an exposition of Christ's utterance of the great commandment from Matthew 22:37 which both sets the tone of the work as didactic and informs the reader of its dominant theme – the “wylful styrrynge of oure thoght in to God” (34/1–8). Initially, moderate penitential practice is recommended and the reader is exhorted to avoid sin, embrace silence and be “ful of charite” (34/8–23). The three degrees of love are named briefly in the early part of the work but do not appear to have the same significance as they do in Rolle's other vernacular treatises (34–35/24–41). In the body of the work, the joys of the mutual love between Christ and the soul are praised but Rolle's explicit concern is with the efficacy of prayer and meditation, especially on the Passion, and the stripping away of all worldly ties (35–39/42–213).