(Comp.the fifteenth and sixteenth articles in the sentence a<;aiiist Martin of Mainz, one of Nicholas's followers: "15. Quod perfectus homo non debet proinfeini liberatioiie ac coelestis regni collocatione dcura orare, nee ilii pro aliqno quod deus est uou servire, sed indiffereiis ejus benejilaci- tum espectare. 16. Quod in evaugeliis et in oratioue do-
NICHOLAS
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miuica iion debet stare sic: 'Et ne iios iudncas in temp- tatioiiem,' qiiia negatlo uou ex Cliristi doctriiiii, sed alia quacuuque uegligeutia.")
" When self-renunciation is complete, the soul of man having become entirely resigned to the divine will, be- comes," Nicholas taught, " so entirely assimilated to the divine nature that it has continual and near fellowship with God. Thus the man who has so far triumphed over his natural inclination to self-assertion as to be- come wholly resigned to the ways of God, is always in familiar intercourse with the Spirit of God, who com- municates to him all divine knowledge." Thus Nicholas claimed for himself and for such of his followers as had reached a state of perfection in self-renunciation a di- rect acquaintance with things divine. God revealed himself to them, they believed, not indirectly and only through the medium of the Holy Scriptures ; but di- rectly and immediately through dreams and waking visions, and in this way taught them to understand per- fectly all the sublimest mysteries in theology. It often happened that these revelations consisted in allegorical visions, as when Rulmann Merswiii had a vision of a stone successively assuming three shapes, and was there- by taught to understand as he had never understood be- fore the doctrine of the Trinity ; while at other times, as in the vision which came to Tauler at his conversion, the revelation was expressed in ordinary language. This 2}rii'ate inspiration, which Nicholas believed, that he possessed, was quite different from the ordinary ef- forts of the human reason, and in this respect Tauler and Nicholas held opinions altogether opposed to the rationalism of Eckhart. It was a supernatural gift es- pecially bestowed upon men from without, and showed itself in ways altogether diiferent from the exercise of the ordinary reason. The men who were believed to be possessed of it had in it a new gift, altogether dif- ferent from the capacities of their fellows, which made them independent of all churchly and other aids to a religious life, and they were, as possessors of the same spirit, brought into such a close spiritual fellowship with each otlier, that they could, while far distant, correspond with each other through alternate visions.
Of the private history of Nicholas we know very lit- tle, but it is evident that he travelled a great deal through German}', propagating his opinions in a quiet, unostenta- tious manner. Gradually there grew up around him a society of Christians composed of men and women like- minded with himself, who loved and honored him as their spiritual father. It does not seem that this society had any definite place of association, or that its members proposed to themselves anj' practical or political ends and aims. The bond of association was the personal character of Nicholas, and the members were aU men and women of pious lives and characters, who, in a prof- ligate and disastrous age, amid the breaking up, as it seemed, of all mechanical aids to piety, were insensibly attracted towards Nicholas, and through him to each other. They called themselves " the Friends of God," to signify that they had reached that stage of the Chris- tian life when Christ, according to his promise, would call them "no longer servants, but friends;" and they included in their number individuals who differed most widely in rank and circumstances. More than one monkish order had its representatives among the Friends of (iod. Tauler, Suso, and Henry of Nordlingen were Dominicans ; Otto of Passau was a Franciscan, and there were numbers of laymen. Kulmann Merswin was a banker, Conrad of Brunsberg was grand-master of the Knights of St. John in Germany. There were women too enrolled as members, for example, the two Ebners, JIargaretha and Christina, and Anne, queen of Hungary [see, however. Friends of God]. From the fact that after the death of Nicholas of Basle (he was burned to death atVienne, near Poitiers, after 1382) the associa- tion of his followers fell to pieces, it is evident that it was Nicholas's personal power and influence that kept them united. Nicholas of Basle was not onlv noted as
a preacher ; he also wielded a powerful pen, and wrote much for the edification of his followers. Indeed many were gathered as Friends of God by the influence of his writings. His principal works are, JJuch von den zwei Mdnnern (who these two men were is not now known) : — Die Behehnmj Taukr's: — Buck von den fiinf Mdnnern (a religious biography of Nicholas himself and four of his companions) : — Von der Bekehrunr/ eines Deutsch-Ordens- Ritters : — Von zioei Klosier-Fixmen in Baiern und von zwei Klausnerimien, Ursula u. Adelheit (the memoir of two nuns in Brabant), believed to be simply a transla- tion from the Welsh or Och Walloon dialect. See Vaughan, Hours with the 3{ystics (1873) ; Schmidt, Nicolas von Basel, Leben u. Werke (Vienna, 1866) ; ejusd. Die Gottes-Freunde im \Aten Jahrh. (Jena, 1854) ; Meth. Quart. Rev. January, 1869, arr. i ; Brit. Quart. Rev. Oct. 1874, art. i; Gieseler, Ecdes. Hist, iv, 184-186; Hodgson, Reformers and Martyrs (Phila. 1867), p. 120 sq. (J.H.W.)