§ 30. JOHN TAULER OF STKASSBURG. 257
Jobn_Tauler. called doctor iUuminatu8,^'a.s born in S trassburg about 1300, and died there, 13jSl. Referring to his father's circumstances, he once said, " If, as my father's son, I had once known what I know now, I would have lived from my paternal inheritance instead of resorting to alms." i Probably as early as 1315, he entered the Dominican ordejr. Sometime before 1330, he went to Cologne to take the usual three-years' course X)f study. That he proceeded from there to Pari^ for further study is a statement not borne out by the evidence. He, However, made a visit in the French capital at one period of his career. Nor is there sufficient proof that he received the title doctor or master, although he is usually called Dr. John Tauler.
He was in his native city again when it lay under the interdict fulminated against it in 1329, during the struggle between John XXII. and Lewis the Bavarian. The Dominicans offered defiance, continuing to say masses till 1339, when they were expelled for three years by the city council. JKa next find Tauler at Basel, where he came into close contact with the Friends of God, and their leader, Henry of Nordlingen. After laboring as priest in Bavaria, Henry went to the Swiss city, where he was much sought after as a preacher by the clergy and laymen, men and women. In 1357. Tauler \vas in Cologne, but Strassburg was the chief seat of his activity^ Among his friends were Christina Ebner, abbess of a convent near Niirnberg, and Margaret Ebner, a nun of the Bavarian convent of Medingen, women who were mystics and recipients of visions.2 Tauler died in the guest-chamber of a nunnery in Strassburg, of which his sister was an inmate.
Tauler's reputation in his own day rested upon his power as a preacher, and it is probable that his sermons have been
1 Preger, III. 131. The oldest Strassburg MS. entitles Tauler erluhtete begnodete Lerer. See Schmidt, p. 159. Preger, III. 93, gives the names of a number of persons by the name of Taweler, or Tawler, living in Strassburg.
2 Christina wrote a book entitled Von der Gnaden Ueherlast, giving an account of the tense life led by the sisters in her convent. She declared that the Holy Spirit played on Tauler's heart as upon a lute, and that it had been revealed to her in a vision that his fervid tongue would set the earth on fire. See Strauch's art. in Herzog, V. 129 sq. Also Preger, II. 247-251, 277 sqq.
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258 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1294-1517.
more widely read in the Protestant Church than those of other mediteval preachers. The reason for this popularity is the belief that the preacher was controlled by an evangelical spirit which brought him into close affinity with the views of the Reformers. His sermons, which were delivered in German, are plain statements of truth easily understood, and containing little that is allegorical or fancif uL They attempt no display of learning or speculative ingenuity. When Tauler quotes from Augustine, Gregory the Great, Dionysius, Anselm or Thomas Aquinas, as he sometimes does, though not as frequently as Eckart, he does it in an incidental way. _His power lay in his familiarity with the Scriptures, his knowledge of the human heart, his simple style and his own evident sincerityj He was a practical every-day preacher, intent on reaching men in their various avocations and trials.
If we are to follow the History of Tauler s Life and Conscience^ which appeared in the first published edition of his works, 1498, TaA^^oi^derwent a remarkable spiritual change wjifiuhe was fiftj.^ Under the influence of Nicolas of Basel, a
Friend of God from the Oberland, he was then led into a hisrher
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stage^gl_Christiaii^ expej-ience. Already had he achieved the reputation of an effective preacher when ^icolas, after hearing him several times, told liim that he was bound in the letter and that, though he preached sound doctrine, he did not feej the power of it himself. He called Tauler a Pharisee. The rebuked man was indignant, but his monitor replied that he lacked humility and that, instead of seeking God's honor, he was seeking his own. Feeling the justice of the criticism, Tauler confessed he had been told his sins and faults for the first time. At Nicolas' advice he desisted from preaching for two years, and led a retired life. At the end of that time Nicolas visited liim again, and bade him resume his sermons. Tauler^first attempt, made in a public place and before a
^ Specklin, the Strassburg chronicler, says Tauler spoke " in clear tones, with real fervor. His aim was to bring men to feel the nothingness of the world. He condemned clerics as well as laymen."
2 A translation of the book is given by Miss Winkwoith, pp. 1-73. It calls Tauler's monitor der grosse GoUesfreund im Oberlande. See § 32.