§ 32. THE FRIENDS OF GOD. 271
1377, according to the same authority, he visited Gregory XI. in Rome and, like Catherine of Siena, petitioned the pontiff to set his face against the abuses of Christendom. Rulman was in correspondence with him for a long period, and held his writings secret until within four years of his (Rulman's) death, when he published them. They were 17 in number, ail of them bearing on the nature and necessity of a true conversion of heart. ^
This mystic from the Obe£land,,_as Rulman's account goes, led a life of prayer and devotion, and found peace, performed miracles and had visions. He is placed by Preger at the side of Peter Waldo as one of the most influential laymen of the Middle Ages, a priest, though unordained, of the Church. After Rulman's death, we hear no more of him.
__Ruln3aii— Mex&win, the editor of the Oberland prophet's writings, was born in Strassburg, 1307, and died there, 1382* He gave up merchandise and devoted himself wholly to a religious life. He had undergone the change of conversion — Kehr. For four years he had a hard struggle against temptations, and subjected himself to severe asceticisms, but was advised by his confessor, Tauler, to desist, at least for a time. It was towards the end of this period that he met the man from the Oberland. After his conversion, he purchased and fitted up an old cloister, located on an island near Strassburg, called dasgriine Wort, to serve as a refuge for clerics and laymen who wished to follow the principles of the Friends of God and live together for the purpose of spiritual culture. In 1370, after the death of his wife, Rulman himself became an inmate of the house, which was put under the care of the Knights of St. John a year later. Here he continued to exhort by pen and word till his death. He lies buried at the side of his wife in Strassburg.
Merswin's two chief writings^re entitled Das Bannerbiich-
1 The two leading writings are Das Buck von den zwei Mannen, an account of the first five years immediately succeeding the author's conversion, and given in Schmidt's Mc. von Basel, pp. 205-277, and Das Buck von den f'unf Mannen, in which the Oberlander gives an account of his own life and the lives of his friends. For the full list of the writings, see Preger, III. 270 sqq., and Strauch, p. 209 sqq.
272 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1294-1517.
l&in, the Banner-book, and Das Buck von den neun Fehen, the Nme jlocks. The former is an exhortation to flee from the banner of Lucifer and to gather under the blood-red banner of Christ.^ The Nine Bocks, written in the form of a dialogue, 1352, opens with a parable, describing innumerable fishes swimming down from the lakes among the hills through the streams in tlie valleys into the deep sea. The author then sees tlicm attempting to find their way back to the hills. These processes illustrate the career of human souls departing from God into the world and seeking to return to Him. The author also sees a " fearfully high mountain," on which are nine rocks. The souls that succeed in getting back to the mountain are so few that it seemed as if only one out of every thousand readied it. He then proceeds to set forth the condition of the eminent of the earth, popes and kings, cardinals and princes; and also priests, monks and nuns, Beguines and Beghards, and people of all sorts and classes. He finds the conditions very bad, and is specially severe on women who, by their show of dress and by their manners, are responsible for men going morally astray and falling into sin. Many of these women commit a hundred mortal sins a day.
Rulman then returns to the nine rocks, which represent the nine stages of progress towards the source of our being, God. Those who are on the rocks have escaped the devil's net, and by climbing on up to the last rock, they reach perfection. Those on the fifth rock have gained the point where they have completely given up their own self-will. The sixth rock represents full submission to God. On the ninth the number is so small that there seemed to be only three persons on it. These have no desire whatever except to honor God, fear not hell nor purgatory, nor enemy nor death nor life.
The Friends of God, who are bent on something more than their own salvation, are dej^icted in the valley below, striving to rescue souls from the net in which they have been ensnared. The Brethren of the Free Spirit resist this merciful procedure.
^ See Preger, III. 349 sqq. C. Schmidt gives the text, as does also Diej)enbrock, H. Suso, pp. 505-572.