The History and Life of the Reverend Doctor John Tauler...

The two years of silence, which must have been such a terrible trial to Tauler’s faith and obedience, were compensated, not only by inward growth, as is always the case with such trials, but by the evident increase of his outward usefulness, so that he found the truth of Nicolas’ assurance, that one of his sermons would bring forth more fruit now than a hundred had before. His preaching is distinguished from that of most of his brethren among the “Friends of God,” by its more searching application of religious principles to the moral questions arising in the various emergencies of inward experience and outward life. How much more widely still must it have differed from that of the ordinary preachers, who sought to captivate the educated by the refinements of scholastic logic, employed on questions of no use but to display their own ingenuity, or to entertain the vulgar by marvellous stories of wonder-working saints or demons,—when in simple earnest language he appealed to the consciences of his hearers, and then showed them the way of escape from the wretchedness of their sinful lives to the peace of God, which passeth all understanding.

And when he taught them that they must forsake the creature and cleave to God alone, it was no selfish shutting up of the heart within the narrow sphere of its own emotions and experiences which he preached, for he is continually admonishing to works of love, and ever places human duties on their true level, measuring their value not by the nature of the act, but by the obedience and love involved in its performance. “One can spin,” he says, “another can make shoes; and all these are gifts of the Holy Ghost. I tell you, if I were not a priest, I would esteem it a great gift that I was able to make shoes, and would try to make them so well as to be a pattern to all.” “The measure with which we shall be measured, is the faculty of love in the soul,—the will of a man; by this shall all his words and works and life be measured. . . .”

But that which seems to me the most striking characteristic of Tauler’s sermons is his profound sympathy with the spirit of Christ’s life, especially with his infinite sorrow over the sins of others. This is, indeed, a characteristic of the “Friends of God” in general, but is expressed with greater force and beauty in Tauler than in the other writers of the same school. In this sense they specially deserve the title which they assumed; for, more than any other class of religious writers with whom I am acquainted, do they seem to have entered into that intense appreciation of the evil of sin, mingled with endless grief and compassion for its slaves, which could overwhelm the Saviour’s mind with agony.

It is true that a large proportion of his sermons are addressed to the inmates of cloisters, and have special reference to their peculiar requirements and dangers. But we must remember that he lived in an age when the social relations were in a state of disorganization; and in those times of general distress and perplexity, when the outward ministrations of the Church and the means of obtaining religious instruction were often cut off for long together, the number of those who retired into convents had become very large. There were great numbers, too, of laymen and women, who, without entering any Order, withdrew from the world and formed communities or unions (called Sammenungen), dwelling together without any monastic rules, yet differing little in their mode of life from the regular monks. Tauler often refers to these communities in his sermons. Their members generally chose Dominicans or Franciscans for their confessors, and a great number of this class appear to have attached themselves to Tauler. They found in him, however, a severe censor of the faults to which their recluse life rendered them peculiarly liable,—the relying on outward acts of piety, despising those who are outside, killing the body, which is God’s instrument, with austerities, or allowing themselves to waste their time and fill their minds with trivialities, while imagining the fact of their being “religious” to make them safe.

He is said by Specklin to have made the reformation of the lives of the clergy a special object of his efforts. The statutes passed for the regulation of their conduct by a synod convened by Bishop Berthold in 1335, for the purpose of removing abuses, gives a lively picture of the inordinate covetousness, and utter neglect of the duties of their vocation, which prevailed among the clergy of Strasburg at this time. It is the more remarkable, that the Bishop should have found it necessary to take such strong measures during the solemn period of the Interdict, when the very struggle in which the clergy were engaged with the civil power, might have been expected at least to rouse them to lead a more decorous and sober life. From the statutes of this synod, we see that the clergy not unfrequently alienated the property of the Church to laymen, or borrowed money at high interest from the Jews, in order to gratify their propensity to ostentation and pleasure. There were even some who entered into trade. The younger and more wealthy especially distinguished themselves by their extreme fondness for display, and the Bishop complains that, instead of going about clad with due decorum in the proper priestly garb, they allowed their hair to grow long in order to conceal their tonsure, wore boots of red, yellow, and green, and adorned their coats with gold lace and gay ribbons; that they strutted about in the streets equipped with rapiers and swords, attended tournaments, frequented the public taverns, and were the most jovial of boon-companions at the drinking-bouts of the laymen.

In some of the more wealthy nunneries, too, things had come to such a pitch, that the ladies dressed magnificently, took part in the amusements of the tournament, and even danced with laymen in their taverns. In reference to such, Tauler says: “If we look around us, we see that the greater part of the world are enemies of God; and among these we must account certain who are servants of God by constraint, who must be forced to do any services for Him, and the little that they do is not done out of love or devotion, but simply out of fear. . . . They are common hired servants of God; and such are all those priests and nuns and the like, who take up a religious life for the sake of revenues and fees, and if they were not secure of these, they would not serve God at all, but turn round altogether, and consort with the enemies of God. Thus they seek their own pleasure in dainty fare, dress, jewels, vanity, and the admiration of others, wherever they can find it. Nay, verily, at last they must have a spouse. ‘Ah, dear Lord,’ they say, ‘it is no harm; it is a spiritual love. We must enjoy ourselves a little; we must have some recreation; we cannot do without it. See, dear Lord, we are spiritual people, we are in an Order.’ But put on as many cowls and hoods as thou wilt, they will help thee nothing, if thou doest not what thou oughtest of right to do. There was once a man who fell into sin, and he put on a cowl, but did not give up his sin.

The Devil came and took the man, and tore him into a hundred pieces, and left the cowl whole, but carried off the man, body and soul, to the amazement of all beholders. Therefore take heed to yourselves, knowing how full the world is of such bargainers with God, among monks and nuns.”21

Tauler’s denunciations of this class brought him, of course, many enemies among the clergy, who hated the strictness of his principles and conduct; and they strove in various ways to distort his words, in order to find grounds for accusation against him. Thus he says,—“Children, I must tell you in love, that I am unjustly accused of having declared that I would hear no one’s confession unless he first promised me to do everything that I wished. That is a very unjust word: ‘what I wished.’ I wish no one to do anything beyond that which is written, and I beg no man to promise me more than that.”22 He had also to defend himself against more serious charges, for his enemies not only ridiculed him for making so much of the inward work, but called him and his followers unorthodox innovators. Thus he says: “But if one come and warn them of the horrible danger in which they are living, and what a fearful death they are like to die, they mock at him, and say he is a Beghard, or belongs to the New Spirit, scoffing at him and slandering him worse than ever was done to the Christians by Jews or heathens. These false Christians contemn us far more, crying out, ‘Here comes one of the New Spirit;’ ‘These are they of the lofty spirits.’”23 It is even related that the clergy, enraged at the charges he brought against them, on one occasion forbade his preaching (which undoubtedly was in itself an act of disobedience to the Interdict), but that the magistrates obliged them to rescind their prohibition.

Meanwhile, however, Tauler’s efforts for their amendment were not wholly fruitless, for it is recorded that through him “many priests became quite pious;” while by the people at large he was revered and affectionately beloved, and “whatever weighty matter the people had to do, he was called in to settle it with his wisdom . . . and whatever he counselled them was right in their eyes.” The “Friends of God” naturally attached themselves more strongly than ever to him, and about this time he seems to have been the means of adding a notable adherent to their numbers, in the banker, Rulman Merswin, who was at a later period the founder of the Gruenen-Worth, and author of the “Book of the Nine Rocks,” a very remarkable allegorical picture of the then condition and prospects of the Church. Nay, even Bishop Berthold is related to have “heard him preach often and gladly with great admiration” at this time; no doubt rejoicing in so brilliant an exception to the general disgraceful conduct of his clergy, which caused him so much uneasiness; but the Bishop’s favour was not destined to endure long, for political events soon occurred which produced an entire alteration in his views.

After the death of Benedict XII., Clement VI., the most inveterate opponent of Louis IV., was elected Pope, and he had hardly ascended the throne when he renewed hostilities against the Emperor with greater vehemence than his predecessor. The most awful anathemas were launched against Louis, which again proved themselves by no means inefficient weapons of attack. Many ecclesiastics, secular no less than regular, who had been performing divine service in the cities that acknowledged the authority of the Emperor, now turned to their bishops, humbly beseeching them for absolution for their disobedience, which petition was not rejected; for in many places they obtained it without difficulty on payment of one florin! Bishop Berthold, too, whose outward reconciliation with Louis had been merely dictated by motives of fear and self-interest, now besought pardon for it from the new Pope in an epistle dated November 9th, 1345, in which he further renounces his allegiance to the Emperor, and promises unconditional obedience to the Romish See for the future. Clement granted his petition, and released him and his diocese from ecclesiastical penalties. Shortly after (1347), Louis died, fairly worn out and broken-hearted with the long struggle in which his reign had been passed, but not until several of the Electors, under the instigation of the Pope, had elected Charles IV. King of Rome (1346). Many of the Estates refused, however, even after Louis’ death, to acknowledge the latter, commonly called the “Parson-King,” because he had been elected in defiance of their wishes.

To these political and ecclesiastical disturbances were added still worse miseries. The land was desolated successively by tempests, earthquakes, and famine, and at last, in 1348, the Black Death came to fill up the measure of the people’s woe. This plague continued to rage through Southern Germany and France until the following year, bringing in its train the usual accompaniments of frantic terror, and the dissolution of all social bonds. In Strasburg sixteen thousand persons fell victims to it; and it is calculated that in Southern France two-thirds of the population perished. All these convulsions of the natural and social world struck terror to men’s very hearts; bewildered and beset, they knew not which way to turn. Then appeared the ghastly processions of the Flagellants, who traversed the country half naked by hundreds and thousands, walking two and two in white shirts often stained with blood, and holding scourges in their hands. When they entered a town, they broke out into their wild howling chant,

and gathering round them all who would join, after service in a church, threw themselves on the ground, confessing their sins aloud, and then scourged each other till they were exhausted. In some places the popular fanaticism accused the Jews of causing the plague by poisoning the wells; and the multitude, in their fury, setting fire to the Jews’ quarter, burnt thousands of the wretched creatures in their houses. Numbers of the lower classes hoped for a Messiah in the person of the great “Priest-hater,” Frederick II., who, according to an old saying now expanded into a distinct prophecy, was in the latter days to rise again from the dead, to render justice to the widow and orphan, to punish and humble the Clergy, to constrain monks and nuns to marry, and then to sail over to the Holy Land and lay down his crown on the Mount of Olives.24 This was not the only, though it was the wildest prophecy current at this time. Hermann von Fritzlar declares that the time is come that precedes the end of the world:25 “This time in which we are now living, is that in which the people’s hearts have waxed cold, for they have forgotten the life of our Lord. Wherefore do arson, and rape, and robbery, and treason, and strife, and envy, and hatred, rage now as they never did before; as Christ Himself foretold, that in these times the love of many should wax cold. The third, and coming age, is that of Anti-Christ.”

And Tauler too, in his Sermon on Christ’s stilling the Storm, warns his flock: “O that ye knew what anguish and terror shall shortly seize the hearts of all who have not cleaved to God with all their might, . . . and all the evil that shall overtake them, as has been of late revealed to the Friends of God.” In another sermon, preached before the coming of the Black Death, he thus recapitulates the judgments of God that were threatened if the people refused to repent: “horrible things have been foretold, of fire, of water, of great darkness, of hurricanes and drought.” In the midst of these calamities he declaims against the perverted lessons drawn from them by the people; the recklessness and despair of some, the craving of others after marvellous visions and supernatural revelations, finally the sinfulness of those who, seeking only to escape from the world’s evils, gave themselves up to the passive indulgence of their own emotion. The last error was that against which he inveighed most frequently, being the one, no doubt, of which his hearers were most in danger. He himself was not one of those passive mystics. “Works of love,” he says, “are more acceptable to God than lofty contemplation; art thou engaged in devoutest prayer, and God wills that thou go out and preach, or carry broth to a sick brother, thou shouldst do it with joy.”

His own life was consistent with his teachings. When the Black Death came to Strasburg, he devoted himself to administering the sacraments and carrying consolation to the sick and dying. The renewal of the ban had increased the general terror and distress, and at the same time opened a still larger field for Tauler’s activity. A proclamation had been issued exhorting the people not to give way to terror, as it would increase their danger of infection; but what could a proclamation avail, when they often saw more than fifty corpses carried through the streets in a day, and there were not priests enough to perform the funeral rites? The deeper was their gratitude to Tauler for his noble act of disobedience to the Church that denied them their only remaining consolation. But he did not stand alone; there were especially two monks who shared his labours, Thomas of Strasburg, an Augustinian and the Prior-general of his Order in Strasburg, and Ludolph of Saxony, Prior of the newly-established convent of the Carthusians.26 The three friends were not content with setting an example of heroic zeal, they issued in their joint names an Address to the clerical body at large, showing how iniquitous it was that the poor ignorant people should be suffered to die excommunicate for no fault of their own, and calling on the priests to visit the sick and dying, and no longer to refuse them the consolation of religion, forasmuch as Christ had died for all men, and the Pope had no power to close heaven against an innocent person who should die under the Interdict.

In a second Letter they went further; setting forth the doctrine of two Swords and two Powers, the temporal and the spiritual, and teaching that the two are not to be confounded, though they ought not to be set in opposition to each other; that it is indeed the duty of the spiritual arm to endeavour to direct the secular in the right course, but that if a great one has made himself liable to the Interdict, that does not give the spiritual arm any authority to curse and excommunicate poor people who, perhaps, do not even know their guilty lord, still less whole cities and countries without distinction; that it cannot be proved from Holy Scripture, that a King, chosen in a legal manner by the Electors, is to be called a heretic if he resist the power of the Church; and that in any case, it is the Emperor alone who must give an account to God for his acts of insubordination, and not his poor subjects. Therefore such an unjust curse as this Interdict shall be turned into a blessing on the heads which it strikes; and, for their oppression, God shall exalt them on high. Finally, they proclaimed the principle, that he who professes the true articles of the Christian faith, and only sins against the power of the Pope, is by no means to be counted a heretic.27

What impression these free-spoken writings made upon the clergy is not known: it is only recorded that, through the exertions of Tauler and his friends, the people were enabled to die in peace, and no longer feared the ban, whereas before many thousands had died without shrift, in the agonies of despair; whence we must conclude that some of the other priests were brought to see the truth of the principles enunciated by the three monks. But it was not likely that such doctrine would long be suffered to work unchecked in the public mind. The Pope soon interfered, and commanded the Bishop of Strasburg to burn the books of the three friends, and forbid their perusal, whether by priests or laymen, on pain of excommunication. Berthold, anxious to prove his devotion to the Pope, without delay proceeded to take stringent measures against Tauler and the two high dignitaries who had done such good service in his diocese; their writings were everywhere searched for and destroyed, and they themselves were expelled from the city. It is not to be wondered at, that Henry of Nordlingen should write word that his “Brother Tauler is now constantly in great sorrow,” when he was thus driven from the field of faithful labours at the very moment of their greatest necessity. But he did not lose courage; with his two friends he retired into the neighbouring Carthusian convent, of which Ludolph was Prior, whence they continued to diffuse their writings.

During the time of their seclusion, Strasburg was visited by the Emperor Charles IV., who was making the circuit of the Rhenish cities, to induce the citizens to acknowledge him as King of Rome. Bishop Berthold had already conjured the members of the Rhenish Estates assembled at Strasburg, for the sake of the public peace, to do allegiance to the Emperor whom they despised. Charles was therefore received with royal honours, and invested the Bishop with the imperial fief, after receiving his solemn homage; but he was obliged to promise the citizens that he would procure the removal of the Interdict, for only on this condition would they acknowledge him. From Strasburg Charles proceeded to Basle, where he met the Pope’s Envoy bringing a commission to the Bishop of Bamberg to absolve the cities that should acknowledge the Emperor. But the terms of the Bull to this effect, in which Louis was called a heretic, and the cities were required to express their contrition for their fidelity to him, irritated the burghers to the highest degree, and they refused to swear to the formula of absolution when it was read to them. Nevertheless, as the Emperor stood in need of their services, the Interdict was removed. The Bishop of Bamberg next repaired, in his quality of Papal Legate, to Strasburg, to proclaim the Absolution there. The citizens were assembled before the Cathedral, then rising in its new glories. From the steps of the western door the Legate read the Bull in their ears, and then asked the Senate and commoners if they desired absolution?

Peter Schwarber, the Mayor, replied, “Yes,” in the name of all; and the Bishop immediately pronounced the Absolution. On this the Bishop Berthold, turning to the Mayor, said, “Master Schwarber, once you helped to force us to pay homage to the heretic Louis; and now that he is dead you yourself hold him to be a heretic.” But the Mayor replied, “My Lord Bishop, I have never accounted the Emperor Louis a heretic.” “How!” exclaimed Berthold, “have you not just declared him such?” “No,” said Schwarber: “the Bishop of Bamberg asked if we desired absolution, and to this I said, ‘Yes,’ in the name of all. Had he asked whether we believed and would observe all the articles he read to us, we should have given him a very different answer.”

During the visit of the Emperor to Strasburg he heard much talk of Tauler and his friends, and their free opinions, and sent for them to hear their defence. They read before him their confession of faith, and unshrinkingly declared their adherence to all that they had hitherto taught. Tauler, especially, was not a man to quail before a temporal sovereign after he had braved the more formidable terrors of the spiritual power; moreover, we find that he did not scruple occasionally in his sermons to rebuke the oppression of the people by their rulers28; and he openly told the Emperor wherefore he was banished. The arguments of the three monks produced such an impression upon Charles, that he is said to have declared himself “sheer of their opinion,” and expressed his desire that no further proceedings should be taken against them. Nevertheless the Bishops present condemned, as heretical, the doctrines we have already mentioned as contained in their writings, commanded them no longer so wickedly to withstand the Church and her Interdict, enjoined them to issue a public recantation, and for the future to write nothing more of the like nature on pain of excommunication. Specklin declares that they went on and wrote still better than before; but nothing more is known of the matter beyond this meagre statement of his.

From this time forward, Tauler disappears from the history of his native city, until a short time before his death. It is said that, since the Emperor and Bishops forbade him to write, he forsook Strasburg, after having spread much good doctrine abroad in Alsace, His name was held in grateful remembrance, not only by the “Friends of God,” but by all his fellow-citizens, for whom he had faithfully laboured and suffered during the whole period of their troubles; but he needed a sphere of greater freedom, and therefore took up his residence in Cologne, a city already familiar to him, and where he found numerous brethren in spirit. Here he commonly preached in the church of St. Gertrude, belonging to a convent of Dominican nuns, whose numbers were much increased by the desire of having Tauler for a preacher and confessor. Among these sisters, however, their original strictness of manners no longer prevailed, and Tauler often found occasion in his sermons to lament the decay of conventual discipline. The younger sisters too often brought with them from the world their love of society and amusements, and were strengthened in these tastes by their intercourse with the older nuns; for most of them thought more of dress and trinkets than of devout exercises and self-denial, so that Tauler tells them that all their piety is a mere outward semblance, and that many laywomen are much farther advanced in holiness than they.

Tauler not only displayed his customary zeal in restoring a severer discipline, but endeavoured to substitute for these mere outward works of piety the spiritual, which he regarded as the only true service of God. He sought also, while in Cologne, to combat the pantheistic enthusiasm of the Beghards, who had been extremely numerous in this city ever since the commencement of the century, and, notwithstanding, or perhaps rather favoured by, frequent persecutions, in which many of their members were burnt at the stake, were continuing to make progress during this age of anarchy.29 In the year 1357 (therefore during Tauler’s residence in Cologne), the Archbishop, William of Gennep, instituted a fresh search after them, and commanded the clergy of his diocese strictly to enforce the statutes of his predecessors against them. Tauler, however, though a Dominican, never took part in any act of persecution; the profound spiritual struggles through which he had had to pass, had taught him how deep the roots of belief lay beneath those regions of the soul that can be reached by outward weapons; and when he speaks of the “Free Spirits,” it is to show the error of their doctrines, not to demand their extirpation. Indeed, his writings, and those of his disciple Rulman Merswin, exhibit in this respect a Christian largeness of heart in great contrast to the prevailing spirit of his Order.

They more than once maintain the salvation of those who are in error from ignorance, and declare that their desire to believe what is true is accepted by God in place of a correct belief, and that thus many heathen and Jews are saved now as well as before the coming of Christ. Rulman Merswin ascribes the terrible persecution of the Jews, then raging, to the covetousness of the Christians.30