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Johannes Tauler OP ( – 16 June 1361) was a German mystic, a Roman Catholic priest and a
theologian Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...
. A disciple of
Meister Eckhart Eckhart von Hochheim ( – ), commonly known as Meister Eckhart, Master EckhartM ...
, who greatly influenced him, was active in Strasbourg between about 1313 and 1326, though it is unclear what relationship they may have had. It is possible that while taking the customary eight-years' course of study at the monastery he heard Eckhart preach. From Strasbourg he went to the Dominican college of
Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...
, and perhaps to St. James's College, Paris, ultimately returning to Strasbourg, but more probably he returned from Cologne to Strasbourg. Around 1330 Tauler began his preaching career in Strasbourg. The city contained eight convents of Dominican nuns and perhaps seventy smaller beguine communities. It seems likely that (as with
Meister Eckhart Eckhart von Hochheim ( – ), commonly known as Meister Eckhart, Master EckhartPope John XXII Pope John XXII ( la, Ioannes PP. XXII; 1244 – 4 December 1334), born Jacques Duèze (or d'Euse), was head of the Catholic Church from 7 August 1316 to his death in December 1334. He was the second and longest-reigning Avignon Pope, elected b ...
and Lewis of Bavaria. Tauler spent his exile (c. 1339–1343) in Basel. Here, he became acquainted with the circles of devout clergy and laity known as the '' Friends of God'' (''Gottesfreunde''). Tauler mentions the Friends of God often in his sermons. Evidence for further connections with this group is found in the letters exchanged between the secular priest Henry of Nördlingen and his spiritual friend, the Dominican nun Margaret Ebner. Through Henry, Tauler also became acquainted with
Mechthild of Magdeburg Mechthild (or Mechtild, Matilda, Matelda) of Magdeburg (c. 1207 – c. 1282/1294), a Beguine, was a Christian medieval mystic, whose book ''Das fließende Licht der Gottheit'' (''The Flowing Light of Divinity'') is a compendium of visions, ...
's ''Flowing Light of the Godhead''. Tauler worked with the Friends of God, and it was with them that he taught his belief that the state of the soul was affected more by a personal relationship with God than by external practices. In this way, he was more of a proselytizer than his counterpart, Eckhart. Tauler returned to Strasbourg around 1343, but the following years brought various crises. Strasbourg experienced a devastating earthquake and fire in 1346. From late 1347 until 1349, the city was ravaged by the
Black Death The Black Death (also known as the Pestilence, the Great Mortality or the Plague) was a bubonic plague pandemic occurring in Western Eurasia and North Africa from 1346 to 1353. It is the most fatal pandemic recorded in human history, causi ...
. It is said that when the city was deserted by all who could leave it, Tauler remained at his post, encouraging his terror-stricken fellow-citizens with sermons and personal visits. Tauler travelled fairly extensively in the last two and a half decades of his life. He made several trips to Cologne. A number of his sermons were clearly delivered there, as indicated by their survival in the Cologne dialect of
Middle High German Middle High German (MHG; german: Mittelhochdeutsch (Mhd.)) is the term for the form of German spoken in the High Middle Ages. It is conventionally dated between 1050 and 1350, developing from Old High German and into Early New High German. Hig ...
. A credible tradition suggests he visited John of Ruusbroec in Groenendaal at some point in the 1350s. He is credited with composing the words of the Advent song, Es kommt ein Schiff, geladen. The oldest existing text source is a manuscript dated before 1450, found in the Strasbourg Dominican convent of ''St. Nicolaus in undis'', which Tauler was known to have visited frequently. There are also some stylistic similarities to his other writings. According to tradition, Tauler died on 16 June 1361 in Strasbourg. He was buried in the Dominican church in Strasbourg with an incised gravestone that still survives in the Temple Neuf. The well-known story of Tauler's conversion and discipline by " The Friend of God from the Oberland" cannot be regarded as historical.


Sermons

Tauler left no formal treatises, either in Latin or the vernacular. Rather, his oeuvre consists of eighty sermons. Tauler's sermons began to be collected in his own lifetime - three fourteenth-century manuscripts date from around the time of Tauler's return to Strasbourg after his exile in Basel. Tauler's sermons were printed first in
Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...
in 1498, reprinted in 1508 at Augsburg, and then again with additions from Eckhart and others at Basel (1521 and 1522), at Halberstadt (1523), at
Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...
(1543), and in
Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administrative limits w ...
(1551). A Latin translation was printed first at Cologne in 1548 and 1553. In the nineteenth century, editions were produced by Julius Hamberger (
Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , " Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on it ...
, 1864) and Ferdinand Vetter (Berlin, 1910, reprinted Dublin/Zürich, 1968). Tauler was famous for his sermons, which were considered among the noblest in the
German language German ( ) is a West Germanic language mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and official or co-official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and the Italian province of South Tyrol. It is also a ...
—not as emotional as
Henry Suso Henry Suso, OP (also called Amandus, a name adopted in his writings, and Heinrich Seuse or Heinrich von Berg in German; 21 March 1295 – 25 January 1366) was a German Dominican friar and the most popular vernacular writer of the fourteenth centu ...
's, nor as speculative as Eckhart's, but rather intensely practical, and touching on all sides the deeper problems of the moral and spiritual life. Tauler has at times been claimed as one of several notable Christian universalists in the Middle Ages, along with Amalric of Bena and John of Ruysbroeck. His teaching that, "All beings exist through the same birth as the Son, and therefore shall they all come again to their original, that is, God the Father" has been cited in defense of this claim. However, other passages from his sermons cast doubt on such an interpretation. In his first sermon for the Feast of the Ascension he remarks, "The wicked come close to Heaven and never enter in. The greatest torment of the damned, is the certainty that they shall never enter Heaven."


See also

* List of Latin nicknames of the Middle Ages: Doctors in theology * Tauler


Modern editions

There are various foreign language editions of the sermons:On what follows, see Bernard McGinn, ''The Harvest of Mysticism'', (2005), p. 586. *Ferdinand Vetter, ''Die Predigten Taulers'', (Berlin: Weidmann, 1910; photomechanical reprint, 1968), is based on only a few manuscripts and does not adhere to the proper liturgical order of the sermons. It lists a few variant readings, but lacks an apparatus of sources. Several of its sermons are not authentic. *A complete French translation exists as E Hugueny, G Thery and A-L Corin, ''Sermons de Tauler: Traduction faite sur les plus anciens mss. allemands'', 3 vols, (Paris, 1927–35). *Georg Hofmann, ''Johannes Tauler: Predigten'', (Freiburg: Herder, 1961; reprint, Einsiedeln, 1979) provides a helpful German version, but not a critical version of the Middle High German text. *Johannes Tauler, ''De Preken'', a complete Dutch translation by Peter Freens (2015)
Taulerpreken.nl
A good English translation of Tauler's sermons is lacking. *''Spiritual Conferences by Johann Tauler, OP (1300–1361)'', trans Eris Colledge and Sister Mary Jane, OP, (New York: Herder, 1961; reprint 1978), contains a rather loose translation of sermons and excerpts of sermons from Vetter. It rearranges that according to theological headings rather than keeping the order of the sermons themselves. *''Johannes Tauler, sermons'', translation by Maria Shrady; introduction by Josef Schmidt, (New York: Paulist Press, 1985), translates 23 sermons, but from the modern German edition of Hofmann, not directly from the Middle High German. The version also contains various omissions and errors, and lacks notes. Older English translations of Tauler include various inauthentic pieces, and were often made from the Latin version of Laurentius Surius. They are therefore problematic. These include: *Catherine Winkworth, ''History and Life of the Reverend Doctor John Tauler with Twenty-Five of his Sermons'', (London, Smith, Elder, and comp., 1857.) Available at http://www.ccel.org/ccel/winkworth/tauler *''Meditations on the life and passion of our Lord Jesus Christ'', translated by APJ Cruikshank, (London: Thomas Richardson and Son, 1875) Available at http://www.ccel.org/ccel/tauler/meditations *''The following of Christ'', translated by JR Morell, (London: T Fisher Unwin, 1886) Available at http://www.ccel.org/ccel/tauler/following *''The Inner Way, being Thirty-Six sermons for festivals by John Tauler'', translated from the German, with introduction, by Arthur Wollaston Hutton, (London: Methuen & Co, 1901) Available at http://www.ccel.org/ccel/tauler/inner_way


Further reading

*Davies, Oliver: ''God Within: The Mystical Tradition of Northern Europe'', (London: DLT, 1988), pp. 71–78. *Eck, Suzanne: ''Gott in uns. Hinführung zu Johannes Tauler.'' Übersetzt von Viktor Hofstetter OP und Hildegard Stoffels (Dominikanische Quellen und Zeugnisse Bd. 8). Leipzig 2006. *Gnädinger, Louise: ''Johannes Tauler. Lebenswelt und mystische Lehre'', (München, 1993). *Hamburger, Jeffrey F.: ''D.Verschiedenartigen Bücher der Menschheit''. Johannes Tauler über d. "Scivias" H.s v.B. Trier 2005 (=Mitt. u. Verz. aus d. Bibl. d. Bischöfl. Priesterseminars zu Trier; 20). *Leppin, Volker: ''Artikel „Tauler Johannes“'', in: Theologische Realenzyklopädie, Bd. 32, Berlin/ New York 2001, S. 745–748. *Mayer, Johannes G.: ''Die "Vulgata"-Fassung der Predigten Johannes Taulers.'' Würzburg 1999 (Texte und Wissen. 1). *Mösch, Caroline F.: ''"Daz disiu geburt geschehe". Meister Eckharts Predigtzyklus von d. ewigen Geburt u. Johannes Taulers Predigten zum Weihnachtsfestkreis.'' Fribourg 2006. *Otto, Henrik: ''Vor- und frühreformatorische Tauler-Rezeption.'' Quellen und Forschungen zur Reformationsgeschichte Bd. 75 Gütersloh 2003. *Sturlese, Loris: ''Tauler im Kontext. Die philosophischen Voraussetzungen des "Seelengrundes" in der Lehre des deutschen Neuplatonikers Berthold von Moosburg.'' In: PBB 109 (1987), S. 390–426. *Theißen, J.: ''Tauler und die Liturgie.'' In: Deutsche Mystik im abendländischen Zusammenhang. Hg. v. W. Haug und W. Schneider-Lastin, Tübingen 2000, S. 409–423. *Weigand, Rudolf Kilian: ''Predigen und Sammeln. Die Predigtanordnung in frühen Tauler-Handschriften.'' In: Studien zur deutschen Sprache und Literatur. FS Konrad Kunze. Hg. von Werner Williams-Krapp. Hamburg 2004, S. 114–155. *Denifle, ''Dis Buck von geistlicher Armuth'' (Strassburg, 1877); *Carl Schmidt, ''Johann Tauler von Strassburg ''(
Hamburg Hamburg (, ; nds, label=Hamburg German, Low Saxon, Hamborg ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (german: Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg; nds, label=Low Saxon, Friee un Hansestadt Hamborg),. is the List of cities in Germany by popul ...
, 1841); * Vaughan, Robert Alfred, ''Hours with the Mystics'', 3rd ed., vol. i. pp. 214–307; * Wilhelm Preger's ''Gesch. der deutschen Mystik im Mittelalter'', vol. iii; *W. R. Inge, ''Christian Mysticism''; *R. M. Jones, ''Studies in Mystical Religion'' (1909). *Jole D'Anna, Johannes Tauler. Dottore illuminato e sublime, Simmetria, Roma 2006.


Notes


References

* * * Jole D'Anna,Johannes Tauler. Dottore illuminato e sublime, Simmetria, Roma 2006. * Jole D'Anna, Una introduzione alla mistica di Johannes Tauler, in "Rivista di Ascetica e Mistica", n. 1, 2009, pp. 139–148. * Jole D'Anna, La teologia della perfezione in Johannes Tauler, in "Perennia Verba", nn. 6–7, 2002–2003, pp. 181–200.


External links


The History and Life of the Reverend Doctor John Tauler of Strasbourg; With Twenty-Five of His Sermons
in English archive.org * *
Die Predigten Taulers im digitalen mittelhochdeutschen Textarchiv der Universität Trier
*


Taulerdruck von 1621, PDF

Beschreibung von mittelalterlichen Handschriften mit Taulerpredigten im Marburger Repertorium, Universität Marburg


{{DEFAULTSORT:Tauler, Johannes 1300 births 1361 deaths Year of birth uncertain 14th-century Christian mystics 14th-century German Catholic theologians 14th-century German Roman Catholic priests Alsatian-German people Catholic universalists Dominican mystics German Dominicans German male non-fiction writers Clergy from Strasbourg Rhineland mystics Roman Catholic mystics