Rulman Merswin (c. 1307 - 1382) was a
German mystic, leader for a time of the
Friends of God.
Life
Born into an important family in
Strasbourg, at the time a free city of the
Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire was a political entity in Western, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its dissolution in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars.
From the accession of Otto I in 962 ...
, Rulman Merswin became a banker and amassed a large fortune. Always “a man of watchful conscience and of great fear of God,” he gave up business at age 40, “took leave of the world,” and devoted himself to God as a layman, after the manner of the
Franciscan Tertiaries, or the
Waldensians
The Waldensians (also known as Waldenses (), Vallenses, Valdesi or Vaudois) are adherents of a church tradition that began as an ascetic movement within Western Christianity before the Reformation.
Originally known as the "Poor Men of Lyon" in ...
. Embarking on his new spiritual life, Merswin was moved to keep his money “to use for God,” a decision which precipitated an experience of ecstasy; he felt himself float off the ground and fly around the garden.
Although married to Gertrude of Bietenheim, Merswin resolved to remain celibate. This led to struggles against evil temptation, which he tried to quell through extreme ascetic practices. On the advice of
Johannes Tauler
Johannes Tauler OP ( – 16 June 1361) was a German mystic, a Roman Catholic priest and a theologian. A disciple of Meister Eckhart, he belonged to the Dominican order. Tauler was known as one of the most important Rhineland mystics. He pro ...
, his confessor, Merswin gave up self-mortification. He then fell into severe depression, convinced he was destined for eternal
damnation
Damnation (from Latin '':wikt:damnatio, damnatio'') is the concept of Divine judgment, divine punishment and torment in an afterlife for actions that were committed, or in some cases, not committed on Earth.
In Ancient Egyptian religion, Anci ...
in the fires of
Hell; however, he persevered and found, “the joy and peace of the Holy Spirit.” He heard voices and often fell into states of ecstasy. ''In The Story of the First Four Years of a New Life'' (which his secretary, Nikolaus von Löwen, claimed was found in a locked cabinet after Merswin's death), Merswin recounts a meeting with a mysterious
Friend of God from the Oberland, a confessor, prophet and teacher, to whom Merswin submitted himself completely.
Johannes Tauler brought Merswin into the
Friends of God, a lay religious society with a mystical focus.
In 1367, Merswin purchased an old cloister on an island near Strasbourg to serve as a refuge for study for the Friends of God and as a “school of prophets.” The house, which he called "das grüne Wört" or Grünenwörth ("the green island"), produced a number of mystical texts, such as the
Book of the Nine Rocks. Many of the works were attributed to The Friend of God from the Oberland, although probably written by Merswin himself. In 1371, Grünenwörth was put under the care of the Knights of St. John.
The Friends of God, as led by Tauler and
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 cen ...
, sought a mystical path in line with established Catholic doctrine, following Thomas Aquinas. Rulman Merswin, under the guidance of The Friend of God from the Oberland, wanted to purify the Church. This stress on reform brought The Friends of God into conflict with the Church and not long after Merswin's death in 1382, they were condemned.
[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06306a.htm ''Catholic Encyclopedia'', The Friends of God]
See also
*
Christian Mysticism
Christian mysticism is the tradition of mystical practices and mystical theology within Christianity which "concerns the preparation f the personfor, the consciousness of, and the effect of ..a direct and transformative presence of God" ...
*
Theologia Germanica
''Theologia Germanica'', also known as ''Theologia Deutsch'' or ''Teutsch'', or as ''Der Franckforter'', is a mystical treatise believed to have been written in the later 14th century by an anonymous author. According to the introduction of the ...
Notes
External links
a text containing some biographical information
in the
Catholic Encyclopedia
The ''Catholic Encyclopedia: An International Work of Reference on the Constitution, Doctrine, Discipline, and History of the Catholic Church'' (also referred to as the ''Old Catholic Encyclopedia'' and the ''Original Catholic Encyclopedia'') i ...
Rulman Merswin(in French)
* http://wn.rsarchive.org/Books/GA007/English/GA007_About.html
Year of birth uncertain
1382 deaths
14th-century Christian mystics
Roman Catholic mystics
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