John Tauler was born about 1300 into a citizen family of Strasbourg and entered the Dominican priory there at about fifteen. During his years of study he came under the influence of Meister Eckhart, who preached in Strasbourg and taught at Cologne. Unlike Eckhart he did not become a master of theology; he spent his life as a preacher and spiritual guide, especially to Dominican nuns and to devout lay people.
During the conflict between Pope John XXII and Emperor Louis the Bavarian, Strasbourg lay under interdict, and about 1339 the Dominicans left the city. Tauler spent some years at Basel, where he belonged to the circle of the “Friends of God” around the priest Henry of Nördlingen and the nun Margaret Ebner. Back in Strasbourg in the 1340s, he preached with power through years of plague and disorder.
John Tauler in the library (1 work)
- John Tauler: The Inner Way — 14th century; translation 1901
Thirty-six sermons of the Dominican preacher of Strasbourg on the inward life, read by Luther and by Catholic mystics alike.