John Tauler: The Inner Way

II

Some Notes on Tauler's Life

The historical criticism of the nineteenth century did not leave Tauler undisturbed. When Miss Winkworth published her "History and Life of the Reverend Doctor John Tauler" in 1857, no one had questioned, save on grounds of religious sentiment, that he was the "Master in Holy Scripture" who was converted by the "Friend of God from the Oberland," as is narrated in that quaint and edifying legend. The story in question had, in fact, been printed in every edition of Tauler's Sermons, and was regarded as an authentic and almost contemporary document. Quetif and Echard, in their Scriptures Ordinis Praedicatorum, had suggested, early in the eighteenth century, that the legend should be regarded as an allegory; and this view was supported by Weiss, in his article on Tauler in the Biographie universelle (1826) already referred to. But it was reserved to H.S. Denifle, a learned Dominican of our own day, to point out that the story, as applied to Tauler, involves grave historical difficulties, and is barely reconcilable with certain matters of ascertained fact. His criticisms would seem to have settled the question; but to him Preger, a Protestant, whose life has been largely devoted to the study of the German mystics, and who was selected to be the biographer of Tauler in the "Universal German Biography," has made a detailed reply in the third volume of his Deutsche Mystik (1893); and many will hold that he has succeeded in rebuilding the edifice which Denifle was thought to have destroyed. The latter's criticisms are however ably reinforced in the article on Tauler by Von Loe, also a Dominican, in the eleventh volume (1899) of the new edition of the Kirchenlexicon; and it would be impossible for anyone who had not made a prolonged and independent study of the question to decide between the disputants.

Moreover, the controversy is mixed up with a further question, as to whether Tauler did or did not submit to the Papal interdict, under which Strasburg (and other cities that espoused the cause of the Emperor Louis the Bavarian) lay for many years after 1329. The evidence certainly seems to point to the conclusion that Tauler, and the Dominican house at Strasburg, did submit. But Preger holds it as proved that a certain Merswin, a layman who had withdrawn from a distinguished civic position and led a penitential life as one of the "Friends of…