Johannes Tauler

Johannes Tauler (c. 1300-1361) was a Dominican friar, preacher and theologian born in Strasbourg, then a free imperial city. He wrote in Middle High German and is regarded as one of the most important mystics of the Rhineland, a disciple of Meister Eckhart who carried mystical thought into the everyday world of preaching. His importance lies in making demanding spiritual ideas accessible to ordinary listeners.

He joined the Dominican order at around eighteen and was trained in the convent of his native city. He probably studied in Cologne, and possibly in Paris, though the evidence for Paris is uncertain. Around 1330 he began preaching in Strasbourg, a city with many convents of nuns and communities of beguines, so much of his preaching seems to have been addressed to religious women.

In 1338 or 1339 the quarrel between Pope John XXII and Emperor Louis IV forced the Dominicans out of Strasbourg, and Tauler spent several years in Basel. There he came into contact with the Friends of God, a loose circle of devout clergy and laypeople. He taught that the state of the soul depended more on a personal relationship with God than on outward observance, and his ascetic demands were milder than those of many of his contemporaries. Back in Strasbourg, he stayed during the Black Death of 1348-1349, encouraging frightened residents with sermons and visits. He died there in 1361.

His reputation rests chiefly on his sermons, which are practical rather than speculative. Martin Luther read them from 1515 and praised them highly, and Jan Hus and Wycliffe cited him as a forerunner. The sermons were printed from 1498 onward and translated into Latin in 1548.