many, who seem to themselves accomplishing much in the way of penance, when they practise many great, severe, and outward forms of discipline, as, for instance, fastings, watchings, and other like works of penitence; which, indeed, are without doubt well pleasing to God, and necessary for him who does the penance; yet, the truest and best penance, and that by which one gets nearest to God, is to turn, truly and from the heart, to Him, and to every virtue, for God's sake; at the same time, turning entirely away from everything known to be at variance with God, so as to feel a firm assurance in one's self that one cannot be moved, by anything that may happen to do anything of the kind, and then to have a firm confidence in the goodness of God that He will never cease to supply all needful aid."* Respecting fasts, he says: Rational or spiritual works are to be preferred before barely outward works, and to be held of more account than the latter. Yet to the utmost extent of our capability, love must be maintained by good works. Christ fasted forty days. Imitate him in this, and fast in a spiritual manner, keeping thyself from all sin; and, also, to the extent of thy ability, in a bodily manner."

But although these Friends of God conscientiously adhered to the forms of the church, and by their silent, unobtrusive piety, and their active charity, could hardly fail to secure the confidence and respect of the people, whose contempt the common ecclesiastics had drawn down upon themselves, still they had their opponents; partly those who were zealous to maintain the common position of the church, and whose suspicions were excited by that more liberal spirit of the Friends of God which shone so conspicuously through their conscientious attachment to the church; partly the advocates of a secularised Christianity, who felt themselves annoyed by the more serious Christian life of the Friends of God. Accordingly they were nicknamed after the common fashion in that age of applying some opprobrious epithet to those who, for one reason or another, were looked upon as enthusiasts or pietists; they were called Beghards-people who prayed much. John Ruysbroch says: Though the servant of the Lord shows himself

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*De Præc. quibusd. Virt., p. 185.

faithful in outward exercises and works, yet he has no experience of that which the secret friends of God feel. And this is the reason why such inexperienced and outward men find fault with those who apply themselves to the internal exercises. They suppose that such persons are wholly idle; like Martha, who complained to the Lord of her sister, that she paid him no attention.”* And Tauler, speaking of those among the Jews who were hostile to Christ as if they had hearts of stone, says: "Alas! why should it be, that we still find Christian men who, when they see God's friends in good ways, in good works, immediately harbour ill-will towards them, become at heart bitterly opposed to them, count as nothing their works which they do, and their ways and their life, and invent such glosses about them or against them as to prove themselves to be just like those bad Jews."† In a noticeable passage Tauler speaks against a certain class, whom he thus characterises: "The poor blind people think that the precious sufferings of our Lord Christ were to pass off in sport and without fruit. Their reliance is this, that they stand in fraternity with some spiritual order (the fratres adscripti), that they pray and read; nay," says he, "thou doest all this without love and without devotion, with a distracted heart, so blindly and coldly, that it is a wonder to think of it." He then says: They confessed in words, but not with a whole will and from the bottom of the heart: they received the Lord's body; but it was very much as if one should invite a king into his house, and then place him in an unclean, offensive stall among the swine. It were a thousand times better for them, if they never received it. And if any one took pains to warn them of the danger of their position, they laughed at him and said: "It is all Beghards' talk, or nuns' twaddle." These Friends of God exercised a great influence over the laity, not only by their preaching and attention to common pastoral duties, but it was a part of the system for those among the laity who longed after that higher stage of Christian life set forth by the Friends

* De Calculo, p. 825. † Bas. ed. fol. 32 b; Fr. ed. II. p. 57. Bas. ed. fol. 77 a; Fr. ed. II. p. 235. [The Francf. ed., which in general is quite incorrect in its text, has, instead of Begharden, 'Bejahrte." ED.]

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VOL. IX.

20

of God in their sermons, to surrender themselves entirely up to some individual as their confessor and guide in the spiritual life, and follow his instructions as if it were a voice from heaven. This was simply carrying out the doctrine of those mystics who taught that it was a duty to follow implicitly the guidance of those who were recognised as organs of God. And unquestionably in these times, when the deep-felt and oftentimes wrongly interpreted sense of religious need, the high state of religious excitement in connection with the low state of Christian knowledge, exposed men to dangerous temptations, and the more as their aspirations rose higher; when, by abandoning themselves to their feelings, they would be very likely to fall into dangerous extravagances; earnest, inquiring, but ignorant minds did greatly need the guidance of some prudent individual, experienced in the trials and conflicts of the spiritual life. Well then might Tauler, after describing the dangers which beset him who strove after such an object, add: "Therefore the safer course for those who would fain live for the truth, is to have a friend of God, and submit to be guided by him according to God's Spirit. Eighty miles or more would not be too far to go in search of a friend of God who knew the right way and could direct them in it."* And in another sermon, where he labours to show how difficult it is to attain true renunciation of one's self and of natural things and to betake one's self solely to God in the inmost depths of the spirit, he says: "Therefore entreat the beloved friends of God that they would assist you in it, and then give your whole self simply and solely to God and to the chosen friends of God, that they may carry you along to God with themselves." In some such relation to Tauler stood a remarkable man, afterward a zealous member of the party of the Friends of God, Rulmann Merswin of Strasburg. This person, who belonged to one of the most respectable families of that city, was a rich broker and merchant. In his fortieth year (1347), after losing his first wife, he contracted a second marriage, and having no issue by either, he with the concurrence of

* Bas. ed. fol. 146 b; Fr. ed. III. p. 122.

† Ibid. 28 h; Fr. ed. I. p. 265.

his second wife resolved to retire wholly from the world. He applied his great wealth to no other purpose than that of founding institutions of Christian charity. He had much to struggle with in endeavouring to attain to a godly life, being too much governed by his momentary feelings. The natural and the divine element were strangely mixed up together in his character. He easily brought himself to believe that certain visions, the product of his own highlyexcited feelings and heated imagination, were divine revelations. The excessive mortifications which he imposed on himself impaired his health, and the morbid affections which he thus contracted may perhaps have exerted some disturbing influence both on his feelings and on his intellect. Tauler, who, as we have seen, disapproved of this mode of crucifying the flesh, being chosen by this man as his guide, bade him, as a friend of God, to desist from these immoderate self-tortures, and not destroy his health; for he was extremely anxious lest, by the course he was now pursuing, he might suddenly become insane. Merswin, as he informs us himself, thought it is his duty to obey.* In the year 1353 he composed, in the German language, a widelycirculated eccentric mystical work, under the impulse, as he believed, of a divine call, containing many strange and fanciful notions mixed up with a good deal that is true. It was entitled the Book of the Nine Rocks. This work was included, though not in its complete form, among the works of Henry Suso, and ascribed to him as the author. With great freedom he here describes the corruption of the church through all its orders, from highest to lowest. He says of the popes: "Look around and mark how the popes in these

* We quote from the above-mentioned excellent work of Prof. Schmidt, of Strasburg, to whom we are indebted for an account of this man, eminently characteristic of the times in which he lived, Merswin's own words on the subject: Und in denselben ziten was bruoder Johans tauweler der brediger min bichter. Der befant ettewas minre uebungen, wanne er nam es ware das ich gar krang in der natuoren geriet werden. Und er vorhte mins houbetes und gebot mir bi gehorsamme das ich mich in keinre uebungen solte me ueben, und mahte mir daran ein zil, und ich muste gehorsam sin. Schmidt, p. 178 note.

That the work, however, is not to be ascribed to him, but to Merswin, has been proved on documentary evidence by Prof. Schmidt, in his work above cited, p. 180. Compare, also, Illgen's Zeitschriftfür historische Theologie. 1839, Heft. 2, p. 61.

times live and have lived, whether they have not had more regard for themselves, more concern to know how they shall maintain their own state, than how the glory of God may be promoted? And look around and see whether they do not court temporal possessions with a view to advance the interests of their temporal friends, and help on their promotion to temporal honours." It is deserving of notice that this man was led, by the more liberal character of his mysticism, to question in this book the doctrine that all unbelievers are lost; maintaining that, among the Jews, Turks and pagans, were many men of good life, who would, before their end, be led by a particular inward revelation to the knowledge of a Saviour and to faith in him; and that we shall meet many such in the world to come.† We see by the example of this individual, how laymen as well as clergymen might be enrolled among the Friends of God; and in the case of the former, who were not so strictly educated in the theology of the schools, we see how it might sometimes happen that they would be led, by this freer tendency of the religious spirit, without being conscious of it or intending it, into many unchurchly convictions, and how this might become a channel through which the influence of unchurchly tendencies might be introduced among the Friends of God generally. We cannot be surprised at the fact, therefore, that among the Friends of God there were many sectional differences, from a more strict churchly direction to a tendency bordering on the heretical, or entirely heretical. The position maintained by those Friends of God, whose inward Christianity made them more free from the influence of the hierarchical spirit, is characteristically presented before us, when we see a priest of the Dominican order, and a famous preacher, placing himself in the relation we have described to a layman who appeared to him more advanced than himself in holy living, and making that layman his guide in the spiritual life. We meet with an ancient account ‡ of a layman living 120 miles from the city of Strasburg, who, by a divine call in a thrice-repeated * Schmidt, p. 216.

† Ibid. p. 219. This portion is not included in the writings published under the name of Suso.

In the Hist. Tauleri in the Bas. edition, before the Sermons.