that word which Christ himself uttered, "Thy will be done," which words are the most agreeable of all to God; and he who can express this from the deep meaning of his heart, can never be disturbed or fall into any great depression; but he will experience in his very resignation a peculiar peace, because God is the end of the self-denial." In regard to tempting thoughts, he says: "If in thy praying, or thy spiritual exercises, strange thoughts or images enter thy mind, whatever they may be, if they be not to the purpose before thee, be not disturbed by them, but turn away, at once, with the whole bent of thy mind and love to God. For although the hellish foe shows thee thy wares, still they will not stay by thee if thou art not inclined to them in thy affections. Therefore, if thou wouldst easily overcome all things, seek to keep thy soul ever directed upward and turned inward." John Tauler was born in Strasburg, in the year 1290; in the year 1308 he entered the Dominican order. It is worthy of remark that he expresses himself somewhat doubtful whether it belongs to the true following after Christ to live by the alms of others instead of labouring for one's self. He says in a sermon:† "Had I known, when I was my father's son, what I now know, I would have lived upon his labour and not upon alms." He studied at Paris; and so we find him citing what was taught at the schools.‡ But, as is evident from what has been earlier said, the theology that is not to be learned from books was esteemed by him as of much higher value. We have already remarked how, in the time of the papal interdict, and of the ravages of the black death, he continued fearlessly to labour in promoting the spiritual good of the people. He preached at Cologne and in the different cities on the Rhine, and died in the year 1361. Tauler, as well as Ruysbroch, contended against the prevailing tendency to the external in religion. He says: "God gave all things that they might be a way to himself, and He only should be the end. Do you dream that it is a jest? Nay, verily. Your station makes you neither blessed nor holy. Neither *Specul. Ætern. Salut., p. 12. See above, p. 555. † Bas. ed. fol. 120 b; Fr. ed. II. p. 419. my cowl, nor my bald head, nor my convent, nor my holy society, nor any of these things makes me holy." Accordingly he declaims against the various self-mortifications and voluntarily imposed exercises of penance, by which men destroy their minds and bodies instead of making any real progress in sanctification. Thus he says: "Some men are not content with the myrrh which God gives them, they would load their stomachs with still more, and give themselves the headache and sick fancies, and have suffered long and much, and fail to do things rightly, and little grace comes to them from it all, when they build on their own plan, whether in penance or abstinence, or in prayer or devotion."* In the case of prayer, he makes the inward disposition the main thing. Praying by memory, he says, is profitable only so far as it stirs up the man to this noble (internal) devotion; and then the noble incense bursts forth; and when that flows out, let the prayer of the lips boldly proceed." He says again, that by love, the supreme virtue, all vows are paid; since the fulfilling of all which those vows proposed is contained in love. Now if a man has made many vows, to pray, to fast, to make pilgrimages and the like, he is exempt and free from all these, when he enters into an order; as soon as he is in the order, he is bound to all the virtues and to God. Rightly therefore do I also say here, that to however many things a man may have bound himself to God, if he comes into real true love, he is free from them all, so long as true sincerity of heart is in him." Speaking of those who would be righteous by outward works, he says: "They abide in this, that they do great works, such as fasting, much watching, and praying; yet do not clearly see their foundation. They find their interest and themselves in sensual enjoyment, favour and disfavour. And hence are engendered unjust and incorrect judgments; and then many failings and imperfections, such as pride, outward or inward, bitterness or self-will, quarrelsomeness, and many faults of the like kind."§ He speaks against those who *Bas. ed. fol. 8 a: Fr. ed. I. p. 141. † Ibid. 8 b; Fr. ed. Ibid. 17 a. [This sermon appears to be wanting in the Fr. edition.] ་ § Bas. ed. fol. 19 b; Fr. ed. I. p. 192. referred morality to the relations of this world, excluding the higher aspirations after that which is above the world, the craving that passes beyond things earthly to lay hold on eternal life. "These men," says he,* "stray away into the rational exercise of the virtues, and thus find such pleasure and delight in this, that they are kept at a distance from the truth which is nearest and highest, stopping short at the present pleasure, instead of seeking after the eternal God through all pleasure.' He reprimands those who placed their dependence on saints or angels, instead of reposing their whole trust in God. He says:† "There are some spiritual men, who are not content to be without comfort. For rather than to be simply and truly without comfort, and found empty and naked, they would resort to heavenly creatures, saints and angels, and entertain these in their minds with a spiritual pleasure, and set these before them for a comfort. As, for example, this saint is loved by me above other saints, or this angel above other angels. And then if any one objects to this, declaring that it is an unpermitted thing, that it should not be done, they have small pleasure in this, perhaps they are displeased; and this is at once a wrong, and a great hindrance to thee in thy business with God." We have seen how Tauler regarded the pious observance of all outward rites prescribed by the church as a preparatory school for the highest stage of spirituality, of the contemplative religious life how therefore these Friends of God were opposed to those who outwardly and arbitrarily cast off all external observances. The casting aside of these ordinances should not be a purposed thing; it should be a natural falling off of them; as if the internal development of the religious life had progressed to such a point, that the outward rites which were no longer needed as supports, must fall away of themselves. And here we may observe the difference between the men of this bent and the violent reformers, those fanatical Beghards, and the Brethren of the Free Spirit. But we may remark also how easily the transition might be made from these principles to that application of them. We find the following passage in *Bas. ed. fol. 19 b; Fr. ed. I. p. 192. Tauler,* which begins with a beautiful comparison: "We gladly break off and strip away the leaves, to let the sun pour his rays, without hindrance, upon these young grapes. So all helps that become hindrances fall away from the Christian-images of saints, knowledge, exercises, and prayer, and all means. The man should not cast these aside, however, but wait till they fall off themselves, through divine grace; this is, when a man is trained up to a higher stage, beyond all his understanding." Tauler, moreover, opposes the one-sided contemplative bent, which despised the practical. He requires the union and mutual interpenetration of the two elements. He understood the dangers of those who, without matured experience, would betake themselves to the contemplative life alone. He looks upon the practical life as a needful probation; and says in this regard of the young people: "One should not lie down to repose in the noble country of contemplation. He may perhaps pass in there for a while, but he should fly back again, as long as he is not fully mature, and is still young and unpractised and imperfect."+ Moreover, he speaks against the tendency of wanting to luxuriate continually in sweet feelings, and says: "It is no great distress if a man is not always jubilant and in sweet enjoyment; for all this is but a chance gift of God, that is, when the essential thing of a devout temper abides in the man.' He speaks of those who, when times of stumbling followed after pleasant enjoyments, knew not upon what to fix and steady themselves. "Their sweet emotions," says he,§ have turned out a weak foundation on which they have been trusting, instead of trusting truly in God, solely and alone, in love and suffering." This luxuriating in sweet feelings was, according to him, the evil germ from which the tendency of those enthusiastic Friends of God, who had sunk down into pantheistic self-deification, had evolved itself, and he remarks :|| "There are some who so rest in the sweetness of enjoyment as to fall into an improper VOL. IX. * Bas. ed. fol. 21 b; Fr. ed. I. p. 199, + Ibid. 7 a; Fr. ed. I. p. 135. Ibid. 134 a; Fr. ed. III. p. 218. § Ibid. 46 a; Fr. ed. II. p. 113. Ibid. 48 a; Fr. ed. II. p. 121. 2Q freedom." He defines it as a sinking back of nature into itself, finds in it therefore an intermixture of the natural and divine. It appears to him a self-constituted, artificial state of being, which he compares to the employment of a multiplicity of remedies, that hinder Nature in her own healthy and spontaneous reactions, and he observes: " In these pleasant moods and states Nature bends back upon herself with agility, and quietly awaits the result of that to which the man is, above all things, inclined, and abandons herself to security; and just that happens which I have heard from physicians, that it is not a good thing for men to use many drugs,* for, when Nature finds herself helped, she trusts to that and sits down and rests, and she thinks she has the right help, and works not so diligently as she otherwise does. But when she is uncertain of all help, she contrives, and works, and helps herself." He warns against turning the thoughts inward too much on one's self, against despondency under temptations, which ought to be regarded as a means designed for the purification of the soul. He says: "Have good courage, then, and be joyful and not sorrowful nor melancholy, though wicked, impure thoughts may sometimes intrude into your minds; let them be as wicked as they may, pay no attention to them. For if they come up contrary to thy thoughts or wishes, so let them fall out again. And should this happen to thee, most of all in prayer and in thy approaches to God, let them alone in the name of God, and suffer this conflict and these impure suggestions right cheerfully and humbly and quietly by the will of God." So in the times of spiritual dearth, when the sensible presence of God is wanting, and the soul feels itself forsaken by Him, he warns men not to despair, but to recognise in this an appointment of Providence designed for the saving good of man, for the promotion of the divine life. "We must," says he, "intend and seek God by himself. And this foretaste of the great true wedding many people would fain have, and complain that it cannot be. And if they experience no wedding on the deep * [The Bas. ed. reads; das sy vil aertzet hetten, which doubtless signifies drugs. Ed.] † Bas. ed. fol. 134 a; Fr. ed. III. p. 217. Ibid. 31 a; Fr. ed. I. p. 266. |