Fr. Johann Tauler - Spiritual Conferences

Spiritual Conferences

John Tauler

A translation of selected sermons compiled from Die Predigten Taulers , published by Ferdinand Vetter, 1910, in the Series: Deutsche Texte des Mittelalters , Vol. XI.

NIHIL OBSTAT:

J.S. Considine, O.P., S.T.M. Censor deputatus

IMPRIMATUR:

Albert Cardinal Meyer Archbishop of Chicago May 17, 1961

Copyright 1961 by B. Herder Book Co.

Copyright 1978 by TAN Books and Publishers, Inc.

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 78-74568

ISBN: 0-89555-082-2

TAN Books
Charlotte, North Carolina
www.TANBooks.com

1978

FOR THE Sixth Centenary OF THE Death of John Tauler, O.P. 13611961

Cross and Crown Series of Spirituality

LITERARY EDITOR

Reverend Jordan Aumann, O.P., S.T.D .

NUMBER 20

Contents Preface

THE TRANSLATORS gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Miss Clare Kirchberger, who supplied literal translations of Vetter's text on which these modern English versions are based. Later, she and Fr. Conrad Pepler, O.P., read and commented upon the Introduction.

Professor Herbert Grundmann, Dr. J. Van Mierlo, S.J., "Fr. J.-B. P." and Fr. Otwin Spiess, O.P., and their publishers have kindly permitted the quotations of their works which are cited in the Introduction and listed in the Bibliographical Note.

Throughout the translations an attempt has been made to reproduce Tauler's thought as faithfully as possible in a form suitable for spiritual reading. Where Vetter or the modern French editors indicate discrepancies between different manuscripts, the reading has been preferred which seems to give the most satisfactory sense, and no mention has been made of any others. Where there was a choice between an inaccurate translation and awkward English, fidelity to Tauler's thought has been preserved. Although there was no hope of preserving all the vigor and crispness of his own language, as much of these qualities has been indicated as was possible, without being too blunt or emphatic. Often, however, modern English or American usage has been impossible. Much of Tauler's thought is as foreign to the present age as is his language. Certain anachronisms have thus been inevitable, but the alternativethe affectation throughout of a vaguely pseudo-archaic stylehas been avoided.

Bibliographical Note

THE SERMONS TRANSLATED, and also the quotations from Tauler in the Introduction, are versions of the original Middle High German text of Tauler's works, Die Predigten Taulers , published by Ferdinand Vetter in 1910, in the series Deutsche Texte des Mittelalters , Vol. XI. In using the original German text, the editors have constantly consulted the modern French translation of Tauler's works, Sermons de Tauler , by E. Hugueney, O.P., G. Thry, O.P., and A. L. Corin (3 vols., Paris, 192735), with its valuable Introduction and notes.

Comparison with either the German or the French text will show that in this present anthology about one half of the sermons regarded as Tauler's authentic work have been translated. Sermons entirely omitted include XIIIXIV, XVI, XXXIV, XXXVI, XLIXLII, XLV, XLVIIIL, LIIILIV, LVIILVIII, LXLXV, LXVIILXXII, LXXIVLXXX. These numberings, and those used in the Introduction and anthology, correspond not with those of the German edition but with the ones followed by the French editors, who have restored the original liturgical sequence of the sermons.

In the Introduction the most important critical work which has been quoted is Professor Herbert Grundmann's analysis of the origins and developments of medieval German religious enthusiasm, Religise Bewegungen im Mittelalter (Berlin, 1935). A comparable, equally valuable study of medieval piety in the Netherlands, Geschiedenis van de Vroomheid in de Nederlanden , by S. Axters, O.P., (2 vols., Antwerp, 19503) has also been used. The works by the great Dominican historian of German mysticism, Denifle, have often been referred to: his edition of Das Buch von geistlicher Armut (Munich, 1877) and the most important edition of his notes for a general survey of the mystical teaching of Eckhart and his followers, which O. Spiess, O.P., has published: Die deutschen Mystiker des 14. Jahrhunderts (Freiburg, Switzerland, 1951).

The quotations from Hadewijch's works are taken from the editions of her letters and her poems by J. Van Mierlo, S.J. , ( Brieven , 2 vols., Antwerp, 1947, and Strophische Gedichten , Antwerp, 1924). For any study of medieval Dutch and German spirituality the modern French version of her poems by "Fr. J.-B. P." ( Hadewijch d'Anvers: crits mystiques des Bguines , Paris, 1954), with its brilliant introduction and most learned notes, is now indispensable.

For Ruysbroek, readers may be referred to Eric Colledge's translation, The Spiritual Espousals (London, 1952), the Introduction to which contains an analysis of many of the theological terms and concepts common to Ruysbroek and Tauler.

An excellent work on Mechtild of Magdeburg is Lucy Menzies' translation, The Revelations of Mechtild of Magdeburg (London, 1953). The texts concerning Margaret Porette's trial and condemnation are in Fredericq's Corpus documentorum inquisitionis haereticae pravitatis neerlandicae (2 vols., Ghent and The Hague, 188997), a fundamental work of reference. Dr. Romana Guarnieri has announced her forthcoming edition of a Latin text of The Mirror of Simple Souls , which will defend her thesis that Margaret Porette was the author. (Cf. Lo "Specchio delle anime semplici" e Margherita Poirette , in the Osservatore Romano of June 16, 1946.) The only published version of The Mirror which hitherto has ever appeared is the modern English version of the medieval English translation, edited by Miss Clare Kirchberger (London, 1927).

For Henry Suso, a recent English work is Professor J.M. Clark's translation, The Little Book of Eternal Truth (London, 1953), and the same author has also written a short outline history, The Great German Mystics (Oxford, 1949). A work still of some value is W. Preger's Geschichte der deutschen Mystik im Mittelalter (3 vols., Leipzig, 187493).

The greatest single need of the modern student of medieval spirituality is that the editions of Eckhart's Latin and German works, now in progress, should be completed, and that a survey of them and of the enormous body of ancillary literature should then be made, comparable with Professor Andr Combes' erudite study of the Ruysbroek-Gerson controversy. Until this has been done, we are still in the dark concerning Eckhart, though the judgments on him by Denifle and of Rudolf Otto (in West-stliche Mystik , Gotha, 1927, translated as Mysticism, East and West by Bertha L. Bracey and Richenda C. Payne, 1932), who approach him from different and contradictory premises and by entirely different ways, are of great value as provisional verdicts.

More recently, Mme. Jeanne Ancelet-Hustache has published a useful and well-informed popular modern French anthology of selections from Eckhart's writings: Matre Eckhart et la mystique rhenane (Paris, 1956), and Professor James M. Clark has published Meister Eckhart: An Introduction to the Study of his Works with an Anthology of his Sermons (London, 1957), which is an excellent critical study. Both writers have used many of the works listed here.

Significant Dates

c.1207	Mechtild of Magdeburg born.
1219	First Franciscan mission to Germany.
August 6, 1221	Death of St. Dominic; a Dominican province already established in Germany.
1221	Second Franciscan mission to Germany.

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