Three Friends of God: Records from the Lives of John Tauler, Nicholas of Basle, Henry Suso
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Three Friends of God: Records from the Lives of John Tauler, Nicholas of Basle, Henry Suso Author(s): Bevan, Frances Publisher: Grand Rapids, MI: Christian Classics Ethereal Library Description: The Friends of God are an informal group of Catholic mystics who organized themselves in Germany and Switzerland in the early 14th century. These Friends strove to deepen both their communal relationships as well as their inner spirituality. Tauler was a master of combining the mystical with the con- crete, the spiritual with the practical. He taught that each human has a desire for God which is satisfied through detach- ment from earthly things. Suso also believed that to achieve perfect, soul-level union with God, a person had to die to himself and become detached from the world. History provides a "very imperfect sketch" of Nicholas Basle accord- ing to Bevan. For many years, Basle was thought to be the mysterious "Master" described in many of the Friends© docu- ments, but it was later discovered that the Master was a fic- tional character. Bevan©s book is a biographical narrative of these three Friends© lives complete with dialogue. They dis- cuss numerous facets of Catholicism and mysticism, and readers interested in these subjects will enjoy the work. Abby Zwart CCEL Staff Writer i Contents Title Page 1 Preface 2 Chapter I. The Sermon of Dr. Tauler 6 Chapter II. Another Sermon of Dr. Tauler 10 Chapter III. Nicholar Tells the Master Wholesom Truths 14 Chapter IV. Who Was Nicholas 16 Chapter V. The Belief of the Brethren 20 Chapter VI. The Love of the Brethren 23 Chapter VII. The Preaching of the Brethren 27 Chapter VIII. Nicholar Tells His Story to Dr. Tauler 29 Chapter IX. The Master Owns Himself a Sinner 32 Chapter X. The Master Learns His A. B. C. 35 Chapter XI. How It Fared Further with the Master 40 Chapter XII. Jesus of Nazareth Passeth By 41 Chapter XIII. The Sermon to the Nuns 45 Chapter XIV. The Great Power of God 50 Chapter XV. The Serpent Lifted Up 54 Chapter XVI. The Merchantmen in the Temple 56 Chapter XVII. “The Heritage of the Heathen” 58 Chapter XVIII. The Freighted Ship 62 Chapter XIX. The Apple Trees 64 Chapter XX. Work 66 Chapter XXI. The Religion of Man 70 Chapter XXII. Rest 75 Chapter XXIII. The Summer Fields 78 Chapter XXIV. The Cause and the Effect 81 ii Chapter XXV. The Full Measure 84 Chapter XXVI. The Heart of God 87 Chapter XXVII. The Unveiled Face 90 Chapter XXVIII. The Vineyards 93 Chapter XXIX. The Water-Springs 97 Chapter XXX. Out of Egypt 100 Chapter XXXI. The Wilderness 102 Chapter XXXII. The Mass 106 Chapter XXXIII. The Mystics 109 Chapter XXXIV. The Master’s Friends 113 Chapter XXXV. The Vengeance of Rome 115 Chapter XXXVI. The Farewell 119 Chapter XXXVII. The Cloud 122 Chapter XXXVIII. Nicholas of Basle 125 Chapter XXXIX. Night to Be Remembered 127 Chapter XL. Four Sad Years 131 Chapter XLI. Light and Darkness 136 Chapter XLII. The Sect Everywhere Spoken Against 139 Chapter XLIII. The Mountain Home 142 Chapter XLIV. The House of the Green Meadow 146 Chapter XLV. Nicholas at Rome 149 Chapter XLVI. The Chariot of Fire 153 Chapter XLVII. The Pilgrim’s Progress of 1352 157 Chapter XLVIII. More Light and Less Love 165 Chapter XLIX. Another Friend of God 168 Chapter L. “The Glory of That Light” 171 Chapter LI. The Dark Shadow 175 Chapter LII. The Knight of God 180 Chapter LIII. God’s Cup of Myrrh 185 Chapter LIV. “Ye Shall Be Hated of All Men” 190 Chapter LV. A New Song 196 Chapter LVI. The Tablet of Wax 200 iii Chapter LVII. The Preacher and the Enemy 203 Chapter LVIII. From the World to God 208 Chapter LIX. The Gospel of the Friends of God 213 Chapter LX. The Labour Ended, the Rest Begun 217 iv This PDF file is from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library, www.ccel.org. 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Written permission is required for commercial use. v Title Page Title Page THREE FRIENDS OF GOD RECORDS FROM THE LIVES OF JOHN TAULER, NICHOLAS OF BASLE, HENRY SUSO BY FRANCES BEVAN, AUTHOR OF “TREES PLANTED BY THE RIVER,” “HYMNS OF TER STEE- GEN,” ETC. SIXTH EDITION London JAMES NISBET & CO., LIMITED, 21 BERNERS STREET 1 Preface Preface PREFACE HE short account given in the following pages of three of the “Friends of God” of the Tfourteenth century is but a small fragment of a history which would form in itself a voluminous library, the History of the “Brethren” of the Middle Ages, known to us under many names, but in England chiefly as the Lollards or Boni Homines. Any account of these widely scattered and persecuted Christians must necessarily be a very imperfect one, as their history is told us chiefly by enemies, who were both ignorant of their true principles, and eager to malign them. And when, as in the histories that follow, they were themselves the narrators, we find that their writings were altered and enlarged by copyists who had an in- terest in doing so, or who imagined they rendered them more edifying by additions of their own. It is therefore necessary to remark that, though historical accuracy has been faithfully aimed at in the following stories, and though no addition whatever has been made by the writer to the original accounts, and though, further, the actual words of the “Friends of God” have been employed in making extracts from their writings, the history may yet be open to correction from further researches which are now being made by painstaking historians. The authors who have been followed in the account now given are, besides the three “Friends of God” themselves, Dr. Carl Schmidt, whose histories of Tauler, and of Nicholas of Basle, are the result of great labour and research; and Dr. Ludwig Keller, whose book, most inter- esting for German readers, “The Reformation, and the Older Reforming Bodies, described in their connection with one another,” will well repay a careful study.” A few words from his preface may not be out of place on the present occasion. “The bodies thus connected were, as the following pages will show, those communities of ‘Brethren’ which under various names are well known as existing during many centuries, but whose true history lies hidden under the veil which the orthodox Churches, for good reason, spread over the fate of these persecuted Christians, who were called by them ‘heretics, or ‘sectaries,’ and against whom they waged war by fire and sword. “The history of these ‘communities of Brethren,’ who called themselves simply ‘Christi- ans,’ reminds us, in a remarkable manner, in the mode by which they are described, and in the course of their destiny, of the incidents of the earliest Christian centuries. For it was just those ‘Christians,’ who were represented by the chief authors of antiquity as the ‘offscouring of all things,’ who were hated and persecuted as sectaries by the Jewish and heathen priest- hood — we may recall that Paul himself was brought to trial as ‘a leader of the sect of the Nazarenes’ — it was just those despised men who were the beginning of a new era for the heathen and the Jewish world. “In accordance with the prediction of Christ, ‘If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you,’ the ‘true Christians’ have in all ages been persecuted as being a sect, or sectaries; have been calumniated and hated. But according to the further prediction of the 2 Preface Redeemer, they have arisen as it were from the ashes, and the hatred of the world has been of no avail.” Thus, though an exterminating war was carried on against these earlier Reformers, we find that two centuries after the events related in the stories that follow, the hidden stream of life burst forth afresh into the daylight, and Martin Luther rejoiced to reprint and circulate the writings of the “Friends of God.” It is right to observe that there are some historians who are not fully satisfied that the great preacher converted by means of the “Friend of God from the Oberland” was really Dr. Tauler. Others, again, deny the identity of the “Friend of God from the Oberland” with Nicholas of Basle. But having examined these various theories, that of Dr. Carl Schmidt, who has devoted many years to careful investigation of these questions, appears to be conclusive. He admits, however, an uncertainty as to the date of the conversion of Dr. Tauler, as it is given variously in manuscripts and in the first printed accounts.