The Inner Way by John Tauler About The Inner Way by John Tauler Title: The Inner Way URL: http://www.ccel.org/ccel/tauler/inner_way.html Author(s): Tauler, John (1300-1361) Wollaston, Arthur (Editor) Publisher: Methuen & Co., London Rights: Public Domain Date Created: 1901 Contributor(s): Jon Van Hofwegen (Markup) CCEL Subjects: All; Sermons; Mysticism; Proofed LC Call no: BV5080 LC Subjects: Practical theology Practical religion. The Christian life Mysticism The Inner Way John Tauler Table of Contents About This Book. p. ii Main Title. p. 1 Introduction. p. 2 I. p. 2 II. p. 5 Notes on tauler©s Teaching. p. 7 Tauler and Mysticism. p. 9 The Versions of Tauler©s Sermons. p. 13 Inner Way Title. p. 15 Sermon I. p. 16 Sermon II. p. 20 Sermon III. p. 23 Sermon IV. p. 27 Sermon V. p. 33 Sermon VI. p. 36 Sermon VII. p. 40 Sermon VIII. p. 44 Sermon IX. p. 47 Sermon X. p. 51 Sermon XI. p. 56 Sermon XII. p. 61 Sermon XIII. p. 64 Sermon XIV. p. 67 Sermon XV. p. 71 Sermon XVI. p. 77 Sermon XVII. p. 81 Sermon XVIII. p. 85 Sermon XIX. p. 89 Sermon XX. p. 92 Sermon XXI. p. 95 Sermon XXII. p. 99 Sermon XXIII. p. 103 Sermon XXIV. p. 106 Sermon XXV. p. 109 Sermon XXVI. p. 114 iii The Inner Way John Tauler Sermon XXVII. p. 118 Sermon XXVIII. p. 120 Sermon XXIX. p. 123 Sermon XXX. p. 126 Sermon XXXI. p. 130 Sermon XXXII. p. 135 Sermon XXXIII. p. 140 Sermon XXXIV. p. 143 Sermon XXXV. p. 147 Sermon XXXVI. p. 150 Three thoughtful Instructions and some useful Advice on Confession . p. 154 Instruction I. p. 154 Instruction II. p. 154 Instruction III. p. 155 Indexes. p. 157 Index of Scripture References. p. 157 iv Inner Way John Tauler THE INNER WAY BEING THIRTY-SIX SERMONS FOR FESTIVALS BY JOHN TAULER FRIAR PREACHER OF STRASBURG A NEW TRANSLATION FROM THE GERMAN EDITED WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY ARTHUR WOLLASTON HUTTON, M.A. RECTOR OF ST MARY-LE-BOW CHEAPSIDE METHUEN & CO. 36 ESSEX ST. W.C. LONDON SECOND EDITION FIRST PUBLISHED MAY 1901 SECOND EDITION NOVEMBER 1909 1 Inner Way John Tauler INTRODUCTION I Scope of the Present Publication In this volume are contained the thirty-seven Sermons of John Tauler, which form the Third Part of the complete editions published at Frankfort in 1826 and at Prague (ed. Hamberger) in 1872. These are the Sermons for Festivals (de sanctis), while the First and Second Parts contain the Sermons for the Christian Year (de tempore); the total number being 145. Should this volume of the Festal Sermons meet with a favourable reception, the Sermons for the Christian Year may follow in two or three volumes. Up to the present time only twenty-seven of Tauler's sermons have appeared in English, these being contained in Miss Susanna Winkworth's well-known but now scarce volume, to which Charles Kingsley contributed a preface.1 Of the thirty-seven Festal Sermons Miss Winkworth translated only three (nos. 4, 12, and 31 in the present volume) so that thirty-four of those now presented to the reader appear here for the first time in English. The Sermons for the Christian Year were translated into French by M. Charles Sainte-Foi, and were published in Paris in 1855; but he did not include the Sermons de sanctis. They are to be found, however, together with all else that is rightly or wrongly ascribed to Tauler, in the Latin version, or rather paraphrase, by Laurentius Surius, a Carthusian,2 which was based on the Cologne German edition of 1543, and which was reprinted at least twelve times before the end of the seventeenth century, while it was also translated into Italian, French and Dutch. Until the appearance of Hamberger's edition (Prague, 1872), the standard German edition of the Sermons was that published at Frankfort, in 1826, without an editor's name. This was used by Miss Winkworth, and also by M. Sainte-Foi; and it forms the basis of the present publication, as I have only been able to refer to Hamberger's edition in the British Museum. In the anonymous Introduction are indicated the MSS. sources on which the earlier standard German editions (Leipzig, 1498; Augsburg, 1508; Basle, 1521; Halberstadt, 1523; Cologne, 1543; Frankfort, 1565; Amsterdam, 1588; Antwerp, 1593; and Hamburg, 1621) were based. The original Leipzig edition (1498) was printed from MSS. at Strasburg, said to be contemporary with Tauler, and to have been corrected by him. The eighty-four sermons in this edition may therefore be reckoned as authentic, with the exception of four, which are known to have been Eckhart's. To the Basle edition of 1521 forty-two sermons were added, the editor, John Rymann, saying of them that ªthey have been more recently discovered and collected with great care and diligence. Although there may be a doubt about some of them, let not that offend thee, for it is certain that they have been written by a right learned man of that age, and are all based on one foundation, namely, true self-surrender and the preparation of the spirit for God.º Some of these are probably to be ascribed to Eckhart, Suso or Ruysbroek. Such of them as are found in this volume are distinguished by the mark * in the Table of Contents. Of 1 ªThe History and Life of the Reverend Doctor John Tauler of Strasbourg; with Twenty-five of his Sermons (temp. 1340) translated from the German with additional Notices of Tauler's Life and Times, by Susanna Winkworth.º London, 1857. 2 D. Joannis Thauleri preaclarissimi viri sublimisque theologi tam de tempore quam de sanctis conciones plane pilassimae...eaeteraque opera omnia...nune primum ex Germanico idiomate in Latinum transfusa sermonem, interprete Laurentio Surio, Lubecensi, Carthusiae Coloniensis alumno, Coloniae, 1548. 2 Inner Way John Tauler this Basle edition it should be noted that it was issued in the interests of the Reformation; and the article on Tauler in the new edition of the Kirchenlexicon (1899) seems to ignore these forty-two additional sermons altogether, and to admit as authentic only five of those added to the Cologne edition presently to be referred to. Something is said below as to the sense in which alone Tauler can be described as ªa Reformer before the Reformationº; but it may be convenient here to note that Luther, who in 1517 put forth an edition of the Theologia Germanica, the work of one of Tauler's contemporaries, had in the previous year written to Spalatin a commendation of Tauler's sermons, of which, as a recognition of their Protestant tendency, too much has certainly been made. The fact that the words were written when Luther was still Prior of Wittenberg, and before there was any breach with Rome, should have sufficed to secure them from such misinterpretation.3 Finally, to the Cologne edition of 1543 (the standard for all subsequent ones) Petrus Noviomagus, the editor, added twenty-five sermons more, which he had found chiefly in the library of St Gertrude's Convent in Cologne; and the authenticity of these is in a general way supported, both by internal evidence, and by the fact that to the nuns at St Gertrude's Tauler frequently preached. Of the Festal Sermons contained in this volume, eighteen are to be found in the original Leipzig edition, fifteen form part of the Basle supplement, and four are of those that were added to the Cologne edition. Miss Winkworth, selecting from the whole number of 145 sermons, took eleven from the original edition, eleven from the Basle supplement, and five from the Cologne supplement. Of the Festal Sermons she selected only three, her principle of selection being rather edification than authenticity. But, on the general question of authenticity, it must be confessed that not one of the 145 sermons can claim such as it would have possessed had it been written by Tauler's own hand and been put forth by him as representing what he said or desired to say on the occasion. His sermons were always spoken; and the MSS. are at best only the reports of those who heard him; and such reports, it is hardly necessary to say, do not reproduce the sermons as they actually were delivered; though the way in which the sermons have thus come down to us explains the differences of reading in various editions and also the obscurity of certain passages. A critical edition of Tauler's Sermons by a competent hand is doubtless a thing to be desired; but it would be a misfortune, from the point of view of edification, if, in such an edition, matter otherwise admirable found no place, on account of the uncertainty of its authorship. The scope of Miss Winkworth's edition of Tauler's Sermons differed from that of the present publication. She had learnt to admire them by hearing some of them read in German Protestant households as a part of domestic worship; and her idea was to introduce a previously unknown preacher to an English audience, compiling ªa volume of sermons for the Sundays and Holy-days of the year, such as any head of a family might read to his household, or any district visitor among the poor.º But as she was very properly anxious to publish in their entirety such sermons as she selected, she felt compelled to omit such as, either in whole or in part, were ªtoo much imbued 3 Luther's commendation is as follows: - ªSi te dilectat puram, solidam, antiquae simillimam theologiam legere in Germanica lingua effusam, sermones Johannis Tauleri, praedictoriae professionis, tibi comparare potes, cujus totius velut epitomen ecce hic tibi mitto.