von Fritzlar, projector and part author of a Book of Holy Living, suggested to Giselher von Statheim the preparation of a sequel. Giselher accepted the task, and whilst inserting a few of his own lucubrations, did not forget Meister Eckhart, some of whose discourses here find a place.

Eckhart, as before implied, was the founder of a school. Among those who had heard him at Cologne were two young Dominicans, Heinrich Heinrich Seuse. Seuse and Johannes Tauler, who in different ways carried on his teaching. Both were born about the year 1300. Seuse spent the chief part of his life in a monastery at Constance, dying, however, in 1366, at Ulm, where his last years were passed. He was the poet of the movement. The story of his inner life, taken down from his own description by a Swiss nun, Elsbeth Stagel, and revised by himself, has been well named a spiritual Vita Nuova. In it there is much to remind us of the secular Minnesong, on which Seuse draws freely both for phrase and phantasy. He has a "hohe Minnerin" in the Eternal Wisdom, which appears to him, "sometimes as a wise monitress, sometimes as a buxom mistress." On New Year's Eve, when ordinary lovers repair to their sweethearts' and sing for a garland, he, Seuse, before the image of Mary with the Child, sings and speaks the praises of the Eternal Wisdom. When May comes, he sets up a spiritual Maypole, the Cross, and celebrates it in a lovely ode above all flowers, above all the songs of birds, and above all the deckings that ever graced a Maypole.

In the midst of these ecstasies he cherishes a grateful feeling towards his master, who, indeed, has shown. himself to him since death and affirmed his old teaching. These epiphanies, of which we shall have another example presently, are a great stumbling-block to those who insist on a plain and literal interpretation. It is evident, however, that minds like Seuse's are carried up into a state in which common experiences are left behind, and all is dissolved in rapturous contemplation. In such a mood anything is possible.

That the best sort of mystics, among whom we may surely reckon Heinrich Seuse, were guilty of Doctor Johann intentional deceit, is, I think, out of the Tauler. question; but it seems necessary to admit that some of them possessed eminent gifts of imagination. It is requisite to add that they were not all of this soaring spirit. Eckhart's other chief disciple, Tauler, represents the severely moral aspect of the religious life, and he is sternly opposed to exaggerations such as may be found in a Book of Spiritual Poverty, once falsely assigned to him. It is to be observed that for most purposes Tauler's fame has entirely overshadowed that of his master, and his name occurs as that of the best-known, if not the best, German, and perhaps European, mystic of the closing Middle Age. The impression of greatness left by this monk on the minds of his countrymen is reflected in the title of the first printed edition of his sermons, which begins as follows: "Sermon des grossgelarten in gnaden erleuchteten Doctoris Johannis Tauleri predigerr ordens, weisende," &c. As

has been observed in the case of Fra Giordano, Tauler did not write his sermons, which were taken down by certain of his hearers, and may have been modified, in some degree, by editors. Unlike Fra Giordano, however, Tauler did not neglect composition, and his writings include, what is perhaps the most interesting of them all, an Imitatio Christi, or, to quote the more significant German title, Nachfolgung des armen Lebens Christi. His works have been translated into High German, Latin, Dutch, and Italian -a circumstance which attests, as it contributed to spread, his fame.

The spirit of poetry and romance as revealed in Seuse spent itself in the relations betwixt himself Heinrich von and his Maker, Elsbeth Stagel being little Nördlingen. else than reverent disciple and amanuensis. It was otherwise with Heinrich von Nördlingen, who, suitably as may be thought to his quality of secular priest, did not disdain earthly, and even feminine, attachments, in which respect he may be compared to that eminent moralist, Samuel Richardson. Nördlingen, however, in his dealings with Gottesfreundinnen, appears to have cultivated a somewhat warmer style of address than Richardson would probably have deemed advisable. His chief friends were Christina and Margareta Ebner, who have also bequeathed to us accounts of their spiritual experiences; and of the two, Margareta, younger by fourteen years than her sister, was the favourite. He calls her "the dearest treasure of his heart given him by Christ"; and it is in the emotional

epistles addressed to her by Nördlingen that we can best discern the nature of such companionships, as well as the aims and ideals of the sect to which both belonged. Finally, Heinrich von Nördlingen imparted to the Offenbarungen of Mechtild von Magdeburg the High German setting in which they alone survive. Having treated of Rulman Merswin, I shall perhaps have exhausted the various categories to which individual mystics can be referred. Hitherto, An impostor? the worst fault imputed to any of them has been, in thought or action, a tendency to run into extremes. But hypocrisy always dogs the steps of genuine enthusiasm; and Rulman Merswin, a layman, is not exempt from the suspicion of having imposed on the simplicity of his co-religionists. A well-to-do citizen of Strasburg, and god - child of Tauler, he was on friendly terms with Heinrich von Nördlingen and Margareta Ebner; and having founded a house for the Knights of St John in his native city, forsook the world and devoted himself to the care of his new institution. Merswin was the author of two works discovered after his death a spiritual autobiography, and a Book of the Nine Rocks (or degrees), expressing essentially the same idea as Dante's Purgatorio, but in a style how different! Indeed, as literature, these works are by no means on a par with those of his fellow-mystics, and are interesting chiefly as specimens of the theological culture attainable in that age by laymen. Nothing, however, can atone for his systematic abuse of the authority of Tauler, or, at the very least, his invention of a Great

Unknown, with whom that renowned teacher has been generally identified.1

In France the great days of medieval preaching were now past. The preceding age had produced men French of mark-e.g., Jacques de Vitry, Robert de preachers. Sorbon, Étienne de Bourbon; the fourteenth century, on the contrary, plagued with barrenness, can show but one name of equal merit and distinction - Jean Gerson. If we inquire into the cause of this sterility, it would appear to lie, partially at least, in the abundance of ready-made sermons. easily procurable, and dissuading the common curate from exertions thus rendered unnecessary.

In Jean Gerson we encounter a man uniting in himself the virtues and accomplishments of a great preacher, for he was learned, and eloquent, Jean Gerson. and talented, and permeated with the spirit of Christianity. Masterpieces of method, his Latin sermons were collected and printed centuries ago; but his French discourses are, even now, in a large measure inedited. However, it is with the latter that we have principally to do. Gerson's French preaching divides into two epochs, of which the first extends from 1389 to 1397. He was then quite a young man. Born in 1363, in a vanished village of which he assumed the name, Jean Charlier had risen by rapid steps to be professor of the sacred sciences at the College of Navarre; and he was destined to still higher promo

1 On the German mystics see Deutsche Mystiker des 14 Jahr hunderts (ed. Pfeiffer: Leipzig, 1845-57); and W. Preger, Geschichte der deutschen Mystik im Mittelalter: Leipzig, 1874-81.