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The First German Movement In Its European Setting (1270-1350)
Page 12
Since the pious soul which abandons itself entirely to God is made God-like by grace, the inner man can build his Church and his empire within himself [37]. Besides the Church's sacramental priesthood, there is a spiritual priesthood [38]. Within Christendom [39] every inward spirit, hence women as well as men may belong to it. (Note of the author: cf. Abélard and Fénelon). The Church, the true bark of Peter, is "that inner depth in man wherein Christ rests렛40]. It was easy to see Rome as a synonym for vain pomp [41]. Tauler's sermon at the dedication of the Cologne Cathedral, on 26 September 1357, was on that church which is within the inner man: all your external holiness, your saints and your relics cannot help you. The three holy Kings and the eleven thousand virgins, the fair cathedrals and the golden spires are without saving power. "It is not the churches that make the people holy but the people who make the churches holy" [42].
Since the inner man was the true Church, simony took on an entirely new significance. For Humbert and Gregory VI, simony had been the battle-cry for the overthrow of the old world and its replacement by their spirit Church. After Tauler, simony became the slogan with which the new spirituality attacked the Church itself. According to Tauler, a man practised simony if he performed good spiritual works with selfish intentions or with a thought of reward [43]. He and his disciples were excommunicated because they taught that good works, the Sacraments and spiritual practices had grown impotent, that monasticism was not a way to salvation, and that serious and aspiring souls were led astray by a false spiritual discipline whose end was self-seeking [44]. The greater part of the members of religious orders lived in false holiness, mere "Jews", relying on cults, ceremonies and good works [45]. This was the beginning of the violent attack on monasticism, [46] which Erasmus summed up when he said flatly, Monachatus non est pietas. (Note of the author: One of the most important motifs in European intellectual history from late medieval times until the nineteenth century was the attack on monasticism: Franciscan and stoic humanist, religious condemnation of monastic failure and corruption. Hundreds of councils, chapters, papal Bulls, imperial and royal edicts were devoted to reform of the orders, but the disillusionment of the people and the intelligentsia remained.) What good are these outer things, Tauler asked? Can they help us to become new men within ourselves? The New Testament is within us. Tauler criticized the Old Testament's "insupportable burdens" and cruel judgments.
Cf. Meister Eckhart von Friedrich Heer ||| Mail: Heer, Tauler & nazism
