“Was dir disen unfriden machet, das entůnt nút die werk, nein nút, es tůt din unordenunge, die du hast in den werken [What is causing you this distress is not the works, no, it is the disorder that you have in the works].”93 Order, however, is not miraculously obtained but must be developed through practice.94 Tauler concludes the sermon by asserting that even the discernment of spirits (underscheit der geiste) is not a divine gift, but an ability developed through trial. Those who have been tested and tormented by spirits have learned to know which are evil.95 Spiritual perfection, therefore, can only be attained through orderly works, both inner and outer. Far from hindering Gelassenheit, orderly works prepare the soul.
Order Within the Order
A closer look at Tauler’s use of ordenunge shows that he links orderliness, not only etymologically but also conceptually, to the Dominican order in particular and further to any religious order in general. As I have just established, ordenunge in external works is not simply something that results from divinely granted prudence or the achievement of Gelassenheit. Orderliness constitutes a set of difficult practices with manifold variations, all of which are meant to foster the internal order that culminates in Gelassenheit. The best place to practice order, Tauler assures, is in an order.
Dis meinent und diseme dienent alle die wisen und alle die werg und übungen die wir hant in unserm heilgen ordene, und alle andere ordenunge … das er in uns hochgezit mache und wir mit ime habent ein unbekumberten grunt, der nút inne enhabe denne Got luterlichen.96
All the methods and all the works and practices that we have in our holy order and in all other orders intend and serve this … that He make a feast day in us and that we have with him an untroubled ground that has nothing in it but God alone.
In consonance with Tauler’s injunction not to wait for God to endow one with virtue, this passage concisely presents Tauler’s formulation of the usefulness of a Rule. Contrary to Zekorn’s dismissive statement that Tauler sees no value in the order’s precepts,97 Tauler states explicitly here that one observes the order to prepare the ground of the soul for the divine feast. Hochgezit must not be mistranslated as “wedding,” since the term referred to any special liturgical feast. Although the connotation of bridal mysticism remains, the hochgezit is first and foremost a period of intensified liturgical activity. Fulfilling the obligations of the order produces an ordered ground, in which God himself can celebrate his own liturgy.
Heinrich Seuse also considers pursuance of the order’s statutes as one of the requisite tasks for the quickest path to Gelassenheit. In a letter to a spiritual daughter, perhaps also Stagel, Seuse claims that his own personal experience has led him to the conclusion that nothing better serves mystical fulfillment than renouncing all things. However, he qualifies this renunciation by describing what kinds of outer practices it entails.
Ich han nach miner wise vil gestudieret und vinde nút nehers, denne daz sich ein mensche wislich und ordenlich allen dingen, als verre er mag, entsage … und dar zů höret stille swigen und hoch betrahten, wenig wort und vil strenger werk … sinen orden strenklich halten.98
I have studied much in my own way and find nothing quicker than that a person renounce all things wisely and in an orderly way, insofar as he is able … this includes silence and high contemplation, few words and much hard work … strictly observing one’s order.
We will see this celebration of strict observance of the order echoed in the sisterbooks. Although Seuse uses vocabulary associated with Gelassenheit and mystical un-becoming (that is, entsagen/renunciation and the quickest path), he also immediately reminds the reader that this mystical renunciation does not take the form of inactivity or quietism. Seuse encourages not only orderly renunciation but renunciation into an order, framing withdrawal from the world as enclosure in a convent.
The first aspect of regular life that Seuse highlights in this passage is the practice of silence. Spiritual silence served as a metaphor for Gelassenheit, but both Seuse and Tauler also hold that external silence produces internal mystical silence and urge their Dominican audience to observe the silence of the order. Both the Constitutions for friars and those for sisters devote an entire chapter to silence. Dominican men and women were obliged to remain silent at all times in the cloister, in the dormitory, in cells, in the refectory, and in oratories. Indeed, even outside of these areas, for the most part they required permission to speak at all.99
In accord with the importance of silence to daily life in the order, Seuse devoted an entire chapter of his Vita to “the useful virtue, which is called silence.”100 He happily claims that he never broke silence at table except once in thirty years. Tauler also encourages silence, while contextualizing it as an essential practice of the order.
Ich enheischen von úch kein grosse volkomenheit noch heilikeit, denne das ir minne habent zů úwerem heiligen orden, und die minnekliche gesetzde meinent ze haltende als verre als ir múgent, und úwer swigen gerne haltent uf allen den stetten do es gebotten ist, und aller meist ob dem tische und in dem kore.101
I expect no greater perfection or holiness from you than that you love your holy order and intend to observe its sweet statutes as far as you can. Gladly observe silence in all the places where it is commanded, particularly at table and in the choir.
Tauler repudiates supererogatory asceticism and encourages only strict observance, in which context silence is to be understood. Nevertheless, swigen and stillekeit also appear outside the context of the statutes, among lists of ideal virtues in Tauler’s sermons. For example, he attributes it to Christ and thereby assimilates silence into the project of imitatio Christi.102 The external practice required by the order thus has both symbolic and pragmatic value. In sum, observing silence outwardly fosters spiritual silence.
As with silence, prayer also must not become an end in itself, but rather serve the end of Gelassenheit. Indeed, for Tauler, true prayer may just as easily be experienced in silence as in speech, since he adopts the definition of prayer as ascent of the mind to God.103 He describes this ascent with a metaphor of incense: burning incense represents outer prayer practices and the smoke is the mind ascending in true prayer, released from the kernel in which it had been trapped. Burning incense serves the sole purpose of releasing smoke, and similarly outer prayer practices serve no other purpose than releasing the mind.
Also ist ussewendig gebet nút me nútze denne also verre als es zů diser edelen andaht den menschen reisset, und dannan uzbrichet der edel rouch; wanne der denne uskummet, so la das gebet des mundes künliche varn.104
Thus external prayer is only useful insofar as it draws the person to this noble contemplation, and from thence the noble smoke breaks out; when that comes out, so leave off the prayer of the mouth.
Prayer practices are useful because, but only insofar as, they create the proper disposition for “noble contemplation,” the ascent of the mind to God in Gelassenheit. Tauler therefore discourages the practice of reciting ever greater numbers of prayers, and repudiates the idea that prayers could “buy” spiritual effects. He may have had in mind visionary claims, such as the notion that reciting the psalter or Pater noster a certain number of times released an equivalent number of souls from purgatory. However, he also explicitly denigrates the practice of endowing memorial services.105 The act of mouthing prayers earns nothing from God in a mercantile exchange but rather serves only to promote a contemplative disposition, which of itself constitutes “true” prayer. If one allows external prayer to become an end in itself or even approaches it as the means to any particular end, self-will infects the practice and precludes abandoning one’s will to God. For this reason, Tauler authorizes his audience to desist from reciting prayers if and when this practice begins to obstruct the empty
