Born: Cir­ca 1300, Strass­burg, Ger­ma­ny.

Died: June 16, 1361, Strass­burg, Ger­ma­ny.

Johannes seems to have been the son of Nikolus Taul­er (or Tawl­er) of Fink­weil­er, who in 1304 was a mem­ber of the Strass­burg Mit­glieds des Raths (town coun­cil). Around 1318, Jo­han­nes en­tered the Do­min­i­can con­vent at Strass­burg. He stu­died for eight years at Strass­burg, where the well known Meis­ter Eckh­art was the Do­min­i­can Pro­fess­or of The­ol­o­gy (1312-1320). Jo­han­nes then went to Co­logne for four years fur­ther train­ing in the­o­ry and prac­ti­cal work. He then re­turned to Strass­burg, where he be­came known as an el­o­quent and prac­ti­cal preach­er.

When much of Ger­ma­ny was un­der in­ter­dict by Pope John XXII b­ecause of the re­sent­ment of his in­ter­fer­ence with the elect­ion of the Ger­man em­per­or in 1324, the Do­min­i­cans in Strass­burg con­tin­ued to preach, cel­e­brate mass, and min­is­ter to the peo­ple, ev­en though Strass­burg was un­der the pa­pal bann. Af­ter the 1338 Di­et of Frank­furt, the strife be­tween the Em­per­or and the Pope (now Ben­e­dict XII) be­came more pro­nounced. Up to 1339, the Do­min­i­cans at Strass­burg con­tin­ued to sing mass, but were then com­pelled by cease do­ing so by the su­per­i­ors of their or­der. As the Strass­burg ma­gis­tra­cy re­mained faith­ful to the Em­per­or, they re­sent­ed this su­bmiss­ion, and ac­cord­ing­ly closed the Do­min­i­can con­vent in 1339, and it stood emp­ty for 3½ years.

Around the start of 1339, Taul­er was in Ba­sel, Switz­er­land, where he stayed some years, in close connection with Hein­rich of Nörd­ling­en and others of the so-called “Friends of God” in that area. About 1346, he was again in Strass­burg, and spent most of the rest of his life there and at Co­logne.

The hymns at­trib­ut­ed to Taul­er were print­ed in his Werke (Co­logne: 1543), and by Dan­ivel Su­der­mann in his Schöne aus­ser­le­se­ne sinn­reiche Fig­ur­en (Strass­burg: 1620), and in his Et­liche hohe geist­liche Ge­sänge (Strass­burg: 1626). Su­der­mann seems to have re­writ­ten, or at least con­sider­a­bly al­tered, them.

Sources

Lyrics

1. As the Bridegroom to His Chosen
2. Es kommt ein Schiff geladen
   • Ship Comes Sailing Onwards, A
   • There Comes a Bark Full Laden
   • There Comes a Galley Laden
   • There Comes a Galley Sailing
3. Ich muss die Creaturen fliehen
   • From Outward Creatures I Must Flee
4. O Jesu Christ, ein lieblichs Güt
   • O Jesu Christ, Most Good, Most Fair