412 John Scottus Eriugena
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1962); Hans
Liebeschütz, Mediaeval Humanism in the Life and Writings
of John of Salisbury(London: Warburg Institute, Univer-
sity of London, 1950); Michael Wilks, ed., The World of
John of Salisbury(Oxford: Blackwell, 1984).
John Scottus Eriugena (John the Scot Eriugena,
Erigena)(ca. 810–ca. 877/879)Irish or Scot scholar
John Scottus, probably an Irishman or perhaps a Scot,
knew Greek. He lived at the court of CHARLESI THEBALD
in the third quarter of the ninth century, taught the
SEVEN LIBERAL ARTSthere, and took part in the contro-
versy over PREDESTINATIONraised by Gottschalk of Orbais
(ca. 805–68). In the 12th century, WILLIAM OFMALMES-
BURY misidentified Eriugena with another monk from
Malmesbury and provided us with dubious anecdotes.
One took place at a dinner during which Charles I the
Bald and Eriugena, sitting opposite each other at the
same table, chatted comfortably. The king asked him,
“What separates a ‘Scot,’ or Irishman, referring to Eriu-
gena, from a ‘sot’?” Eriugena replied, “Nothing but a
table.” William of Malmesbury also imagined that Eriu-
gena died while teaching, stabbed by the pens of his
angry pupils. These stories were associated with Eriugena
throughout the Middle Ages.
IDEAS AND WRITINGAccording to Eriugena, preference must be given to Scrip-
ture, the starting point for all philosophical or theological
speculation. Moreover, adherence through FAITH to
revealed truths was indispensable in the speculation.
Christians must seek to understand what they believed.
This quest for understanding was the work of human rea-
son, helped by divine GRACEand guided by the experi-
ence of those who had interpreted Scripture in the past or
by tradition. His ideas and those of contemporary neopla-
tonism converged. Despite the reverence that Eriugena
accorded to the FATHERSof the CHURCH, their authority
was not in his eyes supreme. Authority derived from true
reason rather than from authority.
Most of his work was thus a commentary on Scrip-
ture. But, as he acknowledged, any attempt to interpret
Scripture was an infinite task. Each verse of the BIBLEwas
capable of multiple interpretations that could supplement
one another. For John the interpretation of Scripture was
a labyrinth whose numerous versions should lead to the
search for truth.
Eriugena was eventually and probably wrongly
accused of pantheism in his Periphyseon.It was con-
demned in 1225 by Pope Honorius III (r. 1216–27); it
long remained suspect. He died, or was murdered, in 877.
See also CAROLINGIAN RENAISSANCE;HINCMAR OF
RHEIMS.
Further reading: John Joseph O’Meara, Eriugena
(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1988); Stephen Gersh, From
Iamblichus to Eriugena: An Investigation of the Prehistory
and Evolution of the Pseudo-Dionysian Tradition(Leiden:
Brill, 1978); Dermot Moran, The Philosophy of John Scot-
tus Eriugena: A Study of Idealism in the Middle Ages(Cam-
bridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989); Willemien
Otten, The Anthropology of Johannes Scottus Eriugena
(Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1991).John Tauler (Johannes Tauler)(ca. 1300–1361) Ger-
man Dominican mystic, preacher
John Tauler was born about 1300, the son of a wealthy
middle-class family in Strasbourg and entered the
DOMINICAN ORDERas a young man. After studies for
seven or eight years, he engaged in pastoral work, partic-
ularly with NUNS. During the Frankfurt Reichstag of
1338, the emperor Louis IV of BAVARIA(r. 1328–41),
braving the pope’s INTERDICT, ordered religious activities
to be carried out at Strasbourg, thereby forcing the
Dominicans into exile at Basel. Tauler worked with oth-
ers there on the reform of religious orders, the BEGUINES,
and lay religious organizations. Tauler went to COLOGNE
in 1339, 1343, 1346, and perhaps 1355–56, probably to
get copies of mystical texts. During the exile at Basel
between about 1340 to 1342, he helped translate into
German MECHTHILD VONMAGDEBURG’s The Flowing Light
of the Godhead.The following winter of 1342–43, the
Dominican friars returned to Strasbourg. John Tauler
cultivated a reputation as a preacher. His PREACHINGled
to the exemplary conversion of a Strasbourg banker who
became an important financial promoter of the move-
ment of Tauler’s followers. The date of Tauler’s death on
June 16, 1361, is known from a slab in the cloister of the
Dominican convent at Strasbourg.THOUGHT
Tauler never organized mystical teaching. His 80 or so
sermons always began in the traditional way by citing
and commenting on a biblical passage. They always
ended, however, with a suggestion for a mystical way of
union with GOD. Tauler often resorted to promoting
three ways, the purgative, the illuminative, and the uni-
fying, of gaining such a union with God. Tauler strived
to be a preacher for an interior awakening. In his layered
conception of human beings, there was an inner, an
outer, a sensitive, a reasonable, and a spiritual nature.
Redemptive self-knowledge was based on a mystical con-
version and introspection, as well as a well-practiced
attitude of humility, poverty of spirit, and abandonment
of the self to God.
See alsoECKHART,MASTER;SUSO,HENRY.
Further reading:John Tauler, Johannes Tauler: Ser-
mons, trans. Maria Shrady (New York: Paulist Press,
1985); James Midgley Clark, The Great German Mystics;
Eckhart, Tauler, and Suso(Folcroft, Pa.: Folcroft Press,
1969); Louise Gnädinger, “Tauler, John,” EMA,1.1409.