SOURCE: “The History and Life of the Reverend Doctor John Tauler” in The History and Life of the Reverend Doctor John Tauler of Strasbourg, translated by Susanna Winkworth, Smith, Elder, and Co., 1857, pp. 1-71.

The following excerpt, written circa 1340, is from a history first printed in the 1498 edition of Tauler’s sermons. Believed to be genuine by Winkworth when she translated it, the history was shown by Heinrich S. Denifle in 1879 to have grave problems and, although the work is still controversial, scholars now consider it spurious, possibly the work of Rulman Merswin, and treat it as a legend.

In the year of Our Lord 1340, it came to pass, that a Master in Holy Scripture preached ofttimes in a certain city, and the people loved to hear him, and his teaching were the talk of the country for many leagues round. Now this came to the ears of...