the mystical theology of valentin weigel - DataSpace at Princeton ...

much as five Gulden, and, where the poverty line for the early sixteenth century has been
estimated at ten Gulden per year, this constitutes a substantial (but not prohibitive)
investment. 197 At the very least, the cost of buying a Tauler edition was high enough that
one would have to already be interested or invested in spiritual texts, as one would not
idly spend such a sum. Those who read the early printed editions were interested in
Tauler first because of the form of his works (sermons), and second because of their
content. The publisher and book seller’s contacts extended throughout the German
speaking lands, such that, although Wittenberg (where both Luther and Weigel studied)
was outside the main publishing and book selling centers (Frankfurt and Basel),
Protestant readers would have had ready access to the text.
I now turn to how sixteenth century readers in Wittenberg responded to the
content of Tauler’s and Eckhart’s sermons. Since Weigel studied at Wittenberg, it is
possible that he heard these responses, or even read them himself, and so the sources
discussed here suggest what Weigel’s associations with Tauler and Eckhart might have
been. The key finding is that Tauler continued to be read throughout the sixteenth century
and, moreover, was read by a broad community of readers, both conservative and
radical. 198 In other words, Tauler’s readership was not limited to one particular subgroup
of Protestants, and certainly was not limited to those Protestants who supported a more
radical or revolutionary religious and political program (i.e. one that did not accept the
197 Otto, 47. Otto notes further that secular clergy (Weltgeistliche) could expect to earn around 30-40
Gulden per year
198 Ernst Koch, Taulerrezeption im Luthertum der zweitel Hälfte des 16. Jahrhunderts, Vol. 2, in "Der
Buchstab tödt, der Geist macht lebendig”: Festschrift für Hans-Gert Roloff, (Bern: Peter Lang, 1992), 1244.
The so-called “radical reformers” who supported the fanatical Schwärmer such as Karlstadt and Münzer
read Tauler before the Peace of Augsburg (in 1555), as did post-Augsburg Protestant opponents of
Lutheranism such as Sebastian Franck and Caspar von Schwenckfeld. By the same token, however, Tauler
continued to be read in Wittenberg, and was received by those who identified themselves with the Lutheran
mainstream.
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