Rulman Merswin

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Rulman Merswin (* 1307 in Strasbourg ; † June 18, 1382 there ) was a merchant and spiritual writer .

Merswin was one of the “ friends of God ”, an ecclesiastical religious movement in the area of mysticism of the 14th century. He was in contact with the Strasbourg mystic Johannes Tauler . How intense this contact was can no longer be determined with any certainty. In 1367 he leased the dilapidated Grünenwörth monastery in Strasbourg, where he founded a spiritual community and stayed until his death .

Merswin wrote a number of spiritual tracts, including the Nine Rocks and the Masters ' Book . The latter is about a highly educated and successful preacher who is convicted of spiritual pride and converted to real humility by a simple layman, the “friend of God”. As early as the 15th century, this work was thought to be a biography of Johannes Tauler. In the text of the master book itself, however, the preacher is not identified with Tauler. As early as the 19th century Heinrich Denifle proved that the preacher mentioned in the master book had nothing to do with the historical Tauler; he is presumably a purely literary figure. It is very likely that this also applies to the layman, who appears several times in Merswin's writings as “God's friend from the Oberland”. Nevertheless, attempts have been made again and again to identify the “friend of God” with a historical person.

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SURNAME Merswin, Rulman
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Merchant and spiritual writer
DATE OF BIRTH 1307
PLACE OF BIRTH Strasbourg
DATE OF DEATH June 18, 1382
Place of death Strasbourg