It is somewhat difficult to form an estimate of the religious life and opinions of Tauler. Foι ’ many years the chief modern authority upon the subject was the late Prof. C. Schmidt of Strasburg, whose views had been introduced into England in Miss Winkworth’s book upon Tauler. According to Schmidt, Tauler ’ s religious life divides into two parts, before and after what may be called his second conversion. In the first period Eckhart rules his religious life; in the second he is under the influence of the mysterious “Friend of God in the Oberland,” whom Schmidt asserts to be Nicholas of Basel. Denifle doubts the historical character of this episode and the genuineness of the book, while Preger admits the fact of the conversion, but refuses to identify the mysterious stranger with Nicholas of Basel.

It is still more difficult to determine the precise nature of the theological opinions of Tauler. Denifle maintains that the only genuine remains of Tauler are the eighty well-known Sermons included in the earliest edition and four others in two manuscripts, all of which bear Tauler’s name; Preger seems inclined to admit in addition the Sermons in the account of Tauler’s conversion; both critics exclude the famous Book of Spiritual Poverty. Schmidt, on the other hand, while admitting the authenticity of all the above-named sermons, calls the Book of Spiritual Poverty Tauler’s masterpiece.

If we take the Sermons by themselves, then Tauler’s teachers in theology were the Pseudo-Dionysius, Augustine, Gregory, Bernard, the two abbots of St Victor, Thomas Aquinas, and, above all, Theodoric of Freiburg and Meister Eckhart. His theology will represent the purest and highest type of German mysticism (see Mysticism), and, by insisting upon personal relationship to God, freedom from the thraldom of authority, and the worthlessness of mere good works without the renewal of the inward life, will represent a tendency in theology which found full expression in the reformation of the 16th century. If, on the other hand, the Book of Spiritual Poverty be included among the genuine writings of Tauler, then undoubtedly his views have more distinct connexion with that doctrine of the appropriation of the benefits of Christ’s work of redemption by an imitatio Christi finding expression in a life of evangelical poverty which is such a characteristic of the religious life of the century to which he belonged. The problem is a very difficult one, and it may be questioned whether we are yet in a position to solve it. Denifle is undoubtedly correct in his statement that we need critical texts of 14th-century mystical writers, and that very great uncertainty exists with reference to the authors of the individual mystical writings of that period. It may be added that it is very probable, when the organization and method of work among the “Friends of God” are taken into consideration, that many mystical books of devotion were the work, not of one, but of several authors, and that the conditions of the problem concerning the authenticity of Tauler’s writings are not unlike those which exist among the books and tracts ascribed to Wickliffe. This at all events may be safely asserted, that Tauler’s sermons are among the noblest in the German language. They are not so emotional as Suso’s, nor so speculative as Eckhart’s, but they are intensely practical, and touch on all sides the deeper problems of the moral and spiritual life.

Tauler’s Sermons -were printed first at Leipsic in 1498, and reprinted with additions from Eckhart and others at Basel (1521, 1522) and. at Cologne (1543). There is a recent edition by Julius Hamberger, Frankfort, 1864. See Denifle, Das Buch von geistlicher Armuth,1877 ; Carl Schmidt, Johann Tauler von Strassburg, Hamburg, 1841; Miss -winkworth, Tauler’s Life and Sermons; R. A. Vaughan, Hours with the Mystics, 3d ed., vol. i. pp. 214-307. The third volume of Preger's Gesch. der deutschen Mystik im Mittelalter, which will treat of Tauler, is in the press.

Taunton has played a prominent part during the troubled periods of English history. Various Roman remains prove it to have been occupied by the Romans; but it first obtained historical notice when Ine, king of the West-Saxons, made it the border fortress of his kingdom. It takes the name Taunton, or Thoneton, from its situation on the Tone or Thone. The castle was razed by Ethelburg after expelling Edbricht, king of the South-Saxons. About the time of λVilliam the Conqueror the town and castle were granted to the bishop of Winchester, and for many years the castle was the bishop’s principal residence. In the reign of William it possessed a mint. In 1497 the town and castle were seized by the impostor Perkin Warbeck. Taunton was made the seat of the suffragan see of Taunton and Bridgwater in 1538, but, on the death of William Finch, the first bishop, in 1559, the Act had no further operation in reference to Tauuton. Like the other towns of Somerset, Taunton was strongly Puritan in its sympathies. Situated at a point where the main roads of the county met, it was during the Civil War almost constantly in a state of siege by one or other of the rival parties. Having been garrisoned by the Parliamentary forces, it was captured by the Royalists in the summer of 1643, but on 8th July 1644 it was, after a long siege, taken by Blake, who held it with heroic pertinacity till relieved by Fairfax on the 11th May 1645, and again after it was invested by 10,000 troops under Goring till the siege was finally raised on the 3d July. Still constant to its Puritan traditions, Taunton welcomed Monmouth in 1685 with acclamation, and he was proclaimed king there on the 20th J une, the maidens of the town presenting him with a standard. As a consequence, Taunton was made the chief example of the fearful vengeance of Jeffreys, who, at the assizes held in the castle, condemned no fewer than 134 inhabitants of the town and neighbourhood to death, and a much larger number to transportation. Taunton obtained a municipal charter from Charles I. in 1627, which was revoked in 1660. A second charter, granted by Charles II. in 1677, was permitted to lapse in 1792 owing to the corporation allowing a majority of their number to die without filling up the vacancies. From this time until it again received municipal government, 17th April 1877, it was under the care of two bailiffs appointed at the court leet of the lord of the manor. Formerly the town returned two members to parliament, but in 1885 the number-was reduced to one.

See Totilmin’s History of Taunton, edited by Savage, 1822; and several papers in the Proceedings of the Somerset Archaeological Society for 1872.

TAUNTON, a city of the United States, the county seat of Bristol county, Massachusetts, lies some 31 miles nearly south from Boston. The town proper, sometimes called Taunton Green, stands on the right bank of the Taunton river, at the head of navigation, about 17 miles above its mouth. The entire area enclosed within the corporate limits is 37 square miles. Taunton is traversed by the main line of the Old Colony Railway, which connects it with Boston and Fall River, Mass., and Providence, R.I. Owing to its situation and its connexions by rail and sea, Taunton has become a supply point for the greater part oτ south-eastern Massachusetts. The population of the city was 18,629 in 1870, 21,213 in 1880, and 23,674 in 1885, showing an increase somewhat in excess of that of the State at large. Fully one-fourth of the population are of foreign birth, and the proportion is increasing. The State lunatic asylum is in Taunton. The leading industries are the manufacture of cotton goods, iron and steel products (particularly locomotives, machinery, nails and spikes), and silver-plated table ware. Taunton was incorporated as a town in 1639, and received a city charter in 1864.

Agriculture and cattle-breeding are the leading occupations. Wheat is the chief product, and by the Germans and Russian Nonconformists on the Molotchnaya agriculture is carried to a high degree of perfection. In 1882 there were within the government 356,270 horses, 485,800 cattle, and 3,985,300 sheep (2,891,700 merinos). Salt is made both on the mainland and in the Crimea, and the fisheries along the coast supply an export trade. Manufactures are insignificant, but there is a brisk export trade in grain, salt, fish, wool, and tallow. The main centres of trade are the Kakhovka port on the Dnieper, Berdyansk on the Sea of Azoff, and the seaports of Eupatoria, Sebastopol, Sudak, and Theodosia. The government is divided into eight districts, the chief towns of which (with populations in 1881) are Simferopol (29,030), capital of the government, Eupatoria (13,420), and Theodosia (10,800) in Crimea, and Aleshki (8915), Berdyansk (18,180), Melitopol (13,310), Perekop (4280), and Yalta (3000) on the continent. Several villages, such as Bolshoy Tokmak (8000) and Andreevka (7300), have each a population of more than 5000.