Henry of Zuetphen

HENRY OF NOERDLINGEN, nort'ling-en: German mystic of the fourteenth century. His comprehensive correspondence with Margareta Ebner (q.v.), a nun in the Dominican convent of Maria Medingen, near Dillingen, and his confessant, extending from 1332 to 1350, throws valuable light upon the mystical life of the time and is the principal source for Henry's life. About 1332 he is found in Nördlingen (in Bavaria, 50 m. s.w. of Nuremberg), his native town, as secular priest and spiritual adviser and leader of mystical souls, surrounded by pious women, mostly of the nobility, to whom his mother belonged. It was his desire to lead as many women as possible to the "Common Life" and associate them in a large mystical union. On account of the strained relations between the pope and Emperor Louis, Henry, as a faithful son of the Church, had to leave his native country. He wandered aimlessly about until he finally settled

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at Basel, in 1339, where Tauler took care of him. Here he preached daily, often twice a day, with extraordinary success. In 1346 and 1347 he was in Cologne, Aix-la-Chapelle, and Bamberg, collecting relics, and in 1348 or 1349 he went to Sulz, in Alsace, to live in solitude. In 1349 he is found again wandering from place to place and preaching. In 1350 he returned to his native country. After the death of Margarets Ebner (1351), whom he had frequently visited, he resumed his wandering life. The time and place of his death are not known. His correspondence with Margareta Ebner is the oldest collection of letters in the German language that has been preserved, and is a valuable storehouse of information for the history of culture. In 1344 Henry translated the Low German "Revelations" of Matilda of Magdeburg (q.v.) into High German. From his intercourse with mystics he appropriated a mystical method of preaching, which found applause because mysticism was fashionable at the time, especially among women, and it was chiefly to them that his pious, childlike heart and his amiable character appealed.

(Philipp Strauch.)

Bibliography: P. 6traueh, Margareta Ebner and Heinrich von Ntirdlinpen, Freiburg, 1882; W. Preger, Geschichte der deutedhen Mystik, ii. 277 sqq., 289 sqq., Leipsic, 1881; R. A. Vaughan, Hours with the Mystics, i. 216-217, 8th ed., London, n.d.