Preface.

For first, he speaks of the repentance of sins; thereafter of other virtues; for above all things, sins must first be put away, so that the virtues may be planted in their place. This holy, enlightened Doctor Referring to Johannes Tauler (c. 1300–1361), a famous German Dominican mystic and theologian. touches deeply upon the inner ground of the soul ground of the soul: (German: Seelengrund) a technical term in Rhineland mysticism describing the innermost essence of the human spirit where a person meets God directly., and leads us to our own nothingness, and to GOD the LORD, who is all in all. What he teaches, however, he has experienced within himself and has also proven it thus in deed. For in the year thirteen hundred and forty of our LORD, he was at the University of Cologne, a distinguished and eminent Doctor of Holy Scripture, of the Order of Preachers original: Prediger Ordens; the Dominican Order, known for their intellectual rigor and focus on preaching., who [preached] the Word of God