Der Papst schickt’ aus in alle Land:
Wo der Tannhäuser wär’ hinkommen?
Da war er wieder in den Berg
Und hatt’ sein Lieb erkoren;
Des muss der vierte Papst Urban
Auf ewig sein verloren!
[ XXXIX. LATE MEDIEVAL RELIGIOUS PROSE]
Prior to Luther the most noteworthy prose is found in the sermons of Berthold von Regensburg, the great 13th century preacher, and in the somewhat later writings, largely sermons, of the mystics Eckhart, Seuse, Tauler and Meerschwein. Their interest is rather more religious than literary. The earliest example of imaginative prose is the so-called Farmer of Bohemia, written in 1399, in which a bereaved husband discourses of his lost wife with Death. The 15th century shows a considerable body of prose literature in the form of sermons, chronicles, translations, paraphrases, but nothing of great artistic distinction.