5. Pantheism in the Church of the West. — As we have j ust seen, most of the Christian sects of the early Chu rch known as Gnostics were pantheistic in tendency. They were the first Christian Pantheists probably. Witli their disappearance pantheism disappears for a time from the Church. The foundation of schools of learn- ing by Charlemagne in the 9th century restored Neo- Platonic ideas to the Church, and with it pantheism. Speculation had up to this time been held in with tight reins by the Church. But now John Scotus, surnamed Erigena, appeared with a translation of the mj'stical writings of Pseudo-Dionysius, the Areopagite. This work was followed by an (iriglual contribution from the pen of Scotus himself, entitled I)e Dicisione Xatiircp, in wliich he teaches that (Jod is the essence of all things, and that what men call creation is a necessary and eternal self-unfolding of the divine nature. He de- scribes the Universal as a mighty river flowing from its source in an indefinite stream, quickening all things in its course, and carried back to the fountain-head by natural exhalation and condensation, to be again rolled forth as before {De JJiv. Xcit. iii, 103). The going forth
of finite beings from the Deity Scotus called the process of unfolding {ctnahjsis, resoliitio~) ; the return of all things unto God, or the congregation of the infinite plurality of individuals in the genera, and finally in the simplest unity of all, which is God, so that then God should be " all in all," he termed their deification {reversio, deiji- catio'). As Scotus stands midway between the more ancient and modern Pantheists — the corner-stone of the old system constituting the foundation of the new — he is usually spoken of as the link between the two systems. In the 11th century William of Champeaux, the immediate precursor of the scholastic system, broach- ed a theory which, if it were not pantheistic, led straight to pantheism. His notion of universals, borrowed from Plotinus, taught that all individuality is one in its sub- stance, and varies only in its non-essential accidents and transient properties. In the following century his theory was followed out into a thorough-going pan- theism by Amalric of Bene (a disciple of Abelard), and his pupil David of Dinant. They declared that God is not the efficient cause merely, but the material, essential cause of all things. All positive religion, both doc- trine and worship, is with them a symbol; true religion a tranquil, intuitive absorption into the divine, all- comprehending essence. They were condemned as her- etics by a Church council held at Paris (q. v.) in A.D. 1210. Later versions of the Arab philosopher Averroes (q. v.), and Orientalized paraphrases of Aristotle, tended to give a still more decided pantheistic tinge to scho- lasticism (q. v.). Albertus Magnus, Duns Scotus, and Raymond Lnlly were the principal delinquents (comp. Encyclop. Metrop. xi, 80!)). As has been aptly said, " The fermentation of philosophic thought had brought the scum of pantheism once more to the surface."
In the 14th century the practical extravagance of the schoolmen's pantheism was repeated by the Mys- tics, not, however, in a materialistic, but in an ideal- istic form. They held creatures to be in and of them- selves a pure nullity, and God alone to be the true being, the real substance of all things. All things are comprised in him, and even the meanest creature is a partaker of the divine nature and life. Such was the doctrine of the Beyhards (q. v.), the Brethren of the Free Spirit (q. v.), and the later Cathari (q. v.). These Pantheists of the Middle Ages held diiferent shades of opinion, which it is difficult accurately to distinguish. Some claimed for themselves a perfect identity with the Absolute, which reposes in itself, and is without act or operation. Another class placed themselves simply and directly on an equality with God, alleging that, being by nature God, they had come into existence by their own free will. A third class put themselves on a level with Christ, according to his divine and human nature. A fourth class finally carried their pantheistic notions to such an extravagant length as to land them- selves in pure nihilism (q. v.), maintaining that neither God nor themselves have any existence.
Among the pantheistical Mystics of the 14th century Eckart occupied a very high place, having wrought his doctrines into a regular speculative system. "This system," says Dr. ITlmann, " resembles the dome of the city in which he lived, towering aloft like a giant, or rather like a Titan assaulting heaven, and is for us of the highest importance. Not unacquainted with the Aristotelian scholasticism, but more attracted by Plato, 'the great priest,' as he calls him, and his Alexandrian followers, imbued with the mystical element in the works of Augustine, though not with his doctrine of original sin, and setting out from the foundations laid by the Areopagite, Scotus Erigena, and by the earlier Mystics of the Middle Ages, but adhering still more closely to the pantheistic doctrines which Amalric of Bene and David of Dinant had transferred to the sect of the Free Spirit and to a part of the Beghards, Mas- ter Eckart, with great originality, constructed out of these elements a system in which he did not expressh' design to contradict the creed of the Church, but which