§ 29. MEISTER ECKART. 245
In the last years of the thirteenth century, the Franciscan Lamprecht of Regensburg wrote a poem entitled "Daughter of Zion" (Cant. III. 11), which, in a mystical vein, depicts the soul, moved by the impulse of love, and after in vain seeking its satisfaction in worldly things, led by faith and hope to God. The Dominicans, Dietrich of Freiburg and John of Sterngassen, were also of the same tendency. ^ The latter labored in Strassburg.
Eckart broke new paths in the realm of German religious thought. He was born at Hochheim, near G_othaj and died probably in Cologne. ^ In the last years of the thirteenth century he wasprior of the Dominican convent of Erfurt, and provincial of the Dominicans in Thuringia, and in 1300 was sent to_Paris to lecturer takiiig the master's degree, and later the doctorate. After his sojourn in France he was made prior of his order in Saxony, a province at that time extending from the Lowlands to Livland. In 1311 he was again sent to Paris as a teacher. Subsequently he preached in Strassburg, was prior in Frankfurt, 1320,^nd thence went to Cologne.
CViar;p;es_of heresy werp. pi-pfRrrRfl against him i-n 1 32,^ by the archbishopjjf^ologne. Henry_Qf Virneburj:. The same year the Dominicans, at their general chapter held in Venice, listened to complaints that certain popular preachers in Germany were leading the people astray, and sent a representative to make investigations. Henry of Virneburg had shown himself zealous in the prosecution of heretics. In 1322, Walter, a Beghard leader, was burnt, and in 1325 a number of Beghards died in the flames along the Rhine. It is possible that Eckart was quoted by these sectaries, and in this way was exposed to the charge of heresy.
The arclibishop's accusations, which had been sent to Rome, were jet aside by Nicolas of Strassburg, JEckart's friend, who at the time held the position of inquisitor in Germany. In 1327, the archbishop again proceeded against the suspected preacher and also against Nicolas- Both appealed from the
1 Denifle, Archiv, etc., II. 240, 529.
2 Till the investigations of Denifle, his place of birth was usually given as Strassburg. See Denifle, p. 355.
246 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1294-1517,
archbishop's tribunal to the pope. In February, Eckart made a public statement in the Dominican church at Cologne, declaring he had always eschewed heresy in doctrine and declension in morals, and expressed his readiness to retract errors, if such should be found in his writings.^
In ajnill_dated March 27, 1329, John XXII. announced that of the 26 articles charged against Eckart, 15 were hereti- 'ciil and the reTnauiing 11 had tlie savor of licresy. Two other articles, not cited in the indictment, were also pronounced heretical. The papal decision stated that Eckart had acknowledged the 17 condemned articles as heretical. There is no evidence of such acknowledgment in the offender's extant writing. ^
Among the articles condemned were the following. As soon as God was. He created the world. — The world is eternal. — External acts are not in a proper sense good and divine. — The fruit of external acts does not make us good, but internal acts which the Father works in us. — God loves the soul, not external acts. The two added articles charged Eckart with holding that there is something in the soul which is uncreated and uncreatable, and that God is neither good nor better nor best, so that God can no more be called good than wdiite can be called black,
Eckart merits study as a preacher and as a mystic theologian.
1 Ego magister Ekardns, doctor sac. theol., protestor ante omnia, quod omnem errorem in fide et omnem deformitatem in moribus semper in quatitum mihi possibile fuit, sum detestatiis, etc. Preger, I. 475-478. Frcger, I. 471 8qq., gives the Latin text of Eckart's statement of Jan. 24, 1327, before the arcliiepiscopal court, his public statement of innocence in the Dominican church and the document containing the court's refusal to allow his appeal to Rome.
2 The 20 articles, as Denifle has shown, were based upon Eckart's Latin writings. John's bull is given by Preger, I. 47!)- 182, and by Denifle, Archiv, II. 03G-G40. Preger, I, 3(35 .sqq., Delacroix, p. 238 and Deutsch, V. 145, insist that Eckart made no specific recantation. The pope's reference must have been to the statement P^ckart made in the Dominican church, which contained the word.s, " I will amend and revoke in general and in detail, as often as may be found opportune, whatever is discovered to have a less wholesome sense, intellectum minus saiie.