Meister Eckhart

Lore & Background

Eckhart was probably born around 1260 in the village of Tambach, near Gotha, in the Landgraviate of Thuringia. Little is known about his family and early life; his Christian name was Eckhart, his surname von Hochheim. Around 1278, at about eighteen, he joined the Dominican convent at Erfurt. The first solid evidence for his life is from 18 April 1294, when, as a baccalaureus on the Sentences of Peter Lombard, he preached the Easter Sermon at the Dominican convent of St. Jacques in Paris. In late 1294, he was made Prior at Erfurt and Dominican Provincial of Thuringia. His earliest vernacular work, *Reden der Unterweisung* (The Talks of Instructions/Counsels on Discernment), a series of talks to Dominican novices, dates from about 1295–1298. In 1302, he was sent to Paris to take up the external Dominican chair of theology, remaining until 1303. In late 1303, Eckhart returned to Erfurt and was given the position of Provincial superior for Saxony, a province reaching from the Netherlands to Livonia, with responsibility for forty-seven convents. On 14 May 1311, Eckhart was appointed by the general chapter held at Naples as teacher at Paris—a rare privilege previously granted only to Thomas Aquinas. He stayed in Paris for two academic years, until the summer of 1313, living in the same house as inquisitor William of Paris. After that, he spent part of the time at Strasbourg, chiefly concerned with spiritual direction and preaching in convents of Dominicans.

Reader's Guide

Eckhart's significance lies in his role as a major mystic and theologian whose teachings sparked controversy and later rehabilitation. In late 1323 or early 1324, he left Strasbourg for the Dominican house at Cologne. The Dominican General Chapter held in Venice in the spring of 1325 spoke out against 'friars in Teutonia who say things in their sermons that can easily lead simple and uneducated people into error.' Nicholas of Strasburg, to whom the Pope had given temporary charge of Dominican convents in Germany in 1325, conducted an investigation into Eckhart's orthodoxy, presenting a list of suspect passages from the *Book of Consolation*. Eckhart responded with the treatise *Requisitus* (now lost), convincing his immediate superiors of his orthodoxy. Despite this, the archbishop of Cologne, Henry of Virneburg, ordered an inquisitorial trial in 1326. On 13 February 1327, before the archbishop's inquisitors pronounced their sentence, Eckhart preached a sermon in the Dominican church at Cologne and had his secretary read out a public protestation of his innocence, stating he had always detested everything wrong and retracting anything of the kind found in his writings. He then appealed to the Pope and set off for Avignon in the spring of 1327. Pope John XXII set up two tribunals; the commissions reduced 150 suspect articles down to 28. On 30 April 1328, the pope wrote to Archbishop Henry that the case was moving ahead but added that Eckhart had already died (modern scholarship suggests he may have died on 28 January 1328). The papal bull *In Agro dominico* of 27 March 1329 characterized a series of statements from Eckhart as heretical, another as suspected of heresy, and stated that Eckhart recanted before his death. The Dominican Order pressed in the last decade of the 20th century for his full rehabilitation. Pope John Paul II voiced favorable opinion, quoting from Eckhart's writings. In a 1992 letter, Timothy Radcliffe, then Master of the Dominicans, summarized the Vatican's response: 'We tried to have the censure lifted on Eckhart ... and were told that there was really no need since he had never been condemned by name, just some propositions which he was supposed to have held, and so we are perfectly free to say that he is a good and orthodox theologian.'

Did You Know?

• Eckhart's Christian name was Eckhart, not Johannes; his surname was von Hochheim.
• To be invited back to Paris for a second stint as magister in 1311 was a rare privilege, previously granted only to Thomas Aquinas.
• The papal bull *In Agro Dominico* was issued on March 27, 1329, after Eckhart had already died.
• In 1992, the Vatican indicated that Eckhart had never been condemned by name, only some propositions, so he is considered a good and orthodox theologian.