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Eckhart ^ (d. cir. 1327) has been ealled the lather of the German mystics,^ the philosophical creative genius of the German mystics ® and the father of German speculation.^ According to Dean Inge he is next to Plotinus the greatest j)hilosopher-mystic ' ^ and the most Plotinian of all Christian philosophers.^* lie was a learned ^ member of the Dominican or Preaching Order and sometime lector hihlicus at the University of Paris, then the Dominican College of St Jacob where he was given his title of Meister by Pope Honi- face VIII. But it was probably at Cologne that he graduated in the Scholasticism of Albertus Magnus (1205 -1281) and Thomas Aquinas (1226 -1274) whose system was at that time rapidly acquiring its hold. He held at different times important provincial posts and proved himself an able administrator and reformer of the numerous religious houses in his eare but it was principally at Strassburg and afterwards at Cologne that he established his great influence as a teacher and for an entire generation, with the boldest freedom, preached to the multitudes in the German tongue on topics bristling with difliculties for the orthodox faith.' For he had conceived the then novel idea of instructing the lait}^ and the many semi-religious communities and brotherhoods of that date--- Beguines, Beghards, Friends of God (Gottefifreunde), etc. -- no less than the religious of his Order, and for this purpose it was necessary to make the further innovation of using the vulgar tongue instead of Latin, the teaching medium of that day. Ilis success in expounding the abstruse tenets of the Scholastic philosophy in an undeveloped language which he had to supply with words and fashion to his needs, has earned for Eckhart the titles of father of the German language and the father of German philosophic ® prose. Ultimately the Church authorities became alarmed at the enthusiasm roused by his teaching and especially at its effect u))on the laity. He was accused of preaching to the people in their own language
^ The following facts aro takon chiefly from Preger's GcffchirMe and Laason's Meister Eckhart. (See Bibliography for full titles.)
* Bach, p. 1. 3 Wackornagel, p. 298.
* Bach. ^ TAght^ TAJe arid Love, p. xv.
* Philosophy of Plotinus^ vol. ii, p. 107.
' Tauler (1300-13G1) describes him as a man of prodigious learning, loo profoundly versed in the aubtilties of God- and nature-wisdom for many of the scholars of his day rightly to understand him ' {Sermom, Basle od., 1521).
Rufus M. Jones, p. 218. * Lasson, pp. 66, 69.
XI
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xii
MEISTER ECKHART
things that might lead to heresy ^ and this led to his excommunica- tion in 1329, after his death, on the general grounds of preaching to the laity the secrets of the Church, a list of seventeen specific heretical and eleven ohjectional doctrines being appended to the inditcment.2 T(^ the first accusation he replied : ^ If the ignorant are not taught they will never learn ' ; the business of the doctor is to heal.' The charge of heresy he strenuously denied and largely succeeded in rebutting while he lived. I protest in the presence of God,' he says, that I have always avoided with horror all error in matters of faith,' and he never made any recantation of his teaching although he publicly declared his willingness to retract any error that might be proved against him.'" TTis errors' appear to be the logical outcome of the system he taught. As Lasson says, lie taught what Dionysius and St Thomas taught . . . but he goes further than any of his predecessors and crosses the boundaries of Church dogma.'
There is only the scantiest material for a biography of Eckhart. Of his birth neither date nor place is known. It is argued that he was born before 1200 either at Strassburg in Saxony, or at Hoclihcim in Thfiringia. The first known mention of his name is in a list of Professors at the University of Paris : /r. Echardus^ Tutonicus, licentiates per Bonifavium, 1302. In 1303 he was Provincial of the Order in Saxony, with its sixty convents, men's and women's. To this title he added in 1307 that of V^icar-General of Bohemia where he refonned the religious liouses. In 1311 he returned to Paris University and in 1312 began his long sojourn as head of the Order at Strassburg. Eight years later (1320) he is Prior of Frankfu rt. There is now some suspicion of his orthodoxy but the Order still supports him and he is given a Chair at the Dominican College in (Cologne where he enhances his reputation as a preacher. Here Tauler, Suso and Ruysbroeck probably heard him, and Tauler also at Strassburg. In 1325-6, suspicion of his teaching having revived, Nikolaus of Strassburg was appointed his special Inquisitor and his case came before the Inquisition in Venice. lie delivered his Protest before that body on 24 Jan. 1327, and on 13 Feb. following made his public Declaration of orthodoxy in the Dominican Church at Cologne. This is the last date on which he is known to have been alive. The answer of the Inquisition to his appellation, refusing to accept it, is dated 22 Feb. 1327, and it is conjectured that he died soon after. He was excommunicated by the Bull of John XXII, 27 March 1329.
' Inquisition at Venice, 1326.
^ Bull of John XXII. See Pregor, Appendix.
® Declaration at Cologne, 13 Feb. 1327.
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ECKHART
xiii
After his excommunication in 1329 Eckliart gradually lost all but legendary fame and his writings survived mostly under other names. Five hundred years later, in 1829 , Gorres speaks of him as line figure chretienne presque mythique.' ^ But for at least two generations after his death his writings, secretly passed from hand to hand and frequently transcribed, fomied what Lasson calls the text-books of God-intoxicated piety.' To the preachers of his school, John Tauler ( 1300 - 1361 ), Suso ( 1300 - 1365 ), Ruysbrocck ( 1293 - 1381 ), all members of the Brotherhood of the Friends of God, and to others of less note, they were a veritable mine from which they drew not only inspiration but words, sayings, whole passages and even whole sermons. To the Basle 1521 edition of Tauler's sermons Adam Petri had appended a few pages of sermons under Eckliart 's own name and this led to his rediscovery by Schmidt in 1817 .- Taulcr's sermons were after- wards shown by Pfeiffer to be a valuable source of Eckhart's writings and tliis applies also to the works of Suso and Ruys- broeck to a less degree.
Pfeiffer'^ collection of Eckhart's works is the earliest and still by lar the largest. He confined himself principally to writings in Alemanic, the High German dialect of Strassburg at that date, but there are a number of others in different dialects of German, a few in Latin, ^ and some in a mixture of the two.* Tlierc are often numerous variants of the same original, sometimes under Eckhart's^ name but often attributed toothers, e.g. Frankc von Koln, Hermann von Fritslar, Nikolaus von Landau, Johannes von Sterngassen, Kraft von Royberg, all belonging to the fourteenth century. The nauH's of David of Ausburg and Nikolaus of Strassburg might possibly be added but, as Pfeiffer points out, frequently the only test of authorship is the internal evidence of style and matter and this test has \ et to be, conclusively ajiplied. A few of Pfeiffer's attributions would seem to have been wrongly made and in some cases overworking has robbed the writing of its Eckhartian flavour. In the following translation the six last and doubtful sermons have been omitted and a few other numbers of Parts I and II hav^c been replaced by substitutes, either discoveries of Pfeiffer's or from independent sources.
With regard to the authorship of these substitutes, I, Iviii, 11, xvii and xix, are attributed to Eckhart on the authority of Preger (see Geschichte, pp. 318 - 324 ) ; I, xii on that of Biittncr (sec M, EclxharVs Schriften, etc., vol. ii, p. 228 ). Tractate i (from the Jostes collection) is evidently by the same hand as II, xix and
* Works of Suso, 1829. Quoted by Jundt.
* Martensen had already published his Monograpli iu 1842.
® Deniflo. Also Spamer's Texte. * Spamer's TexU^ aud Jostos.
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XIV
MEISTER ECKHART
I, xliii by the same author as I, Ixxii. Sermon xlvi is found (sec Jostes, No. ;34) forming part of Pfeiffer's Tractate iv. Of the other substitutes, I, ix is a typical Eckhart fragment from Hermann von Fritslar's Das Jleiligenlehen (1349), a collection which must now be recognised as a source of Eckhart's writings (see also II, viii). Lastly, I, x and xv (from Spamer's Texie) appear to be compila- tions from Eckhart's works. This applies also to Greith's Second Book ^ from which I, Ixxxix is taken.
NOTE ON SCHOLASTICISM
The Scholastic movement originated in the schools founded by Charlemagne (742 -814). It aimed at reconciling the philosophies of Plato, Aristotle and the Neoplatonists - (Plotinus, Poq>hyry, Proclus) with the doctrines of Christianity. The first and greatest period of Scholasticism, which culminated with Aquinas (d. 1274) and his Summa Theologica began with Scotus Erigcna (d. cir, 877) who translated into Latin the writings of Pseudo-Dionysius (sixth century) and in reviving his system popularised also the philosophy of Aristotle as known chiclly in the Latin translations of his works and of Porphyiy's which had been made by Boethius (d. 542). The tradition of Aristotle had also been handed down through the great Arabian Aristotelians represented later by Avicenna (d. 1037) and Avcrrocs (d.
1193) the Latin translations of whose commen- tarics Aquinas appears to have used. Through the same Moliain- rnedan school came the so-called Theology of Aristotle^ really the Enneads (iv- vi) of Plotinus. Finally, Proclus exerted a profound influence on the Scholastic philosophy not only through the medium of Dionysius' writings but also directly through his own, for it was his Elements which, emanating from the Arabians under the name of the Liber de Cmisisy famous in the middle ages, was a favourite text-book in their schools.^
' Greith aitributea to »Suso, by a process of exclusion, the untitled work which forms his .SVeond Book. (See Die dculsche Mystiky pp. 81 and 96.) The original of this is an early h f teen th -century MS. of 342 small 4to pages from a Dominican Convent at St Gall, and roferonco to the various Eckhart collections shows it to be a Teaching System ' mainly, if not wholly, com- piled from his writings.
* Eckhart a New Philosophers' ? The Philosopher ' is Aristotle. Aquinas IS called J ho I )octor,' and * a heathen doctor ' is often, but by no means always, Averroes.
« Soo History of the Later Boman A'mptVe, J. B. Bury; Macmillan, 1923. Amcenne Carra de Vaux ; Paris, 1900. The Metaphysical Elements of Proclusy rhos. M. Johnson; Missouri, U.S.A., 1909
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