Who is Meister Eckhart?

While there is no evidence as to the exact date of Meister Eckhart’s birth, scholars generally agree that he was born around 1260, in or near Erfurt which lies midway between Munich and Hamburg and north-east of Frankfurt, probably in a village called Tambach. He is thought to have entered the Dominican Priory in Erfurt as a novice when he was fifteen years old.

The first definite date of his life is 18 April 1294 when he preached the Easter Sermon at the church of St Jacques in Paris. The manuscript of this sermon describes him as Lector Sententiarum or ‘Reader of the Sentences’ which are those of Peter Lombard.

When students had completed their studies in the Arts they were required to lecture on these Sentences,which formed a standard theological textbook. This suggests that Eckhart had been in Paris for several years before this; 1286 has been suggested as the year of his arrival in the city.

Late in 1294 he was called back to be Prior of Erfurt and Vicar of Thuringia (the local representative of the Provincial). After 1298 it was no longer possible for one person to hold both posts and it is not clear whether Eckhart held on to one or other of these posts.

In 1302 he returned to Paris as Magister actu regens (professor with a teaching commitment). It is now thought that he began to write, in Latin, his major tripartite work during this, his second stay in Paris and not during his third stay. A year later, in 1303, he was called back to be the first Provincial of the new province of Saxonia (which included Erfurt), that had been carved out of the old, and much larger, province of Teutonia. He held this post until 1311 when he was sent back to Paris again.

In 1313 he was posted to Strasburg as a special vicar for the Master of the Dominican Order. While there he appears to have spent a major part of his time giving spiritual counsel to convents of Dominican nuns and some houses of Beguines. A large number of his German sermons were given in Strasburg.

In 1323 he moved to Cologne. It seems likely he taught theology to the young friars in the Dominican Studium. It was here that he came in contact with Johannes Tauler and Heinrich Suso.

In 1326 he was called before the Inquisition by the Franciscan Archbishop of Cologne, Henry of Virneburg, who was one of the seven Imperial Electors able to elect the German king, which was a preliminary stage in the king becoming the Holy Roman Emperor. It is not clear why the Archbishop proceeded against Eckhart, but it is known he was very conservative and may have found some of Elkhart’s ideas troublesome. Further, at this time the feud between the Franciscans and the Dominicans was at its height.

Eckhart objected to being tried by the Archbishop’s court and appealed to the Pope to judge his case. When this was granted he walked the 500 miles to Avignon.

Eckhart died in Avignon in 1327 while participating in the Papal enquiry into his writings and teachings.

He left behind a considerable body of writing. The majority of his serious theological writing was in Latin, but many of his sermons and such shorter works as The Talks of Instruction were in German.

Eckhart was never himself condemned as a heretic. Twenty eight of his articles out of a total of 108, which were objected to by the Inquisitors in Cologne, were condemned by Pope John XXII who was himself later condemned as a heretic. Outline details of the processes against Eckhart and his modern rehabilitation are given below. This information was prepared by Father John Orme Mills for the 2002 Eckhart Society conference, Being Revitalised by Eckhart.