Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 2.djvu/372

 ggg GERMANY. the peculiarly repulsive extravagances attributed to them, how- ever may safelv be ascribed to keen-witted schoolmen engaged in trying individual heretics, and forcing them to admit consequences logically but unexpectedly deduced from their admitted premises. There was no little intellectual activity in the sect, and their tracts and books of devotion, written in the vernacular, were widely dis- tributed, and largely relied upon as means of missionary effort. These, of course, have wholly disappeared, and we are left to gather their doctrines from the condemnations passed upon them. The foundation of their creed was pantheism. God is every- thin.^ that is. There is as much of the divinity in a louse as m a man^or in any other creature. All emanates from tim and re- turns to him. As the soul tlius reverts to God after death, there is neither purgatory nor hell, and all external cult is useless. Thus at one blow was destroyed the efficacy of all sacerdotal ob- servances and of tH sacraments. Of the latter, indeed, no terms were severe enough to express their contempt, and they vvere sometimes in the habit of saying that the Eucharist tasted to them like dung Man being thus God by nature, has in him all that is divine, and each one may say that he himself created the universe One of the accusations brought against Master Eckart yas that he had declared that his little finger created the world. Nay, more, man can so unite himself with God that he can do whatever God does ; he thus needs no God ; he is impeccable, and whatever he does is without sin. In this state of perfection he grieves a,t nothing, he rejoices at nothing, he is free from all virtue and a virtuous actions. No one is bound to labor for his bread ; as aU things are in common, each one may take what his necessities or desires may prompt.* The practical deductions from these doctrines were not only destructive to the Church, but dangerous to the moral and social order. The lofty mysticism of the teachers might preserve them ■ • C. 3 Clement, v. 3.-Johann. de Ochsenstein (or of Zurich) (Mosheim de Rpahardls ™ 255-61).-Concil. Colon, ann. 1S06 c. 1, 2 (Hartzlieim IV. 100-2). ^luodln' Chron. ann. 1344 (Eccard. Corp. Hist. 1. 100C-7).-Alva. Pe.ag.de Planctu Eccles. Lib. n. art. 53.-Cour. de Monte Puellarum contra Begchardos mag. Bib. Pat. XIII. 342-3)..-Trithem.Chron. Hlrsang. ann 1356.-D Argentre, Coif Jndic. I. r. 377.-Nider Formicar. ru. v.-W. Preger, M-ter Eckart u. d. Inquisition, pp. 45-7.-Haupt, Zeitschrift fur K.rcbengesclnchte, 1885, o57-8.