Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 7.djvu/664

642 ECKHART,, or, according to the general designation, Meister Eckhart, the first of the great speculative mystics, flourished during and. Extremely little is known of his life ; the date and place of his birth are equally uncertain. According to some accounts, he was a native of Strasburg, a town with which he was afterwards closely connected ; according to others, he was born in Saxony. Trithemius, ono of the best authorities, speaks of him merely as &quot; Teutonicus.&quot; has frequently been given as the date of his birth ; it was in all probability some earlier, for we know that he was advanced in age at the time of his death, about. He appears to have entered the Dominican order, and to have acted for some time as professor at one of the colleges in Paris. His reputation for learning was very high, and in he was summoned to Rome by Boniface VIII., to assist in the controversy then being carried on with Philip of France. From Boniface he received the degree of. In he became provincial of his order for Saxony, and in  was vicar-general for Bohemia. In both provinces he was distinguished for his practical reforms and for his power in preaching. In what manner he ceased to hold his high office we do not know ; indeed, several of his life about this time are a complete blank. Towards we hear of him as preaching with great effect at Cologne, where he gathered round him a numerous band of followers. Before this time, and in all probability at Strasburg, where he appears to have been for some, he had come in contact with the  and Brethren of the Free Spirit, whose fundamental notions he may indeed be said to have systematized and expounded in the highest form to which they could attain. In the opponents of the Beghards laid hold of certain propositions contained in Eckhart s works, and he was summoned before the Inquisition at Cologne. The history of this accusation is by no means clear. Eckhart appears, however, to have made a conditional recantation that is, he professed to disavow whatever in his writings could be shown to be erroneous. Further appeal, perhaps at his own request, was made to the Pope, and in a bill was published condemning certain propositions extracted from Eckhart s works. But before its publication Eckhart was dead. The exact date of his death is unknown. Of his writings, several of which are enumerated by Trithemius, there remain only the Sermons and a few tractates. Till recently the majority of these were attributed to Tauler, and it is only from Pfeiffer s careful edition (Deutsche Mystiker d. XIV. Jahrhundcrts, vol. ii., ) that one has been able to gather a true idea of Eckhart s activity. From his works it is evident that he was deeply learned in all the philo sophy of the time. He was a thorough Aristotelian, but by preference appears to have been drawn towards the mystical writings of the neo-Platonists and the pseudo- Dionysius. His style is unsystematic, brief, and abounding in symbolical expression. His manner of thinking is clear, calm, and logical, and he has certainly given the most complete exposition of what may be called Christian pantheism. Eckhart has bsen called the first of the speculative mystics; but such a designation requires some qualification. Within the Christian church from the time of Erigena there had been a constant stream of what must be called mysticism, originating for the most part from the writings of the neo-Platonists and of Dionysius the Areopagite. This tendency may be noted in Bonaventura, in Albert (under whom Eckharfc is said to have studied), and in Aquinas ; it is more prominent in Hugo and Richard of St Victor, though with them it took a practical rather than a speculative direction. But in all these writers, with the partial exception of Erigena, who occupies a quite peculiar position, the mystical element was in strict subordination to the church doctrines, which might be specuhitively symbolized, but were not thereby explained or rationalized. In Eckhart a writings and preaching, on the other hand, the element of mystical speculation for the first time comes to the front as all-important. By its means the church doctrines are made intelligible to the many, and from it the church dogmas receive their true significance. It was but natural that he should gradually diverge more and more widely from tlie traditional doctrine, so that at length the relation between his teaching and that of the church appeared to be one of opposition rather than of reconciliation. Eckhart is thus in truth the first who attempted with perfect freedom and logical consistency to gi a speculative basis to religious doctrines. It is not possible to expound in detail how Eckhart endeavours to explain the main principles of the Christian faith, but it is necessary to note the two most important points in his as in all mystical theories. These are first, his doctrine of the divine nature, and second, his explanation of the relation between God and human thought. The two are logically connected, and a complete exposition of his theory might start from either his theology or his psychology. Lasson, the author of a most valuable monograph on Eckhart, adopts the latter course, but for many reasons the other appears the most systematic.

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