Meister Eckhart

Lore & Background

Eckhart came into prominence during the Avignon Papacy at a time of increased tensions between monastic orders, diocesan clergy, the Franciscans, and the Dominicans. In later life, he was accused of heresy, brought up before the local Franciscan-led Inquisition, and tried as a heretic by Pope John XXII; the bull 'In Agro Dominico' was issued on March 27, 1329, after his death. In the trial, excerpts of his Book of Divine Consolation were used against Eckhart.

He was well known for his work with pious lay groups such as the Friends of God and was succeeded by his more circumspect disciples Johannes Tauler and Henry Suso, the latter of whom was beatified. Since the 19th century, Eckhart has received renewed attention. He has acquired a status as a great mystic within contemporary new age spirituality, as well as considerable interest from scholars situating him within the medieval scholastic and philosophical tradition.

Reader's Guide

Eckhart was probably born around 1260 in the village of Tambach, near Gotha, in the Landgraviate of Thuringia. It was previously asserted that he was born to a noble family of landowners, but this originated in a misinterpretation of the archives of the period. In reality, little is known about his family and early life. There is no basis for giving him the Christian name of Johannes, which sometimes appears in biographical sketches: his Christian name was Eckhart; his surname was von Hochheim.

Probably around 1278, Eckhart joined the Dominican convent at Erfurt, when he was about eighteen. It is assumed he studied at Cologne before 1280. He may have also studied at the University of Paris, either before or after his time in Cologne. The first solid evidence for his life is when on 18 April 1294, 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, Eckhart was made Prior at Erfurt and Dominican Provincial of Thuringia in Germany. His earliest vernacular work, Reden der Unterweisung, dates from c. 1295–1298. In 1302, he was sent to Paris to take up the external Dominican chair of theology. He remained there until 1303.

The short Parisian Questions date from this time. In late 1303, Eckhart returned to Erfurt and was given the position of Provincial superior for Saxony. Complaints made against him at the Dominican general chapter in 1306 were trivial, and he was appointed vicar-general for Bohemia.

Eckhart was Provincial for Saxony until 1311, during which time he founded three convents for women. On 14 May 1311 Eckhart was appointed teacher at Paris for a second stint, a rare privilege. He stayed in Paris until summer 1313, living in the same house as inquisitor William of Paris. After that follows a long period of which it is known only that Eckhart spent part of the time at Strasbourg.

A passage in a chronicle of the year 1320 speaks of a prior Eckhart at Frankfurt who was suspected of heresy, and some historians have linked this to Meister Eckhart. In late 1323 or early 1324, Eckhart left Strasbourg for the Dominican house at Cologne. It is not clear exactly what he did there. The Dominican General Chapter in Venice in spring 1325 spoke out against 'friars in Teutonia who say things in their sermons that can easily lead simple and uneducated people into error'.

Did You Know?

• He joined the Dominican convent at Erfurt around age 18, probably in 1278.
• He was invited back to Paris for a second stint as teacher, a rare privilege previously granted only to Thomas Aquinas.