Eckhart's Defence

Two of his own Dominican brothers, Hermann de Summo and William of Nideggen, took lists of suspect sentences from Meister Eckhart's writings and sermons to Heinrich von Virneburg, archbishop of Cologne, who opened proceedings against him. On 26 September 1326 Eckhart, then in his sixties, answered in Latin before the archbishop's two commissioners, the theologian Reiner Friso and the Franciscan Peter of Estate. This text is that answer. It begins with a protest, not a plea: the privileges of his order exempted him from their court, he had never been suspected of heresy, and he would not face these charges, he said, if he were less well known to the people and less zealous for justice. Then he took the 49 articles in four groups: from the consolation book he had sent to the queen of Hungary, from an earlier reply of his own, from his commentary on Genesis, and from sermons attributed to him, which he said listeners had reported carelessly and falsely. A further list of sentences, handed to him once he had replied, followed. His defence runs the same way throughout: read as his accusers read them, the sentences are false; understood soundly, they state the faith. He could err, he conceded, but heresy needs a will, and he offered to retract anything shown to be wrong. The proceedings went on. Eckhart appealed to the pope in January 1327 and went to Avignon, where theologians cut the list to 28 articles; he died, probably in 1328, before the verdict. The bull In agro dominico of 27 March 1329 condemned all 28.