On this day in 1329, Pope John XXII condemned 17 statements made by a German mystical teacher, Eckhart von Hochheim, known as Meister (Master) Eckhart.
So was he just another mystic gone bad, led astray by a powerful spiritual imagination? Not quite: Eckhart had died the year before, but before he died he had told the archbishop of Cologne that he would willingly recant any teaching found to be heretical, and on that basis the pope said he died reconciled to the church.
But who was he, and why is he still remembered?
Meister Eckhart is regarded as one of the forerunners of the Reformation, teaching for instance that fasting and external piety were useless unless the heart was right. He influenced other, more orthodox mystics like John Nider and John Cusa.
A senior church administrator and lecturer, he was well grounded in theology and in the bureaucratic details of church life. He was steeped in Scripture and held audiences rapt with his oratory. However, he was regarded with suspicion by his theological opponents; his defenders argue that he was just misunderstood.
Here are nine quotes from Meister Eckhart.
1. God wants nothing of you but the gift of a peaceful heart.
2. The outward man is the swinging door; the inward man is the still hinge.
3. A quiet mind is one which nothing weighs on, nothing worries, which, free from ties and from all self-seeking, is wholly merged into the will of God and dead to its own.
4. When man humbles himself, God cannot restrain his mercy; he must come down and pour his grace into the humble man, and he gives himself most of all, and all at once, to the least of all.
5. The price of inaction is far greater than the cost of making a mistake.
6. If the only prayer you pray in your whole life is 'thank you', it will be enough.
7. Love often begins with fear; fear is the approach to love: fear is like the awl which draws the shoemaker's thread through the leather.
8. Do exactly what you would do if you felt most secure.
9. Man goes far away or near, but God never goes far. He is always standing close at hand, and even if he cannot stay within he never goes further than the door.
