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the text: “alle dinge kommen von Innen heraus und nicht von aussen hinein.” 303 As evidence for his theory of knowledge, Weigel offers the indisputable fact that people disagree about almost everything. Weigel asks his reader to imagine a dispute among a group of observers about whether the wall they are looking at is painted green, green-blue or blue. The wall remains identical, of course, but is perceived differently; what causes these different perceptions is that everybody’s eyes are constituted differently. Being colour blind or not will decide if the observer’s perception and knowledge will be correspondingly accurate or inaccurate: “dann nach art und eigenschaft der augen wird volbracht das sehen oder erkennen.” 304 If the object were the source of knowledge, it would simply “impress” itself on the human mind and senses and there would be no choice but to see the object for what it is. Weigel then gives voice to his opponents in this debate, who object that perception must then constitute an interaction between object and eye, rather than come solely from the eye: if there were no objects to see in the first place, they argue, there could not be any seeing. Weigel concedes that external objects do play a role in our understanding but only as reminders of what we already know, or, more accurately, have always known. 305 However, Weigel is less worried about disagreements about what colour a wall is and more concerned about disagreements that prove more divisive. If people cannot even come to a consensus about simple, concrete objects, what hope have they to agree about complicated or abstract matters, like the definition of justice, or how to govern a nation? Weigel’s purpose in arguing for an interior source of knowledge becomes clearer when 303 Weigel, Griff, 13. 304 Ibid, 38. 305 Weigel concedes that external objects do play a role in our understanding but only as reminders of what we already know. Outer things only exist to jog our memories, books only exist to testify to and refer us inwards to the true Text—the wisdom God implanted in Adam. Weigel, Griff, 39. 114
he begins to steer the discussion away from objects in general to one particular kind of object—books. Returning to the wisdom implanted in Adam at creation, Weigel does not explicitly say how fully formed it is. He does not simply mean that every person is naturally born with the capacity to acquire these things through a formal education, but rather that the actual details of all these accomplishments are locked away in a person’s brain at birth and must only be remembered with the aid of books. 306 Weigel repeats the trope that learned ignorance—what the wise fool knows—is to be valued above the book learning of clerics and university doctors. 307 What a scholar cannot even master in thirty years by reading books, a person who cultivates self-knowledge can learn more accurately in three years (“Was in ander in XXX Jahren nicht lernen kan, das mag ein solcher in III Jahren Lernen ohne allen Irthumb”). 308 For Weigel, learning by reading books at university is not only time-consuming, but can only lead to error. Rather, knowledge of the world is gained by coming to know oneself more fully, by turning inwards to access the vast stores of knowledge implanted by God in Adam and all his descendants at the moment of creation. In line with his general theory of knowledge, the 306 Although it does seem blatantly counterfactual that a person is born knowing, for instance, Hebrew grammar and the rules of rhetoric, nevertheless Weigel already provides here some ammunition for his oftrepeated attack on the schools and universities. As the product of a state-sponsored primary and university education, it was perhaps not unreasonable that Weigel considered the schools and universities as hopelessly corrupted by worldly ambitions and the site of political intervention. If a complete school and university education is innate to every person, Weigel can dismiss educational institutions while still retaining the practical knowledge they provided students. 307 Readers of medieval mystical texts will be familiar with this trope and the debate about clerical authority it refers to. Mechthild of Magdeburg, for instance, chose to write in the vernacular (and thematized her choice) rather than in the Latin of the educated clergy as part of her call to reform. Moreover, she disavows direct authorship of her book (God himself claims to have written it), turning her supposed ignorance (as a woman writing in the vernacular) into a claim to authority. As Mechthild writes: “das ist mir vor inen ein gros ere und sterket die heiligen cristanheit an in vil sere, das der ungelerte munt die gelerte zungen von minem heiligen geiste leret” (“It is a great honor for me and it very much strengthens Holy Christianity that the unlearned mouth, aided by my Holy Spirit, teaches the learned tongue.”) Moreover, the passage just quoted is placed in the mouth of God himself, whom Mechthild claims to be quoting here, conversing with her. Mechthild of Magdeburg, Das fliessende Licht der Gottheit (Book II, ch. 26: 29-33) cited in Sara S. Poor, Mechthild of Magdeburg and Her Book: Gender and the Making of Textual Authority (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004), 38. 308 Weigel, Griff, 12. 115
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MYSTICISM & CONFESSIONAL CONFLICT I
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ABSTRACT This dissertation investig
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INTRODUCTION • ES IST DIR NICHT B
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mostly undisturbed by his Lutheran
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yet have signalled his assent with
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in a context where action is expect
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Protestant Mysticism: Not a Contrad
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interest, 31 and praised the Theolo
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one can observe the texture of the
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discourse and reasoned debate, or t
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with fragments of Eckhart and Taule
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Dionysius and Eckhart (for differen
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movement, but also profound shifts
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schools, as well as universities wh
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allowed them to cooperate effective
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made clear, would result in dismiss
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and in these external dealings, the
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same laws of physics, but while the
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Tertullian’s De Fuga in Persecuti
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as a martyr. Moreover, Holy Scriptu
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Alternatively, the so-called four-f
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tzeyger und unterrichter ist ynn di
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fellow Lutherans in studying books
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provoked into action unnecessarily,
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masses for the dead (for instance)
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traditional proof texts about the o
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positive understandings of indiffer
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insofar as their imperfection is ra
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Of these forms of indifference, I f
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to Dionysius’ authority. Two grou
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PART I • VALENTIN WEIGEL AND MEIS
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investigating his early modern read
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was a devilish heretic to others (
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Page 87 and 88: more importantly, a theology that a
Page 89 and 90: Mit Recht der Meister genannt: Mode
Page 91 and 92: These role-reversal dialogues were
Page 93 and 94: As this chapter has shown, Eckhart
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Page 97 and 98: CHAPTER 2 • GELASSENE GELASSENHEI
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Page 101 and 102: e “as it was when it was not.”
Page 103 and 104: Eckhart agree that spiritual povert
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Page 109 and 110: e as free of willing and desiring a
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Page 113 and 114: Gelassenheit, das ist, das er nicht
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Page 117: context is that he picks up on Eckh
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Page 129 and 130: ungewisser”) and finds that his f
Page 131 and 132: die Blinden an ein ander gehetzett,
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Page 135 and 136: Gelassenheit for the Bible, which i
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Page 143 and 144: Weigel gives the passage an unexpec
Page 145 and 146: Murren”)—and they do this “in
Page 147 and 148: and all the more so since he saw li
Page 149 and 150: the strength of the intellectual re
Page 151 and 152: CHAPTER 3 • DIONYSIUS, WHOEVER HE
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Page 155 and 156: destroyer that Dionysius is most of
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Page 161 and 162: served as cornerstones in defences
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Page 167 and 168: Outside the universities, Dionysius
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defiled the “sacred things” by
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other leaders of the Protestant Ref
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valorization of hierarchy per se in
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as well as the with the arguments u
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freedom, but rather obedience. 468
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The primary piece in the compilatio
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It is hardly surprising that Cochla
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it does during the Council of Trent
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for a hierarchical church, seizing
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the ancient teaching”) that “be
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Dionysiacum. For Lefèvre d’Étap
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Aristotle would have been glad to h
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enlightens all great thinkers in ev
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offered Dionysius to the Gelehrtenr
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nine distinct editions of Dionysius
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editions of Greek and Latin classic
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(Turin), and is a reprint of Lefèv
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presses in Spain (his first publica
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growing body of evidence suggesting
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Weigel concludes that, precisely be
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apart, he suggested that true Chris
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and so did not dwell on the fact th
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Names, as the title suggests, is ba
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animals, through plants and non-liv
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of being.” 580 As we will see lat
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(“God is a rock”) or even a neg
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This is admittedly a nonsensical as
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compositions, most likely dating to
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Dionysius to show that, just as God
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efer to Greek and Hebrew, the bibli
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argues that there cannot be more th
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dicitur una.” 616 The stress that
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Weigel suggests will allow the soul
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saving sacraments by means of which
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Melanchthon’s Defence of the Augs
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alternative—namely prayer. 643 We
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Dionysius writes that the summit of
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leibet er illimitatus.” 658 Weige
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work, Weigel had written explicitly
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Luther did not ever use the exact p
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as opposed to an office-holder, an
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writing. By calling his Layman der
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Others are loyal to mere men (the P
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zuerzeigen einen rechtschaffen vnd
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and ceremonial ones at that. 694 Th
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himself returning gloriously from H
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all being. In relinquishing any cre
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improve appearances but, because it
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than resolve it, because the proble
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parcels God, who by rights is supre
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Appendix • The Works of Valentin
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BIBLIOGRAPHY Abad, J. M. (1999). Th
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Chenu O.P., M.-D. (1968). In M.-D.
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Eckhart, M. (1993). Werke I (Vol. 1
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Israel, A. (1888). M. Valentin Weig
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MacCulloch, D. (2010). Christianity
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Payne, R. J. (Ed.). (1981). Meister
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Schindling, A., & Ziegler, W. (1990
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Verkamp, B. J. (1975). The Limits u
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