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authorities, the blindness of the supposedly pious priests, Herod’s insistence on having his own way rather than God’s—the un-Gelassenheit of Herod’s court and the priests represents (as Weigel states in no uncertain terms) the source of all conflict, the “Brunn aller Kriegen.” 381 Whereas Herod’s Ungelassenheit leads him to take violent action, Weigel commends the Gelassenheit of those who take no action and do not intervene in worldly affairs. Weigel’s Eckhartian concept of Gelassenheit helps him to reach the conclusion that reform does not mean modifying earthly institutions, because this kind of change can only perpetuate suffering by causing wars: the only true reform is the reformation of the soul, its becoming gelassen. Despite the fact that Weigel hoped to imitate Christ by a peaceful and quiet evasion (in not publically leaving the Church in protest), his definition of reformation had practical implications for both Church and State that made him non grata: Gelassenheit means that neither church nor state are ultimately necessary. Unlike others who fought for the reform of the church, Weigel thought that a “Christian church” was a contradiction in terms. That is, it is the very idea of an institutional church that is the problem, rather than any particular incarnation of the Church. Through his reading of Eckhart’s mystical texts, Weigel realized that a Christian’s participation or nonparticipation in them is an indifferent matter, and can neither harm nor save a truly faithful Christian. In a marked departure from the celebrated confessors and martyrs of the early Church—and from Martin Luther’s defiantly public statements of belief— Weigel allowed that neither priests nor parishioners need speak out in public against practices that were contrary to their beliefs, if doing so would endanger their safety. Dismissing the call to martyrdom in this way, however, left Weigel spiritually homeless, 381 Weigel, Postille, 78. 142
and all the more so since he saw little point in attempting to build a new church that would be more congenial to his beliefs, having concluded that not only is his particular church spiritually corrupt, but that the very idea of an earthly church is unchristian. What, then, would be the point in trying to found a new church? Reformation, in other words, is just as hopeless as maintaining the imperfect status quo. Not testifying in public did not, of course, exclude testifying in private (i.e. before other laypeople, or, as Weigel calls them, idiota 382 ), in the company of kindred spirits— though again, whether testifying in private still counts as testifying is by no means clear. Tertullian and the martyrs of the Golden Legend would likely not have allowed it. 383 In his final work, the Dialogus de Christianismo, Weigel depicts the Layman in his death throes (“Ach Gott, wie bange ist mir, ich kan nicht weytter...”), his brothers Johannes and Paulus appear, urging him to give up his heretical beliefs. Fearing for the safety of their brother’s soul, they suggest he let a priest give him absolution and administer last rites, but the Layman insists that the sacraments are useless, that Christ is within him, and that he therefore has a priest and the sacraments to hand already. In desperation, Johannes uses the following argument: “Ist dein Glaube gerecht, wie du immer in deiner Meynung verharret bist, so tröste dich deines gutten Gewissens. Ist er aber falsch gewesen und hast falsche Leere geliebet, so thu nur Busse und bekenne es fur den Priester.” 384 Weigel does not have Johannes gambling on the existence of God here, but rather on the means of salvation. If it is possible for the inner man to remain gelassen, unmoved and unaffected 382 Chapter 4 returns to Weigel’s concept of the layperson. 383 In De fuga persecutione, Tertullian writes: “Can you boast that you have shown yourself a brave and constant witness to Christ?...Oh yes, perhaps you have admitted you are a Christian to some individual, but, in refusing to do so before many, you have denied Him.” Tertullian, Disciplinary, Moral and Ascetical Works, trans. Rudolph Arbesmann, Emily Joseph Daly and Edwin A. Quain (New York: Fathers of the Church, Inc., 1959), 300-301. 384 Weigel, Dialogus, 134. 143
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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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his neglect of Eckhart. 158 For ins
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“unheilvolle Kompliziertheit”).
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and Jerome (wearing what looks like
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title page, as mentioned above, des
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of a respectable though not fanatic
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himself, but rather cultivated part
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church that Luther, Melanchthon and
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kan”), and specifically the role
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soul become convinced that nothing
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that salvation can be attained thro
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more importantly, a theology that a
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Mit Recht der Meister genannt: Mode
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These role-reversal dialogues were
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As this chapter has shown, Eckhart
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Page 97 and 98: CHAPTER 2 • GELASSENE GELASSENHEI
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Page 117 and 118: context is that he picks up on Eckh
Page 119 and 120: he begins to steer the discussion a
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Page 129 and 130: ungewisser”) and finds that his f
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Page 135 and 136: Gelassenheit for the Bible, which i
Page 137 and 138: that the kind of Gelassenheit Weige
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Page 143 and 144: Weigel gives the passage an unexpec
Page 145: Murren”)—and they do this “in
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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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Page 171 and 172: other leaders of the Protestant Ref
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Page 179 and 180: The primary piece in the compilatio
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Page 189 and 190: Dionysiacum. For Lefèvre d’Étap
Page 191 and 192: Aristotle would have been glad to h
Page 193 and 194: enlightens all great thinkers in ev
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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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