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Regardless of Luther’s intentions in the first half of the sixteenth century, the ecclesiastical apparatus of the Lutheran church became progressively more entrenched in the latter half of the century, with priests given a new formal training at the universities and slotted into the growing bureaucracy of the Lutheran states. This new Lutheran clergy was not without its critics—Weigel included, as we have seen. Within the priesthood of all believers, Weigel defines the layperson negatively, through two different exclusions: laymen are excluded from learning and education, and are excluded from ecclesiastical power. 671 Weigel thus gives his layperson three names in the Dialogus; he is a Laie, an idiota and a Zuhörer, corresponding to these exclusions. I will return to the idea of the layperson as listener (Zuhörer) momentarily, but first examine the first two names for Weigel’s layperson. The first term, idiota, refers to the Layman’s unlearnedness (suggested by the modern English word idiot). Etymologically, the Greek word idiota/idios refers to a person who represents his own interests rather than official or public interests—a citizen 671 Weigel is not the first to use the form of the debate to address anxieties about learnedness and authority. In the so-called Sister Katherine treatise (14 th century), the idiota is an unlearned woman, and the narrative tension results from power struggle between her and her father confessor. Her “unlearned learnedness” or “wise foolishness” proves superior to both the book learning and institutional legitimation of the Beichtvater. He initially accuses her of disobedience (“Du wilt übel...das du nitt rautes wilt folgen. Wissest, das gehorsami ein tugent ist!”), but she replies, much as Weigel does, that she is obedient to her true master: “Ich wil gehorsam sin bis an minen tott...Christo und dem himelschen vatter, dem Iohannes gehorsam was in der wüste, und Maria Magdalena und Maria von Egipten und Maria Salome.” (60) She in turn accuses him of hindering her salvation, rather than showing her the way (“ir hand mich gehindrett meiner ewigen selikeit”) and regrets having followed human advice at the expense of the Holy Spirit’s (“Mir ist von herczen leide das ich menschen ratt ie als lang gevolget und dem ratte des heilgen geistes widerstanden han”). The dialogue concludes with the confessor asking for both her blessing and her instruction (“Glopt si gott, das er dich ie gemachet zuo einem menschen, wan du hest mich gewiset zuo miner ewigen sälikeit” [90]). Ann Marie Rasmussen, Ladies, Whores, and Holy Women (Kalamazoo, MI: Medieval Institute Publications, 2010). A second such dialogue is the Idiota de Sapientia by Nicholas of Cusa (1450), featuring a poor but wise layman and wealthy orator (we discover later that the layman lives in an underground dwelling making his living carving spoons). The layman criticises the orator for relying too heavily on books, which are not the best source of wisdom. The debate in Cusa’s dialogue is not over ecclesiastical authority, but rather over the value of secular learning, philosophy and rhetoric in particular. Nicholas of Cusa, "Idiota de sapientia," in Complete Philosophical and theological treatises of Nicholas of Cusa (Minneapolis: A. J. Banning Press, 2001). 244
as opposed to an office-holder, an individual as opposed to the state, or an amateur as opposed to an expert (which is the source of the word’s modern English meaning). 672 The New Testament uses the word to designate a certain kind of linguistic ability, namely those who attend the gatherings of Christians but who cannot understand those who speak in tongues. They are neither unbelieving and uncomprehending outsiders, nor have they been fully welcomed as believing or comprehending insiders. 673 These people are idiotes in the eyes of the Christians, but sometimes the tables are turned, and it is the Apostles who are idiotes in the eyes of those they seek to convert: their audience is amazed at how well Peter and Paul speak because they are only “ungelehrte Leute und Laien,” meaning that they are not skilled rhetoricians. 674 The unlearnedness of a true Christian became a common refrain throughout the Middle Ages, as many wondered about the true value of secular learning and philosophy for attaining salvation: how much did a Christian need to know in order to be saved, and were the tools of (secular) philosophy needed to understand the Gospels? 675 Furthermore, Christians in the Middle Ages began to question whether Latin was indeed superior to the vernacular languages, and whether those who could not read or write in Latin as well as university-trained theologians really had no insight to offer other devout readers. 676 672 Hans-Martin Barth, Adolf Martin Ritter, Friedrich Wintzer, “Laie”, Vol. 20, in Theologische Realenzyklopädie (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1990), 378-399. 673 1 Corinthians 14:16. 674 “Sie sahen aber an die freydickeyt Petri vnnd Johannis, vnd verwunderten sich, denn sie waren gewis, das es ungelerte leutt unnd leyen waren, unnd kandten sie auch woll, das sie mitt Jhesu gewesen waren” Acts 4:13. Luther translates “ungelerte leutt und leyen” from the Latin “homines sine litteris et idiotae.” 675 Grundmann locates the stirring of an attitude shift against learnedness in the Franciscan movement (13 th century), who revived the apostolic ideal of the simple unlearned man preaching before the learned Pharisees or the Athenian jurists. Herbert Grundmann, "Litteratus - illiteratus: Der Wandel einer Bildungsnorm vom Altertum zum Mittelalter," Archiv für Kulturgeschichte, 1958: 56. 676 Grundmann situates the origin of the layman in the 11 th with Gregory VII’s ecclesiastical reform. This particular reform “completed the structure or ordo of the hierarchical Church, which rested on the idea of apostolic succession, reserving the execution of Christian salvation to those who had been ordained to it either directly or indirectly by the successors of Peter and the apostles. Yet as soon as the hierarchical ordo 245
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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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philosophers from Hegel and Schopen
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CHAPTER 2 • GELASSENE GELASSENHEI
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the relationship between Tauler and
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e “as it was when it was not.”
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Eckhart agree that spiritual povert
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one-of-a-kind thing, or the best ki
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einvaltig stille), an uncreated lig
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e as free of willing and desiring a
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nestling inside the soul, but rathe
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Gelassenheit, das ist, das er nicht
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(necessarily inferior) knowledge pr
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context is that he picks up on Eckh
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he begins to steer the discussion a
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further proof for Weigel’s theory
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understood that the mind cannot pos
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wait in stiller Gelassenheit, recei
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truth as an educated theologian or
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ungewisser”) and finds that his f
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die Blinden an ein ander gehetzett,
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gesagett das ist er selber und ist
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Gelassenheit for the Bible, which i
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that the kind of Gelassenheit Weige
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indifference that allows Weigel to
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teacher. 366 However, the turning p
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Weigel gives the passage an unexpec
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Murren”)—and they do this “in
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and all the more so since he saw li
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the strength of the intellectual re
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CHAPTER 3 • DIONYSIUS, WHOEVER HE
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demonstrated for Eckhart, I will de
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destroyer that Dionysius is most of
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ears good news to the church.” 39
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points out, with a purification, a
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served as cornerstones in defences
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(Acts 17: 15-34), one of the skepti
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to make the interpretation of these
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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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Page 207 and 208: Weigel concludes that, precisely be
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Page 217 and 218: of being.” 580 As we will see lat
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Page 221 and 222: This is admittedly a nonsensical as
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Page 225 and 226: Dionysius to show that, just as God
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Page 231 and 232: dicitur una.” 616 The stress that
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Page 237 and 238: Melanchthon’s Defence of the Augs
Page 239 and 240: alternative—namely prayer. 643 We
Page 241 and 242: Dionysius writes that the summit of
Page 243 and 244: leibet er illimitatus.” 658 Weige
Page 245 and 246: work, Weigel had written explicitly
Page 247: Luther did not ever use the exact p
Page 251 and 252: writing. By calling his Layman der
Page 253 and 254: Others are loyal to mere men (the P
Page 255 and 256: zuerzeigen einen rechtschaffen vnd
Page 257 and 258: and ceremonial ones at that. 694 Th
Page 259 and 260: himself returning gloriously from H
Page 261 and 262: all being. In relinquishing any cre
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Page 265 and 266: than resolve it, because the proble
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Page 269 and 270: Appendix • The Works of Valentin
Page 271 and 272: BIBLIOGRAPHY Abad, J. M. (1999). Th
Page 273 and 274: Chenu O.P., M.-D. (1968). In M.-D.
Page 275 and 276: Eckhart, M. (1993). Werke I (Vol. 1
Page 277 and 278: Israel, A. (1888). M. Valentin Weig
Page 279 and 280: MacCulloch, D. (2010). Christianity
Page 281 and 282: Payne, R. J. (Ed.). (1981). Meister
Page 283 and 284: Schindling, A., & Ziegler, W. (1990
Page 285 and 286: Verkamp, B. J. (1975). The Limits u
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