the mystical theology of valentin weigel - DataSpace at Princeton ...

Weigel encountered Eckhart’s writings published as an appendix to an edition of Tauler’s
sermon. Eckhart’s writings continued to circulate in Protestant circles linked together
with Weigel’s own writings, which seventeenth century editors felt were conceptually
related and therefore publishable side-by-side. The chapter concludes by contrasting the
way that readers in Weigel’s time cautiously appreciated Eckhart’s ideas with the
hyperbolic praise heaped upon Eckhart since the nineteenth century, so as to ensure that
modern readers do not project this modern Eckhartbild back to Weigel’s time.
Homo doctus et sanctus: Medieval Eckhartbilder
The story of Meister Eckhart’s intellectual afterlife begins already during his
hotly contested heresy trial, which ended in 1326 with an ambiguous verdict from Pope
John XXII, and which therefore left opinion divided on whether Eckhart was a fearsome
heretic or a creative and engaging orthodox theologian. 146 In the positive reception stream
are Eckhart’s students—including the more famous ones such as Johannes Tauler and
Heinrich Seuse, as well as almost unknown ones such as Giselher von Slatheim and
Florentius von Utrecht—as well as what has been termed a “volkstümliche
Überlieferung,” consisting of legends and anecdotes about Eckhart. 147 In these, he is
mostly represented as a wise teacher and Seelsorger. 148 A wise teacher to some, Eckhart
146 Ingeborg Degenhardt, Studien zum Wandel des Eckhartbildes (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1967), 100.
147 Degenhardt does not seem to think these Eckhartlegenden are of much value, being “anspruchslose
Kleinliteratur” (Degenhardt, 26). Whatever their literary value, they were indeed enduringly popular, and
do in fact contain Eckhart’s ideas, albeit in a much simplified form. Moreover, as I discovered in my
research, these Eckhart legends were transmitted well into the 17 th century. Three of these, translated into
Dutch, are even included under the heading of a work bearing Weigel’s name, namely a Dutch translation
of his Einleitung zur deutschen Theologie, published in Amsterdam in 1647. I will discuss the published
co-presence of Eckhart and Weigel later in this chapter.
148 Degenhardt, 22.
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