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involved with both Protestants and humanists. 168 Petri’s uncle Johannes had initially printed in partnership with Johann Froben, whose press was the centre of the circle of Basel humanists (Froben even hosted Erasmus as a guest). 169 As for Adam Petri himself, he printed the works of Protestant authors (Luther, Melanchthon, Bugenhagen, and Spalatin), and employed Hans Holbein as an illustrator. 170 Although printing such popular and profitable Reformation texts likely helped Petri keep his business in the black, Hieronymus points out that Petri personally wrote prefaces to the Reformation texts he printed, which suggests that they also expressed his own religious preferences. 171 Petri even sent his oldest son to study in Wittenberg. 172 The Basel Tauler edition is a substantial volume—a quarto volume some six hundred pages long. 173 The cover page is illustrated with a woodcut, with eight small capsules arranged as a border, each with a figure inside. The figures in the four corners are symbols of the four Evangelists holding their books, with the apostles Paul (with sword) and Peter (with keys) in between. The remaining four figures are church fathers, including Augustine and Ambrose (in bishops’ hats), Gregory (with a dove by his side) 168 Winfried Zeller also notes that the Basel edition of Tauler is connected to both the Wittenberg reformers as well as the Basel humanists. Presumably Zeller did not have access to the same archival material as Hieronymus, and so confines his brief article to observing that the editor’s printed marginalia give Tauler’s sermons a more Reformatory slant. For instance, the notes highlight (or perhaps over-emphasize) instances in Tauler’s text that use the formulation “allein,” echoing Luther’s sola-formulations and his famous defence of his addition of allein to his German Bible translation in the Sendbrief vom Dolmetschen (Zeller, “Taulerdruck,” 35). The marginalia also highlight other characteristic Reformation doctrines, drawing attention, for instance, to the importance of faith versus works (37) and the absolute importance of scripture (36). Winfried Zeller, “Der Baseler Taulerdruck von 1522 und die Reformation”, in Theologie und Frömmigkeit: Gesammelte Aufsätze, ed. Bernd Jaspert, (Marburg: N.G. Elwert Verlag), Band 1, 32-38. 169 Reske, 63. 170 See the complete list of titles published by the Petri publishing firm in Hieronymus, 1*. (The star after the page number refers to the pages in the list, rather than the main body of the text.) In this list, for instance, I counted at least 33 texts by Luther published before Petri’s death in 1527. 171 Hieronymus, E5. 172 Hieronymus, E6. 173 Johannes Tauler and Meister Eckhart, Joannis Tauleri des heligen lerers Predig, fast fruchtbar zuo eim recht christlichen leben (Basel: Adam Petri, 1521). Hereafter referred to as BT (Baseler Taulerdruck). 66
and Jerome (wearing what looks like a cardinal’s hat). All four of these figures hold a book in their hands, and are church doctors. Taken together, these figures add up to a selection of figures from Church history that were particularly acceptable to the Protestant movement. The Evangelists frame and bound the work on all four corners, suggesting a biblical framework for reading; Jerome was the Bible’s first translator, and Augustine’s writings were given pride of place even in later Protestant theology, as the figure from tradition whose role it was to show that Church tradition supported Protestant theology. 174 All six human figures are from the early Church, and notably absent are medieval figures—be they monastic or scholastic—including the founder of Tauler’s own order, St. Dominic, who might be a logical image with which to adorn an edition of one of the order’s most famous figures. That is, even from the title page, the Tauler edition is already reinserted into a Bible-centric reading context. Indeed, Frank Hieronymus has compiled a catalogue of every text printed by the Petri family’s printing operation, and observes that Adam Petri used this same title page illustration for other works he considered particularly “evangelical.” 175 In the catalogue, I found four other instances with this title page in works that Adam Petri printed. The first is a low German translation of the four gospels, the second a German version of the teachings of the Dominican preacher Johannes von Freiburg, the third the Tauler edition, and the fourth a collection of works by Luther in Latin. 176 174 Melanchthon’s curriculum for the theology department at Wittenberg was almost exclusively a study of the Bible and biblical languages. However, he did allow a short amount of time for reading Augustine, since Augustine’s supposed agreement with the Wittenberg reformers would give students a sense that the Christian tradition confirmed and authorized Lutheran theology. Marcel Nieden, Die Erfindung des Theologen: Wittenberger Anweisungen zum Theologiestudium im Zeitalter von Reformation und Konfessionalisierung, (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2006), 48. 175 Hieronymus, 140. 176 Hieronymus also notes that Petri later used a modified version of this title page without the four church fathers, leaving only the more “evangelical” collection of figures, namely the two apostles Peter and Paul, 67
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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
Page 19 and 20: discourse and reasoned debate, or t
Page 21 and 22: with fragments of Eckhart and Taule
Page 23 and 24: Dionysius and Eckhart (for differen
Page 25 and 26: movement, but also profound shifts
Page 27 and 28: schools, as well as universities wh
Page 29 and 30: allowed them to cooperate effective
Page 31 and 32: made clear, would result in dismiss
Page 33 and 34: and in these external dealings, the
Page 35 and 36: same laws of physics, but while the
Page 37 and 38: Tertullian’s De Fuga in Persecuti
Page 39 and 40: as a martyr. Moreover, Holy Scriptu
Page 41 and 42: Alternatively, the so-called four-f
Page 43 and 44: tzeyger und unterrichter ist ynn di
Page 45 and 46: fellow Lutherans in studying books
Page 47 and 48: provoked into action unnecessarily,
Page 49 and 50: masses for the dead (for instance)
Page 51 and 52: traditional proof texts about the o
Page 53 and 54: positive understandings of indiffer
Page 55 and 56: insofar as their imperfection is ra
Page 57 and 58: Of these forms of indifference, I f
Page 59 and 60: to Dionysius’ authority. Two grou
Page 61 and 62: PART I • VALENTIN WEIGEL AND MEIS
Page 63 and 64: investigating his early modern read
Page 65 and 66: was a devilish heretic to others (
Page 67 and 68: his neglect of Eckhart. 158 For ins
Page 69: “unheilvolle Kompliziertheit”).
Page 73 and 74: title page, as mentioned above, des
Page 75 and 76: of a respectable though not fanatic
Page 77 and 78: himself, but rather cultivated part
Page 79 and 80: church that Luther, Melanchthon and
Page 81 and 82: kan”), and specifically the role
Page 83 and 84: soul become convinced that nothing
Page 85 and 86: that salvation can be attained thro
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
Page 95 and 96: philosophers from Hegel and Schopen
Page 97 and 98: CHAPTER 2 • GELASSENE GELASSENHEI
Page 99 and 100: the relationship between Tauler and
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 107 and 108: einvaltig stille), an uncreated lig
Page 109 and 110: e as free of willing and desiring a
Page 111 and 112: nestling inside the soul, but rathe
Page 113 and 114: Gelassenheit, das ist, das er nicht
Page 115 and 116: (necessarily inferior) knowledge pr
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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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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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
Page 273 and 274:
Chenu O.P., M.-D. (1968). In M.-D.
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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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