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much as five Gulden, and, where the poverty line for the early sixteenth century has been estimated at ten Gulden per year, this constitutes a substantial (but not prohibitive) investment. 197 At the very least, the cost of buying a Tauler edition was high enough that one would have to already be interested or invested in spiritual texts, as one would not idly spend such a sum. Those who read the early printed editions were interested in Tauler first because of the form of his works (sermons), and second because of their content. The publisher and book seller’s contacts extended throughout the German speaking lands, such that, although Wittenberg (where both Luther and Weigel studied) was outside the main publishing and book selling centers (Frankfurt and Basel), Protestant readers would have had ready access to the text. I now turn to how sixteenth century readers in Wittenberg responded to the content of Tauler’s and Eckhart’s sermons. Since Weigel studied at Wittenberg, it is possible that he heard these responses, or even read them himself, and so the sources discussed here suggest what Weigel’s associations with Tauler and Eckhart might have been. The key finding is that Tauler continued to be read throughout the sixteenth century and, moreover, was read by a broad community of readers, both conservative and radical. 198 In other words, Tauler’s readership was not limited to one particular subgroup of Protestants, and certainly was not limited to those Protestants who supported a more radical or revolutionary religious and political program (i.e. one that did not accept the 197 Otto, 47. Otto notes further that secular clergy (Weltgeistliche) could expect to earn around 30-40 Gulden per year 198 Ernst Koch, Taulerrezeption im Luthertum der zweitel Hälfte des 16. Jahrhunderts, Vol. 2, in "Der Buchstab tödt, der Geist macht lebendig”: Festschrift für Hans-Gert Roloff, (Bern: Peter Lang, 1992), 1244. The so-called “radical reformers” who supported the fanatical Schwärmer such as Karlstadt and Münzer read Tauler before the Peace of Augsburg (in 1555), as did post-Augsburg Protestant opponents of Lutheranism such as Sebastian Franck and Caspar von Schwenckfeld. By the same token, however, Tauler continued to be read in Wittenberg, and was received by those who identified themselves with the Lutheran mainstream. 74
church that Luther, Melanchthon and other Wittenberg theologians established). Since Weigel did not himself choose protest or revolution, Tauler’s more “conservative” readers are indeed relevant to a discussion of Weigel’s reception of German mysticism. For this reason, I focus on two texts that give what might be called the Wittenberg “party line” on Tauler, the first by Matthias Lauterwalt and the second by Michael Neander—both of whom self-identified as mainstream Lutherans who supported the church that Luther had established. Both Lauterwalt and Neander, then, are classified here as “conservative” readers of Eckhart and Tauler, because they worked to sustain the theology developed at Lutheran universities and actively shaped Lutheran confessional documents and the confessional church. One tract that gives insight into the reception of Tauler in Lutheran circles is a work published in 1553 by the Wittenberg theologian Matthias Lauterwalt 199 entitled Ein bedencken: Was zu halten sey, von des erleuchten Herren Doctor Johannis Taulers (seliger gedechtnis) Offenbarung, voicing the official or normative Lutheran position on Tauler: “was zu halten sey,” what is to be thought of Tauler. Although Eckhart’s name is never mentioned in this tract, I will discuss this text because it is the earliest Lutheran text to genuinely engage with German mystical writing at length. Moreover, Eckhart’s writings circulated almost exclusively in connection with Tauler’s name, and, as I will discuss below, the teachings that Lauterwalt identifies as Taulerian are also those that he shared with his teacher Eckhart. Finally, it was published only a decade before Weigel 199 Lauterwalt (or Lauterwald as his name is more frequently spelled), studied at Wittenberg, then taught mathematics at the newly founded Lutheran university at Königsberg before losing his teaching post in 1549 on account of his involvement on the wrong side of one of the many theological controversies within Lutheranism in the mid-16 th century (one early biography describes him as “ein sehr zänckischer Mann”). He left to continue his studies at Wittenberg again, before accepting a pastoral post in 1551. Johann Samuel Klein, Nachrichten von den Lebensumständen und Schriften Evangelischer Prediger in allen Gemeinen des Königreichs Ungarn, (Leipzig: Diepold und Lindauer, 1789), 185. 75
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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
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 and 70: “unheilvolle Kompliziertheit”).
Page 71 and 72: and Jerome (wearing what looks like
Page 73 and 74: title page, as mentioned above, des
Page 75 and 76: of a respectable though not fanatic
Page 77: himself, but rather cultivated part
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
Page 121 and 122: further proof for Weigel’s theory
Page 123 and 124: understood that the mind cannot pos
Page 125 and 126: wait in stiller Gelassenheit, recei
Page 127 and 128: 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
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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
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MacCulloch, D. (2010). Christianity
Page 281 and 282:
Payne, R. J. (Ed.). (1981). Meister
Page 283 and 284:
Schindling, A., & Ziegler, W. (1990
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Verkamp, B. J. (1975). The Limits u
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