PREFACE The impossibility of completing my edition of Meister Eckhart as :][uickly as it has been at various times desired and as I should Tiyself have liked to do, as well as the wish no longer to withhold from scholars the writings of one of the deepest thinkers of all dme, has decided me to publish in the meantime the portion :?ontamcd in the text. The second part, with literary-historical introduction, notes, glossary, and various additions and appendices, will follow as soon as I can spare the time from my new duties.
, This first instalment contains, with the exception of a few short ) eees which I obtained only after it was printed, everything of ekhart’s which, during eighteen years of tireless research, I have :>een able to collect out of manuscripts and printed books. It is ittle enough compared with the works of Eckhart still known :o Tritheniius and of which he gives quite a long catalogue in his book De Scriptoribus Eedes, (s. Fabricii bibliotheca ccoles. llani- Durgh, 1718, fol. pag. 130); but on the other hand what I offer rierc is at least three times the amount of what has hitherto been known, and the teaching, the philosojihie systern of this remarkable Trian can now be presented in a more definite and complete form ^haii it was possible to do from the scanty and untrustworthy lata possessed before.
In order to give an account of the means within my reach and It the same time to give the reader some idea of the extent and lifTiculty of my work, I append a list of the jirinted matter and nanu scripts used, together with a statement of their contents irranged and numbered to correspond with my edition.
I. PARCHMENT MSS.
VI MEISTER ECKHART 4. D. Berlin, k. bibliothek, cod. germ. 8, No. 12. 14th cent.
IV. ) 5. E. Berlin, k. bibliothek, cod. germ. 8, No. 65. 14th cent.
IV.)
12. M. Basel, universitats bibliothek, B. IX, 15. 14th cent.
13. N. Frankfurt, stadt bibliothek (old I)omini(?an library). No.
14. o. Karlsruhe, grossherzogliche bibliothek, cod. s. Petri, 15. p. (hessen (in private ownership) from the kloster Altenburg bei \Vetzlar. 14th cent. (Ill, 31-48.)
16. Q. Wien, hof bibliothek, No. 2757. 14th cent. 4to.
II. PAPER MSS.
18. b. Stuttgart, k. privatbibliothek. No. 1, 26 (old numbering).
20. d. Basle, Adam Petri’s edition of Tauler’s sermons, 1521 PREFACE vii 24. lu Coblenz, gymnasiums bibliothek, No. 43. I5th cent.
27. /. Leipzig, Cunrad Kachclouen’s edition of Tauler’s sermons, 28. tn. Breslau, in ]M)ssession of Cond. Prince-Bishop Melchior V. Diepenbrock. 15th cent. Fol. Tractate on Active and Potential Intellect 29. n, Stuttgart, k. (iffentliche bibliothek, cod. theol. fol. No.
30. o. Same, cod. theol. fol. No. 283. 15th cent. (Ill, 69.)
39. t, Stuttgart, k. bffcntliche bibliothek, cod. theol. 8, No. 13, 41. V. Stuttgart, k. offeiitliche bibliothek, cod. theol. fol. 33, 42. w. Frankfurt, stadtbibliothek, No. 3500 (old Dominican library). 15th cent. 8vo. (II, 17.)
45. y, Stuttgart, k. offentliche bibliothek, cod. theol. 4to.
In addition I have to note a MS. with forty sermons by Kckhart, paper, o£thc date 1440, in the possession of Prof. Karl Schmidt of Strassburg. Unfortunately this has remained inaccessible to me, MEISTER ECKHART viii I only know what the possessor has disclosed in his French mono- graph on Eckhart {Memoir es de Vacaddmie franc, mor, et polit. par savants Strangers, Paris, 1847. T. 2).
With regard to the internal arrangement and ordering of my material I make the following observations. The broad division into Sermons, Tractates, Sayings was obvious. On the other hand it was diflicult to decide what sequence the sermons ought to follow. An arrangement which showed the changes in Eckhart’s teaehi)]g in a logical manner was out of the question, and the same applies to putting them in order of age or time of delivery; the data for this are wholly lacking. It is quite exceptional for Eckhart to make any reference to a previous sermon. Among the earliest of these sermons, belonging perhaps to the period of his Vicar-Generalship in Bohemia (about 1.307), I reckon those numbered 105-110 from the Melk MS., L. 5. (No. 22.) In the superscription of these Eckhart is so called instead of Meistcr Eckhart, a designation which points to the time when the memory of his final years of study in Paris was still lively. These I have placed last, simply on the grounds that, like all the MSS. obtained from Austria, they seem to be much edited; superheially, in diction, they certainly are and I think too their matter has been tampered with. As being the simplest arrangement, the liturgical order of the Gospels commended itself but here great diirieulties , were encountered the sermons being prefaced by texts chosen quite at random and as a rule all reference to the Sunday or festival is wanting. The titles of the old Basle edition arc for the most part arbitrary.
I decided therefore to rely solely on my sources and the order in which their individual sermons were presented. With this end in view those manuscripts were chosen out which were specially distinguished for their age or authenticity, and from these again selection was made of those with superscriptions imputing them to Eckhart. In this way and in this way only I found it possible to enter into the genius and the method and the idiosyncrasy of Eckhart and gain a reliable standard whereby to determine those sermons which, though found among the authentic ones, were yet without his name. By this means I hope to have acquired the necessary ]>ractice and familiarity with Eckhart’s writings and I believe 1 need not fear that any important item of my collec- tion will ultimately prove to be wrongly attributed to Eckhart.
The Sayings, with few exceptions, bear all the marks of authen- ticity and need no further verification. Only a couple of them are traceable to the complete sermons and tractates included, though most are fragments and portions of larger works. From this we can form some notion of the amount of Eckhart still lost to us.
PREFACE IX PREFACE IX With regard to the fourth section, which I have called Liher Positionum, I had no external evidence of Eckhart’s authorship, but Eckhart’s genius and characteristic outlook seem to me to be unmistakably shown in these arguments in which, in the form of dialogues between master and pupil, a series of weighty philo- sophical and theological questions are ventilated. Further, the separate items of this work which only loosely hang together, I have met with only among Eckhart’s writings. The title I have borrowed from Trithemius’ Catalogue (see above); it might have been made for it.
Obviously my text is not all of equal value and correctness; who could expect it? With the numerous pieces preserved only in late and bad MSS. it was often impossible owing to the careless- ness of the scribe to unravel the manifold confusion of thought and connection; how was I to restore and supply words and whole sentences which had been omitted? I mean to comment in the Notes on the passages which seem to me to be corrupt and give the emendations and conjectures which I have found it inexpedient to publish with the text. Of another kind but no less great was my didiculty with those passages which certainly appeared in the best MSS. but showed considerable variations among themselves. How important these discrepancies often are the variants will show. In cases of this sort the recognition and isolation of the authentic* from the unauthentic later additions or distortions is rarely to be done with any certainty and for that reason I have sometimes adopted the expedient of putting the variants themselves in juxtaposition in the text.^ As to the diction of the contents of this volume, which I have neither wished nor been able to give much order to, I have followed the oldest and best MSS. which, consistently with Eckhart’s home and birthplace, Strassburg, are written almost entirely in the Alcmanic idiom: Middle German and the speech of Cologne do appear occasionally but notwithstanding Eckhart’s long sojourn on the lower Rhine, only rarely and in late MSS.
Stuttgart, ^th July 1857.
The last two pages of Pfeiffer’s Preface arc occupied with acknow- ledgments of the help and kindness received from professors, librarians, keepers of archives, etc. Among these appear the names of Wackernagel, P. Gall-Morel, Franz Hoffmann, and the Cardinal Prince-Bishop of Breslau, Melchior von Diepenbrock, ^ Many examples of this occur. See especially I, Ixxvi and II, xi.
X MEISTER ECKHART ‘ who never tired of lending me a helping hand.’ He is especially grateful to the then Prefect of the Vatican Archives who enabled him to trace and placed at his disposal eight documents (s. Pertz. archiv 9, 449) relating to Eckhart and of much importance ‘ as showing the relations of Eckhart with the Church, his position with regard to the Archbishop of Cologne and the justification of the latter for setting in motion the Inquisition against him, as well as for the history of the powerful spiritual movement which at the beginning of the fourteenth century took place on the Rhine.’ All these documents he reserves for his projected volume of Notes, with the cxce])tiori of one short quotation from Eckliart’s Declara- tion at Cologne, 13 Feb. 1327. This, together with other relevant documents, was afterwards published by Preger at the end of the first volume of his Geschichie der deutschen Mi/stik, Eckhart ^ (d. cir. 1327) has been ealled the lather of the German mystics,^ the philosophical creative genius of the German mystics ® and the father of German speculation.^ According to Dean Inge he is ‘ next to Plotinus the greatest j)hilosopher-mystic ’ ^ and the most Plotinian of all Christian philosophers.^* lie was a learned ^ member of the Dominican or Preaching Order and sometime lector hihlicus at the University of Paris, then the Dominican College of St Jacob where he was given his title of Meister by Pope Honi- face VIII. But it was probably at Cologne that he graduated in the Scholasticism of Albertus Magnus (1205 -1281) and Thomas Aquinas (1226 -1274) whose system was at that time rapidly acquiring its hold. He held at different times important provincial posts and proved himself an able administrator and reformer of the numerous religious houses in his eare but it was principally at Strassburg and afterwards at Cologne that he established his great influence as a teacher and ‘for an entire generation, with the boldest freedom, preached to the multitudes in the German tongue on topics bristling with difliculties for the orthodox faith.’ For he had conceived the then novel idea of instructing the lait}^ and the many semi-religious communities and brotherhoods of that date-— Beguines, Beghards, Friends of God (Gottefifreunde), etc. — no less than the religious of his Order, and for this purpose it was necessary to make the further innovation of using the vulgar tongue instead of Latin, the teaching medium of that day. Ilis success in expounding the abstruse tenets of the Scholastic philosophy in an undeveloped language which he had to supply with words and fashion to his needs, has earned for Eckhart the titles of father of the German language and the father of German philosophic ® prose. Ultimately the Church authorities became alarmed at the enthusiasm roused by his teaching and especially at its effect u))on the laity. He was accused of preaching to the people in their own language ^ The following facts aro takon chiefly from Preger’s GcffchirMe and Laason’s Meister Eckhart. (See Bibliography for full titles.)
* Bach. ^ TAght^ TAJe arid Love, p. xv.
* Philosophy of Plotinus^ vol. ii, p. 107.
’ Tauler (1300-13G1) describes him as ‘ a man of prodigious learning, loo profoundly versed in the aubtilties of God- and nature-wisdom for many of the scholars of his day rightly to understand him ’ {Sermom, Basle od., 1521).
XI xii MEISTER ECKHART things that might lead to heresy ^ and this led to his excommunica- tion in 1329, after his death, on the general grounds of preaching to the laity the secrets of the Church, a list of seventeen specific heretical and eleven ohjectional doctrines being appended to the inditcment.2 T(^ the first accusation he replied: ^ If the ignorant are not taught they will never learn ’; ‘ the business of the doctor is to heal.’ The charge of heresy he strenuously denied and largely succeeded in rebutting while he lived. ‘ I protest in the presence of God,’ he says, ‘ that I have always avoided with horror all error in matters of faith,’ and he never made any recantation of his teaching although he publicly declared his willingness to retract any error ‘ that might be proved against him.’" TTis ‘errors’ appear to be the logical outcome of the system he taught. As Lasson says, ‘ lie taught what Dionysius and St Thomas taught...but he goes further than any of his predecessors and crosses the boundaries of Church dogma.’
There is only the scantiest material for a biography of Eckhart. Of his birth neither date nor place is known. It is argued that he was born before 1200 either at Strassburg in Saxony, or at Hoclihcim in Thfiringia. The first known mention of his name is in a list of Professors at the University of Paris: /r. Echardus^ Tutonicus, licentiates per Bonifavium, 1302. In 1303 he was Provincial of the Order in Saxony, with its sixty convents, men’s and women’s. To this title he added in 1307 that of V^icar-General of Bohemia where he refonned the religious liouses. In 1311 he returned to Paris University and in 1312 began his long sojourn as head of the Order at Strassburg. Eight years later (1320) he is Prior of Frankfu rt. There is now some suspicion of his orthodoxy but the Order still supports him and he is given a Chair at the Dominican College in (Cologne where he enhances his reputation as a preacher. Here Tauler, Suso and Ruysbroeck probably heard him, and Tauler also at Strassburg. In 1325-6, suspicion of his teaching having revived, Nikolaus of Strassburg was appointed his special Inquisitor and his case came before the Inquisition in Venice. lie delivered his Protest before that body on 24 Jan. 1327, and on 13 Feb. following made his public Declaration of orthodoxy in the Dominican Church at Cologne. This is the last date on which he is known to have been alive. The answer of the Inquisition to his appellation, refusing to accept it, is dated 22 Feb. 1327, and it is conjectured that he died soon after. He was excommunicated by the Bull of John XXII, 27 March 1329.
' Inquisition at Venice, 1326.
^ Bull of John XXII. See Pregor, Appendix.
® Declaration at Cologne, 13 Feb. 1327.
ECKHART xiii After his excommunication in 1329 Eckliart gradually lost all but legendary fame and his writings survived mostly under other names. Five hundred years later, in 1829, Gorres speaks of him as ‘ line figure chretienne presque mythique.’ ^ But for at least two generations after his death his writings, secretly passed from hand to hand and frequently transcribed, fomied what Lasson calls ‘ the text-books of God-intoxicated piety.’ To the preachers of his school, John Tauler ( 1300 - 1361 ), Suso ( 1300 - 1365 ), Ruysbrocck ( 1293 - 1381 ), all members of the Brotherhood of the Friends of God, and to others of less note, they were a veritable mine from which they drew not only inspiration but words, sayings, whole passages and even whole sermons. To the Basle 1521 edition of Tauler’s sermons Adam Petri had appended a few pages of sermons under Eckliart ’s own name and this led to his rediscovery by Schmidt in 1817.- Taulcr’s sermons were after- wards shown by Pfeiffer to be a valuable source of Eckhart’s writings and tliis applies also to the works of Suso and Ruys- broeck to a less degree.
Pfeiffer’^ collection of Eckhart’s works is the earliest and still by lar the largest. He confined himself principally to writings in Alemanic, the High German dialect of Strassburg at that date, but there are a number of others in different dialects of German, a few in Latin, ^ and some in a mixture of the two.* Tlierc are often numerous variants of the same original, sometimes under Eckhart’s^ name but often attributed toothers, e.g. Frankc von Koln, Hermann von Fritslar, Nikolaus von Landau, Johannes von Sterngassen, Kraft von Royberg, all belonging to the fourteenth century. The nauH's of David of Ausburg and Nikolaus of Strassburg might possibly be added but, as Pfeiffer points out, frequently the only test of authorship is the internal evidence of style and matter and this test has \ et to be, conclusively ajiplied. A few of Pfeiffer’s attributions would seem to have been wrongly made and in some cases overworking has robbed the writing of its Eckhartian flavour. In the following translation the six last and doubtful sermons have been omitted and a few other numbers of Parts I and II hav^c been replaced by substitutes, either discoveries of Pfeiffer’s or from independent sources.
With regard to the authorship of these substitutes, I, Iviii, 11, xvii and xix, are attributed to Eckhart on the authority of Preger (see Geschichte, pp. 318 - 324 ); I, xii on that of Biittncr (sec M, EclxharVs Schriften, etc., vol. ii, p. 228 ). Tractate i (from the Jostes collection) is evidently by the same hand as II, xix and * Works of Suso, 1829. Quoted by Jundt.
* Martensen had already published his Monograpli iu 1842.
® Deniflo. Also Spamer’s Texte. • Spamer’s TexU^ aud Jostos.
XIV MEISTER ECKHART I, xliii by the same author as I, Ixxii. Sermon xlvi is found (sec Jostes, No.;34) forming part of Pfeiffer’s Tractate iv. Of the other substitutes, I, ix is a typical Eckhart fragment from Hermann von Fritslar’s Das Jleiligenlehen (1349), a collection which must now be recognised as a source of Eckhart’s writings (see also II, viii). Lastly, I, x and xv (from Spamer’s Texie) appear to be compila- tions from Eckhart’s works. This applies also to Greith’s Second Book ^ from which I, Ixxxix is taken.
NOTE ON SCHOLASTICISM The Scholastic movement originated in the schools founded by Charlemagne (742 -814). It aimed at reconciling the philosophies of Plato, Aristotle and the Neoplatonists - (Plotinus, Poq>hyry, Proclus) with the doctrines of Christianity. The first and greatest period of Scholasticism, which culminated with Aquinas (d. 1274) and his Summa Theologica began with Scotus Erigcna (d. cir, 877) who translated into Latin the writings of Pseudo-Dionysius (sixth century) and in reviving his system popularised also the philosophy of Aristotle as known chiclly in the Latin translations of his works and of Porphyiy’s which had been made by Boethius (d. 542). The tradition of Aristotle had also been handed down through the great Arabian Aristotelians represented later by Avicenna (d. 1037) and Avcrrocs (d. 1193) the Latin translations of whose commen- ‘tarics Aquinas appears to have used. Through the same Moliain- rnedan school came the so-called Theology of Aristotle^ really the Enneads (iv- vi) of Plotinus. Finally, Proclus exerted a profound influence on the Scholastic philosophy not only through the medium of Dionysius’ writings but also directly through his own, for it was his Elements which, emanating from the Arabians under the name of the Liber de Cmisisy famous in the middle ages, was a favourite text-book in their schools.^ ' Greith aitributea to »Suso, by a process of exclusion, the untitled work which forms his.SVeond Book. (See Die dculsche Mystiky pp. 81 and 96.) The original of this is an early h f teen th -century MS. of 342 small 4to pages from a Dominican Convent at St Gall, and roferonco to the various Eckhart collections shows it to be a ‘ Teaching System ’ mainly, if not wholly, com- piled from his writings.
* Eckhart a New Philosophers’? ‘ The Philosopher ’ is Aristotle. Aquinas IS called J ho I )octor,’ and * a heathen doctor ’ is often, but by no means always, Averroes.
« Soo History of the Later Boman A’mptVe, J. B. Bury; Macmillan, 1923. Amcenne Carra de Vaux; Paris, 1900. The Metaphysical Elements of Proclusy rhos. M. Johnson; Missouri, U.S.A., 1909 BIBLIOGRAPHY 1530. Flach (Martin), Eiii dcmutigc erinanung, etc. Slrassburg. (Four pages only.)
1842. Martens KN (Bishop of Zealand), Meistor Eckhart: Ein thcologiseho Studio.
1845. Pfeiffer (Franz), Deutsche Mystikor des vierzohuton Jnhrhimderts, Bd. i. Leipzig.
1847. ScuMTDT (K.), Studien uiid Kritiken, 13.39, Heft 3, S. 603. And iStudes sur kn rnystieism allemand in the Me moires do V academic de.s Sciences morales et politique.y. Pari.s. T. 2.
1850-1, Pfeiffer (Franz) in Zeitse.hrift fur deutsoher Altertliuin, Leipzig.
Bd. vili. Heft. 1 and 2, 1850. Also Heft 3, 1851.
1857. Pfeiffer (Franz), Deutsche Mystikor, etc., Bd. ii. Meistor Eckhart. Leifizig.
1861. Gheith (E.), Dio doutscho My.stik im Prediger-Orden (von 1250-1380)...Friburg.
1864. Bach (Joseph), Meistor Eckhart dor Vater des deutschen Speculation. Wien, 1868. Lasson (A.), Meistor Eckhart der Mystikor. Berlin. (Monograph with Emendations to Pfeiffer’s text, for which see al.so Zt. f. dt. Phil., 1878.)
1871. JuNDT (A.), Essai sur lo Mysticism sp^culatif do Maitro Eckhart.
Strasbourg.
1872. SiEVERS, Zeit.seh. f. d. Alt. Berlin. Bd. 15. (Twenty sermoiLS from an Oxford MS., Laud. Mise. 479. 8.)
1874. Preoeu (VV.), Geschichto dor deutschen Mystik im Mittclalh'r. Leipzig.
1 Thoil.
1875. Wackernaukl (W.), Altdeutscho Predigteii und Gebete aus Handschriften. Basle.
1875. JuNDT (A.), Pantheism populaire. Paris.
1885-6. Denifle, Meistor Eckhart’s I..atin Schrirton etc., in Archives fiir Litcratur und Kirchongeschiehte <les Mittolaltors. Berlin. Vol. 2. (Latin sermons found at Erfurt.)
1885. MicHELsi.N (C.), Meistor Eckhart: Ein Versuch. Berlin.
1895. JosTEs (F.), Meistor Eckhart und seine Jiingcr, Ungcdrucktc Texto.
Friburg. (Contains 82 sermons, etc., from a Nuremberg MS. Also 4 more in Apiiendix.)
1895. Hartmann (F.), Dio Gcheimlehre in der Christlichcn Keligion nach Erklarung von Meistor Eckhart.
1900. Delacroix, Essai sur le mysticism speculatif cn Allemagno au 14"^® sicclo. Paris.
XV XVI MEISTER ECKHART 1905. ZucHHOLD (H.), Dos Nikolaus von Landau Sermone als Quelle fiir die Predigt M. Eckharts, etc. Halle.
1908. Spamer (A.). Zur Oborlieferung dos Pfeifferschon Eckharttexte in Ileitrigo zur Gcschichte der doutachen Sprache und Literatur, 1909. Buttneb (H. ), Moister Eckhart’s Schrifton und Predigten, 2 vola. Jena.
(A very free translation from Middle High into modem German.) 1912. Spamer (A.), Toxto aus dor deutschen Myatik dea 14 und 15 Jahr- hunderts. Jena. (Latin and German texts from MSS. in Berlin, Brussels, Cues, Oxford, etc.)
In English, some account of Eckhart and his writings is found in the following works: Vaughan's Hours with the Mystics; Max Muller’s Theosophy; Dean Inge’s Light, Life and Love. Methuen, 1904; Von Hugcl’s The Mystical Element of Religion. Dent, 1908. Vo), ii, and Studies in Mystical Religion by Rufus M. Jones. Macmillan, 1909. Also Karl Pearson’s “ Meister Eckhart the Mystic ’’ in Mind, vol. xi.
CONTENTS PVGK Eckhart...xi Bibliography...xv 1. Sermons and Collations ^...I I. This is Meistor Eckhart ^...3 11. This is another Sermon *...() III. This too is Moister Eckliart *...14 IV. The Eternal Birth...20 V. Dcus Charitas ost...25 VI. Jesus wont into the Temple...28 VJJ. The Sons of God...31 VJII. The Castle of the Soul...35 * IX. The Eternal Birth 38 X. Man has to seek God in Error and Forgetfulness ^..39 XI. The Hour eometh and now is...41 XII. Contemplation, Hints and T^romisos ^...44 XIII. In this was manifested the I-ove of God...47 XIV. Like a Va.se of Gold.50 XV. The Divine Being ^...53 XVI. The Sixth Beatitude...55 XVll. In Brincipio erat Vorbum...57 XV 111. I know a Man in Christ...58 XIX. Paul rose from the Ground...50 XX. And behold there was a man...Simeon...04 XXI. He that hateth his Soul...07 XXII. The Lord put forth His Hand...09 XXIII. The Spirit of tlie Lord...71 XXIV. St John saw in a Vision...73 XXV. The Lord hath sent His Angel 74 XXVI. The Feast of the Virgin 70 ^ Collazie, Lat. collotio, sometimes translated table-talk (see Wackernagel). The discourses read aloud in monasteries during meal-time.s were called colla- tions, hence the use of tho word collation for the meal itself.
^ Title as in Pfeiffer’s text.
® From other sources than Pfeiffer’s Meister Eckhart.
xvii xviii MEISTER ECKHART PAGE XXVIi. Rejoice in the Lord...77 XXVIII. The Angel Gabriel was sent...79 XXIX. The Angel Gabriel was sent...80 XXX. ‘ Vision i.s the whole Reward ‘.81 XXXI. The Man in the Soul...84 XXXII. The Soul 8park. With Appendix. ‘ Syndereais. 86 XXXI IJ. If ye then be risen with Christ...92 XXXIV. St Diony.siiis speaks of three kinds of Light ^...94 XXXV. Stand in the Gate...95 XXXVI. Young Man, Arise!...98 XXX VII. Young Man, Arise!..,...100 XXXVllI. FeiwG 102 XXXIX. Every good Gift...104 XL. Every good Gift...107 XLTl. The linage aufl it.s Object.. IL‘1 XLJIJ. Knowledge and LoveA...110 XLIV. Jn All Thing.s I seek H(‘st...118 XLV. In All Things 1 seek Rest...119 XLVIJ. This is Life Eternal...123 XLVni. Behold, 1 s(‘nd iny Ang^d...125 XLIX. Belujld, T.send my Angel...127 L. 1 came forth from the Eather...129 LI. He sought to see...who He was...1,32 Lll. The good Housewife...134 LTir. Whoso(?ver would come after me...136 LIV. Eroiu Him and through Him and in Him..137 LV. God made the Boor for the Rich...1,39 LVI. The Emanation and Retxirii...142 LVll. Such is tho Nature of God...144 LVI 1 1. Divine Understanding ^...140 LTX. Tho Just lives in Eternity...149 IjX. Likes love and unite...152 LXJ. There comes forth a Rod out of the Root of Jesse..153 LXll. What maimer of Child.shall this be?...I54 LX IV. The swift Rivi'r...158 LXV. d’ho Just live for ever...100 LXVl. Rubli.sh the Word...,.164 LXVll. The Powers of FTeaven shall bo moved...100 LXVHI. Tlio Powi^rs of tho Soul “...109 LXIX. The Kingdom of God is at hand...171 LXX. '_rhis is a vSermon about our Lord’s Body.,.174 LXXl. BoiUhius says: He who wants to see true...174 LXXll. 3Iie Prophet says: Lord bo merciful...175 LXXIII. St Benedict’s Day...,.177 LXX IV. The Promise of tho Father...179 LXXV. Ascension Day...,.183 1 From other souree.s than Pfeiffer’s Aleister Eckkarl. * Title as in Pfeiffer's text.
CONTENTS xix LXXVI.
Ascension Day Sermons 1*A«E 1 2. I go to Him that sent me The Image in the. Soul...LXXVtli.
The Speculative Intellect LXXIX.
The Son of the Widow LXXX.
There is one Power in the Soul LXXXJ.
1 have chosen you...LXXXfl.
Tlic IVast of Martyrs...LXXXIIT.
Like the Morning Star.
LXXXV.
A new Commandment I give unto you.
LXXXVT.
DotHchrnent has ftnir Steps.
LXXXVtJ.
1'he Poor in Spirit...LXXXVIIL The Virgin Birih...hXXXIX.
1. The Word of Gotl...2. The Word of the Soul ^.
XC.
Elizabeth’s Full Time came.
XCJ.
XCIII.
The Crossing...XCIV.
The Soul...XCV, But now tho Light in God XCVL Riddance...XCVTI.
Dives...XCVTII.
Ho went up into a Mountain XCTX.
Bo yo renewed in tho S})irit of your Mind C.
Olio God and Father of All.
Cl.
In All Things I seek Rest. Part I.
Part II.
CII.
Honour Thy Father...cm.
Out of the Mouth of the Most High CIV.
The Kingdom of God ^ IT.
The Nobility of tho Soul JTT.
The Rank and Nature of the Soul.
IV.
The Book of Godly Comfort.
VI.
Sister Katrei...VIT.
Signs of tho True Ground VIII.
Tho Birth of tho Eternal Word in the Soul IX.
Detachment...X.
Spiritual Poverty...
^ From other sources than Ffoiffor’s Meister Eckliart. ® Titles as in Pfeiffer’s text, except xiv and xv.
XX MEISTER ECKHART PAGE XII. Tho Drowning...368 Tim Gloss on 'Hie Drowning...369 Xin. 'rho Flow into tho Father...371 XIV. vSt John says, ‘ I saw tho Word in God ’...377 XV. I'ho Throo CroatioiLS...382 XVI. The Soul’s.Rago...389 XVJl. Tho 3’wofold Way ^...390 XVill. Common tary on tho Gospel of St John...396 XIX. Tho Doatilic Vision ^...408 III. Sayings 41.5 IV. Liheii Positionum...443 ^ From other sources than rfeilfer’s Mvistvr ICckkaif.
1 SERMONS AND COLLATIONS Someone compltiinotl to Moistor Eckhart that no ono could understand his sermons. Tie said, To iindorstand my sermons a man requires three things. Ho must have conquered strife and bo in contemplation of his highest good and bo satisfied to do God’s bidding and be a beginner with beginners and naught hitnsolf and be so master of hiinsclf as to bo incapable of anger.
Cod. Monac. Qerm.y 3G5, Eol. 1926.
I THIS IS MEISTER ECKIIAllT FROM WHOM GOD NOTPIING HID Dum medium silentium tenerent omnia et nox in suo cursu medium Her haheret etc. {Sap. 18, 4). ‘ For wliilc all things were in quiet silenee and the night was in the midst of her (bourse, etc.’ Here in time we make holiday because the eternal birth which God the Father bore and bears unceasingly in eternity is now born in time, in human nature. St Augustine says this birth is always happening. Hut if it happen not in me what does it profit me? What matters is that it shall happen in me.
^Ve intend therefore to speak of this birth as taking place in us: as [)eing eonsum mated in tht‘ \ irtuous soul: for it is in the ])erfect soul that God speaks his Word. What I shall say is true only of the [)erfceted man, of him who has walked and is still walking in the way of God: not ot the natural undisciplined man who is entirely remote from and unconscious of this birth.
There is a saying of the wise man: ‘ When all things Jay in the midst of silence then leapt there down into me from on high, from the royal throne, a secret word.’ This sermon is about this word.
Concerning it three things arc to be noted. The first is, where- abouts in the soul God the Father speaks his Word, wliere she is receptive of this act, where this birth befalls. It is bound to be in the purest, loftiest, subtlest part of the soul. Verily, an God tlic Father in liis omnipotence had endowed tlie soul with a still nobler nature, had she receiva‘d from him anything yet more exalted, then must the Fatlier have delayed this birth for the presence of this greater excellence, 'fhe soul in which this birth shall come to pass must be absolutely pure and must live in gentle fashion, quite peaceful and wholly introverted: not running out through the five senses into the manifoldness of creatures, but altogether within and harmonised in her summit. That is its place. Anything inferior is disdained by it.
The second part of this discourse has to do with man’s conduct 3 4 MEISTER ECKHART