Meister Eckhart

Eckhart von Hochheim was born around 1260 near Gotha in Thuringia and rose through the Dominican Order as a priest, theologian, and philosopher. He worked closely with lay groups like the Friends of God, delivering teachings that walked a fine line between mysticism and orthodoxy. During the Avignon Papacy, amid sharpening rivalries between monastic orders, the Franciscan-led Inquisition accused him of heresy in his later years. Excerpts from his Book of Divine Consolation were used against him at trial, and Pope John XXII issued the bull In Agro Dominico condemning him on March 27, 1329. Eckhart appears to have died before the verdict reached him, leaving behind disciples Johannes Tauler and Henry Suso - the latter beatified, both more careful. Nineteenth-century Europe rediscovered him, and he now holds dual citizenship: mystic hero in popular spirituality, and dense subject of medieval scholastic study.