Eck, JOHANN

Eck, JOHANN (properly JOHANN MAIER), the zealous opponent of the Reformation, was born at the village of Eck, in Swabia, 13th November 1486. From his twelfth year he was a student, first at Heidelberg, and afterwards at Tübingen (1499-1501), Cologne, and Freiburg in Breisgau (from 1502). Having entered the priesthood in 1508, he left Freiburg in 1510 to be canon of Eichstädt and professor of Theology at Ingolstadt, and was the ruling spirit of that university till he died there, 10th February 1543. Learned and vainglorious of his great reputation for dialectic skill, he offered a challenge to Luther in his Obelisei (against Luther's Theses), attacking Carlstadt at the same time. This led to the famous disputation held in the Pleissenburg at Leipzig from the 27th June to the 16th July 1519. Eck first disputed with Carlstadt about grace and free-will, and defended the Roman Semi-Pelagianism with superior ability. Thereafter he contended at greater length with Luther for the primacy of the pope, penance, indulgences, and purgatory, and pressed the Reformer hard with the charge of Hussite heresy. Eck fought with quotations from Fathers and Councils, and sought to dazzle his numerous hearers with scholastic learning; Luther appealed to history and Scripture, and at last cried to Eck that he 'ran away from the Bible like the devil from the Cross.' Both parties claimed the victory, and at Leipzig Eck certainly achieved his object, which was to compel the great heretic to declare that disobedience to pope and council might under certain circumstances be right, and thus complete the breach between Luther and the pope. After this Eck wrote his chief work, De Primatu Petri, and went to Rome in 1520 to reap the fruits of his labours. He returned to Germany with the bull of 15th June 1520, which declared Luther a heretic. Eck henceforth continued with passionate violence his struggle with the Reformation. He made two more journeys to Rome; took part in the convention at Ratisbon in 1524; opposed Ecolampadius in the Baden conference in 1526; was engaged at the Augsburg Diet (1530) in the preparation of the confutation to oppose the Augsburg Confession, and was present at the conference begun at Worms in 1540, and ended at Ratisbon in 1541. Eck's appearance at the Leipzig disputation is thus described by the humanist Petrus Mosellanus: 'Eck is a tall man, with a fat, square-built body and a full, thoroughly German voice, which, supported by his powerful loins, would do well not only for an actor, but even for a public crier; still, it is more harsh than clear. His mouth and eyes, indeed his whole countenance, are such that one would sooner take him for a butcher or a barbarian mercenary than a theologian. With respect to his mind, he has a remarkable memory; and, if he only had an understanding equal to it, the work of nature on him would be complete.' Eck collected his polemical writings under the title Operum Joh. Eckii contra Lutherum, tom. I.-IV. (1530-35). See Seidemann, Die Leipziger Disputation (Dresden, 1843); and Wiedemann, Dr Johann Eck (Regensburg, 1865), which has a bibliographical list of his writings (81 in number).