He was born at Eck in Swabia, and derived his additional surname from his birthplace, which he himself, after 1505, always modified into Eckius or Eccius, i.e. "of Eck." His father, Michael Maier, was a peasant and bailiff, or Amtmann, of the village. The boy's education was undertaken by his uncle, Martin Maier, parish priest at Rothenburg on the river Neckar. At the age of twelve, he was sent to the University of Heidelberg, and subsequently to those of Tübingen, Cologne and Freiburg in the Breisgau. His academic career was so successful that at the age of twenty-four he was already a doctor and professor of theology. During this period he was notable for opposing the scholastic philosophy; and, though he did not always follow the "modernists" (Moderni), his first work--Logices exerc'ilamenta (1507)--was distinctly on their side. This attitude brought him into conflict with the senate of the university, a conflict which Eck's masterful temperand youthful self-confidence, exacerbated. By 1510, his position at Freiburg was intolerable, and he accepted an invitation from the Duke of Bavaria to fill the theological chair at Ingolstadt, where he would remain for thirty years, exercising a profound influence as teacher and vice-chancellor (Prokanzler).
A ducal commission, appointed to find a way of ending the interminable strife between rival academic parties, asked Eck to prepare fresh commentaries on Aristotle and Petrus Hispanus. Between 1516 and 1520, in addition to all his other duties, he published commentaries on the Summulae of Petrus Hispanus, and on the Dialectics, Physics and lesser scientific works of Aristotle, which became the textbooks of the university. During these early years, Eck was considered a "modernist", and his commentaries are inspired with much of the scientific spirit of the New Learning. His aim, however, had been to find a via media between old and new; his essential conservatism resulted in a lack of sympathy for the revolutionary attitude of the Reformers. Personal ambition and a desire to be conspicuous may have pushed him into public opposition to Luther. He had won a public disputation at Augsburg in 1514, defending the lawfulness of putting out capital at interest; again at Bologna in 1515, on the same subject and on the question of predestination; and these triumphs had been repeated at Vienna in 1516. By these successes he gained the patronage of the Fuggers, and found himself fairly launched as the recognized apologist of the established order in church and state. Distinguished humanists might sneer at him as "a garrulous sophist"; but from this time his ambition was not only to be the greatest scientific authority in Germany but also the champion of the papacy and of the traditional church order. The result of this new resolve was a gratuitous attack on his old friend, the distinguished humanist and jurist Ulrich Zasius, for a doctrine proclaimed ten years before, and a simultaneous assault on Erasmus's Annotationes in Novum Testamentum.
It is, however, for his controversy with Luther and the other reformers that Eck is best remembered. Luther, who knew Eck in person, sent him in 1517 copies of his celebrated 95 theses. Eck made no public reply; but in 1518 he circulated, privately at first, his Obelisci, in which Luther was branded as a Hussite. Luther entrusted his defence to Carlstadt, who, besides answering the insinuations of Eck in 400 distinct theses, declared his readiness to meet him in a public disputation. The challenge was accepted, and the disputation took place at Leipzig in June and July 1519. On June 27 and 28 and on July 1 and 3 Eck disputed with Carlstadt on the subjects of grace, free will and good works, ably defending the Roman Semipelagian standpoint. From July 4 to 14 he engaged with Luther on the absolute supremacy of the papacy, purgatory, penance, etc., showing a brilliant display of patristic and conciliar learning against the reformer's appeals to Scripture. The arbitrators declined to give a verdict, but the general impression was that victory rested with Eck. He did succeed in making Luther admit that there was some truth in the Hussite opinions and declare himself against the pope, but this success only embittered his animosity against his opponents, and from that time his whole efforts were devoted to Luther's overthrow.
He induced the universities of Cologne and Louvain to condemn the reformer's writings, but failed to enlist the German princes, and in January 1520 went to Rome to obtain strict regulations against those whom he called "Lutherans." He was created a protonotary apostolic, and in July returned to Germany, as papal nuncio, with the celebrated bull Exsurge Domine directed against Luther's writings. He now believed himself in a position to crush not only the Lutheran heretics, but also his humanist critics. The effect of the publication of the bull, however, soon undeceived him. Bishops, universities and humanists were at one in denunciation of the outrage; and as for the attitude of the people, Eck was glad to escape from Saxony alive. In his anger he appealed to force, and his Epistola ad Carolum V (February 18, 1521) called on the emperor to take measures against Luther, a demand soon to be responded to in the edict of Wörms. In 1521 and 1522 Eck was again in Rome, reporting on the results of his nunciature. On his return from his second visit he was the prime mover in the promulgation of the Bavarian religious edict of 1522, which practically established the senate of the University of Ingolstadt as a tribunal of the Inquisition, and led to years of persecution. In return for this action of the duke, who had at first been opposed to the policy of repression, Eck obtained for him, during a third visit to Rome in 1523, valuable ecclesiastical concessions. He continued unabated in his zeal against the reformers, publishing eight major works between 1522 and 1526.
His controversial ardour was somewhat dampened by Luther's refusal to answer his arguments, and with a view to earning fresh laurels he turned his attention to Switzerland and the Zwinglians. At Baden-in-Aargau in May and June 1526 a public disputation on the doctrine of transubstantiation was held, in which Eck and Thomas Murner were pitted against Johann Oecolampadius. Though Eck won the argument, the only result was to strengthen the Swiss in their memorial view of the Lord's Supper, and so to spearate them further from Luther. At the Augsburg diet in 1530 Eck was charged by Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor to draw up, in concert with twenty other theologians, the refutation of the Protestant Confession, but rewrote it five times before it suited the emperor. He was at the colloquy of Worms in 1540 and at the diet of Regensburg (Ratisbon) in 1541. At Wörms he showed some signs of a willingness to compromise, but at Regensburg his old violence reasserted itself in opposing all efforts at reconciliation and persuading the Catholic princes to reject the Interim.
Eck died at Ingolstadt, fighting to the last and worn out before his time. He was the most conspicuous champion of the old religion in the age of the Reformation, but his gifts were marred by many faults. His vast learning was the result of a powerful memory and unwearied industry, but he lacked creative imagination. He was a powerful debater, but his victories were those of a dialectician. Eeven after discounting the bias of his enemies, there is evidence to prove that his championship of the Church was not the outcome of his zeal for Christianity; he was notoriously drunken, unchaste, avaricious and almost insanely ambitious. His chief work was De primatu Petri (1519); his Enchiridion locorum communium adversus Lutherum ran through 46 editions between 1525 and 1576. In 1530-1535 he published a collection of his writings against Luther, Opera contra Ludderum, in 4 vols.
See T Wiedemann, Dr Johann Eck (Regensburg, 1865).
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