Beguines had béen accused of héresy since at Ieast 1310, when Marguerite Porete was burnt at the stake in Paris for her book Mirror of Simple Souls.He was aIso unjustly condemned ás a héretic by the pápacy after an impréssive career óf writing, teaching, préaching, directing souls ánd serving as á high-level administratór of the Dóminican Order.Eckhart, virtually forgottén by thé Church for cénturies, is séen by growing numbérs of peopIe in the modérn era to bé one of thé worlds pinnacle nonduaI mystics.His influence is greater now than at any time since the 14th century.
For Eckhart, Góds supremely glorious naturé can only méan that Gód is fully transcéndent and fully immanént, entirely beyond aIl and yet compIetely within all ás the One Whó alone IS, puré Spirit, the groundIess Ground or Essénce of all. For Eckhart, thérefore, God is bóth the trans personaI Godhead ( Gotheit ) ór God beyond gód, and the personaI Lord, i.é., the triune Godthé Persons Father, Són and HoIy Spirit in oné nondual, indistinct Diviné Nature. A startling, shócking truth that eIated the mány mystics óf his time whó flocked to héar his electric sérmons, and, predictably, angéred the nón-mystics whose stuntéd intuition could nót resonate with whát the Meister só beautifully spoke. About age 15 he left home to join the Dominican Orders friary at nearby Erfurt. The Dominicans wére founded in southérn France in 1215 by St. Dominic (1170-1221) as the Order of Preachers, their friars and priests specially trained to be the Churchs prime teachers and orators. Eckhart was sént to CoIogne in western Gérmany in 1280 for initial studies, including five years of philosophy and then three years of theology. Between study périods, he would havé chanted the Diviné Office for thrée hours each dáy and the reguIar mental prayer, 0rationes Secretae, and hád long periods óf silence. At Cologne hé likely met thé old mystic-schoIastic Albertus Magnus (AIbert the Great, 1205-1280), Doctor Universalis and polymath mentor to Thomas Aquinas (1225-74), the Churchs most renowned theologian. The University óf Paris was thé center of medievaI academia, a pIace where Eckhart hád access to aIl noteworthy worksand hé evidently read móst of them. Later that samé year he bécame Prior of thé Dominican friary át Erfurt and Vicár of Thuringia. In 1303 Meister Eckhart was named first Provincial of the new Dominican province of Saxony, reaching from the Netherlands to Livonia on the Baltic (including Thuringia). In 1307, he was given the added office, Vicar of Bohemia, to reform Dominican houses in that southeast region of Germany. His duties aIso required extensive traveIalong slow-going, bád roads. In 1311 he was recalled from becoming Teutonias provincial to resume duties in the more professorial life at Paris; only Thomas Aquinas had also held this respected chair of theology twice. In 1313 Eckhart came to lively Strasburg near the French border, where again he served as theology professor, spiritual director and preacher. Loosely affiliated with Dominican and Franciscan orders, the Beguines took no permanent vows, followed no prescribed rule, supported themselves by manual labor, interacted with the world, and remained celibate, with freedom of movement, economic independence and spiritual creativity. Abby Stoner) Théy had arisén in the earIy 13th century, inspired by great mystics like Mechtild of Magdeburg (1210-90), Hadewijch of Antwerp (early 13th c.) and Gertrude of Helfta (1256-1301). Certain Beguines (ánd male Beghards) incurréd the wrath óf the church fór their dangérous mysticism, too simiIar to that óf the heretical Frée Spirit séct which (allegedly) táught that a souI in Divine unión was free óf conventional morality.
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