Bull 'in Agro Dominico' By John Xxii

Bull In agro dominico John XXII March 27 1329 In which 28 propositions of Meister Eckhart are condemned. Translated from Meister Eckehart Deutsche Predigten und Traktate translation by Josef Quint, Diogenes Verlag AG Zürich, 1979, p. 449 .

Preface John, bishop, servant of the servants of God, of perpetual memory. In the Lord's eld, whose keeper and laborer we are by divine provision, although in an undeserved way, We have to exercise spiritual care so diligently and thoughtfully, so that when the enemy sows weeds over the seed of truth on it someplace, it is smothered when it emerges before it grows as shoots of the pernicious seed, so that the seed of Catholic truth happily comes up, that of vice having been killed and the thorns of error having been eradicated. Wherefore with sorrow We make it known that in these times in the German Countries, someone by the name of Eckehart, said to be a Doctor and Professor of Sacred Scripture, belonging to the Dominican Order, wanted to know more than was necessary, not in according to level-headedness and the guideline of faith, and while devoting himself to fabrications turned his ear away from the truth. Tempted by that father of lies, who often changes himself into the angel of light, in order to spread the gloomy and ugly darkness of sin instead of the light of truth, this mislead person taught numerous propositions that becloud the faith in many souls that he gave mostly as sermons to the simple people, but also recorded in writings, keenly obsequious to produce damaging thistles and poisonous thorn bushes, bringing forth thorns and weeds in the eld of the Church against the bright shining light of faith. It has come down to Us from the ocial examination of him made earlier by Our reverend brother archbishop Henry of Cologne1 and nally from renewed examinaof Virneburg(1244/46-1332) , cf. Michael Sells, Mystical Languages Chicago Press, 1994, p. 146. Also here: http://eckhart.de/leben.htm 1 Henry

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of Unsaying, U. of

tion by the Roman Curia, that from declarations by this Eckehart it is certain that he taught and wrote twenty-six propositions that contain the following wording:

Propositions 1. Once asked why God did not create the world sooner, he then answered and still does so that God could not create the world sooner and cannot do anything before it is. Therefore, as soon as God is does he also create the world. 2. Similarly it can be stated that the world has existed from eternity. 3. Similarly: Once and at the same time as God was and brought forth his eternal Son, equally to him as entirely equal God, then also did he create the world. 4. Similarly: In every work also in evil and the pain of punishment, as well as in the pain of guilt there is revealed and ows forth abundantly at the same time God's magnicence. 5. Similarly: He who defames someone praises God during the sin of defamation and the more he defames and the more he sins thus the more he praises God. 6. Similarly: He who defames God himself, praises God. 7. Similarly: He who asks for this or that, asks for something evil in an illdisposed manner, asking for the denial of the good and God's own denial and he asks that God him denies. 8. God is honored in those who do not pursue anything, neither honor nor advantage, neither inner revelation nor saintliness, nor reward, nor the Kingdom of Heaven itself, but who distance themselves from all these things, as well as from all that is theirs. 9. I have recently thought about whether I want to accept or desire something from God: I want to consider that seriously: In what I want to receive from God I am UNDER him or among his possessions like a servant or a laborer, while he is like a Lord in the giving, yet so it will not be with us in eternal life. 10. We are completely reformed into God and changed into him; in a similar manner as in the blessed sacrament the bread is changed into the body of Christ: so I am changed into him that he himself produces me as his own being, the same as he, not as something similar to him; it is true by the living God that there is no distinction.

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11. Everything that God the Father has given his only begotten Son in his human nature he has also given to me: I am not left out in anything, neither in holiness nor in unity, he has given me everything that he has given him. 12. Everything that sacred scripture says of Christ that is also completely brought to truth in every good and godly person. 13. Everything that is proper to divine nature is also proper to the just and godly person; thus such a person does everything that God does and has created heaven and earth together with God, brings forth the eternal word and God does not know what to do without such a person. 14. The good person must adapt her will so to God's will that she wills everything that God wills: now since God in a certain sense wills that I have sinned, so also do I not want that I have committed no sins, and such is true penance. 15. When a person has comitted a thousand mortal sins and were in her right mind, she would not wish that she had not comitted them. 16. God does not expressly command external works. 17. External works are actually not good and godly and God actually does not work through them and does not command them. 18. Let us not fructify external works which do not make us good, but inner works instead, which the Father, being in us, does and works. 19. God loves the soul, not external works. 20. The good person is God's only begotten Son. 21. The noble person is every only begotten Son of God that the Father has begotten in eternity. 22. The Father begets me as his only Son and as the selfsame Son. What God does is one: that is why he begets me as his Son without distinction. 23. God is in every way and in every consideration only one, so that no multiplicity is found in him, neither in his intelligence nor outside of it; namely he who sees duality or distinction does not see God because God is one, outside and beyond all multiplicity and is not conjoined with anything. Therefrom follows: in God can nothing be distinguished or conceived. 24. Every distinction is foreign to God, as well in nature as in persons. To wit: his very nature is one and pure unity. Every person is one and pure unity as is his nature. 3

25. When it is written: "Simon, do you love me more than these?" Then what is meant is: "That is to say, more than these and true and well, but not perfectly", namely where there is a "rst" or a "second", there is a "more" and a "less" and there is distinction and order. But in the One there is neither gradation nor rank. And so who loves God more than her neighbor, loves him true and well, but not perfectly. 26. All creatures are pure nothing: I don't say that they are insignicant, or something in someplace, but that they are absolutely nothing. a There is something in the soul that is uncreated and uncreatable and when the whole soul is thus, then it is uncreated and uncreatable and this is 'this' [comprehension - die Vernunft]2 . b God neither good nor better nor perfect. When I call God good then I say something absurd, like calling black white.

Postscript We have presented the above cited propositions in order to be examined by many Doctors of Sacred Theology and have also examined them carefully Ourselves with Our brothers. Finally we found both on the basis of reports from these same Doctors as well as based upon Our own examination that the rst fteen of the cited propositions as well as the two last ones, both in their wording and in their thought content, contain the error and the evil of heresy; the other eleven that rst begin with "God does not command, etc." We have found sounding exceedingly evil and bold and smacking of heresy, but it can be admitted that they have a Catholic meaning, given many explanations and amendments. In order that such propositions or their contents not further infect the souls of the simple people to whom they are preached and can become popular with them or with others, We expressly condemn and reject the rst fteen cited propositions and the two last ones on the advice of Our aforementioned brothers as heretical, the eleven others cited however as evil sounding, bold and smacking of heresy, as well as all books and shorter writings of this Eckehart which contain one or more of the cited propositions. When however, someone ventures to steadfastly defend these propositions, or to agree with them, then We so desire and order that against those who defend or agree with the rst fteen and the two last propositions legal action be undertaken as against heretics, and that against those who defend of agree with Ton van der Stap in De Weg van Eckhart (Uitgeverij Meinema, Zoetermeer, 2003, p.100) in his commentary on Predigt 39: "...de ziel...wordt dus door God aangesproken met 'jongeling', omdat ze als vermogen tot inzicht, als 'verstand' zegt Eckhart, onbevangen is." 2 Says

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the content of the other eleven propositions legal action be undertaken as against those suspected of heresy. Further We wish to make it known to all who were preached or taught the cited propositions, as well as to all others who know about them, that as is determined from a public and signed document, the so-called Eckehart at the end of his life, professing the Catholic faith, withdrew and also rejected the twenty-six propositions that he admitted to have preached, as well as everything else written, taught or preached by him, that in the minds of the faithful was able to engender a meaning that is heretical, erroneous and contrary to the true faith, insofar as this meaning is concerned, and wanted them known as quite and completely withdrawn, as when he withdraws any other proposition or anything else in particular, since he submitted himself and all his writings and discourse to Ourselves and the ruling of the Apostolic See. Given at Avignon on the 27th of March 1329, the thirteenth year of Our Pontificate3

3 John

XXII, Jacques Duèze(1249-1334), reigned 1316-1334.

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