Meet Johann Eck – What Does This Mean?

Johann Maier von Eck (known as Eck) was born the son of a judge in the little town of Eck, a Swabian village between Stuttgart and Augsburg. A child prodigy like Philip Melanchthon, he enrolled at Heidelberg University at age eleven and earned his Doctor of Theology degree by age twenty-four from the University of Freiburg. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1508. In 1510, he moved to the university at Ingolstadt where he earned a second doctoral degree and joined the faculty.

Eck quickly became a leading figure in the German Humanist movement. As a true Renaissance man, in wrote works in many fields, especially philosophy and theology. One of his major works, called Chrysopassus explored the doctrine of predestination. He argued that God predestined people because he could see in advance the sins and good works they would perform. He and Martin Luther struck up a friendship over their shared interest in reforming university education based upon the insights of the Renaissance. He earned a reputation as a skilled debater, not exactly known for his subtlety — just like Luther.

When the Indulgence Controversy broke out, the Bishop of Eichstätt requested Eck’s opinion on the 95 Theses. He wrote what were more or less footnotes on them. Someone leaked this private opinion to the printers and soon the criticisms were published with the title Obelisks. Luther soon fired off a response entitled Asterisks. The friendship came to an end as Eck assumed the role of Luther’s chief and most skilled opponent.

Andreas Bodenstein von Karlstadt (known as Karlstadt), a colleague of Luther at Wittenberg, rose to the reformer’s defense. Soon Eck and Karlstadt agreed to meet in a disputation (a debate). Under the sponsorship of George “The Beard,” Duke of Saxony, cousin of Luther’s prince, the conference convened five hundred years ago tomorrow in Leipzig. It became know as the Leipzig Disputation and was the event that set in motion Luther’s excommunication.