Volume 12 Number 061 Martin Luther Debates Johann Eck - II

Lead: In early years of the Protestant Reformation, public disputations or debates allowed religious leaders explain to their views. In Leipzig in 1519 Martin Luther debated the Catholic champion Johann Eck.

Intro.: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts.

Content: His original name was Johann Maier but early on changed it to the name of his home village, Egg or Eck. He received a superb education at the University’s of Heidelberg, Cologne, Freiburg and Tubingen, was ordained, and became lifelong professor of theology at the University of Ingolstadt a small Bavarian town just north of Munich. He developed the reputation as a careful scholar, but one talented in public debate. As contemporaries, Luther and Eck were acquaintances and apparently were on friendly terms, at least until the appearance of Luther's Ninety-five Theses on the question of indulgences.

An indulgence was a piece of paper on which was contained a plenary forgiveness of sins and delivery from purgatory and admission to heaven issued by the Pope and sold throughout Europe. At first it was thought that Martin Luther was simply attacking the rather crass sales techniques of those charged with raising money through the sale of indulgences. Many loyal Catholics agreed that Luther had a point. Eck responded mildly to Luther and Luther returned the courtesy.

In spring 1618 Luther left his home in Wittenberg to attend a gathering of his Augustinian order in Heidelberg. While he was gone his colleague and ally Karlstadt, issued a long intense defense of Luther’s ideas, part of which attacked Eck personally. The stage was set for a dramatic public debate the following summer at Pleissenburg Castle in Leipzig where Karlstadt and Luther debated Eck.

The latter demonstrated his superior ability in debate and maneuvered Luther into admitting his growing skepticism of the power of the church and especially the supremacy of the Pope. Eck’s skill both exposed and disturbed Luther. The reformer began to see more clearly the radical implications of his position and of the necessity to put flesh on his ideas.

Eck went on to become the foremost spokesman for the Catholic cause in Germany during the early years of the Protestant Reformation. Their debate became a historical footnote, little affecting the course of events, except to confirm Luther in his convictions and give wider exposure to ideas which already had captured the national imagination. Luther’s personally disappointing performance at Leipzig could do no more to stop the seismic course of events than could Eck’s superior debating skills.

At the University of Richmond, this is Dan Roberts.

Resources

Bainton, Roland. Hear I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther. New York: Abingdon-Cokesbury, 1950.

Green, V.H.H. Luther & The Reformation. New York: Capricorn Books, 1964.

Holl, Karl, Edited by James Luther Adams and Walter F. Bense, Translated by Fred W. Meuser and Walter R. Wietzke. What Did Luther Understand by Religion? Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1977.

Kittelson, James M. Luther The Reformer: The Story of The Man and His Career. Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1986.

McGiffert, Cushman Arthur. Martin Luther: The Man and His Work. New York: The Century Co., 1917.

Mullett, Michael. “Martin Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses.” History Review. (September 2003): 46.

Steven W. Rowan “Luther, Bucer and Eck on the Jews” Sixteenth Century Journal, XVI (1, 1985): 82

Steven W. Rowan, Ulrich, Zasius and John Eck: “Faith Need Not Be Kept With an Enemy,” Sixteenth Century Journal, VIII, 16 (1985): 79-90.

Ullmann, Walter. A Short History of the Papacy in the Middle Ages. London: Butler & Tanner Ltd, 1972.