Meister Eckhart dies awaiting trial

1327

The Dominican mystic from Thuringia, accused by the Cologne archbishop of preaching heresy to the laity in German, traveled to Avignon to answer charges. He died en route or shortly after arrival, his case unfinished. John XXII condemned twenty-eight of his propositions in 1329. Eckhart's vernacular sermons survived nevertheless to shape German spirituality for centuries.