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Eck THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG

proved that he was thoroughly versed in theology, and Eck fared still worse in October of the same year, when he sought to aid Emser by a virulent tirade against Luther. Two biting satires, one by O;colampadius and the other by Pirkheimer, stung him to a fury which would be satisfied with nothing less than the public burning of the entire literature in the market-place at Ingolstadt, an act from which he was restrained by his colleague Reuchlin.

Eck was far more highly esteemed as the dauntless champion of the true faith at Rome than in Germany. In Jan., 1520, he visited Italy at the invitation of Leo X., to whom he presented his latest work De primate Petri adversvs Ltedderum (Ingolstadt, 1520) for which he was rewarded with the nomination to the office of papal prothonotary' although his efforts to urge the Curia to decisive action against Luther were unsuccessful for some time. On June 16, however, appeared the fateful bull Exurge Domine, in which forty-one propositions of Luther were condemned as heretical or erroneous. Entrusted with the publication of the bull in Germany, Eck returned home, only to find how rapidly Luther had gained favor. At Meissen, Brandenburg, and Merseburg he succeeded in giving the papal measure due official publicity, but

at Leipsic he was the object of the ¢. Papal ridicule of the student body and was

Emissary compelled to flee by night to Frei- and In- berg, where he was again prevented quisitor. from proclaiming the bull. At Er-

furt the students tore the instrument down and threw it into the water, while in I other places the papal decree was subjected to still greater insults. At Vienna its publication encountered grave difficulties, and Eck had good cause to set up a votive tablet to his patron saint upon his safe return to Ingolstadt, although even there only the authority of the papal mandate made the publication of the bull possible. This last humiliation was due, in great measure, to the fact that he had availed himself of the permission to pronounce the papal censure on prominent followers of the new movement besides Luther, and had thus made his office a means of personal revenge. Eck's letter to Charles V., written in Feb., 1521, seems to have had little effect upon the proceedings at the Diet of Worms.

Wealth and power were included in the aspirations of Eck. He appropriated the revenues of his pariah of Gunzburg, while he relegated its duties to a vicar. Twice he visited Rome as a diplomatic representative of the Bavarian court to obtain sanction for the establishment of a court of inquisition against the Lutheran teachings at Ingolstadt. The firatof these journeys, late in the autumn of 1521, was fruitless on account of the death of Leo X., but his second journey in 1523 was successful. With great insight and courage he showed the Curia the true condition of affairs in Germany and pictured the general incapacity of the representatives of the Church in that coun try. Of the many heresy trials in which Eck was the prime mover during this period it is sufficient to mention here that of Leonhard Kaser, whose history was published by Luther.

In addition to his inquisitorial duties, every year witnessed the publication of one or more writings against iconoclasm and in defense of the doctrines of the mass, purgatory, and auricular confession. His Enchiridion locorum communium adversvs Znutherum et alios hostes ecclesite (Landshut, 1525) went through forty-six editions before 1576. As its title indicates, it was directed primarily against Melanchthon's Loci,, although it g. Zwiagli also concerned itself to some extent

and his with the teachings of Zwingli. Eck Followers. offered to refute Zwingli's " heresies " in a public disputation (Aug. 13, 1524), and appeared at Baden, only 12 m. n.w. of Zurich, but in the hands of the bitterest partizans of the Roman Church, and from May 21 until June 18, 1526, the debate went on. Zwingli was not present, but supported his friends who were there by constant suggestions. The affair ended decidedly in favor of Eck, who induced the authorities to enter on a course of active persecution of Zwingli and his followers (see BADEN [1M AARGAU], Corr FERENCE OF). The effect of his victory at Baden was dissipated, however, at the Disputation of Bern (Jan., 1528), where the propositions advanced by the Reformers were debated in the absence of Eck, and Bern, Basel, and other places were definitely won for the Reformation (see BERN, Dls PUTATION OF). At the Diet of Augsburg Eck played the leading part among theologians on the Roman Catholic aide.

While still at Ingolstadt Eck drafted for the use of the emperor a list of 404 heretical prop ositions from the writings of the Reformers, and collaborated with more than twenty Catholic theologians in writing the conf utatio Pond fecia, in which the Catholic refutation of the Protestants was embodied. His efforts at peace, 6. Peace in which his readiness to meet the Overtures. Reformers half-way shows him to have been sincere, failed, however, on ac count of the hatred and contempt with which he was regarded by the Protestant theologians. He renewed his efforts at Worms in Jan., 1541, and succeeded in impressing Melanchthon as being quite prepared to give his assent to the main principles of Protestantism. After the meeting at Regensburg in the spring and summer of the same year, on the other hand, be exerted himself to prevent any compromise between the two theol ogies. The last important phase of his activity was his conflict with Butzer, whom he attacked on ac count of the attitude assumed by the latter in his edition of the transactions of the Conference of Regensburg.(q.v.). Special mention should be made, among Eck's many writings, of his German trans lation of the Bible (the New Testament a revision of H. Eraser's rendering) which was first published at Ingolstadt in 1537. (C. ENDERS.)

BIBLIOGRAPHY: T. Wiedemann, Dr. Johann Eck, R.egenabutg. 1885; J Greying, J. Eck als junger Gelehrter, Miinater, 1908. The subject is treated in more or less detail in all works on the Church history of the period, in the accounts of the life of Luther, Melanchthon, CEnolampadius, Osiander, and Zwingli (see the literature under those articles). Consult particularly Schaff, Christian Church, vi. 188 eqq.; Mueller, Christian Church, yol. m.; Cambridge Modern History, yol, ii., New York, 1804.