xiii
After
his
excommunication
in
1329
Eckliart
gradually
lost
all
but
legendary
fame
and
his
writings
survived
mostly
under
other
names.
Five
hundred
years
later,
in
1829
,
Gorres
speaks
of
him
as
‘
line
figure
chretienne
presque
mythique.’
^
But
for
at
least
two
generations
after
his
death
his
writings,
secretly
passed
from
hand
to
hand
and
frequently
transcribed,
fomied
what
Lasson
calls
‘
the
text-books
of
God-intoxicated
piety.’
To
the
preachers
of
his
school,
John
Tauler
(
1300
-
1361
),
Suso
(
1300
-
1365
),
Ruysbrocck
(
1293
-
1381
),
all
members
of
the
Brotherhood
of
the
Friends
of
God,
and
to
others
of
less
note,
they
were
a
veritable
mine
from
which
they
drew
not
only
inspiration
but
words,
sayings,
whole
passages
and
even
whole
sermons.
To
the
Basle
1521
edition
of
Tauler’s
sermons
Adam
Petri
had
appended
a
few
pages
of
sermons
under
Eckliart
’s
own
name
and
this
led
to
his
rediscovery
by
Schmidt
in
1817
.-
Taulcr’s
sermons
were
after-
wards
shown
by
Pfeiffer
to
be
a
valuable
source
of
Eckhart’s
writings
and
tliis
applies
also
to
the
works
of
Suso
and
Ruys-
broeck
to
a
less
degree.
Pfeiffer’^
collection
of
Eckhart’s
works
is
the
earliest
and
still
by
lar
the
largest.
He
confined
himself
principally
to
writings
in
Alemanic,
the
High
German
dialect
of
Strassburg
at
that
date,
but
there
are
a
number
of
others
in
different
dialects
of
German,
a
few
in
Latin,
^
and
some
in
a
mixture
of
the
two.*
Tlierc
are
often
numerous
variants
of
the
same
original,
sometimes
under
Eckhart’s^
name
but
often
attributed
toothers,
e.g.
Frankc
von
Koln,
Hermann
von
Fritslar,
Nikolaus
von
Landau,
Johannes
von
Sterngassen,
Kraft
von
Royberg,
all
belonging
to
the
fourteenth
century.
The
nauH's
of
David
of
Ausburg
and
Nikolaus
of
Strassburg
might
possibly
be
added
but,
as
Pfeiffer
points
out,
frequently
the
only
test
of
authorship
is
the
internal
evidence
of
style
and
matter
and
this
test
has
\
et
to
be,
conclusively
ajiplied.
A
few
of
Pfeiffer’s
attributions
would
seem
to
have
been
wrongly
made
and
in
some
cases
overworking
has
robbed
the
writing
of
its
Eckhartian
flavour.
In
the
following
translation
the
six
last
and
doubtful
sermons
have
been
omitted
and
a
few
other
numbers
of
Parts
I
and
II
hav^c
been
replaced
by
substitutes,
either
discoveries
of
Pfeiffer’s
or
from
independent
sources.
With
regard
to
the
authorship
of
these
substitutes,
I,
Iviii,
11,
xvii
and
xix,
are
attributed
to
Eckhart
on
the
authority
of
Preger
(see
Geschichte,
pp.
318
-
324
)
;
I,
xii
on
that
of
Biittncr
(sec
M,
EclxharVs
Schriften,
etc.,
vol.
ii,
p.
228
).
Tractate
i
(from
the
Jostes
collection)
is
evidently
by
the
same
hand
as
II,
xix
and
*
Works
of
Suso,
1829.
Quoted
by
Jundt.
*
Martensen
had
already
published
his
Monograpli
iu
1842.
®
Deniflo.
Also
Spamer’s
Texte.
•
Spamer’s
TexU^
aud
Jostos.
