Johann Maier von Eck

Johann Maier von Eck , 1486-1543, German Roman Catholic theologian. He was of peasant stock, the name von Eck being taken from his birthplace in Swabia. He was a brilliant student and became a professor at Freiburg in his youth. He was renowned in Germany for his dialectic skill in public disputation and for his deep knowledge of church history and canon law. He had been suspected of unsound theology because of some of his humanistic ideas, but he had no hesitation in condemning (1518) the new theses of Martin Luther , with whom he held a public discussion at Leipzig in 1519. Eager for the condemnation of the heresy he saw in Lutheranism, he went to Rome and returned with the papal bull condemning Luther (1520). From that time he was a leader in the struggle against the reforming party in Germany. He was one of the leading theologians at the Diet of Augsburg (1530). He also attacked the Swiss reforms of Zwingli. Eck is known as the first theologian who forced Luther into a position of definite, open opposition to the teachings and practice of the Roman Catholic Church.

Eck, Johann (1486–1543), Johann Maier ‘ of Eck’ (from his birthplace, Egg an der Günz), German theologian. He came under humanist influences. Until the controversy over indulgences broke out, he was on good terms with M. Luther, but in the public debate at Leipzig in 1519 he opposed Carlstadt and Luther, and he was largely responsible for securing the latter's excommunication. For the rest of his life he took a prominent part in organizing Catholic opposition to German Protestantism.