Profile Major Works Resources

Johann Maier von Eck, 1486-1543

German 16th C. Scholastic, Johannes Maier (known as Eck or Eccius as per his birthplace) was a German Augustinian theologian and professor at Ingolstadt (Bavaria). 

Johann Eck is most famous as the antagonist of Martin Luther, having engaged with him in the disputation of Leipzig (1519), calling Luther out as a Hussite and accusing him of heresy.  Eck continued steadily pursuing Luther all the way to the Regensburg Council (1541).

In economics, Eck's principle fame rests on being one of the first to call for the lifting of the prohibition on usury, a topic on which he won public disputations at Augsburg (1514) and Bologna (1515) and articulated into his Tractates, where he settled on the figure of 5% as lawful.  His defense of commercial capitalism has been often attributed to his close connection to the Augsburg merchant community, particularly the Fuggers.  Eck's fame as a defender of usury and capitalism may partly explain why Luther retained a rather traditional view on those topics.

 

  

top1.gif (924 bytes)Top

Major Works of Johann Eck

  • Tractatus de contractibus usurariis, 1514
  • Tractates contractu quinque de centum, 1515
  • Obelisks, 1518
  • Disputatio Domini Iohannis Eccii, et Pa. Martini Luther in studio Lipsensi futura, 1519 [bk] ("12 theses")
  • De primatu Petri aduersus Ludderum, 1521 [bk]
  • Ad invictissimum Poloniae regem Sigismundum, de sacrifio Missae contra lutheranos, libri tres, 1526 [bk]
  • Enchiridion locorum communium aduersus Lutteranos, 1527 [bk]
  • 404 Theses, 1530
  • Ains Judenbüchlins verlegung, 1541 [bk, bk]
HET

 
top1.gif (924 bytes)Top

Resources on Johann Eck

 

 
top1.gif (924 bytes)Top
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

All rights reserved, Gonçalo L. Fonseca