The Search for Identity and Community in the Fourteenth Century

THE SEARCH FOR IDENTITY AND COMMUNITY IN THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY I N THE LEGENDS, the collection of stories and anecdotes about Meister Eckhart, it is recorded that " a priest once came to Meister Eckhart and said to him: ' I wish that your soul were in my body '. To which the Meister responded: 'You are really foolish. That would get you nowhere; it would accomplish as little as having your soul in my body. No soul can really do anything except through the body to which it is attached.'" 1 The 14th century background is the " body " to which the " soul " of Eckhart is attached. No age, and no person of that age, can really be understood except when studied in the context of the times to which he was attached. Many challenging and valid comparisons can be made between the terrible Fourteenth Century and our own age. The persons and events of that century may have indeed a particular relevance for our own times. Yet these comparisons can only be validated after we understand Eckhart's age in itself. There are fashions in the writing and study of history. Some centuries are more popular than others. When the Middle Ages had become a respectable field of study, most historians chose to write about the 13th century. Another generation of historians thought the rnth century more interesting ; still others found the 10th or 11th centuries more worthy of close examination. The 14th century-" the terrible times "-was, however, neglected. Catholics and medievalists saw it as a period of unfortunate decline and decay; rationalists and humanists saw in it only the birth-pangs of the glorious Renaissance ·and the resplendent modem world. Two global wars, the overthrow of the Western and Atlantic 1 Raymond M. Blakney, Meister Eckhart: A Mode:m Translation (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1941), p. 258. 18~ THE SEARCH FOR IDENTITY AND COMMUNITY 183 political, economic and social order, the erosion of faith in the postulates of liberal and rational Western civilization, the rise of new powers, new ideologies and a half-century of violence, war, and terrorism have all conspired to re-direct our attention to the 14th century. Then medieval civilization was sapped from within, assaulted from without, and a great culture began to die, a marvelous synthesis of faith and learning slowly unravelled and came apart. There were population problems, economic depressions, demands for reforms and a merry dance of hedonists bent upon instant pleasure. It was a time when men and women began to think that the world was coming to an end. They were of course right: a world was coming to an end: the world of the Middle Ages. Engelbert of Admont, at the beginning of the 14th century, saw parallels between his times and the end of the Roman Empire. He said that the Anti-Christ was near. He noted three " wounds " in the human soul that were draining the life-blood from Christendom: revolt against belief, revolt against authority, and revolt against the unity of Christian peoples. Engelbert could not see how these wounds could be healed and he prophesied the imminent end of the world. Catherine of Siena was a child of the 14th century. In January of 1380, Catherine went to pray in the old St. Peter's basilica in Rome. She raised her eyes to the mosaic in the apse of the church, a mosaic that depicted the vessel of the Church tossing upon a raging sea. Catherine moaned and began to fall to the ground, unconscious. When she had recovered , her friends asked the reason for her distress. She replied that she had beheld the Church in a storm of such intensity that, even with the apostolic steersman at the helm, the waves seemed about to engulf the vessel. In a moment of agonized wonder she thought: can even God Himself prevent it from foundering? 2 The Sienese mystic's vision corresponded all too well to reality. In the 14th century, the winds of history had grown to a tempest. Men and women 1 H. Daniel-Rops, Cathedral and Crusade: Studies of the Medieval Church, trans. J. Warrington (New York: Dutton, 1957), p. 28. 184 RICHARD...