Journal: Trinity Journal
Volume: TRINJ 06:2 (Fall 1985)
Article: Erasmus And The Correspondence With Johann Eck: A Sixteenth-Century Debate Over Scriptural Authority
Author: Bruce Ellis Benson

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TrinJ 6:2 (Fall 1985) p. 157

Erasmus And The Correspondence With
Johann Eck: A Sixteenth-Century Debate Over Scriptural Authority

Bruce Ellis Benson

University Of Louvain

While the correspondence between Erasmus and Eck has received but scant attention, one might argue that their debate approaches the importance of another more famous one with which the name of Johann Eck is usually associated. Although the exchange consists of only two epistles, Erasmus’s reply provides probably his most candid views on Scripture. Moreover, Eck claims to speak on behalf of the whole Christian tradition. Interestingly enough, this aspect may account for the lack of attention previously accorded this correspondence: it seems that Eck’s view is a classic statement of the position held by virtually all of Christendom at that time and more specifically, of the Roman Catholic Church until recently. What makes these documents so fascinating today is their almost uncanny resemblance to current discussion.

With the appearance of Erasmus’s Novum Instrumentum in 1516 came both a wellspring of approbation and a barrage of opprobrium. One of his friends reassured him that many at Cambridge were “great supporters of [his] edition of the New Testament; what a book it is!—So elegant, so clear, so delightful and so highly necessary in the opinion of all men of sound judgment.”1 Yet such was not the tone of all his commentators. Much of the reaction was critical and forced Erasmus to hone his apologetic abilities throughout the remainder of his life. Even prior to its release, disapproval of the project came from the Louvain humanist-turned-theologian Maarten van Dorp, with other of his colleagues later following suit. Further, criticism came from Jacques Lefevre in France and from certain quarters in Spain and Italy. Possibly the most caustic dispute centered upon the critique by the Englishman Edward Lee.2

When the German theologian Johann Maier von Eck addressed his letter to Erasmus in 1518, his confrontation with the rising monk Martin Luther

TrinJ 6:2 (Fall 1985) p. 158

was still a year and a half away. Eck held the post of professor of theology at the University of Ingolstadt and, on the whole, was highly favorable toward the humanist agenda and the work of Erasmus in particular. As to the fundamental value of this project, there can be no question that Eck supported it enthusiastically. Nevertheless, this did not deter him from taking issue with certain of Erasmus’s comments in the Annotationes to the Novum Instrumentum.

In publishing the Novum Instrumentum Erasmus intended to accom...

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