Avignon

Avignon enters the book as the papal seat to which Meister Eckhart sought to take his heresy case. Its significance in the account is institutional: it was where the controversy surrounding his teaching reached the papal court.

The Papal Residence

At the time described, the papacy resided in Avignon. The city therefore stood above the diocesan proceedings in Cologne as the destination for a case Eckhart wanted referred to the pope’s court.

Eckhart’s Journey and Trial

After appearing before a diocesan commission in Cologne in 1326, Eckhart wanted his case sent to Avignon. Accompanied by other members of the Dominican Order, he began the long journey to France. In 1327, he was at the papal court in Avignon, where he was tried for heresy and prepared to retract any error.

Place in the Controversy

The account links Avignon to the escalation of the proceedings against Eckhart, not to a resolution witnessed in the city. The investigation produced charges that were later narrowed from 150 articles to twenty-eight. The book relates the eventual judgment separately: a papal bull issued the following year identified seventeen articles as heretical and the others as bearing the mark of heresy; Eckhart had died by then. Avignon’s role is thus that of the papal venue where the case was heard, while its final outcome came after his death.