MEISTER ECKHARD: a German Dominican who was conferred doctor by Boniface VIII. Later was summoned before the bishop of Cologne, he was accused of heresy and brought up before the local Franciscan-led Inquisition, and tried as a heretic by Pope John XXII and obliged to recant some of his opinions. He is regarded as the founder of German Mysticism and one of its greatest exponents. He was well known for his work with pious lay groups such as the Friends of God and succeeded by his more circumspect disciples John Tauler and Henry Suso. Eckhart expressed himself both in learned Latin for the clergy in his tractates, and more famously in a contemporary Middle High German vernacular in his sermons. Eckhart as a preaching friar attempted to guide his flock, as well as monks and nuns under his jurisdiction with practical sermons on spiritual and psychological transformation using New Testament metaphorical content related to the creative power inherent in disinterest. The central theme of Eckhart's German sermons is the presence of God in the individual soul, and the dignity of the soul of the just man. This edition includes a selection of texts from the German Mystics of the Middle Ages.