Johann Eck

Johann Maier was born in 1486 in Egg an der Günz, in Swabia, Germany, and later took the name Eck from his birthplace. A brilliant student, he entered the University of Heidelberg at the age of twelve and studied at several other universities before receiving his doctorate in theology. From 1510 he was a professor of theology at the University of Ingolstadt in Bavaria, where he taught for the rest of his life. At first on friendly terms with Martin Luther, he became one of his strongest opponents after Luther published his Ninety-five Theses. In 1519, at the Leipzig Disputation, Eck debated first Andreas Karlstadt and then Luther, and he pressed Luther into saying that church councils could err and that some teachings of the condemned reformer Jan Hus were Christian. He then went to Rome and helped prepare the papal bull of 1520 that threatened Luther with excommunication. He wrote a widely used handbook against the Protestant reformers, translated the Bible into German, and represented the Catholic side at later religious debates. He died in Ingolstadt in 1543.

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Faith: German Catholic theologian and principal adversary of Martin Luther. Source: Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)