230 economic thought and justice
two other mystics: JOHN Tauler of Strasbourg and the
Swiss HENRYSUSO.
See alsoMYSTICISM;SCHOLASTICISM ANDSCHOLASTIC
METHOD.
Further reading:Meister Eckhart, Meister Eckhart:
The Essential Sermons, Commentaries, Treatises, and
Defense,trans. Edmund Colledge and Bernard McGinn
(New York: Paulist Press, 1981); Bernard McGinn, ed.,
Meister Eckhart: Teacher and Preacher(New York: Paulist
Press, 1986); Bernard McGinn, The Mystical Thought of
Meister Eckhart: The Man from Whom God Hid Nothing
(New York: Herder & Herder, 2001); Frank Tobin, Meis-
ter Eckhart: Thought and Language(Philadelphia: Univer-
sity Of Pennsylvania Press, 1986).
economic thought and justice There were serious
questions raised in the Middle Ages about the social justice
of holding a great deal of wealth deemed only too often as
obtained at the expense of others. Wealth in the Middle
Ages rested primarily on land and the exploitation of
human labor. The rise of the towns and of trade created a
new form of more liquid wealth—movable properties and
monetary instruments—all flowing to and created by the
increasing number of artisans and merchants. The clergy
also participated as sellers, buyers, lenders, and specula-
tors; ecclesiastical institutions became richer, and their
members were perceived as indulging in worldly pleasures.
All this new wealth entailed the further dangers of selfish-
ness, sensual indulgence, abuse of power, unjust acquisi-
tion, and fraud. All of this was in turn aggravated by
dishonest merchants and artisans who did not observe the
concept of the just price and practiced USURYor lending
even at any interest at all. Liberality of spirit and magnani-
mous gifts to the clergy and charity to the poor were not
yet deemed adequate or just compensation in God’s eyes.
The Gospels demonstrated a strong mistrust of riches.
Wealth was fragile, corrupting, and illusory. It hardened
the heart and prevented access to the kingdom of heaven,
salvation or REDEMPTION. The evolution of the economy,
its increased complexity, and the accumulation of large
fortunes led Scholastic thinkers and those concerned with
ethical activity as pastors of souls to deepen and nuance
their analyses and values from the 12th through the 15th
century. They began to understand and praise the social
benefits of economic development, especially if its worst
abuses were controlled. However, a strong mistrust per-
sisted. They remained concerned about the possible sinful
origins of wealth, an excess of materialism or covetous-
ness, and the habitualization of greed through repeated
malfeasance. They suggested as a remedy the acceptance
and embrace of a poverty of spirit so rich that it might
manage their goods as a loan from God. They were to dis-
tribute a good portion of their wealth to the church and to
the poor, to control covetousness. So it became more pos-
sible to gain wealth but then expiate sins committed in its
acquisition. Islam and Judaism always encouraged and
demanded that the wealthy share their riches for the good
of their own religious communities.
The debate about clerical wealth grew more intense
in the late 13th century under the impetus of the SPIRI-
TUALFranciscans and the disputes of the 14th century
about the temporal power of the church. In the 15th cen-
tury, the humanist thought and justification of Leonardo
BRUNIand Poggio BRACCIOLINIabout the social value of
private wealth became more widely distributed and
accepted on the grounds that it contributed to the com-
mon good of society.
See alsoISLAM; JUDAISM.
Further reading:T. H. Aston and C. H. E. Philpin,
eds., The Brenner Debate: Agrarian Class Structure and
Economic Development in Pre-Industrial Europe (Cam-
bridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985); Odd
Langholm, Economics in the Schools: Wealth, Exchange,
Value, Money and Usury according to the Paris Theological
Tradition, 1200–1350(Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1992); Diana
Wood, Medieval Economic Thought (Cambridge: Cam-
bridge University Press, 2002).ecumenical councils See COUNCILS, GENERAL AND
ECUMENICAL.Eddaand Eddic SeeICELAND ANDICELANDIC LITERA-
TURE;SNORRISTURLUSON.Edessa (al-Ruha, Urfa, Sanliurfa in modern Turkey)
Edessa was an ancient city on the plain of Haran in upper
Mesopotamia, on the edge of the Syrian desert and usu-
ally tied in the Middle Ages to the legend that King Abgar
V, a first-century contemporary of Christ who had been
miraculously healed and converted. Christ sent him a
towel or the mandylionwith a likeness of Christ’s face.
Allegedly, the holy towel was accompanied by a letter
promising that the city would never be taken by an
enemy. In reality the Abgar who converted was probably a
later king, Abgar IX (d. 216).
Christians at Edessa included not only followers of
the Council of CHALCEDON, but adherents to MONO-
PHYSITISM and NESTORIANISM. The city was a center
for Nestorianism, until its famous theological school
was destroyed during the reigns of Emperor Zeno
(r. 474–475, 476–91). Nestorians were later welcomed
into IRAN, where they were allowed to found a new
school at Nisibis. Edessa was the object of unsuccessful
Persian attacks in 503 and 544. The ARABScaptured it
around 640, and it remained in Muslim hands until the
Byzantines recaptured it in 944, sending the famous holy
towel back to CONSTANTINOPLE.
Edessa was occupied again in 1032 by the Byzantine
general George Maniakes (d. 1043), who took from the