Eck, Johann (1486-1543), was a Roman Catholic theologian who debated Martin Luther at Leipzig, Germany, in 1519. He made Luther admit to holding some of the same opinions as did John Hus, a reformer who was executed in 1415 as a heretic—that is, a person with ideas opposed to church teachings. During the debate, Luther attacked the Council of Constance for condemning Hus. Eck claimed that to deny the authority of the council was heresy.
Eck, a brilliant, aggressive man, helped engineer Luther’s excommunication in 1521 and fought Protestantism the rest of his life. Eck’s writings vigorously defended the office of the pope, purgatory, oral confession, and other Catholic teachings rejected by Luther and his followers. Eck also attacked Swiss reformer Huldreich Zwingli and the Reformation in Switzerland. Eck was born on Nov. 13, 1486, in Swabia, now in southwestern Germany. In 1510, he became a professor of theology at the University of Ingolstadt in southern Germany. He died on Feb. 10, 1543.
