Johannes Eck, De primatu Petri, Paris 1521 (Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, 2 Polem. 63)

In his substantial three-volume work “De primatu Petri” (On Papal Primacy) of 1520, Johannes Eck (1486–1543) revisited the debate of the Leipzig Disputation (1519) about papal primacy. Therein, Eck tried to refute the thirteenth Leipzig thesis of Martin Luther (1483–1546).

According to Luther, papal primacy founded itself solely on human jurisdiction. Divine law, instead, did not place the pope above a simple priest. With the help of numerous pieces of evidence from Holy Scripture, from the writings of the Church Fathers and from conciliar decisions, Eck wished to prove that Christ had appointed Apostle Peter as his deputy and as head of the Church. Therefore, the popes as successors of Saint Peter stand above all other believers.

Eck handed the finished manuscript to Pope Leo X (1475–1521, pope 1513–1521) on 1 April 1520 in Rome. Shortly after, the pope invited the Ingolstadt professor of theology to join a commission of four that was supposed to work on the text of the papal bull of excommunication against Martin Luther.

The exemplar shown here was published in 1521 in Paris. The illustrated frame of the title sheet is a woodcut by Urs Graf the Elder (c.1485–c.1528) of 1519; this title frame was used for diverse works. The monogram of Graf with a Swiss dagger is located on the lower right pictorial margin. In the centre of the title sheet is the mark of the publisher, Johannes (Iehan) Kerver, with a unicorn and initials on an escutcheon.

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