As poet and lover he was the inaugurator
of a new world; here he represents the culmination and conclusion of the
condemned world-system. He was the iron landmark of the ages--Eckhart,
the creator of eternal values.
The foremost of the precursors of Eckhart was Bernard of Clairvaux
(1091-1153). He was the exponent of the love of God which he placed
above knowledge; in one of his letters he calls love "the existence of
God Himself," basing his definition on the passage in the Gospel of St.
John, "God is Love." "Love is the eternal law which created and
preserves the universe; the whole world is governed by love; but
although love is the law to which all creation is subject, it is not
itself without law, but it is a law unto itself. Serfs and mercenaries
are ruled by laws which are not from God, but which they made
themselves; some because they do not love God, others because they love
the things of this world better than God.... They made their own laws
and subordinated the universal and eternal laws to their own will.
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