And yet St. Augustine's: "We
are not Christians, but Christs," was fulfilled in them.
The profoundest depth of European religion, of which Eckhart was the
exponent, and which found artistic expression in Gothic art, was not
sounded by music until very much later. Bach, more emphatically in the
High Mass and the Magnificat, but also in his purely instrumental music,
brought the universal feeling of mysticism to absolute artistic
perfection. The deep religious sentiment which pervades the High Mass is
so far above all cults, that it has no real connection with any
historical faith--it is pure consciousness of the divine.
The peculiar state of the soul, called mysticism, could never become
popular, or exert any very great influence. A few men, such as Tauler,
Suso, Merswin, and the unknown author of the _Theologica Germanica_
handed on--not by any means always unadulterated--the doctrine they had
received from Eckhart--which at all times appealed to a few
thinkers--but the real influence on the world and on history was
reserved for the reformers.
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