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'In agro dominico' - March 27, 1329
The papal bull condemning Meister Eckhart 

Articles 14-15 : The Sin

The fourteenth article. A good man ought so to conform his will to the divine will that he should will whatever God wills. Since God in some way wills for me to have sinned, Ι should not will that Ι had not committed sins; and this is true penitence. 

The fifteenth article. If a man had committed a thousand mortal sins, if such a man were rightly disposed he ought not to will that he had not committed them. 

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Notes by Ellopos 

 

Maybe the Pope saw in these articles an encouragement of moral relativism and something absurd: how could God ever will for us to have sinned, when sin is exactly a deviation from His will? 

St. Dionysius writes that “God knows evil as good, and to Him the causes of the evil deeds are powers that make good”.[1] In the book of Isaias we listen to God himself saying that “I make peace and build disasters – it is me, the Lord and God, who does all these”.[2] St. Symeon the New Theologian writes that “whoever, through the adversities follows the road of the One life, does not at all prefer one situation from another”.[3] 

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