orig. Johann Maier
born Nov. 13, 1486, Egg, Swabia
died Feb. 10, 1543, Ingolstadt, Bavaria
German Roman Catholic theologian.
He was ordained in 1508, became a doctor of theology in 1510, and began a lifelong career at the University of Ingolstadt. Initially friendly with Ninety-five Theses as heretical. In 1519 he debated Luther and Andreas Karlstadt (с 1480–1541), and Leo X commissioned Eck to publish and enforce the papal bull condemning the Theses. Eck's treatise Enchiridion Against the Lutherans (1525) summarized contested Catholic beliefs, Protestant objections to them, and Catholic answers to the objections; it was Eck's most popular work and the best-known Catholic polemical handbook of the 16th century.