its general diffusion, but the effect is eminently to be attributed to those external circumstances, which always before placed obstacles in the way, insuperable even by greater and more strenuous efforts than those which Luther afterwards applied. It depended not only upon courage and decision, but also upon a concurrence of propitious circumstances,* which did not happen till just the time when Luther appeared. It is true, that Erasmus would not, like Luther, have improved even the most fortunate moment; but it is, on the other hand, just as undeniably certain, that even Luther, endowed with the most burning zeal for truth, with the most insuperable decision, with the most invincible confidence, and with all the capacities of a reformer, at another time, under other circumstances, and amid other men, would not have effected that which he now accomplished in so short a time. Yes, it was, after all, the Erasmuses and their party, that opened the way directly before the more bold and fortunate reformer; for it was they who, immediately before his appearance, placed the propitious sphere of his action fully in that state which alone could secure success and permanence to his efforts. This was the consequence of a circumstance which scarcely ever happened before: for, through the sympathy taken in a merely private contest, in which the famous John Reuchlin had become involved with some of the theologians of Cologn, there arose a declared war between all the enlightened and all the dark heads of the nation. This war became the most propitious of all circumstances for the reformation! To make this as perceptible as it may be and must be, it is needful to give only a brief account of it.

The new and better erudition which, somewhat before the end of the fifteenth century, had again come forth into the world from Italy, had already, in the beginning of the sixteenth century, acquired for itself a considerable number of admirers in Germany. Some of those eminent men, who had first obtained it for themselves, had now begun to introduce an entirely new method of study; had openly declared themselves as enemies to that dark and barbarous philosophy, which hitherto alone occupied all minds, and had also already withdrawn many of its adherents, who now, with the most happy effect, devoted them

And this concurrence of propitious circumstances, too, would probably have been fruitless, if only one of them, the invention of printing, had happened half a century later.

selves to the immensely more profitable study of the languages, the elegant or the manly sciences, and classical literature. This of course could not pass unobserved, and undecried. All the old theologians still remaining from the dregs of the former period, all the Thomists and Scotists, all the genuine monk-heads in Germany, had the greatest interest to set themselves against the progress of the new erudition, which must in a short time despoil them of honor and authority. It needed not therefore even the derision which they poured from all sides upon the defenders of the former system, to rouse them to persecution; for the peculiar prejudice and the natural antipathy of stupidity against all which wears the aspect of illumination, made them already their sworn opponents. Several theologians of Cologn especially distinguished themselves in the matter by a more powerful feeling of this antipathy, which burst forth the more violently, inasmuch as the feeling was also natural to them; for they set themselves up as peculiarly the heads of the party, and were then also bold enough to be the first to expose themselves to one of the chiefs of the new party. John Reuchlin, the restorer of Hebrew literature in Germany, was to be the victim of their excited wrath. The subjugation of Erasmus, they were going, in return, to leave to their good friends, the theologians at Lyons. This appeared to be the plan of persecution which they first strove to execute against Reuchlin, with a malice indeed the most stupid, but withal so sturdy that it would most probably have succeeded at any other time. The first point and the last became manifest from the opportunity which they seized for the purpose, in the year 1510.

Presuming that Hebrew literature, by which Reuchlin had acquired such high renown,* could not better be suppressed than

* Reuchlin, who was also sometimes called Capnio, was born at Pforzeim, a town of Baden, 1455. He was early distinguished by his attainments in learning and music. He was appointed by Charles, the landgrave of Baden, as travelling companion of his son Frederic, who was afterwards bishop of Utrecht. With him he visited France, and resided for about two years in Paris, at the most celebrated school of the times. He published a Latin dictionary and a Greek grammar, in Germany, and excited much astonishment by his knowledge of languages. He resided a part of the time in Germany, and a part in France; studied law at Orleans; accompanied the count of Wurtemberg to Rome, where he had access to the treasures of science accumulated by Lorenzo de Medici; was created a noble

by bringing it into suspicion and taking away the means of its support, they had incited one John Peppercorn, a Jew whom they had converted, to procure an order from the emperor, by which all Jewish writings in the whole empire, were to be sought out and burnt, because they contained blasphemies against Christ and the christian religion. Those silly souls imagined, that Reuchlin derived all his wisdom and art from such writings; and therefore he would either have to suffer these sources to be stopped, or to come out publicly as the defender of the Jews, and thus expose himself to the charge of heresy. Maximilian was actually weak enough to give full power to Peppercorn himself, in 1509, to collect and burn all Jewish writings. But when, in the discharge of his commission, Peppercorn found difficulties in several places, even on the part of the magistrates, and now wanted new orders and aids from the emperor, the latter came to the determination of re-examining the matter, and commissioned the elector of Mentz to request an opinion on the subject from Reuchlin. This opinion Reuchlin set forth in such a manner as was expected from him; for he showed the project of destroying all Jewish writings without exception, to be both insane and injurious; he proved to the emperor, that several of these writings, which did not treat of religion at all, might contain immense treasures of valuable knowledge; and he held it as even improper to burn their religious books, because from some of them, the strongest grounds may be derived for opposing the Jews themselves. This was exactly what the Colnish divines had wanted, who forthwith helped their Peppercorn prepare a paper in which Reuchlin was set forth as a friend of the Jews, and one deeply to be suspected of heresy. And when Reuchlin presented an answer to this infamous paper, in which the ex

of the empire by Frederic III. in 1492; spent some years at the court of Philip, elector of the Palatinate; again visited Rome to defend the elector who had been excommunicated; was engaged in preparing a Hebrew grammar and dictionary, and in translating the Psalms, and correcting the translation of the Bible; was president of the court of the confederacy; and was a friend and patron of his relative, Me. lancthon. The contest in which he and others were engaged against Hochstraten, (or Hoogstraten,) and the universities of Paris, Louvain, Erfurt, and Mentz, lasted ten years. He was appointed professor at Ingolstadt by William of Bavaria. The other leading facts in the life of this singular man, are sufficiently indicated in the text. He died at Stuttgard 1532. See Encyc. Am.— TR.

Jew came off in a sad plight, they, without further dissimulation, presented themselves upon the stage. Arnold of Tungern, head of the Colnish faculty, in 1512, drew forth from Reuchlin's writings, several articles, which he put forth with a severe censure as "being too much tinctured with Judaism," (nimis suspectos de Judaico favore), and in which he at the same time contended, that Reuchlin must publicly recant them. Reuchlin answered him, in 1513, in a characteristic apology to the Colnish calumniators. But now the Dominican and inquisitor, Jacob Hochstraten, cited him before his tribunal, to defend himself in respect to the articles, and clear himself from the suspicion of heresy. The process was formally instituted. Reuchlin appealed to the pope. The elector of Mentz also caused Hochstraten to prohibit the further process. But, notwithstanding the appeal and the prohibition, he still had the writings of Reuchlin publicly burnt; and the whole theological faculty of Cologn now undertook to prove, that they ought to be burnt, as being heretical. To render the infamy still greater and more injurious to Reuchlin, they even sent the records of the process to the Sorbonne* at Paris; and from them, who consisted chiefly of the like dark minds, they received a confirmation of their decision; and now they raised the wildest yell of triumph. This triumph, however, was immensely embittered, as the pope, on the appeal of Reuchlin, transferred the investigation of the case to the bishop of Spire, who, without noticing the authority of the Sorbonne, decided in favor of Reuchlin, and condemned Hochstraten also to pay the cost of prosecution. The prosecution was therefore, in the end, of not even the least disadvantage to him. It, however, had caused him enough of vexation; and in this, at least one of the designs of his opponents was attained. Yet this vexation cost them dear; for their chief object in this persecution, (a stop to the progress of the new erudition in Germany), was not only not obtained, but this became itself the means of most extensively promoting its spread.

This contest of Reuchlin with the Colnish divines, became the proximate cause why all in Germany who had acquired a taste for the new sciences, all who in a degree had extricated themselves from the old darkness, now united in one party, which

* The theological faculty of the university of Paris, founded by Robert de Sorbon in the thirteenth century. - TR.

came forward as the declared antagonists to the dark heads who fought in support of the old barbarism. The persecution of Reuchlin was not regarded as a private affair, but as a general persecution, excited by stupidity against genuine taste, and by ignorance against true learning. On this account, the noblest men of the nation, Erasmus, Pirkheimer, Herrman von Busch, immediately and unsolicited, mingled in the strife and undertook the defence of Reuchlin. All cultivated minds in the nation, immediately followed them; and followed them with so much the greater zeal, the finer the opportunity seemed to achieve honor to themselves at the expense of their natural enemy. The celebrated Ulrich von Hutten, together with his friend John Crotus, wrote the familiar "Epistles of Obscure Men,"* in which he completely repelled, not only the Colners, but occasionally the whole venerable community of "our masters" (Magistrorum nostrorum), with such mordacious salt, that it must have penetrated through seven skins. Thus were they set forth as the laughingstock for all Europe. Men every where declared aloud for the laughing party. And such was soon the progress, that, between all the enlightened members of the nation, wherever dispersed, a silent but not the less intimate connexion was formed, by which they were united for the more wide and general diffusion of truth, and for the defence of every individual among them who might suffer in this matter. How vast was the effect of this thing, and how vast it must have been,

These Epistles were written in barbarous Latin, and first appeared in 1515. They purported to be written by well known clergymen and professors at Cologn and the region of the Rhine. The term, "obscure men," was used in a double sense, as they were anonymous. The letters were full of satire on the excesses of the clergy, and treated also of the theological disputes. The publication was one of the most interesting in that age. It has sometimes been attributed to Reuchlin himself; but was doubtless the work of several hands. It is one among the works prohibited by the pope. An edition was published in 1826. See Am. Enc. Art. Epist. Obs. Vir.

Hutten was a man of great satirical wit—in needy circumstances -persecuted by the pope, but favored by the emperor — of profligate life, though an advocate for Luther-served in the army for subsistence- and died of a disease produced by licentiousness, in 1523, aged 35. He was early fond of literature; but his father considered such pursuits beneath the character of a gentleman, and he turned his attention to the study of law. — TR.