Six schoolfellows and friends, Count Maurice von Spiegelberg, Rudolph von Lange (Langius), Alexander Hegius, Lewis Dringenberg, Antonius Liber, and Rodolphus Agricola, all trained in the discipline of à Kempis, became, towards the end of the 15th century, the apostles of this reformation in literature and education, which, mainly by their exertions and those of their disciples, was, in a few years, happily accomplished throughout the empire. The two first, (we neglect chronology,) noblemen of rank and dignitaries in the church, co-operated to this end, by their liberal patronage of other scholars, and more especially by the foundation of improved schools; the four last, by their skill and industry as practical teachers, and by the influence of their writings.*

After their return from Italy, where they had studied under Trapezuntius and Gaza, and enjoyed the friendship of Philelphus, Laurentius Valla, and Leonardus Aretinus, Von Lange was nominated Dean of Munster, and Count Spiegelberg, Provost of Emmerich. Through the influence of the former, himself a Latin poet of no inconsiderable talent, the decayed school of Munster was revived; supplied with able masters, among whom Camener, Cæsarius, and Murmellius, were distinguished; and, in spite of every opposition from the predicant friars and university of Cologne, the barbarous schoolbooks were superseded, and the heathen classics studied, as in the schools of Italy and France. From this seminary, soon after its establishment, proceeded Petrus Nehemius, Josephus Horlenius, (the master of

* An account of the Fratres Hieronymici would be an interesting piece of literary history. The scattered notices to be found of this association are meagre and incorrect. We may observe, that the celebrated Frieslander, John Wessel of Gansfurt, an alumnus also of the College of St Agnes, preceded the six confederates, enumerated in the text, as a restorer of letters in Germany. Before Reuchlin, (whom he initiated in Hebrew,) he conjoined a knowledge of the three learned languages; these, which he had cultivated in Greece, Italy, and France, he taught, at least privately, on his return to Germany, in the universities of Cologne, Heidelberg, and Basle. His erudition, his scholastic subtlety, with his contempt for scholastic authority, obtained for him the title of Lux Mundi and Magister Contradictionum. In religious opinions, he was the forerunner of Luther. He is not to be confounded (as has been done) with the famous preacher, Joannes, variously called Wesalius, de Wessalia, and even Wesselus, accused by the Dominicans of suspicious intercourse with the Jews, and, through their influence, unjustly condemned for heresy in 1479, by the Archbishop of Mentz.

Mosellanus,) Ludolphus Heringius, Alexander Moppensis, Tilemannus Mollerus, (the master of Rivius,) &c., who, as able schoolmasters, propagated the improvement in education and letters throughout the north of Germany.

A similar reform was effected by Count Spiegelberg in the school of Emmerich.

Hegius, a man of competent learning, but of unrivalled talents as a practical instructor, became rector of the school of Daventer; and he can boast of having turned out from his tuition a greater number of more illustrious scholars than any pedagogue of modern times. Among his pupils were, Desiderius Erasmus, Hermannus Buschius, Joannes Cæsarius, Joannes Murmellius, Joannes Glandorpius, Conradus Mutianus, Hermannus Torrentinus, Bartholomæus Coloniensis, Conradus Goclenius, Joannes and Serratius Aedicollius, Jacobus Montanus, Joannes Peringius, Timannus Camenerius, Gerardus Lystrius, Matthæus Frissemius, Ludolphus Geringius, &c. Nor must Ortuinus Gratius be forgotten.

Dringenberg transplanted the discipline of Zwoll to Schlechtstadt in Alsace; and he effected for the south of Germany what his colleagues accomplished for the north. Among his pupils, who almost rivalled in numbers and celebrity those of Hegius, were Conradus Celtes, Jacobus Wimphelingius, Beatus Rhenanus, Joannes Sapidus, Bilibald Pirkheimer, John von Dalberg, Franciscus Stadianus, George Simler, (the master of Melanchthon,) and Henricus Bebelius, (the master of Brassicanus and Heinrichmann.)

Liber taught successively at Kempten and Amsterdam; and, when driven from these cities by the partisans of the ancient barbarism, he finally established himself at Alcmar. The most celebrated of his pupils were Pope Hadrian VI., Nicolaus Clenardus, Alardus of Amsterdam, Cornelius Crocus, and Christophorus Longolius.

The genius of Agricola displayed the rarest union of originality, elegance, and erudition. After extorting the reluctant admiration of the fastidious scholars of Italy, he returned to Germany, where his writings, exhortation, and example, powerfully contributed to promote the literary reformation. It was only, however, in the latter years of his short life, that he was persuaded by his friend, Von Dalberg, Bishop of Worms, to lecture publicly (though declining the status of Professor) on the Greek and Roman authors; and he delivered, with great applause, a few courses-alternately at Heidelberg and Worms. Celtes and Buschius were among his auditors. There is no hyperbole in his epitaph by a great Italian,

Scilicet hoc uno meruit Germania, laudis

Quicquid habet Latium, Graecia quicquid habet.'

The first restorers of ancient learning in Germany were thus almost exclusively pupils of à Kempis or of his disciples. There was, however, one memorable exception in John Reuchlin (Joannes Capnio), who was not, as his biographers erroneously assert, a scholar of Dringenberg at Schlechtstadt.* Of him we are again to speak.

We have been thus particular, in order to show that the awakened enthusiasm for classical studies did not in Germany originate in the universities; and it was only after a strenuous opposition from these bodies that ancient literature at last conquered its recognition as an element of academical instruction. At the period of which we treat, the lectures and disputations, the examinations and honours, of the different faculties, required only an acquaintance with the barbarous Latinity of the middle ages. The new philology was thus not only a hors d'œuvre in the academical system, or, as the Leipsic masters expressed it, a' fifth wheel in the chariot;' it was abominated as a novelty, that threw the ancient learning into discredit, diverted the studious from the universities, emptied the schools of the Magistri, and the bursæ or colleges over which they presided, and rendered contemptible the once honoured distinction of a degree.+

* His connexion with Zwoll and the Brethren of St Jerome may, however, be established through John Wessel, from whom he learned the elements of Hebrew.

·

+Attamen intellexi,' writes Magister Unkenbunck to Magister Gratius, quòd habetis paucos auditores, & est querela vestra, quòd Buschius & Cæsarius trahunt vobis scholares & supposita abinde, cùm tamen ipsi non sciunt ita exponere Poëtas allegoricè, sicut vos, & superallegare sacram scripturam. Credo quòd diabolus est in illis Poëtis. Ipsi destruunt omnes Vniuersitates, & audiui ab vno antiquo Magistro Lipsensi, qui fuit Magister 36. annorum, & dixit mihi, quando ipse fuisset iuuenis, tunc illa Vniuersitas bene stetisset : quia in viginti milliaribus nullus Poëta fuisset. Et dixit etiam, quòd tunc supposita diligenter compleuerunt lectiones suas formales & materiales, seu bursales : & fuit magnum scandalum, quòd aliquis studens iret in platea, & non haberet Petrum Hispanum, aut Parua Logicalia sub brachio. Et si fuerunt Grammatici, tunc portabant Partes Alexandri, vel Vade Mecum, vel Exercitium Puerorum, aut Opus Minus, aut Dicta Ioan. Sinthen. Et in scholis aduertebant diligenter, & habuerunt in honore Magistros Artium, & quando viderunt vnum Magistrum, tunc fuerunt perterriti quasi viderent vnum Diabolum. Et dixit etiam,

In possession of power, it is not to be supposed that the patrons of scholasticism would tamely allow themselves to be stripped of reputation and influence; and it did not require the ridicule with which the Humanists,' or Poets,' as they were styled, now assailed them, to exasperate their spirit of persecution. Greek in particular, and polite letters in general, were branded as heretical ;* and, while the academical youth hailed the first lecturers on ancient literature in the universities, as messengers from heaven,' the academical veterans persecuted

quòd pro tunc quater in anno promouebantur Bacculaurii, & semper pro vna vice sunt sexaginta aut quinquaginta. Et illo tempore Vniuersitas illa fuit multum in flore, & quando vnus stetit per annum cum dimidio, fuit promotus in Bacculaurium, & per tres annos aut duos cum dimidio in Magistrum: & sic parentes eorum fuerunt contenti, & libenter exposuerunt pecunias. Quia videbant, quòd filii sui venerunt ad honores. Sed nunc supposita volunt audire Virgilium & Plinium, & alios nouos autores, & licèt audiunt per quinque annos, tamen non promouentur. Et dixit mihi amplius talis Magister, quòd tempore suo fuerunt duo millia studentes in Lyptzick, & Erfordiæ totidem. Et Viennæ quatuor millia, & Coloniæ etiam tot, & sic de aliis. Nunc autem in omnibus Vniuersitatibus non sunt tot supposita, sicut tune in vna, aut duabus. Et Magistri Lipsenses nunc valde conqueruntur de paucitate suppositorum, quia Poëtæ faciunt eis damnum. Et quando parentes mittunt filios suos in bursas, & collegia, non volunt ibi manere, sed vadunt ad Poëtas, & student nequitias. Et dixit mihi, quòd ipse Liptzick olim habuit quadraginta domicellos, & quando iuit in ecclesiam, vel ad forum, vel spaciatum in rubetum, tunc iuerunt post eum. Et fuit tunc magnus excessus, studere in Poëtria. Et quando vnus confitebatur in confessione, quòd occultè audiuit Virgilium ab vno Bacculaurio, tunc Sacerdos imponebat ei magnam pœnitentiam, videlicet, ieiunare singulis sextis feriis, vel orare quotidie septem Psalmos pœnitentiales. Et iurauit mihi in conscientia sua, quòd vidit, quòd vnus magistrandus fuit reiectus, quia vnus de examinatoribus semel in die festo vidit ipsum legere in Terentio. Utinam adhuc staret ita in Vniuersitatibus!' ets.-Epist. Obsc. Vir.-Vol. II. ep. 46.-See also, among others, Vol. II. ep. 58 and 63. We quote these epistles by number, though this be marked in none of the editions.

hæresis

Hæresis,' says Erasmus, speaking of these worthies, est polite loqui, hæresis Græce scire, quicquid ipsi non intelligunt, quicquid ipsi non faciunt, hæresis est. Inunum Capnionem clamatur, quia linguas callet.'-Opera III. c. 517. ed. Clerici. See also Peutinger in Epist. ad Reuchl. A ii. and Hutten, Praef. Neminis.

Omnino fervebat opus,' says Cruciger, et deserebantur tractationes prioris doctrinæ atque futilis, et nitor elegantiaque disciplinæ politioris expetebantur. Tunc Lipsiam Ricardus Crocus, Bri

these intruders as 'preachers of perversion,' and 'winnowers of the devil's chaff."* Conradus Celtes, Hermannus Buschius, and Joannes Rhagius Aesticampianus, were successively expelled from Leipsic ;+ other universities emulated the example. The great University of Cologne stood, however, 'proudly

tannus, qui in Gallia auditor fuerat Hieronymi Alexandri [Aleandri] venit anno Chr. MDXV [MDXIV] professusque doctrinam Græcarum litterarum, omnium amorem favoremque statim est maximum consecutus: quod hujus linguæ non primordia, ut aliqui ante ipsum, sed integram atque plenam scientiam illius afferre, et posse hanc totam explicare, docereque videretur. Negabat meus pater, credibile nunc esse id, quod ipse tunc cognoverit. Tanquam cœlitus demissum Crocum omnes veneratos esse aiebat, unumquemque se felicem judicasse, si in familiaritatem ipsius insinuaretur: docenti vero et mercedem, quæ postularetur, persolvere; et quocumque loco temporeque præsto esse, recusavisse neminem; si concubia nocte se conveniri, si quamvis longe extra oppidum jussisset, omnes libenter obsecuti fuissent.'-Loc. Comm. Among the Declamations of Melanchthon, see Orat. de Initiis, &c. and Orat. de Vita Trocedorfii, also Joach. Camerarius, (the pupil of Croke,) in the Preface to his Herodotus, and in his Life of Melanchthon. Dr Croke (afterwards public orator of Cambridge) was the first professor of Greek in Leipsic, and the first author of a grammar of that language, published in Germany; he founded that school which, under his successor, Sir Godfrey Hermann, is now the chief fountain of Hellenic literature in Europe. His life ought to be written. Sir Alexander Croke, in his late splendid history of the family, has collected some circumstances concerning this distinguished scholar; but a great deal of inte resting information still remains ungathered among the writings of his contemporaries. We could fill a page with mere references.

* Buschii Vallum Humanitatis, ed. Burckhardi, p. 15. In Leipsic humane letters were styled by the theologians, Dæmonum cibus, Damonum opsonium, Aegyptiae ollae, virulentae Aegyptiorum dapes.-Panegyricum Lipsiensis Theologi.-Praef. Lipsia, 1514.

We have before us an oration of Aesticampianus, delivered in 1511, on his departure from Leipsic, after the public schools had been closed against him by the faculty of arts. We extract one passageQuem enim poetarum eloquentium non sunt persecuti patres vestri, et quem vos ludibrio non habuistis, qui ad vos expoliendos, quasi calitus sunt demissi? Nam, ut e multis paucos referam, Conradum Celtin pene hostiliter expulistis; Hermannum Buschium diu ac multum vexatum ejecistis; Joannem quoque Aesticampianum variis machinis oppugnatum, tandem evertitis. Quis tandem Poetarum ad vos veniet? Nemo hercle, nemo. Inculti ergo jejunique vivetis, fœdi animis et inglorii, qui vel nisi pœnitentiam egeritis, damnati omnes immoriemini.