Reuchlin returned soon after, in 1499, to Wirtemberg. From 1502 to 1513 he was one of the three judges of the Swabian league formed in 1488.

In the year 1506 he issued his "Rudimenta Hebraicae linguae," the fruit of his vigorously prosecuted and expensive Hebrew studies, and the means through which the Hebrew tongue was first introduced into the sphere of ordinary study. He said, that he had composed his Hebrew grammar without any assistance from others, "that so the Holy Scriptures might shed their light and healing upon the world, and our students might have wherewith to delight and to build themselves up before me, there has been no one who has troubled himself with the attempt to set forth the whole Hebrew tongue in order in a book." In another passage he speaks of the toil and the money which the Hebrew grammar and lexicon have cost him. "To this," he says, "the invaluable worth of the Holy Scriptures was a sufficient inducement." "All the sacred writings," he says in his commentary on the seven Penitential Psalms, "both of the Old Testament and the New, I was ignorant of, as they were in their original languages; wherefore I applied myself with diligence to these, that by their help I might the better and with the more insight, discern the prophecy and its fulfillment." He wrote to Cardinal Hadrian as follows: "I gave my attention to Hebrew, because I foresaw the great service which it would bring to religion and to a true knowledge of God. All my literary labors hitherto I have shaped with reference to this end, as I shall continue to do in the future, and that with increased zeal. As a faithful follower of our Saviour, I have done what lay in my power toward the reëstablishment and the exaltation of the true church of Christ."

Reuchlin fully appreciated the importance of his "Rudimenta," for he closed it with these words, "Exegi monumentum aere perennius." And he wrote on the subject to Amerbach thus: "For if I live, then by God's help the Hebrew tongue shall be built up. And if I die, the foundation that I have laid can not be easily destroyed."

Reuchlin was brought by his Hebrew studies into very unpleasant relations both with Jews, proselytes from Judaism, and Dominicans; but the lawsuits and controversies in which he was entangled by the means were productive of at least one good result, they hastened the coming Reformation.

In the year 1505 he published the German letter to a nobleman, on the reason why the Jews have so long been under God's displeasHe says, "It is because they slew the true Messiah, have never ceased to defame him, and are full of hatred to Christians. Their

ure.

punishment shall endure, until they acknowledge Christ as the Messiah." "If," he says, "any among them will shew himself willing to be taught concerning the Messiah and our true faith, I will joyfully take his part and render him such aid that he need have no care for his daily bread, but may serve God in peace, and live untroubled by anxious thoughts for the future."

Thus Reuchlin pronounces a clear and correct opinion respecting the Jews, and at the same time displays a genuine Christian love, in looking to the only possible emancipation of the Jews, namely, their being grafted again into the true olive tree.

In the year 1510 commenced those memorable controversies respecting Jewish literature, which for nine years so completely engrossed Reuchlin's attention. They originated in the following manner: A converted Jew, John Pfefferkorn by name, wrote appeals to magistrates and people, urging them to a general persecution of the Jews, and also called upon the emperor in particular to suppress all their books, with the exception of the Old Testament. Reuchlin received an order from the Elector of Mentz to render a verdict in the matter. He decided to the effect, that none of the writings of the Jews should be seized and burned, save those alone which were directly aimed at Christianity;-as it had been done formerly.* This verdict drew down upon him, not merely the hatred of Pfefferkorn, but the enmity of that powerful body, the Dominicans, especially those of Cologne, with the notorious Hochstratten at their head. Sharp polemical treatises flew back and forth. It was to no purpose that the bishop of Spires, who was appointed by the Pope to adjudge the case, decided in Reuchlin's favor. The Dominicans carried the suit to Rome. But there, too, Reuchlin was about to win his cause, when Leo X. issued a "Mandatum de supersedendo," the effect of which was to defer the termination of the suit so long as it might please the Pope, who stood in awe of the monks.

From this time forward the monks continued to shew their hostility to Reuchlin in every conceivable manner, acting as though they had already gained their cause. But help soon came to him from many quarters. The league of the Reuchlinists, so called, was formed, which declared for Reuchlin, for classical learning and a pure church, against the perverse, corrupt monks, and their decadent, hideous scholasticism, now in its dotage. Nearly all the distinguished men

* Many singular remarks are to be found in Reuchlin's verdict; for instance, "when Christ says, 'Search the Scriptures,' (writings,) he did not mean the Old Testament, but those Rabbinical writings, from which, later, the Talmud" (this. by the way, Reuchlin had not read) "was compiled." Reuchlin's love for the Cabbala and for Jewish literature probably had some influence in determining the mildness of his verdict.

of Germany of that age joined this league; men, who afterward, almost without exception, formed a mighty intellectual power on the side of the Reformation. Ulrich Hutten and Bilibald Pirkheimer were especially active in keeping the league together, and strengthening it against the pugnacious attacks of the Dominicans.

The severest blow which the Dominican brotherhood thus received in the persons of some of its members was the publication, in the year 1517, of the famous "Epistolae obscurorum virorum." The probable authors of these burlesque letters are Hermann Busch, Crotus Rubianus and Wolfgang Angst; Ulrich Hutten and others may have made some subsequent additions. The letters are directed to Ortuin Gratius, to whom we have previously alluded as a scholar of Hegius, and a professor at Cologne: the purported writers are partly historical, and partly fictitious characters. The Latin is wretched, and, together with the subject-matters treated of, gives a vivid impression of the thoroughly repulsive, ignorant, profligate and villainous lives and acts of the Dominicans. And through the agency of this book the very name of Dominican became a scorn and a reproach.

At last in the year 1519 Francis von Sickingen put an end to the strife, by definitely assigning to Hochstratten and the brothers of his order one month in which to decide "whether they would for the future wholly discontinue their insolence toward his teacher, Dr. Reuchlin, that aged, discreet, pious and accomplished man,' and make good all the costs of court which had been put upon him; and furthermore, whether they would give him security at once and forever against all further persecutions? If not, then he, Francis von Sickengen, would carry out to the letter the original decree of Spires, pronounced in Reuchlin's favor, that so this 'good old man might spend the remainder of his honorable life in peace.'" The monks paid Reuchlin in full, and he had no more trouble from them. So ended this long strife, and the rather also, because a far more violent warfare had commenced at Wittenberg. Thither, since 1517, had all eyes been directed.

"Praised be God," said Reuchlin, when Luther appeared on the stage; now they have found an opponent who will give them so much to do, that for very weariness they will be forced to leave the old man to his repose." On the other hand, Luther wrote to Reuchlin, in the year 1518: "Thou wast an instrument of the divine purpose. I was one of that number, who desired to aid thee; but there was no opportunity. Yet that which was denied to me as thy comrade, will most richly come to my share as thy successor. The teeth of that Behemoth are fastening upon me, that they may, if possible,

wipe out the disgrace which they have received at thy hands. I go to encounter them with less strength of intellect and less learning than thou hast shown, but with an equally cheerful heart."

But, nevertheless, in the closing years of his life, Reuchlin did not find that settled repose, to which he had looked. For in the year 1519, a war broke out between Duke Ulrich of Wurtemberg, and the Swabian League. Ulrich was sent into exile. Sickingen, who was one of the leaders of the League, protected Reuchlin in Stuttgart. He afterwards went to Ingoldstadt, where, in 1520, he received. from William, Duke of Bavaria, a salary of 200 gold-crowns, and read lectures on Hebrew Grammar, and on the Plutus of Aristophanes, to more than three hundred hearers. But he soon returned to Wurtemberg, where, however, he did not remain, but, went by invitation, to Tubingen, to teach Hebrew and Greek grammar in the university there. In the summer of 1522, he was taken sick, and died on the 30th of June, aged 67.

Reuchlin was a man of an imposing and dignified aspect; says one of his contemporaries, "of senatorial majesty." He was mild in his manners, and in the midst of trouble, anxious and timid.

He and Erasmus were the forerunners of the Reformation, of the schools as well of the church. But each, how different! How worthy appear Reuchlin's life, his labors in his country's behoof, and his holy, earnest love for the church, compared with the unloving, undevout, altogether trifling disposition of Erasmus! Reuchlin's perseverance in learning Hebrew, and the repugnance which Erasmus exhibited toward the very first rudiments of the language, are both characteristic. And to the different traits thus indicated, we may asscribe the aversions of Erasmus to mysticism, and Reuchlin's tendency toward it. This tendency is abundantly manifest in two works of Reuchlin's, namely, the "De verbo mirifico," and the "De arte Cabalistica;" in both of which he evinces a strong, spiritual affinity with Picus di Mirandola. In the dedication of the latter work,-it is addressed to Leo X.,- -Reuchlin says: Marsilius has edited Plato for Italy, John Faber Stapulensis restored Aristotle for France, and I will now make the number complete, and will give to the Germans Pythagoras, whom my labors have re-animated." If Reuchlin erred, it was the error of a mind of great depth and forecast, an error of which Erasmus was wholly incapable. And was not the spirit which stirred in Picus and Reuchlin, when as yet the world was unprepared to receive it,- -was not this spirit destined sooner or later to crown the faithful and manifold labors of their many successors, in a glad and copious harvest?

Toward the conclusion of the work, "De arte Cabalistica," Reuchlin says: "I was the first to restore Greek to Germany, and I too was the first of all to introduce, and to deliver to the church the art and the study of Hebrew.*

As Erasmus prepared the way for the Reformers, by his version of the New Testament, so did Reuchlin by means of his Hebrew labors.

Erasmus, too, undermined the influence of the monks by ridicule. Reuchlin and the Reuchlinists did the same; but, in addition to this, they formed a positive intellectual power, a phalanx of strength, which at Luther's appearance in full spiritual armor, ranged itself under his banner, eager for the contest.t

And while the double minded Erasmus employed all the arts of a subtle sophistry to justify himself toward the Pope, Reuchlin, on the contrary, in the above mentioned dedication, came boldly before Leo X., appealing to the emperor, and to many princes, bishops and cities, to bear witness to his integrity.

RETROSPECT.

The period which we have thus far contemplated, the fifteenth century especially, may be termed a transitional period, looking back to the middle ages, and forward to the present day. For here the elements of ancient and modern times, enter upon a conflict, which, increasing in intensity, at last in the first half of the 16th century, bursts out into full flame.

First in order comes the attack upon the wide-spread corruptions of the church, corruptions which had infected the whole body to the very core. This begins in Italy as early as the fourteenth century, undertaken by Dante, Petrach, and Boccaccio, and extending down to the sixteenth century. But in Italy, alas! no Reformation results therefrom; Savonarola, to be sure, takes a step in that direction, but his aim is defeated.

Germans and Netherlanders too, from the fourteenth century on, are in various modes preparing the way for the Reformation. The Hieronymians lay bare the dissolute lives and deeds of the monks, the mendicant order chiefly, urge reform, and diffuse as far as possible, a knowledge of the Bible among the common people. Wessel observes many deficiencies in the teachings of the church, (being herein a predecessor of Luther);-Erasmus, as we have seen, undermines the

*Reuchlin's lectures upon Greek authors, delivered in 1475, at Basle, were probably the first of the kind. Rudolf Agricola, and Erasmus, together with Reuchlin, were the earliest teachers and disseminators of Greek.

t To Reuchlin's influence alone may we attribute it, that Melancthon went from Tubingen to Wittenberg; and what he did thereby directly toward the Reformation is incalculable.