'AVI ' S T AR R JO R 'AN

'EMOCRAC' mo WORL' RELATI ONS WAR AN' TH E BREE' TH E RELI GI ON OF A SENSI BLE AMERI CAN

TH E STOR' OF A GOO' WOMAN

ULRI CH VON HU TTEN

TH E STOR' OF MATKA

WOR L' B OOK C OM PAN'

' K S -ON - HU 'S NEW ' K ON ER ON. OR

Co ’n ht 19 0 pi g , 3 , by the Beacon Press, I n c . PREF ATOR' NOTE

F or many Of the details of the

f Of H u for o of li e tten , and m st the ’ 'uotations from H utten s writings

n oo w is give in this b k, the riter indebted to the excellent memoir S u by David Friedrich tra ss , enti ' tled von H ut ou h Ulrich ten . 'F rt

E o 'Bo No diti n nn, attempt h as been made to give here an ’ oun of Hutten s w o acc t ritings, nly a few of the m ore noteworthy being o menti ned .

U LRI CH VON H UTTON

Four centuries ago began the great modern struggle for freedom Of thought which has made our modern civilization o p ssible . I wish here to give something of the story of a man who in his day was — n ot the least in this con flict a man wh o dared to think and act for himself when — thought and act were costly Ulrich von

Hutten .

-on — - Near Frankfort the Main, on a sharp pinnacle Of rock above the little

lw of be rai ay station Vollmerz, may still found the scanty ruins Of an old castle which played a brave part in German history before it was destroyed in the

Thirty Years War .

In this castle of Steckelberg, in the

1 488 o Ul von . year , was b rn rich Hutten He was the last Of a long line of H utten s of Steckelberg, strong men who knew not o for o fear, who had f ught the Emper r in all lands whither the imperial eagle had flown , and who, when the empire was 2 ULRICH VON HUTTEN l at peace, had fought right merri y with

their neighbors on all sides . Robber n o or all knights they were, doubt, some of them ; but in those days all was fair in An d n love and in war . this li e of war

riors centered in Ulr ich von Hutten, and “ with him it ended . The wild kindred ' has gone out with this its greatest .

Ulrich was the eldest son, and bore his ’ father s name But he was not the son

for which his father had hoped . Slender

of statII re Of figure , short , and weak of l limb, U rich seemed unworthy Of his

burly ancestry . The horse , the sword,

and the lute were not for him . He tried

hard to master them, and to succeed in all

things worthy Of a knight . But he was

strong only with his books . At last to his books his father consigned him, and, o s rely disappointed, he sent Ulrich to the o o m nastery f Fulda to be made a priest . A E itelwolf be wise man , von Stein, came his friend, and disclosed to him a Of o life braver than that a priest, n bler n — than that Of a k ight , the lift Of a ’ H utten s E itelw scholar. To father olf ULRICH VON HUTTEN 3 wrote ' Would you bury a genius like that in the Cloister ? He must be a man ' Of letters . But the father had decided

. Ul once for all rich must be a priest , else he must never return to Steckelberg . And the son took his fate in his own hands . He renounced the priesthood as he had been forced to renounce knight

oo . fled o to h d He fr m Fulda, make his — way as a scholar in the world a world o in which, in th se days as in most others, scholarship received scanty recognition . o o At the same time , an ther y ung man whose history was to be interwoven with own fled o his , Martin Luther, fr m the turbulence and deceit of this same world to the solitude Of the monastery Of E r ff e furth . By very di er nt paths they o came at last to w rk in the same cause, and their methods Of action were not less different . TO the U niversity of Cologne Hutten of went , and with the students that day he was trained in the mysteries of schol asticism, and in the Latin Of the school ul o men and the priests . Wonderf pr b 4 ULRICH VON HUTTEN lems they pondered over, and they used to write lon g arguments in Latin for or against propositions which came nowhere o within the domain of fact . That sch l i oo to arsh p st d related reality, and that it must fin d its end and justification in of action, was no part Of the philosophy those times . But Hutten and his friends cared little for scholastic puzzles, and they gave themselves to the study Of the beauties of Latin poetry and to the new ly Opened mine of the literature of Greece. They delighted in Virgil and Lucian and s still more in Homer and Ae chl s. The Turks had conquered Constanti n o le p , and the fall of the Greek Empire had driven many learned Greeks to the west of Europe . There some of the o scholars received them with pen arms, and eagerly learned from them to read Homer and Aristotle in the original o t ngue, and the New Testament also . Those wh o followed these studies came to n n be k ow as Humanists . But most Of the universities and the monasteries .in ULRICH VON HUTTEN 5

Germany looked upon this revival Of Greek culture as pernicious and an tich r is tian . Poetry they despised . The Latin o Vulgate met their religi us needs, and Greek was to them only another name for

Paganism . The party name of Obscur autists was given to w these, and this name has remained ith them on the records Of history . ’ I n the letters Of on e of H utten s com fin d o o Of rades we this c nfessi n faith , which is interesting as expressing the feelings of young men of that time

on e G od There is but , but he has many o — u SO' f rms , and many names J piter, , o Apoll , Moses, Christ, Luna, Ceres, Pro

ser in e . p , Tellus, Mary But be careful o how you say that . One must discl se these things in secret like Eleusinian mysteries I n matters Of religion you must use the cover Of fables and riddles . ’ 'on with Ju iter s race , p g 'that is, the can grace Of the best and greatest god) , n c desp ise the lesser g ods in sile e. When

I say Jupiter, I mean Christ and the true

G od. The coat and the beard and the 6 ULRI CH VON HU TTEN

bones Of Christ I worship not . I worship God n or the living , who wears no coat ' beard, and left no bones upon the earth . to o Hutten wished know the w rld, not o o to from b oks nly, but see all cities and lands ; to measure himself with other men ; to rise above those less worthy . The danger Of such a course seemed to him o nly the greater attraction . Content to ’ him was laziness ; love Of home but a dog s “

fir e . delight in a warm I live , he said, “ in n o place rather than another ; my ' home is everywhere . SO he tramped through Northern Ger i many n most sorry fashion . I n his ow n Of mind he was a scholar, a poet, a knight the noblest blood of Germany ; to others he was a little sickly and forlorn vagrant . o of o Never str ng b dy, he was stricken by a miserable disease which filled his life with a succession of attacks of fever . He was shipwrecked on the Baltic Sea, sick

e and wretch d in Pomerania, and at last he was received in charity in the house of o Of law Henning L tz, professor at Greif

esw ald. U LRI CH VON HU TTEN 7 This action has given Lotz ’ s name im m ortality, for it is associated with the first of those fiery poems of Hutten which, in their way, are unique in litera ture . F or Hutten was restless and o pr ud, and was not to be content with bread and butter and a new suit Of o a cl thes . His independence was disp le s to o wh o fin l ing the pr fessor, a ly, in utter out of disgust, turned Hutten doors in o midwin ter. When the b y had tramped awhile in storm and slush, two servants

' Of Lotz overtook him on the road and robbed him Of his money and clothing . In a most forlorn plight he reached a

in o Mecklen ber . little inn R stock, in g Here the professors in the university him o received kindly, and made provisi n o for his needs . Then he let l ose the fury

f on o . Of his youth ul anger L tz As ever, o his poetic genius r se with his wrath, and the more furious his temper the greater his force as a poet . Tw o o n v lumes he published, ri ging the changes of his contempt and hatred Of LOtz , at the same time praising the vir 8 ULRICH VON HUTTEN

tues Of those wh o had found in him a kin “ n Of dred spirit . A k ight Of the order ' H u poets he styles himself, and to all “ — an ists m , to the fellow feeling among free spirits ' '“ Gemeingeist unter freien ' Geistern ) he appeals for sympathy in ' his struggle with Lotz .

He had, indeed, not found a foeman n worthy of his steel, but he had show what a finely tempered blade he bore . In later times he found more worthy adver saries n , and his steel had eed Of all its sharpness and temper. But it never failed him to the last .

Meanwhile he wandered to Vienna, giving lectures there on the art of poetry. But poetry was abhorred by the school w men every here, and the students of the university were forbidden to attend his lectures . He then went to Italy. Wh en u he reached Pavia, he fo nd the city in Of o h os the midst a siege, surr unded by a tile French army . He fell ill Of a fever, m for com and giving hi self up dead, he for posed the famous epitaph himself, of which I give a rough translation ' ULRICH VON HUTTEN 9

o of - o u H ere , als be it said, a life ill f rt ne is ended ; By evil pursued on th e water ; beset by wrong

upon land .

’ H l H utten s o wh o o o ere ie b nes ; he , had d ne n th

w o ul ing r ngf , Was wickedly robbed Of his life by the sword

’ in a Frenchman s hand .

B ou u u y Fate, decided that he sh ld see nl cky days only ; Decided that even these days could never be many or long ;

H o oo emmed in by danger and death , he f rs k

n ot u serving the m ses ,

An d w l ou as e l as he c ld, he rendered this ser

vice in song .

’ The Frenchman s sword did not rob ’ m o him Of life . The French an s hand t ok

his money, which was not much, and

again sent him adrift . He now set his pen to writing epigrams on the Emperor o W f Germany, herein Maximilian was compared to the eagle which should de

vour the frogs in the swamps of Venice . Meanwhile he enlisted as a common sol ’ dier in Maximilian s army . 1 0 ULRICH VON HUTTEN

In Italy the abuses of the Papacy at ffi of tracted his attention . O cials the Church were then engaged in extending a the demand for indulgences . The l “ leg ed sale of pardons straight from o R me, all hot, was becoming a scandal o in Christendom . All this r used the who wrath Of Hutten, attacked the Pope himself in his songs

H eaven n ow stands for a price to be peddled

o and s ld,

ut W n ew o ou flat B hat f lly is this, as th gh the of H eaven

N w war eeded an earthly itness , an earthly rant and seal '

o o More pr sperous times f llowed, and fin d o we Hutten honored as a p et, living

in the court of the Archbishop Of Mainz . o At this time a c usin, Hans Hutten, a young man Of great courage and prom k of Ul ise, was a night in the service rich ,

Duke of Wiirtemberg . He was a favor of o ite the Duke, and he and his y ung wife were the life of the Wiir tember g U o court . Duke lrich nce came to Hans ULRICH VON HUTTEN 1 1

' Hutten and threw himself at his feet, o O begging that he sh uld cast ff his wife, o o wh m he l ved , that she might be the mis an tress of the Duke . Hans Hutten sw er ed the Duke as a brave man should, and the Duke arose with murder in his

' heart . Afterward , when they were hunt oo ing in a w d, he stabbed Hans Hutten in the back with his sword . All this came to the ear of U lrich Hut

n . o for o o ten i Mainz L ve his c usin, l ve

o for for his name and family, l ve free dom u and tr th, all urged him to avenge the murdered Hans . The wrongs the boy had suffered from the coarse - hearted Professor LOtz became as nothing beside this great crime again st the H utten s and against manhood . o In all the hist ry of invective, there is ’ nothing more fierce than H utten s ap e peal against Duke Ulr ich . In fiv dif fer en t pamphlets his crime was des cribed o to the German pe ple and all good men, o on from the Emper r down, were called to help him in his struggle against the

Duke of Wurtember g . 1 2 ULRI CH VON HUTTEN

ou o I envy y y ur fame, you mur ' “

o . derer, he wr te A year will be named

for ou off y , and there shall be a day set l for ou. y Future generations shal read,

or wh o o f those are b rn this year, that they were born in the year stained by the

in effaceable shame of Germany . 'ou

o o d . will c me into the calendar, sc un rel 'ou w ill enrich history Your deed is ou immortal, and y will be remembered in o am all future time . You have had y ur '

ou ou . biti , and y shall never be forgot o This struggle lasted l ng Finally, o after many appeals, the German n bles o r se in arms and besieged Stuttgart , and Duke Ulrich was driven from the land he had disgraced . m Again Hutten visited Italy, this ti e after a partial reconciliation with his fa to ther, who would overlook his failure become a priest if he would study law at

Rome . At about the same time Luther fi visited Rome . He came , at rst, in a Of b spirit hum le reverence ; but, at last, “ he wrote in fierce indig nation ' Wenn e s oll o gibt eine H e, R ma ist darauf

1 4 ULRICH VON HUTTEN

hi -five At t s time, at the age Of twenty ,

Hutten is described as a small, thin man, of homely features, with blonde hair and black beard . His pale face wore a se vere, almost wild, expression . His speech was sharp , Often terrible . Yet with those whom he loved and respected his voice had a frank and winning charm . He had

but . few friends , but they were fast ones o so o His pers nal character, far as rec rds go, was singularly pure , and not often in his writings does he strike a coarse or unclean note .

In these days, the two most learned men in Germany were Erasmus and o u Reuchlin . They were leaders f the H an ists l m , skil ed in Greek and even in l the Hebrew tongue, and were ca led by ' Hutten the tw o eyes Of Germany . A ff wh o be Jew named Pfe erkorn , had o o to c me c nverted Christianity, was filled with an unholy zeal ag ainst his fel

- w n ot n low Je s who had bee converted . Am ong other things , he asked an edict from the Emperor that all Jewish books o in Germany should be destr yed . R euch ULRICH VON HU TTEN 15

lin was a Hebrew scholar. He had writ a w m ten Hebre gra mar, and was learned in th e the Old Testament, as well as in Talmud and other deposits of the an cient lore of the rabbis . The Emperor ’ referred Pfefferkorn s request to Reuch o lin f r his Opinion . Reuchlin decided that there was no valid reason for the de s truction of any Of the ancient Jewish w n o riti gs, and only Of such modern nes as might be decided by competent schol ars to be hostile to Christianity. This enraged Pfefferkorn and his Oh scur an tist associates Pamphlets were written denouncing Reuchlin, and these were duly answered. A general war Of words between the Humanists and Oh t i scuran tis s began, wh ch , in time, came before the Pope an d the Emperor. Reuchlin was regarded in those days as a man of unusual calmness and dig nity . o Next to Erasmus, he was the m st u learned scholar in Europe . He wo ld never condescend in his controversies to the coarse terms used by his adversaries . We may learn something of the temper 1 6 ULRICH VON HU TTEN

e of the times by Observing that , in a singl o pamphlet , as qu ted by Strauss , the epithets that the dignified Reuchlin ap “ plies to Pfefferkorn are ' A poisonous “ ' a beast , a scarecrow, a horror, ' “ ' “ ' “ ' do o mad g , a h rse , a mule, a hog, “ ' ' a fox, a raging wolf, a Syrian ' “ ' “ '

. I n lion, a Cerberus, a fury of hell this matter Reuchlin was finally trium o phant . This triumph was l udly cele br ated by his friend Hutten in another o e p em, in which the Obscurantists wer

mercilessly attacked . ’ We have seen with H utten s growth a gradual increase in the importance of those to whom he declared himself an

enemy . He began as a boy with the Oh ' scure Professor Lotz . He ended with Of the Pope Rome. At this time Reuchlin published a vol “ ume called Epistolae Clarorum Vir ' “ orum letters Of illustrious It was made up Of letters written by the va rious of o to learned men Eur pe Reuchlin ,

in sympathy with him in his struggle . The title Of this work gave the keynote ULRICH VON HU TTEN 1 7 to a series Of letters called Epistolae Obscurorum Viror' I m letters Of Ob ' — h of scure men ) t at is , Obscurantists . ff These letters, written by di erent per sons but largely by Hutten, are the most all of remarkable Of satires that time .

They are a series Of imaginary epistles, supposed to be addressed by various Oh scuran tists to o r a p et named O tuin us .

They are written with consummate skill, in the degenerate Latin used by the o priests in th se days , and are made to ex b o ibit all the secret meanness , ign rance, n d a perversity of their supposed writers . “ The first of these epistles Of the Ob scure men were eagerly read by their supposed associates, the Obscurantists .

Here were men who felt as they felt, and who were n ot afraid to speak . The mendi cant friars in England had a day of r e

oicin n i j g , and a Domi can friar in Flan ders bought all the copies of th e letters he could fin d to present to his bishop . But in time even the dullest began to fell the severity of the satire . The last Of these letters formed the most telling 1 8 ULRICH VON HU TTEN

blows ever dealt at the schoohn en by the on e of men of learning. In the earlier fin d o letters we this questi n, which may serve as a type of many others

A man ate an egg, in which a chicken u of was j st beginning to form, ignorant that fact, and forgetting that it was Fri

day . A friend consoles him by saying that a chicken in that stage counts for no o m re than worms in cheese or in cherries , and these can be eaten even in fasting

i . w o t me But the riter is n t satisfied . h Worms, he has been told by a p ysician , who was also a great naturalist, are reck on ed fi on e on as shes, which can eat fast

. a days But with ll this, he fears that a young chicken may be really forbidden o o fo d, and he asks the help f the poet rtuin us O to a righteous decision . Another person writes to Ortuin us There is a new book much talked Of here, and, as you are a poet, you can do us a good service by telling us of it . A notary told me that this book is the well

of o an d o e spring p etry, that its auth r, on o of H mer, is the father all poets . An d ULRICH VON HU TTEN 1 9

he said there is another Homer in Greek. ' of ? I said, What is the use the Greek ’ The Latin is much better . And I asked, ' ’ What is contained in the book ? And he said it treats of certain people who are ll ca ed Greeks, who carried on a war with some others called Trojans . And these Tro j ans had a great city, and those Greeks besieged it and stayed there ten An o years . d the Tr jans came out and fought them till the whole plain was cov ered with blood and quite red. And they in on e of heard the noise heaven, and them threw a stone which twelve men oul a c d not lift, and a horse began to t lk ’ and utte r prophecies . But I can t believe that, because it seems impossible , and the book seems to me n ot to be authentic. I ' pray you give me your Opinion . Another relates the story Of his Visit ' to Reuchlin ' When I came into his ' m house, Reuchlin said, Welco e, bach ’ e lor ; seat yourself. And he had a pair ' ’ Of spectacles 'unum Brillum) on his nose, and a book before him curiously written, and I saw at once that it was 20 ULRICH VON HU TTEN

or neither in German n Bohemian, nor yet ' An d in Latin . I said to him, Respected ? ’ Doctor, what do they call that book ' He answered, It is called the Greek Plu ’

of . tarch , and it treats philosophy And ' o Of con I said, Read s me it , for it must ’ tain wonderful things . Then I saw a w little book, ne ly printed, lying on the ' fl 'oc oor, and I said to him, Respected ’ ' tor ? is , what lies there He answered, It o a contr versial book, which a friend in

Cologne sent me lately. It is written against me . The theologians in Cologne o have printed it, and they say that J hann ’

ff o . Pfe erk rn wrote it And I said, ' What will you do about it ? Will you ’ n ot vindicate yourself ? And he an ' swer ed . , Certainly not I have been vin dicated o n o l ng ago, and can spend time on too these follies . My eyes are weak for me to waste their strength on matters ’ which are n ot useful . We next fin d Hutten high in the favor Of o i i o the Emper r Maxim l an , by wh se order he was crowned poet - laureate Of of Germany. The wreath laurel was

22 ULRICH VON HU TTEN

too much . For riches I do not seek ; and

for o e o as blo d and birth, she is alr ady n ble ' to whom Hutten gives his hand . — A young woman Cun ig un de Glau — burg was found, and she seemed to meet o all requirements . But the m ther of the bride was n ot pleased with the arrange “ ' ment . Hutten was a dangerous man , “ ' “

o . she said, a revoluti nist I hope, “ o said Hutten, that when she c mes to fin know me, and ds in me nothing rest o less, n thing mutinous , my studies full of o w o o hum r and wit, she ill lo k m re kindly on me . To a brother of Cun i “ gunde he writes ' Hutten has not con o quered many cities, like s me Of these

- o iron eaters, but thr ugh many lands has e w o wand red ith the fame f his name . He n ot o has slain his th usands , like those, o but may be n ne the less loved for that . He does n ot stalk about on yard- long n -bo n or o fi shi nes, d es his gigantic gur e frighten travelers ; but in strength of s pirit he yields to none . He does n ot w o of glo with the splend r beauty, but he dares flatter himself that his soul is ULRICH VON HU TTEN 23

of . n o bi worthy love He does t talk g , n or swell himself with boasting, but i s mply, Openly, honestly acts and speaks . But all his wooin g came to naught ; Cun i un de another man wedded the fair g , and the coming storm Of Romish wrath left Hutten no Opportunity to turn his attention elsewhere . old n ow on e The Pope was dead , and of l of the famous fami y Medici , in Flor ence, had succeeded him as Leo the

Tenth . Leo was kindly disposed toward m di the Hu anist stu es , and Hutten , as o of to p et the Humanists, addressed him directly a remarkable appeal, which made

- for the turning point in his life, it placed him Open ly among among those who r e sisted the Pope . Recounting to the new Pope Leo all the usurpations which in his judgment on e on e h ad been made, by , by his prede — cessor s all the robberies, impositions , i and abuses of the Papacy, from the t me —h e L eo of Constantine down appeals to , to e as a wise man and a scholar, restor 24 ULRICH VON HU TTEN

o stolen power and property, to c rrect all to o abuses, aband n all temporal power, and become once mor e the simple Bishop “ of Rome F or there can never be peace between the robber and the robbed till ' the stolen goods are returned . N ow fi , for the rst time, the work Of ’ Luther came to H utten s attention . The disturbances at Wittenberg were in the beginning treated by all as a mere squab o L eo ble of the monks . T the Tenth this discussion had n o further interest than “ ' n this Brother Marti , being a scholar,

o o . was m st pr bably right To Hutten, o who cared n thing for doctrinal points, it had n o significance ; the more monkish —“ strifes the better the sooner would the ' enemies eat each other up . But n ow Hutten came to recogniz e in o Luther the apostle f freedom of thought, and in that struggle Of the Reformation he found a nobler cause than that Of the

H uman istsu in Luther a greater than

Reuchlin . And Hutten never did things by halves . He entered into the warfare 520 heart and soul . In 1 he published his ULRICH VON HU TTEN 25

Roman Trinity, his gage of battle against Rome . n ow He , like Luther, began to draw his inspiration, as well as his language, not from the classics, but from the New

Testament . A new motto he took for m on e o hi self, which was hencef rth ever on i n his l ps, and which appears agai and “ again in his later writings ' Jacta est ' or alea the die is , in the o str nger German, in which he more Often “ ’ ' “ gave it, Ich hab s gewagt 'I have dared it '

Auf dasz ichs nit an h eb umsun st

Wolauf wir Go Gu , haben ttes nst ; Wer wollt in solchem bleiben dh eim? Ich hab’ s gewagt 'das ist mein Reim '

r Ossern S Der niemand g chaden bringt , Dann mir als n ooch die Sach gelingt

Go un d W Dahin mich tt ahrheit bringt , ’ w Ich hab s ge agt.

u u O SO breche ich hind rch , d rch breche ich, der l ich fal e,

fen d l wo Kamp , nach dem ich einma ge rfen das Loos ' 26 ULRICH VON HU TTEN

die 'SO break I through the ranks else I fig htin g

o o Fighting, since nce and f rever the die I have cast ')

In this motto we have the keynote to his fiery and earnest nature . Convinced o that a cause was right , he knew no b unds of caution or policy ; he feared no prison “ ' or death . I have dared it ' “ To all free men Of Germany he “ speaks . Their tyranny will not last for U ever ; nless all signs deceive me, their — power is soon to fail for alr eady is the oo axe laid at the r t of the tree, and that tree which bears not good fruit will be

Of o rooted out , and the vineyard the L rd

will be purified . That you shall not on ly o oo o h pe , but s n see with y ur eyes . Mean of ou while, be good cheer, y men of Ger

. Not n ot o many weak, untried, are y ur fo leaders in the struggle r freedom . Be n ot afraid, neither weaken in the midst of

the battle, for broken at last is the for strength Of the enemy, the cause is o righte us, and the rage Of tyrann y is al ULRICH VON HU TTEN 27

ready at its height . Courage, and fare well ' Long live freedom ' I have dared ' “ ’ it ' 'Lebe die Freiheit ; ich hab s gewagt . Warnings and threats innumerable to came Hutten, from enemies who feared and hated, from friends who were fear ful and tremblin g ; but he never flin ch ed. “ ' u He had dared it . The bull Of excomm mication frightened him no more than it did Luther . But at last he was compelled o to retire from the cities , and he to k up o Of his ab de in the Castle Ebernburg, i with Franz von Sick ngen . Franz von Sicken g en was on e of the o great n bles Of Germany, and he ruled over the region in the bend Of the Rhine between Worms and Bing en . His was n o e of the bravest characters Of that time . i A knight Of the h ghest order, he became of on a disciple Hutten and Luther, and his help was the greatest reliance placed by the friends Of the growing reform .

o of on His str ng Castle Ebernburg, the l i hil s above B ngen, was the refuge Of all who were persecuted by the authorities . 28 ULRICH VON HU TTEN

The Inn of Righteousness Herberge ' von Gerechtigkeit ) the Ebernburg was

called by Hutten . The Humanists who had stood with Hutten in the struggle between Reuchlin and Pfefferkorn saw with growing con cern the gradual transfer Of the field Of battle from questions of literature to

of o . h questions religi n Reuc lin, growing

Old and weak, wrote a letter, disavowing any sympathy with the new uprisings against the time-honored authority of the ’ Church . This letter came into H utten s

hands, and, with all his reverence for his old n ot friend and master, he could keep silence . “ E o ' h e ternal g ds writes, what do I see ? Have you sunk so deep in weak

ness and fear, 0 Reuchlin 'that you can n ot endure blame even for those wh o have fought for you in time Of danger ? Through such shameful subservience do ou o to y hope to reconcile th se whom, if ou ou y were a man, y would never give a so friendly greeting, badly have they ? treated you Yet reconcile them ; and if

30 ULRICH VON HU TTEN

for Bayard Taylor has said, counts more than the combined scholarship of a hun dred men learned in the Greek and H e “ of on e brew . The clear insight prophet is better than the average judgment Of ' - h forty seven scribes . T e German lan

guage was then struggling into existence, and scholars considered it beneath their fix o a notice . It was ed f r ll time by ’ Luther s Bible . Luther Often spent a week on a single verse to fin d and fix the to ow idiomatic German . It is easy pl ' “

fi . when the eld is cleared, he said We must n ot ask the letters of the Latin al h abet to but p how speak German, the mother in the kitchen and the plowman fi o in the eld , that they may kn w that the n Bible is speaking German, and speaki g ' of of to them . Out the abundance the ’ heart the mouth speaketh . N O German peasant would understand that . We ' must make it plain to him . Wess das ’

o iiber . Herz v ll ist , dess geht der Mund ' o 'Wh se heart is full, his mouth runs

on The same influence acted Hutten . ULRICH VON HU TTEN 3 1 All his previous writings were in Latin, and were directed to scholars only . Henceforth he wrote the language of the to Fatherland, and his appeals the people were in language which the people could o an d did read . N o Ref rmation ever came while only the learned and the noble were in the secret of it .

L vor r atein , ich gesch ieben hab Das war ein jeden nicht bekannt ;

Jetzt V schrei ich an das aterland, T eutsch Nation in ihrer Sprach

Zu bringen diesen Dingen Rach .

F or L w o o ' atin r te I hithert ,

W o o o n ot o hich c mm n pe ple did kn w.

Now to a cry I the Fatherl nd,

Th e o o German pe ple , in their t ngue,

to for w o Redress bring all these r ngs .

A song for the people he now wrote, “ ' e o Of Ul von th New S ng rich Hutten, ’ “ a song which stands w ith Luther s Ein ' feste Burg in the history of the Reform ation 82 ULRICH VON HU TTEN

’ w S Ich hab s ge agt mit innen,

Un d trag des noch kein Reu,

a w M g ich nit dran ge innen,

u s Noch m ss man piiren Treu.

Darmit ich mein

it eim M allen, Wenn Man es wolt erkennen Dem Land zu g ut Wiewol man thut

faffen fein d E in P mich nennen . Part of this may be freely translated

W O ith pen eyes I have dared it ,

An d n o cherish regret,

An d ou l to o u th gh I fai c n' er, w ' The truth is ith me yet .

’ H utten s dream in these days was of a u of leag e nobles, cities and people, aided by the Emperor if possible, again st the

Emperor if necessary, which should by force of arms forever free Germany from the rule of the Pope . Luther had little “ faith in the power Of force . What Hut “ i ou ten w shes, he wrote to a friend, y n ot see. But I do wish to strive for the ULRICH VON HU TTEN 33

Gospel with murder and violence . Through the power Of the Word is the world subdued ; thr ough the Word the

Church shall be preserved and freed . Even Antichrist shall be destroyed by the of power the Word.

Now came the great Diet at Worms, whither Luther was called before the Em p eror to answer for his heretical teach n o fir i gs, and before which he st od m and o fi n undaunted, a n ble gure which has bee “ a turn in g point in history . Here I stand . ' I can do nothin g else . God help me . on - Hutten, his sick bed at Ebernburg, n ot ull of far away, was f wrath at the “ '' trial Of Luther . Away he shouted, “ n fi away from the clear fountai s, ye lthy ' r swine Out Of the sanctua y, ye accursed peddlers 'Touch n o longer the altar with your desecratin g hands . What have ye to l do with the a ms Of our fathers , which were given for the poor and the Church, and you spend for splendor, pomp, and ff for foolery, while the children su er bread ? See you not that the win d Of Free “ dom is blowing ? 'Sebet ihr nicht dass 3 4 ULRICH VON HU TTEN die Luft der Freiheit On two men n ot much depends . Know that there

H utten s . are many Luthers, many here

Should either Of us be destroyed, still greater is the danger that awaits you ; for n then, with those battli g for freedom, the avengers Of innocence will make common ' cause.

I have wished, in writing this little u ’ sketch, that I co ld have a novelist s priv ilege Of brin gin g out my hero happily at t the end . I have hither o had the strug gles of a man living before his time to relate ; the voice of on e crying in the wild

ern ess. n If this were a roma ce, I might ’ how H utten s an d tell , with entreaties ’ Luther s exhortations, and under the wise z management of Fran von Sickingen, the people banded together against o i foreign f es and foreign dom nation, and

German unity, German freedom, and religious liberty were forever established in the Fatherland . But, alas 'the history does not run in that way ; at least n ot till a hundred years of war had bathed the land in blood . ULRICH VON HUTTEN 35

F or Hutten henceforth I have on ly misery and failure to relate . The union Of knights and cities resulted in a ruinous campaign Of Franz von Sickingen ’ ckin against Treves . Si g en s army was driven back by the Elector. His strong Castle Of Landstuhl was besieg ed by the o n Cath lic princes, and can on was used in r fir this siege fo the st time in history.

of h -five The walls Landstu l, twenty feet t o hick, were battered d wn , and Sickingen himself was killed by the falling of a

. n beam The war was over, and nothi g worthy had been accomplished . When Luther heard Of the death Of “ n o ' Sicki gen, he wr te to a friend Yes ter day I heard and read of Franz von ’ i od S ckin g en s true and sad story. G is a ickin righteous but marveloii s Judge . S ’ gen s fall seems to be a verdict of the Lord that strengthens me in the belief that the force Of arms is to be kept far from mat ters Of the Gospel . Hutten was driven from the Ebern ff burg . He was O ered high rank in the service Of the King of France ; but, as a 8 6 ULRICH VON HU TTEN

fled true German, he refused it, and , penniless and sick, to Basle, in Switzer land .

Here the great Humanist, Erasmus , all reigned supreme . Erasmus disavowed sympathy with his former friend and fel l low student . He cal ed Hutten a dan erou g s and turbulent man, and warned the Swiss against him . Erasmus had wi who noticed, th horror, in those had n fl studied Greek, that the i uence Of Lutheranism was fatal to learning ; that zeal for philology decreased as zeal for re

i i . u i lig on ncreased Already Erasm s, l ke on of Reuchlin, was ranged the side the

. SO Pope , in letters and pamphlets, Erasmus attacked Hutten ; and the poet was not slow in giving as good as he r e An ceived. d this war between the Hum an ist and the Reformer gave great joy to the Obscurantists, who feared and hated them both . “ Humanism, says Strauss, was

- - broad minded but faint hearted, and in

' none is this better seen than in Erasmus . o Luther was a narr wer man, but his um

38 ULRICH VON HU TTEN

Ul von di and with disease, rich Hutten ed “ - 523 five. in 1 , at the age Of thirty He ' n left behind him, wrote Zwi gli , noth o ing of worth . B oks he had none ; no of o money, and no property any s rt, ex ' cept a pen .

What was the value of this short and troubled life ? Three hundr ed years ago it was ea—sy to answer with Erasmus and th e rest Nothing . Hutten had de n oun ced the Pope, and the Pope had crushed him. He had stirred up noble o men t battle for freedom, and they, too, had been destroyed . Franz von Sick ingen was dead. The league Of the. cities and princes had faded away forever.

Luther was hidden in the Wartburg, no on e n k ew where, and scarcely a trace of the Reformation was left in Germany. Whatever Hutten had touched he had “ ' ruined . He had dared it, and the force fi he had de ed had crushed him in return .

But, looking back over these centuries, the life Of Hutten rises into higher prom in en ce . His writings were seed in good ULRICH VON HU TTEN 39 ground . At his death the Reformation seemed hopeless . Six years later, at the of second Diet Spires, half Germany signed the protest which made us Protes tants . It was Luther alone who said no at the Diet of Worms . It was princes o and pe ple , cities and churches, who said ' n o at the Diet Of Spires . ’ H utten s dream Of a U n ited German people freed from the yoke of Rome was for thr ee hundred years unrealized . F or the Reformation sundered the German people and ruined the German Empire, and n ot till our day has German unity o come to pass . But, as later ref rmers “ said, It is better that Germany should be half German, than that it should be all

Roman . F or the true meanin g of this conflict does n ot lie in any question of church e against church or creed against cr ed , n or that worship in cathedrals with altars and incense and rich ceremony should give way to the simpler forms of the

Lutheran litany. The issue was that “ Of the growth of man . The right of 40 ULRICH VON HU TTEN private interpretation' is the recognition

of personal individuality. of The death Hutten was, after all, not

un timely. He had done his work . His was the voice of on e crying in the wild ' of o erness . The head J hn the Baptist lay on the charger before Jesus had ful

fi i . r lled his m ssion Arnold Winkel ied, at fi o Sempach, lled his b dy with Austrian spears before the Austrian phalanx was ’ o broken . John Br wn fell at Harper s Ferry before a blow was struck against slavery. Ulrich von Hutten had set every man, woman and child in Germany to thin king Of his relations to the Lord and to the Pope . His mission was com leted p ; and longer life for him, as i Strauss has suggested , m ght have led to di scord among the Reformers themselves . F or this lover of freedom was in toler ant of intolerance . F or fin e points Of o o doctrine he had nly c ntempt . When the Lutherans began to treat as enemies all Reformers who did n ot with them sub to o f of scribe the C n ession Augsburg, ’ H utten s fiery pen would have repudiated ULRICH VON HU TTEN 41

o this c nfession . F or he fought for free dom or of the spirit, not f the Lutheran confession .

Had he remained in Switzerland, he would have been still less in harmony with the prevailing conditions . Not long after, Zwingli was slain in the wretched Of K battle appel, and, after him, the Swiss Reformation passed under the control Of

John Calvin . There can be n o doubt that the stern pietist Of Geneva would have burned U lrich von Hutten with as calm a

n co cien ce as he did Michael Servetus . Th e idea Of a united and uniform or Church, whether Catholic, Lutheran, v for Cal inist, had little attraction Hut on e Of fir ten . He was the st to realize

o . that religion is individual, not c llective o n ot w It is c ncerned with life, ith creeds

o . or cerem nies In the high sense, no man can follow or share the religion Of an it other. His religion, whatever may be , is his ow n . It is built up from his own thoug hts and prayers and actions . It is the e xpression of his own ideals . Only forms can be transferred unchanged from man 42 ULRICH VON HU TTEN

o to to man, fr m generation generation, o never realities . For whatever is real t a Of him man becomes part , and partakes Of o fi s o his gr wth, and is modi ed by hi pers n

ality. on Hutten was buried where he died, of U fn au the little island , in the Lake of o of Zurich , at the f ot the mighty Alps . And some Of his Old associates put over o his grave a c mmemorative stone . Af terwards of , the monks the abbey Of Schw tz t Einsiedeln, in y , came to he o o island and rem ved the st ne, and obliter ated all traces Of the grave . It was well that they did so ; for n ow th e whole green island Of Ufn au is his o alone , and it is his w rthy sepulcher .