mes before, and had found it very dull; it was clearly John's duty
to go, as he had not been once in twenty years, although his parish
was only three miles from Heppach. However the breach was healed, and
a proper invitation came for Nicholas; but the business of his
stewardship prevented him from accepting.

The relations with John, the parish priest of Wurtzen, are more
harmonious. There is a frequent exchange of presents, John sending
tools for wood-carving, and crayfish; which seem to have been common
in his neighbourhood, for Nicholas occasionally asks for them. The
only lecture is one passed on from Barbara. John had been created a
chaplain to Maximilian, an honorific title, with few or no duties; and
Barbara had feared that he might neglect the flock in his parish. On
another occasion Nicholas urges him to follow Elizabeth's advice, and
get an unmarried man to be his housekeeper. He had proposed to have a
man with a family; and Elizabeth was afraid for his reputation. John
was a frequent guest at Ottobeuren, and one of Nicholas' invitations
contains what is unusual among the humanists, an appreciation of the
charms of the country: 'Come,' he says, 'and hear the songs of the
birds, the shepherds' pipes and the children's horns, the choruses of
reapers and ploughmen, and the voices of the girls as they work in the
fields.'

By his younger relatives, Ellenbog did his duty unfailingly.
Elizabeth's eldest son, John Gesler, was at school at Memmingen. When
a new schoolmaster was appointed, Ellenbog wrote to bespeak his
interest in the boy, and to suggest the books that he should read:
Donatus' Grammar and the letters of Filelfo. At 14 he persuaded the
parents to send John to Heidelberg, and took a great deal of trouble
in arranging that the boy should be lodged with his own teacher, Peter
of Wimpina. When two years later Elizabeth grew anxious about John's
health and proposed to take him with her to some of the numerous
baths, which then as now abounded in Germany and Switzerland, it was
again Nicholas who made the arrangements; and in 1515, when John had
left Heidelberg, Nicholas proposed to exchange letters with him daily,
in order that he might not forget his Latin. In January 1515
Elizabeth's eldest daughter, Barbara, was married to a certain Conrad
Ankaryte. In December 1530 he writes to one of the nuns at Heppach to
announce that he has persuaded two girls, the children of this
marriage, to embrace the religiou