l was Prof. Arnold von Tungern, dean of the theological
faculty at the University of Cologne. This gentleman had just
been mentioned with the greatest aversion at the table he was now
approaching, and his arrogant manner did little to lessen it.

Nevertheless, his position compelled the Nuremberg dignitaries to invite
him to share their meal, which was now drawing to a close. The Cologne
theologian accepted the courtesy with a patronizing gesture, as if it
were a matter of course. Nay, after he had taken his seat, he ordered
the landlord, as if he were the master, to see that this and that thing
in the kitchen was not forgotten.

Unwelcome as his presence doubtless was to his table companions, as
sympathizers with Reuchlin and other innovators, well as he doubtless
remembered their scornful attacks upon his Latin--he was a man to
maintain his place. So, with boastful self-conceit, allowing no one else
an opportunity to speak, he at once began to complain of the fatigues
of the journey and to mention, with tiresome detail, the eminent persons
whom he had met and who had treated him like a valued friend. The vein
on the little doctor's high forehead swelled with wrath as he listened
to this boastful chatter, which did not cease until the first dish was
served. To brave him, Eberbach turned the conversation to humanism, its
redeeming power over minds, and its despicable foes. His scornful jests
buzzed around his enemy like a swarm of gnats; but Arnold von Tungern
pretended not to hear them. Only now and then a tremor of the mouth,
as he slowly chewed his food, or a slight raising of the eye-brows,
betrayed that one shaft or another had not wholly missed its mark.

The older gentlemen had sometimes interrupted the Thuringian, to try to
change the conversation, but always in vain, and the guest from Cologne
vouchsafed them only curt, dry answers.

Not until a pause occurred between two courses did von Tungern alter
his manner. Then, like an inquisitor who has succeeded in convicting the
person accused, he leaned back in his chair with a satisfied, long-drawn
"So-o," wiped his moist chin, and began:

"You have showed me your state of mind plainly enough, my young Herr
Doctor. Your name is Eberbach, if I am not mistaken. We will remember it
at a fitting opportunity. But, pugnaciously as your loud voice summons
to the strife, it will never destroy the sacred and venerable things
which are worthy to endure. Thanks to the fou