'Rather
so.' He replied, 'Sic satis.' Some time after, three students, sons of
gentlemen, came from Wittenberg to see our town. They had been
recommended to the hospitality of the burgomaster, Herr Nicholas
Smiterlow, who was desirous to entertain them well and have good society
for them. As he had three grown-up daughters, my sister Catherine was
invited among other guests. The students exchanged all kinds of jokes
with the maidens, and as young fellows are wont to do also said things
to one another in Latin that it would not have been seemly to say before
maidens in German. At last one said to the other, 'Profecto formosa
puella,' whereupon, my sister answered, 'Sic satis,' Then the students
were much afraid, fancying she had also understood their former amatory
talk."

Enthusiasm for the "New Learning" quickly spread among German women of
the higher class. Among the princesses, Matilda of the Palatinate was
especially famed for her love of learning. She was a generous patron of
the fine arts, and, a rarer trait among humanistic scholars, she was
also an admirer of the literature of her fatherland. She made a
collection of ninety-four works on the old court poetry, and delighted
in the national folk songs orally preserved. Matilda encouraged the
poets of her court to write poetry after the ancient methods. She
ordered many valuable works translated into German. Through her
influence the university of Tubingen, in Wurtemberg was established.

The "New Learning" stole into the convents and made many proselytes
among the nuns. Aleydis Raiskop, of Goch, to whom Butzbach dedicated a
book, was renowned for her classical scholarship. She composed seven
homilies on Saint Paul and translated a work on the mass from Latin into
German. In the same convent with Aleydis lived an artist nun, Gertrude
von Buchel, to whom Butzbach also dedicated a book, Celebrated Painters.
Richmondis von der Horst, abbess of the convent of Seebach, corresponded
in Latin with Trithemius who highly praises her various writings. Of the
nun Ursula Canton, one of her admirers exclaims: "Her equal in knowledge
of theological matters, of the fine arts and in eloquence and belles
lettres, has not been seen for centuries."

Among German Humanists, Charitas Pirkheimer, of Nuernberg, stands
preeminent. Through her brother, Willibald Pirkheimer, the friend and
generous patron of Albrecht Durer, Erasmus, and a host of lesser
Humanists, Charitas corresponded w