ient languages, Hebrew and Greek were almost unknown; the solid
learning of the olden times was taught in bad monkish Latin; the Bible
and Fathers of the Church, the Roman historians, institutes and
pandects, the Greek text of Aristotle, and the writers upon natural
philosophy and medicine, were found only in dusty manuscripts; nothing
but the commentators and systematizers of the middle ages were ever
expounded or learnt by heart. Such was the state of things in Germany.
But in Italy, for more than a century, mental cultivation had begun,
from the study of Roman and Greek poets, historians, and philosophers.
The men of high intellect on the other side of the Alps rejoiced in the
beauty of the Latin language and poetry, admired the acute logic of
Cicero, and regarded with astonishment the powerful life of the Roman
people. Their whole literature entwined itself, like the tendrils of a
creeper, round the antique stem. It was soon after the invention of
printing, and during the war carried on by the Germans in the
Peninsula, that this new Humanitarian learning was gradually introduced
into Germany. The Latin language, which appeared to the Germans like a
new discovery, was industriously studied in the classical schools, and
disseminated through the means of manuals. The close attention and long
labour necessary in Germany to acquire the foreign grammar, acted as
discipline to the mind. Acuteness and memory were strongly exercised;
the logical construction of the language was more attended to than the
phonetic; the grandeur and wisdom of the subject, more than the beauty
and elegance of the style: the German mind required more exercise,
therefore the result was more lasting, because the mastery had to be
gained over two languages of different roots. A number of earnest
teachers first spread the new learning; among these were Jacob
Wimpfeling and Alexander Hegius, Crato of Udenheim, Sapidus, and
Michael Hilspach. To these may be added the poets Henry Bebel and
Conrade Celtes, Ulrich Zasius the lawyer, and others; in close union
with them were to be found all the men of powerful talent in Germany;
Sebastian Brand, author of Narrenschiffs, and also the great preacher
John Geiler of Kaisersberg, although he had been brought up in the
scholastic teaching.

They were sometimes led by their knowledge of ancient philosophy into
secret speculations upon the being of God, and all were opposed to the
corruptions of the Romish Church;