but their opposition differed from
that of Italy in this respect, that the German mind gave it more
elevation. It is true that many of the Humanitarian teachers considered
the German language as barbarous; they Latinized their names, and in
their confidential letters took the liberty of calling their countrymen
unpolished; they hated the despotic arrogance with which the Romish
priests looked down upon them and their nation; yet they did not cease
to be good Christians. Besides their unceasing attacks on the vices of
the Italian priesthood, they ventured, though with hesitation and
caution, upon an historical critique on the foundation of the claims of
the Papacy. They were united in bonds of friendship, and formed one
large community. Bitterly persecuted by the representatives of the old
scholastic school, they nevertheless gained allies everywhere,--in the
burgher houses of the Imperial cities, in the courts of the Princes, in
the entourage of the Emperor, and even in the cathedral chapters and on
the Episcopal thrones.

The mental culture of these men, however, could not keep a lasting hold
on German life; its groundwork was too foreign to the real needs of the
mental life of the people; its ideal, which it had gathered from
antiquity, was too vague and arbitrary; its fantastical occupation with
a bygone world, of whose real meaning they knew so little, was not
favourable to the development of their character. Some indeed became
forerunners in the struggle of faith, but others, offended by the
roughness and narrowness of the new teaching, fell back to the old
Church which they had before so severely judged. One of this school,
the enthusiastic and high-minded Ulrich von Hutten, who was
passionately German, and attached to the teaching of Luther, suffered
for his devotion to the popular cause.

In the beginning of the century, however, the Humanitarians carried on
almost alone the struggle against the oppression under which the nation
groaned. They exercised a powerful influence on the minds of the
multitude; even what they wrote in Latin was not lost upon them, and
the rhymesters of the cities were never weary of propagating the
witticisms and bitter attacks of the Humanitarians in the form of
proverbs, jocose stories, and plays.

The desire for learning became powerful amongst the people. Children
and half-grown boys rushed from the most distant valleys into the
unknown world to seek for knowledge; wherever ther