in
Literature
and Art.
24-5
At the end of the century Murner had become a mailer of arts in the
Univeriity of Paris, and had entered the Francifcan order. His reputa-
tion as a German popular poet was fo great, that the emperor Maxi-
milian I., who died in 1519, conferred upon him the crown of poetry, or,
in other words, made him poet-laureat. He took the degree of doetor
in theology in I509. Still Murner was known beit as the popular writer,
and he publifhed feveral fatirical poems, which were remarkable for the
bold woodcuts that illufirated them, for engraving on wood ilourifhed at
this period. He expofed the corruptions of all clafies of fociety, and,
before the Reformation broke out, he did not even fpare the corruptions
of the eccleiiaiiical Hate, but foon declared himfelf a fierce opponent of
the Reformers. When the Lutheran revolt againit the Papacy became
Iirong, our king, Henry VIII., who took a decided part againfi Luther,
invited Murner to England, and on his return to his own country, the
fatiric Francifcan became more bitter againft the Reformation than ever.
He advocated the caufe of the Engliih monarch in a pamphlet, now very
rare, in which he difcuifed the quetlion whether Henry VIII. or Luther
was the liar-" Antwort dem Murner uif feine frag, ob der kiinig von
Engllant ein Liigner fey oder Martinus Luther." Murner appears to
have divided the people of his age into rogues and fools, or perhaps he
confidered the two titles as identical. His "Narrenbefchwerung," or
Confpiracy of Fools, in which Brandt's idea was followed up, is fuppofed
to have been publiihed as early as I506, but the Brit printed edition with
a date, appeared in 1512. It became fo popular, that it went through
feveral editions during fubfequent years; and that which I have before
me was printed at Strafburg in T518. It is, like Brandt's "Ship of
Fools," a general fatire againit fociety, in which the clergy are not
fpared, for the writer had not yet come in face of Luther's Reformation.
The cuts are fuperior to thofe of Brandt's book, and fome of them are
remarkable for their delign and execution. In one of the earliefr of them,
copied in the cut No. I39, Folly is introduced in the garb of a huIband-
man, fcattering his feed over the earth, the refult of which is a very
quick and Houriihing crop, the fool's heads rifing above ground, almoit
inltantaneouily, like fo many turnips. In a fubfequent engraving, repre-
fented