324- 
H17-W7 
qf Caricature 
and 
Grotqfgue 
Hebrew tranflation of his own name of Reuchlin, meaning fmoke, and 
urged that it was better to refute the books in quellion than to burn 
them. The converted Pfeffercorn replied in a book entitled " Speculum 
Manuale," in anfwer to which Reuchlin wrote his "Speculum Ocu- 
lare." The controverfy had already provoked much bigoted ill-feeling 
againft Reuchlin. The learned doctors of the univertity of Cologne 
efpoufed the caufe of Pfeffercorn, and the principal of the univertity, 
named in Latin Ortuinus Gratius, fupported by the Sorbonne in Paris, 
lent himfelf to be the violent organ of the intolerant party. Hard preffed 
by his bigoted opponents, Reuchlin found good allies, but one of the belt 
of thefe was a brave baron named Ulric von Hutten, of an old and noble 
family, born in I488 in the cattle of Staeckelberg, in Franconia. He had 
ltudied in the fchools at Fulda, Cologne, and Frankfort on the Oder, and 
ditlinguifhed himfelf fo much as a fcholar, that he obtained the degree of 
Mafter of Arts before the ufual age. But Ulric polfetfed an adventurous 
and chivalrous fpirit, which led him to embrace the profeflion of a foldier, 
and he ferved in the wars in Italy, where he was diftinguithed by his 
bravery. He was at Rome in 1516, and defended Reuchlin agaiuft the 
Dominicans. The fame year appeared the firtt edition of that marvellous 
book, the "Epistolae Obfcurorum Virorum," one of the motl remarkable 
fatires that the World has yet feen. It is believed that this book came 
entirely from the pen of Ulric von Hutten; and the notion that Reuchlin 
himfelf, or any others of his friends, had a lliare in it appears to be 
without foundation. Ulric was in the following year made poet-laureat. 
Nevertheleh, this book greatly incenfed the monks againft him, and he 
was often threatened with atlallination. Yet he boldly advocated the caufe 
and embraced the opinions of Luther, and was one of the Itaunch fup- 
porters of Lutheranifm. After a very turbulent life, Ulric von Hutten 
died in the Augult of the year 1523. 
The "Epiftolae Obfcurorum Virorum," or letters of obfcure men, are 
fuppofed to be addreffed to Ortuinus Gratius, mentioned above, by various 
individuals, fome his fcholars, others his friends, but all belonging to the 
bigoted party oppofed to Reuchlin, and they were dehgned to throw 
ridicule on the ignorance, bigotry, and immorality of the clergy of the 
Romilh