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ment hanging down to his heels, thou wouldst say it was transparent crystal. It was of the same shape as that which he gave to Reuchlin. It was embroidered all over with tongues, with a threefold change of colours. Some showed like a pyropus, some like a smaragd stone, the third like a sapphire. All were transparent, and their rank gave no little grace to them.' Pom. I guess that that was the badge of the three languages that they were well skilled in. Bras. There is no doubt of that. For the borders also, as he said, were seen to be written upon with the letters of three languages, distinguished in three colours. Pom. Did Jerome come without any company? Bras. Without company, dost thou say? All the field was compassed about with ten thousands of angels, and they filled all the air as full, as we see motes, which they call atoms, to fly up and down in the sunbeams, if so be we may make a comparison herein from so low a subject. Neither could one have seen the sky, nor the field, but that all things were transparent. Pom. O brave, I am glad, for Reuchlin's sake. What was done afterward? Bras. Jerome, (quoth he,) taking Reuchlin by his right hand to honour him, led him along in the meadow. There, there was a hill high in the midst: on the top of which, both of them embraced each other with a friendly kiss. And in the mean while the heaven above opened itself asunder, with a huge vista, presenting forth a kind of unspeakable majesty, in such a manner, so as at that beauty the other things were in a manner nothing worth, which notwithstanding before seemed to be wonderful. Pom. Canst thou not set forth some representation of it to us? Bras. How can I, who saw it not? He who saw it, denied that he was able by any words to describe so much as a dream of the things; he said only thus much, that he is ready to die even a thousand times, if he may enjoy that sight again, though it were but a little moment. Pom. What then, I pray thee? Bras. From the wide opening of heaven, a huge pillar of bright but delightful fire was let down: by that the two most holy souls embracing each other were carried up into heaven, while choirs of angels filled all places with so admirable melody, that the Franciscan denies, that he is ever able to call to mind that delight he took, but he

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burst out into tears. There followed a wonderful fragrancy. When the man awaked, if so be that is to be called waking, he was like one besides himself. He did not believe that he was in his private chamber. He looked for the bridge and his meadow, neither could he speak of anything else. The seniors of that college, when they perceived that the thing was not a fiction, for it was certainly known that Reuchlin died at the same hour of three o'clock, at what time the vision appeared to that very holy man, unanimously gave thanks to God, who very largely rewards the good deeds of godly men. What should we do then, but register that very holy man's name among the saints? Bras. I was about to do so, although the Franciscan had seen no such thing, and that in golden letters too, next unto St. Jerome. Pom. Let me die, if I will not do the same in my book. Bras. And more than that, he shall stand in my private chapel among the choice saints. Pom. He shall stand even of pearl in mine, if I had riches according to my mind. Bras. He shall be put in my library next to Jerome. Pom. And he shall be put to mine also. Bras. Yea, if they will show themselves thankful, all men will do so, who honour and love the tongues and good learning, especially the holy Scriptures. Pom. Indeed he deserveth it. But doth that doubt nothing trouble thee, because he is not as yet canonized for a saint, by the authority of the Pope of Rome? Bras. Who canonized Paul? and who the Virgin Mother? Whose memory is more reverenced among all godly men, whether of those whose renowned piety, whose testimonies of their wit and life cause all men to love them; or of Katherine of Sena, whom Pope Pius the Second of that name is reported to have made a she-saint, for the love of the order and city? Pom. Thou sayest true. That only (at length) is true honour which is willingly given to the merits of the dead worthy of heaven, whose good deeds are always perceived. Bras. What then? dost thou think that this man's death is to be lamented? He lived a long time, if that thing make anything for a man's happiness. He hath left remembrances of his virtue that will never quite die. He hath made his name immortal by his good deeds. Now being freed from miseries, he enjoyeth

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heaven, and discourseth together with Jerome. Pom. But he underwent many things in his lifetime. Bras. But St. Jerom suffered more. It is a happiness to suffer from evil men for well doing. Pom. Indeed, I grant it, Jerom endured many things from the worst men for the best deeds. Bras. That which Satan did once by the Scribes and Pharisees against the Lord Jesus; the same he likewise now doth by some pharisaical men against all the worthiest, and who by their studies do good to the community. Now he reaps an excellent harvest for the seed which he sowed. In the mean time it will be our duty to reverence his memory, to extol his name with commendations, and now and then to do our devotion to him in such like words as these: O holy soul! be favourable to the languages; be favourable to those that love honourers of the languages; be propitious to the holy tongues; destroy those wicked slanderers that are infected with the poison of hell.' Pom. I will do so, and I will earnestly speak to others to do the same thing. And I do not doubt but that there will be many who may desire some little prayer, seeing it is a custom in use, whereby they may honour the memory of that very honourable man. Bras. I provided one, and that before his death. Pom. Pray thee, rehearse it. Bras. O God the lover of mankind, who by thy chosen servant John Reuchlin hast given again to the world the gift of tongues, wherewith heretofore thou didst from heaven furnish thine Apostles, by thy Holy Spirit for the preaching of the Gospel; grant that in all languages, all men everywhere may set forth the glory of thy Son Jesus: and confound thou the tongues of the false apostles, who are confederate to underprop the wicked Tower of Babel, endeavouring to darken thy glory, while they study to advance their own, seeing that all glory is due unto thee alone, together with thine only begotten Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, and the Holy Spirit unto eternity. Amen.' Pom. Truly it is a neat and godly prayer. I wish I may never stir, if I will not say it every day. And I account this an happy meeting to me, because I have learnt so comfortable a thing of thee. Bras. Long mayest thou enjoy that comfort, and so farewell. Pom. Fare thee well also.

Y

APPENDIX II.

FROM an excellent article in the Edinburgh Review, 1831, on the Character and Authorship of the Epistolæ Obscurorum Virorum, we extract the following remarks :

The character of Reuchlin is one of the most remarkable in that remarkable age; it exhibits, in the highest perfection, a combination of qualities which are in general found incompatible. At once a man of the world and of books, he excelled equally in practice and speculation; was a statesman and a philosopher, a jurist and a divine. Nobles, and princes, and emperors, honoured him with their favour, and employed him in their most difficult affairs; while the learned throughout Europe looked up to him as the trilingue miraculum,' 'the phoenix litterarum,' the eruditorum aλpa.' In Italy, native Romans listened with pleasure to his Latin declamation; and he compelled the jealous Greeks to acknowledge that Greece had overflown the Alps.' Of his countrymen, he was the first to introduce the study of ancient literature into the German Universities; the first who conquered the difficulties of the Greek language; the first who opened the gates of the East, unsealed the Word of God, and unveiled the sanctuary of Hebrew wisdom. Agricola was the only German of the fifteenth century who approached him in depth of classical erudition; and it was not till after the commencement of the sixteenth, that Erasmus rose to divide with him the admiration of the learned. As an Oriental scholar, Reuchlin died without a rival. Cardinal Fisher, who almost adored his name,' made a pilgrim

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age from England for the sole purpose of visiting the object of his worship; and that great divine candidly confesses to Erasmus, that he regarded Reuchlin as 'bearing off from all men the palm of knowledge, especially in what pertained to the hidden matters of religion and philosophy. At the period of which we speak, Reuchlin, withdrawn from academical tuition to the conduct of political affairs, was not, however, unemployed in peaceably promoting by his writings the cause of letters; when suddenly he found himself, in the decline of life, the victim of a formidable persecution, which threatened ruin to himself, and proscription to his favourite pursuits. The alarming progress of the new learning had at last convinced the theologians and philosophers of the old leaven, that their credit was only to be restored by a desperate and combined effort-not against the partisans, but against the leaders of the literary reformation. The two eyes of Germany' were to be extinguished; and the theologians of Cologne undertook to deal with Reuchlin, while Erasmus was left to the mercies of their brethren of Louvain. The assailants pursued their end with obstinacy, if not with talent: that they did not succeed, showed that the spirit of the age had undergone a change -a change which the persecutions themselves mainly contributed to accomplish.

It was imagined that Hebrew literature, and the influence of Reuchlin, could not be more effectually suppressed, than by rendering both the objects of religious suspicion. In this attempt the theologians of Cologne found an appropriate instrument in John Pfefferkorn, a Jew, who had taken refuge in Christianity from the punishment which his crimes had merited at the hands of his countrymen'. In the course of the years 1508 and

Maius, in his Vita Reuchlini, Jacobus Thomasius, in the Observationes Hallenses, Dupin, in his Nouvelle Bibliothéque des Auteurs Ecclésiastiques, and many others, confound this John Pfefferkorn with a relapsed Jew of the same name, who was burned for blasphemy at Halle in 1514. The Epistolæ Obscurorum Virorum, and the Poemata of Hutten, might have kept them right.