Ulrich von Hutten, imperial poet and orator; the great knightly reformer of the 16th century

Front matter

3^»

y

'^3 mm wm

I

LRICH YON HUTTEN was born on the 21st April 1488, of one of the noblest families of Franconia — of that country where every man was noble. From the tenth century the Huttens had acquired an honourable name in camp and council ; and at the commencement of the sixteenth, they had thirty knights in the service of the Empire. The Franconian nobility were, at that period, considered the most perfect type of German chivalry. They had preserved their independence after the formation of the territorial principalities ; and when, almost everywhere else, the lesser nobility had been, willingly or by force, subjected to the sovereignty of the princes, they owned allegiance only to the Empire, — that is

* Several notes have been added by the translator, relating to the less generally known of the eminent persons mentioned by M. Chauffour-Kestner, in order to enable the reader intelligently to follow the progress of the narrative without going beyond the volume in his hand. These notes have been placed together at the end of the volume, and each note is indicated by its number on the page to which it refers.

to say, to an idea rather than to a reality. They formed a sort of noble democracy, which properly took its place by the side of the middle class democracy of the towns, and which, not less than the latter, was pervaded by a remarkable spirit of liberty, joined to a profound sentiment of national unity.

The castle of Steckelberg, the residence of the Huttens, was situated some leagues distant from Fulda, on the confines of Franconia and Hesse. It was one of the feudal residences of which Hutten has left us the description : ' Our castles are constructed, not for pleasure, but security. All is sacrificed to the necessity of defence. They are contracted between ramparts and ditches ; armouries and stables usurp the place of apartments. Everywhere the smell of powder, horses, cattle, the noise of dogs and oxen, and, upon the margin of the mighty forests which surround us, the cries of wolves. Always agitation ; perpetual coming and going : our gates, open to all, often permit assassins and thieves to enter. Each day there is a new care. If we maintain our independence, we risk being crushed among too powerful enemies ; if we put ourselves under the protection of some prince, we are forced to espouse his quarrels. We cannot sally forth without an escort. In order to hunt, or to visit a neighbour, we must don casque and

THE SCHOOL OF THE ABBEY OF FULDA. 17

cuirass. Always, everywhere, war.' War, in fact, even to the end, was the normal state of feudal society. Hutten, as we shall see, did not detest it ; but he wished it to be ennobled by its aim, and by the grandeur of the results achieved.

II

E know nothing of the infancy of Hutten ; but we can fancy what it must have been, in the midst of the savage manners of which we have just sketched the picture. At eleven years of age, his parents sent him to the school of the Abbey of Fulda. They had four sons ; and, although Ulrich was the eldest, they thought that he would best make his way in the world by the convent, as he was of delicate constitution, and of short stature in that family of giants. Hutten learned with ardour and success all that they could teach him in the celebrated school of the Abbey, and especially the rudiments of the classical languages ; but he acquired no taste for a monastic life. ' Having seen the world ' (he says at a subsequent period), ' it appeared to me that, in another condition, I could live in a manner more pleasing to God, and more useful to men.' Thenceforward,

B with that decisive and courageous resolution which does not compound with duty, his mind was made up. Nothing could induce him to become a monk. He was emboldened in his resistance by his fellowstudent, Crotus Rubianus (1), who remained his friend, and by Eitelwolf von Stein (2), who was his most useful protector. The latter addressed himself at first to the parents of the young man, and entreated them not to force his inclinations. He found them deaf to entreaties, and, conjecturing the cause of their resistance, he went to the Abbot of Fulda, and addressed him in the following terms : ' Are you not ashamed to destroy so promising a genius?' The experienced statesman had already divined in the youthful scholar the great man of the future ; but the monk had made the same discovery, and was not less ardent in his efforts to secure him. He endeavoured to dazzle his eyes by the dignities and honours which a monastic career would place within his reach. Hutten remained immovable. He had then recourse to menaces ; but these only rendered Hutten the more determined. Then the Abbot called in his parents. The father laid his commands upon him, and swore that, if he did not obey, he would see him no more : the mother wept and entreated. But the loyalty of young Hutten's nature forbade him to sacrifice the instinctive dictates of his conscience either to

FLIGHT FROM THE ABBEY OF FULDA. 19

ambition or fear, or to the natural affections, which were always so strong in his heart. To escape from further persecutions, he fled from Fulda. He was then sixteen years old.

Bitter but salutary initiation into the great battle of life ! Later, other seductions will be tried, other dangers will threaten him ; but in that first temptation he acquired the necessary strength of character. After what he then suffered, it will cost him nothing to remain faithful to the voice of conscience. His family for a long time was lost to him. His father no longer wished either to see him, or to interest himself in his affairs.

III

N leaving the Abbey, Hutten at first went to Erfurth, where he might see Luther ; but he soon afterwards repaired to Cologne, where he was rejoined by his friend Crotus Rubianus. Cologne was the most ancient and illustrious of the German universities ; and the two youths arrived there, full of ardour in the pursuit of knowledge.

Knowledge! But what kind of knowledge? The scholastic system still reigned supreme ; and dialectics were the first branch of study to which they applied themselves. ' We learn to fulminate arguments, to overwhelm each other with syllogistic strokes, to maintain up to thirty propositions, to prove the for and against.' Futile and wretched training, which, instead of exercising and rectifying the intellect, perverted it, and sent it forth on a wrong path ! However, that study was not lost : the scholar, later in life, will avail himself of the teaching of his masters, in his great and triumphant controversy with the theologians of Cologne.

But the natural integrity of his disposition did not permit Hutten to stray long in these devious paths. He soon yielded to the inclination which led him towards classical antiquity. He was the assiduous and favourite pupil of Ragius iEsticampius (3), who, in opposition to the old science of the Scholastics, taught, with great success, the new science of languages and ancient literature. It was the invincible tendency of the epoch. The time was approaching when the human spirit would burst the swaddling clothes which had protected its infancy, but which had for a long time impeded its growth and development. In order to prepare for this decisive struggle against the iron slavery of the Middle Ages, the modern world sought its best arms in classical antiquity. What, in truth, could they do better than invoke the calm and clear

HUTTEN AND KAGIUS iESTTCAMPIUS. 21

reason of the Greeks, the practical good sense of the Romans, against that mass of subtleties, of shadows which obscured the light ?

But the old world, the old science, were not willing to give place. We shall afterwards see what blows it was necessary to strike, in order to achieve for classical learning a little air and liberty. The theologians of Cologne launched against Ragius the accusation which was fatal to Socrates, the eternal accusation with which all science is met at its first appearance. They accused him of being an innovator, a corrupter of youth, and expelled him from the University. Later, we shall find them again animated by the same passions ; but the times will be changed, and their blind hatred will shatter itself against the holy league of good sense, of learning, and of wit.

Ragius carried his teaching to Frankfort-on-the- Oder, where the Margrave of Brandenburgh was about to found a university. Hutten followed him. He was appointed one of the first masters, and requited by his earliest poem the hospitality which he received.

IV

j|ROM 1506 to 1514, Ulrich von Hutten only appears at long intervals. He set out on his travels in order to finish his education. Like Ulysses, to whom his contemporaries have often compared him, he had to endure the buffe tings of the waves, the treachery of men, and the persecutions of a contrary destiny. He first visited the north of Europe ; later, he appears at Rostock, at Wittemberg, at Vienna, sowing broad-cast on his way much admired poetical compositions. These travels, undertaken without resources, were often full of great hardships. On the Baltic, he was exposed to a frightful tempest ; in Pomerania, in that country of the Cyclops, as one of his friends says, he was robbed of his slender baggage. He travelled in the style of knights-errant — or as the students of Germany have done for so long a period — trusting to chance, on foot, living on alms, without anxiety or thought for the future, certain of always finding some abbot, or lover of good verses, or the hospitable table of a peasant. Sometimes the charms of his conversation procured for him a flattering reception. At Olmutz, for example, the Bishop, after having lodged him for several days, and treated him magnificently, gave him, on his departure, a horse and some money.

ADVENTURES IN ITALY. 23

Iii 1512, Hutten was at Pavia, at the time when the French defended that town, besieged by the Swiss. His sojourn there was, for our hero, a succession of misfortunes. Having got into a quarrel with some soldiers of the garrison, he had to endure from them, in his small student's lodging, a siege in form. He gave up all hope, prepared to die as became a poet, and composed a beautiful epitaph for himself in Latin. When the town was taken, he expected to have been set free ; but the victors, pretending to take him for a German in the service of France, under that pretext, maltreated and plundered him. He hastened to fly from that unhappy town, and took refuge at Bologna. Misery, however, seemed to dog his steps ; and his necessities became so pressing, that he enlisted as a common soldier in Maximilian's army. l If I were to tell you what I suffered in Italy ' (he afterwards says to his friend Perckheimer (4) ), l you would hear a tragedy so wonderful and melancholy, that you would scarcely believe me.' This, however, did not hinder him from making verses in honour of the Empire, and against its enemies. On his return, his friends pressed him to dedicate them to Maximilian : he did so, but in so haughty a tone, that it was impossible to mistake him for a courtier.

He derived no advantage either from the verses or the dedication ; but Eitelwolf von Stein recommended him to the Archbishop of Mayence, Albert of Brandenburg, who received and treated him as a friend. He composed a poem in his honour, which is considered one of his best works in Latin verse. He allowed it to be printed only at the request of his patron, and with marked repugnance. ' If I could refuse you anything, certainly I would not have consented to that. You know to what risk I expose myself. You know the ideas and the customs of the German nobility : one would take them for centaurs rather than knights. If a young man applies himself to the study of the sciences, they point at him the finger of scorn, as a degenerate being, as a disgrace to his family and nobility. Thus several who were making good progress have turned back, and have bowed the neck to the yoke of prejudice. Are we not condemned each day to hear these centaurs exclaim that they are the pillars of the country, that in them alone is true nobility, and that they alone are qualified for great exploits both in peace and war ? '

I take notice of that first expression of a complaint which often recurs in the writings of Hutten. He reproaches the German nobility with their coarseness, drunkenness, and contempt for the arts and sciences. One object of his ambition was to combat and destroy that prejudice of the nobility, which considered the cultivation of literature as a

HUTTEN'S ESTIMATE OF NOBILITY. 25

mark of low birth. Every noble of the sixteenth century was proud of his nobility; Hutten often speaks with complaisance of the distinction of his family; but from a feeling then entirely new, he was still more proud of personal distinction : ' I attach little importance' (he writes to Perckheimer) 1 to the nobility which arises merely from the accident of birth, and with "which there is combined no personal merit. For my part, I would wish to ennoble myself, and to transmit to my descendants some distinction which I have not inherited from my ancestors.'

V

E approach the period when Hutten, returned from his long travels, is about to commence his work. Unhappy, a wanderer on the face of the earth, shattered by misfortunes, attacked by a shameful disease from which he will suffer all his life, and which will hasten his death, what has he learned ? One great thing — experience. He has examined the world closely : he knows its passions, its wants, its vices, its great aspirations. He knows that, from the north to the south, it is in expectation, and awaiting only an impulse. He knows the spell which will arouse it. He has suffered : he will take part with those who suffer. He has studied on the spot the secrets of the Roman tyranny : he will smite it to the heart. At the same time, he has developed his intellectual capacities : he remains a poet, but he has become a learned man ; he has acquired a perfect acquaintance with the marvels of Greek and Latin genius brought to light at the Renaissance. His verses everywhere make for him admirers and friends. Young men set out to listen to him, on the vague report that he has commenced a course of instruction. He occupies one of the highest positions among the learned men of that learned century. And his knowledge is not the dead knowledge of books and vain formulas ; it is the instrument of liberation. That spirit of liberty which had pervaded his character from his infancy, which his earliest struggles had increased in him, and which had been the most ardent sentiment of his adventurous youth, he brought back enlarged, enlightened, purified by meditation and travel. To this he added a fervent love of his country, and a passionate faith in the grandeur of the mission which he had to fill in the world. Than him, none had more pride of nationality, or deeper hatred of all foreign rule. What shocks and revolts him in the pontifical power, as a free Christian, is the yoke which it imposes on the conscience ;

PERSONAL APPEARANCE AND CHARACTER. 27

but, at the same time, and chiefly, it is the empire which it pretends to exercise over Germany. Thus, though he neglects not to pierce, with his best directed and most poignant sarcasms, the unheard-of corruptions of the Roman court, he may with good reason be reckoned the representative of the political aspect of the Reformation, just as Luther — whom he preceded arid encouraged in the struggle — is the special representative of its religious aspect. Hutten was of short stature ; his body was bent by disease, and by the hardships of his youth. But his expressive countenance, his sparkling eyes, told immediately all the feelings of his soul. His enemies were often terrified at the tremendous energy which appeared in that lofty countenance ; while his friends read in it only the nobleness and generosity of his intellect and heart. His character was exceedingly amiable, without hauteur, without pretension, full of readiness to oblige, and of kind attentions to women and children, and for the humblest of mankind. During his happiest years^ Budgeus (5) praises in him these amiable qualities ; and Zwingle bestows on him the same praise, at the end of his life, when so many misfortunes and deceptions might well have embittered his spirit. His wit, nourished by serious studies, enlarged by an attentive observation of men and things, had an irresistible charm : it sparkled in refined remarks,

ULRICH VON HUTTEN.

in curious comparisons, in unexpected sallies. All the learned and distinguished men of his time were his friends, and remained so. One only — Erasmus (6) — betrayed him in his last hour ; but Erasmus, enamoured of a quiet life, betrayed less the man than the unfortunate.

Such was Hutten, when a tragical event threw him into the midst of the strifes of his time.

VI

E learned at the same time the death of his friend and protector, Eitelwolf von Stein, and the assassination of his cousin, Hans von Hutten, by the Duke of Wurtemberg. To the first he gave a touching and tender regret ; to the second, a memorable vengeance.

The Huttens had rendered important services to the Duke of Wurtemberg. In a revolt of the peasantry, they had given him the victory by leading the Franconian nobility to his aid. They believed themselves sure of his friendship, and he made warm protestations of gratitude. He requested of old Ludwig von Hutten that he would confide to him his son, who was accounted the most accomplished knight of Franconia. He held out the most brilliant

ASSASSINATION OF H. VON HUTTEN. 29

inducements, saying that he wished, in the person of this young man, to requite the obligations which he owed to the family. The youthful Hutten hesitated long, as if he had had a presentiment of his fate ; but the father thought it his duty not to let slip the opportunity which fortune placed before his son.

The Duke overwhelmed the young knight with favours, and kept him constantly at his side ; while the latter gave himself up with delight to the enchantments of that court life, where, by a rare good fortune, he enjoyed at once the friendship of the prince, and the good-will of the nobles and people. He was soon attached to the country by a closer and softer tie ; he married the daughter of the Marshal of Wurtemberg.

After some months of unmingled happiness, he learned from his wife herself that she was beloved by the Duke. That information struck him like a thunderbolt. He rushed to the presence of the Duke, with the agony of outraged friendship, rather than with the resentment of an injured husband. He reproached him with his passion, and entreated him to combat it ; but the Duke, in the delirium of desire, threw himself at his feet, and did not blush to ask him to sanction his love for his wife, permitting him in return to aspire to the favours of the Duchess. The young noble repulsed with contempt this infamous bargain. From that time his

30 ULRICH YON HUTTEN.

resolution was taken to quit the court, and to withdraw his wife from attempts, in which, as yet, he did not know her complicity.

After long delays, caused by the opposition of the Duke, his departure was fixed, when he was invited to a farewell hunting party. He joined the Duke without mistrust, and without arms. The Duke was armed. He gave the young man a most flattering reception, and attached him to his side in order to converse with him more familiarly. They soon became separated from the rest of the court ; and upon arriving in the heart of the forest, where two horses could not ride abreast, the Duke made the unhappy young man go before him. Suddenly he threw himself upon him from behind, and ran him through the body with his sword, not ceasing from his murderous attack until he had given him seven mortal wounds. Then — adding cowardly outrage to crime — he loosed the belt of the dead man, fastened it round his neck, and hung him up to a tree. On regaining his escort with haggard eyes and blood-stained hands, he informed them that, in virtue of his right as a free judge, he had taken vengeance on an adulterer !

The fatal news spread rapidly through Germany, and roused a universal feeling of horror. Everywhere the Duke met indignation and contempt; but, as if he believed himself above punishment, he

ATTACKS DUKE OF WURTEMBERG. 31

paraded his crime, and lived publicly with the wife of his victim (7).

VII

UTTEN was at the baths of Ems when he learned from a friend this frightful crime. His first feeling was grief, and sympathy with the bereaved father ; but he determined not to shed useless tears, and resolved to pursue the criminal until punishment should overtake him.

With this view he hastened to reconcile himself with his father, and then took up the cause of the family. Letters, .poems, orations, were in turns employed by him to rouse Germany against the tyrant. He fulminated against him five harangues, five philippics full of wrath and vigour. He imparted to Latin, to that dead language, all the life of his ardent soul. He does not disguise the passion which animates him ; he gives himself up to all its vehemence, and all its coarseness. He demands of the princes the judgment and punishment of the criminal, and does not conceal from them, that if they refuse, the Huttens will know right well how to do justice to themselves.

' Know, princes' (he exclaims), 'what will be thought of you if you abandon our cause. The whole German people will be animated with a just indignation : they will curse your pride, your hardness of heart ; they will deem you accomplices in the crime which you have neglected to punish. Your honour is at stake ; reflect well on this. They will say that this man is your peer — this man, who ought to be placed beyond the pale of human communion. Let justice do her office, and do not constrain us to have recourse to force. As to myself, nothing shall make me endure such an injury : I shall renounce only with life the pursuit of that great criminal. These are the feelings of all my kindred ; and how many others share in them ! If you abandon us, it will only remain to take up arms; and then what will become of Germany ? At least she will know that we are not to blame for these misfortunes, that we have done everything to obtain justice, and that we have given the signal of war in spite of ourselves, and constrained by your desertion.'

In these orations Hutten appeared as the avenger of an outraged family ; and, as has been said of him, he prosecuted a true vendetta. But these orations have a still greater importance in his life : they revealed to Germany, and perhaps to himself, the politician, as well as the great writer. Hutten made a national cause of his own private wrong, and raised it to the importance of an affair of state.

ATTACKS DUKE OF WURTEMBERG. 33

At the outset, he recalls the services which the Huttens have rendered to the Duke of Wurtemberg ; and here is how he treats that first revolt of the Swabian peasantry : —

' A conspiracy had been formed against him. The peasantry could no longer support his tyranny, his imposts, his rapacity, his extortions of every description ! How would Germany have been convulsed ! What perils, princes, would have menaced you, through the fault of a single individual, if that contagion had been allowed to spread ! For, although at first their demands were but too just, evil counsellors crept in among them, and corrupted their original designs. All the scoundrels enlisted in their ranks, and thenceforward there was no diversity of opinion about massacring the nobility, plundering the rich, and overthrowing everything. Such was the danger that menaced Germany. The Franconian knights, sent by Ludwig von Hutten, saved Germany : they saved the Duke, but they could not cure the vices which would lead anew to similar convulsions ! '

Undoubtedly, this appreciation of the rising of the German peasantry is not that with which history will agree. She will have more sympathy for these poor wretches, who only rose against an intolerable yoke, and fought valiantly around the iron-shod shoe (Bundschuh), which served them for a standard. But she will not deny that acts of violence and atrocity sullied a cause just in itself; and, even while taking the part of the ignorant, she will bow herself before the first impartial judgment pronounced by a noble upon that great popular movement.

Hutten afterwards narrates the crime, and demands the punishment of the criminal. ' You owe it to the honour of your country ; you owe it to yourselves, Swabians. It is time to throw off the yoke of that execrable tyrant ! No ! believe not that our knights can attempt to protect that man, to assist his abominable passions. We are armed less against you, than for Germany ; and if we had been able, we would have saved you all. His violence, his tyranny, are not imputable to us ; they are the crimes of his own individual wickedness. And who have suffered from them more than we have ? His impunity has encouraged him in fresh crimes. He believes that he may do anything : he has confiscated your goods, destroyed your houses, killed your best citizens. There is a great reason for inflicting upon him an exemplary punishment. Germany knows but too well what would be the results of his impunity ! '

To these orations Hutten added a dialogue, entitled Phalarismus. It is the meeting of Phalaris and the Duke of Wurtemberg in hell. Phalaris

THE PHALARISMUS. 35

congratulates himself on seeing a man his equal in cruelty. He gives him, however, some good lessons in tyranny : —

■ Above all, liberate your soul from the fear of God, and from every feeling of humanity. The better and more virtuous a man is, the more you will suspect him as an* enemy, and will hasten to get rid of him : in this way you will make yourself feared. At the same time, you will take care to attach some followers by your generosity : they will chant your praises among the people. Be profuse to them, without thinking of counting the money which you have taken from the rest. One great thing is to have good spies, who will bring you an exact account of what is said, thought, and done. Whatever you may do, arrange it so as to give a creditable appearance to your acts ; so that, if they do not see you do good, they may at least have no certain proof that you do evil. Often, you must even do something just, noble, and courageous. There is one great point : do not forget it. A single good action, well proved, will efface the remembrance of many crimes. In particular, direct all the penetration of your intellect to discern those whom you ought to fear, and those whom you can seduce. And if, in spite of all, you find yourself in some great danger, there remains to you a last resort, often attempted in Germany, never well executed : gain over the populace by summoning them to the destruction of the rich. As to your pleasures, if you happen to love a woman, and her husband refuses to give her up, get rid of the insolent, but secretly. Such are the rules of tyranny; if that Syracusan had followed them, he would not have fallen from a tyrant to a schoolmaster.'

These writings made an immense impression in Germany. The Emperor, however, hesitated to punish a prince; and it was not until 1519 that vengeance overtook the criminal. Put to the ban of the Empire, he was hunted from Wurtemberg by the indignant people, assisted by an army which Franz von Sickingen (8) commanded, and in which Hutten served. It was in this campaign that the friendship of these two knights commenced.

I do not intend to follow the details of that war ; but I must specially mention one event, connected with it, which had an incalculable influence upon the life of Hutten. He had made himself master of the political affairs of Germany ; he had studied, to assist his vengeance, all their springs. His voice had made itself heard beyond the little circle of philosophers who, up to that time, had alone appreciated its power : it had gone forth to the people, and re-echoed through the whole nation. His name was associated in the popular imagination with the sad story which affected him so strongly :. he had