Page:History of the German people at the close of the Middle Ages vol1.djvu/108

 96 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE the promoters of humanities in Germany were either educated at Cologne or gave lectures there for a time. From 1484 the Italian William Raymond Mithridates had been active in teaching Greek, Hebrew, Chaldaic, and Arabic there. In 1487 the Humanist Andreas Cantor, from Groningen, came there, and set to work to reform the study of the Latin language. From 1491 John Cassarius, from Jtilich, a pupil of Hegius and a distinguished classical scholar, laboured at spreading a fundamental knowledge of Greek. The Humanist movement obtained a lar^e additional following after Erasmus, of Rotterdam, in 1496, had gathered a circle of young disciples around him in Cologne. It had another zealous leader in the Friar-Minor Diedrich Coelde, author of one of the oldest German catechisms, and of various popular religious manuals. Besides Csesarius, two other pupils of Alexander Hegius, Bartholomew, of Cologne, and the Westphalian Ortwin Gratius, were active propagandists in Cologne. The first of these, famous even in Italy for his learning and enlightened taste, distinguished alike as philosopher and poet, had formerly been an active teacher at De venter, where he had gained a high reputation. i He is a man of great and refined intellect,' writes his pupil, Johann Butzbach, ' of remarkable eloquence, and distinguished in many branches of science. It is a source of wonder to all that a man like him, versed in all departments of knowledge, should study with the same industry and perseverance as an ignorant beginner, working late on into the night. Diligent scholars were all loved by him, and he was always ready to help and befriend them. His pupils loved him, too, with deep devotion, and when their term of study came