Page:History of the German people at the close of the Middle Ages vol1.djvu/127

Rh first attempt at a history of literature published in Germany.

The most attractive of his writings are his historical works. His 'Annals of Hirsau' was intended only as a preparatory work for a universal history of Germany, for which, with the assistance of the monk Paul Lang, he was still collecting materials in all the German monasteries during the last years of his life.

The patriotic tendency of his studies produces throughout a most favourable impression. Notwithstanding the attention bestowed by him on classical and theological studies, he always preserved a lively interest in the early history of Germany, and was never weary of expressing in his works and letters the warmth of his affection for the Fatherland. Among the Khenish 'Literary Society' he bore the title of 'Prince of National Science,' and Wimpheling wrote thus of him to Rome: 'We call him also the happy father of an innumerable intellectual posterity; the best and most famous son of a land rich in gifts both of nature and of mind.'

The testimony of John Butzbach gives us some idea of the enthusiasm which the writings of Trithemius awakened in the young. He tells that the first work of the abbot which he lighted on was read by him breathlessly, from beginning to end. Waking and sleeping he could not get the book or its writer out of his head. Nicholas Gerbellius esteemed himself happy 'to have lived in a century in which men like Trithemius arose in Germany.' Johann Centurian, who studied Greek and Hebrew and the Scriptures for two years under Trithemius, could scarcely find adequate words of praise for his master's indefatigable zeal and the perfect blamelessness of his life.