Page:History of the German people at the close of the Middle Ages vol1.djvu/146

 134 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE surrounded by the poor and needy. He was a com- passionate befriender of criminals condemned to death — a class to whom hitherto in Strasburg the privilege of the Sacraments and of Christian burial had been for- bidden. During thirty years Geiler, in his capacity of cathe- dral preacher, exercised a powerful influence over high and low who crowded to his pulpit. He understood in a wonderful manner how to stir all the feelings of the human heart, and to kindle lively faith and love of piety. At a time when the life of the Church permeated the whole life of the State and of society, a man so God- fearing and of such intellectual force must have been a great power both in political and social matters. While unsparing in his rebukes of the vices and passions of the people, and of their insubordination to the consti- tuted authorities, he showed equal fearlessness in re- minding the ruling classes of their duties to the lower ones. Once, in addressing some tyrannical rulers, he used the following scathing words : ' Oh, you frenzied rulers, why do you despise your subjects ? Are they not as good as you ? Are they baptised in water, and you in malmsey ? Do you think the sword was entrusted to your hand in order to strike, and not to protect ? ' A worthy contemporary of Geiler was his friend, Gabriel Biel, professor at the University of Tubingen. After Freiburg and Basle the University of Tubingen became, in a short space of time, a third nucleus of in- tellectual life in South Germany; it was opened in 1477, and developed so rapidly to maturity that in 1491 the Florentine Marsilius Ficinus, writing to Eeuchlin, the adviser of Eberhard, Count of Wurtemberg, on matters