that 'came to him out of the
spoils of Hungary.'
CHAPTER VIII.
GERMANY--FLANDERS--BURGUNDY--ENGLAND.
Almost immediately after the invention of printing in Germany there arose
a vast public demand for all useful kinds of knowledge. The study of
Greek was essential to those who would compete with the Italians in any
of the higher departments of science, and great schools were established
for the purpose by Dringeberg in a town of Alsace, and by Rudolf Lange at
Muenster. The Alsatian Academy had the credit of educating Rhenanus and
Bilibald Pirckheimer. Lange filled his shelves with a quantity of
excellent classics that he had purchased during a tour in Italy. Hermann
Busch, the great critic, was taught in this school, and he used to say in
after life that he often dreamed of Lange's house, and saw an altar of
the Muses surrounded by the shadowy figures of ancient poets and orators.
Busch was sent afterwards to Deventer, where he was the class-mate of
Erasmus. Here one day, while the boys were at their themes, came Rudolf
Agricola, the sturdy doctor from Friesland, who wanted to see a Germany
'more Latin than Latium,' and had vowed to abate the 'Italian insolence.'
The visitor told Erasmus that he was sure to be a great man, and patted
the young Hermann on the head, saying that he had the look of a poet;
and he is, indeed, still faintly remembered for the lines in which he
celebrated the triumph of Reuchlin.
Reuchlin had learned Greek at Paris and Poitiers; at Florence he studied
the secrets of the Cabala with Mirandula; and he perfected his Hebrew at
Rome, where he acted as an envoy from the Elector Palatine.
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