berlains of my most gracious Lord, fifty gulden,* on the Satur- day after St. Francis' day, anno domini 15 12.
5. GEORGE SPALATIN TO JOHN LANG AT WITTENBERG. Enders, i. 11. (End of I5I3-)'
George Burkhardt, of Spalt ( 1484- January 16, 1545), always known as Spalatin, one of Luther's best friends, to whom more of his letters are addressed than to any other person, had studied at Erfurt, 1498- 1502, when he went to Wittenberg. Here he first learned to know Luther. About 15 13 he was made chaplain to Frederic the Wise, whose trusted confidant he was until the elector's death in 1525. In this year Spalatin married, and was appointed pastor of a church at Altenburg, where he lived the rest of his life. Cf. Realencyclopddie, Berbig; Spalatin und sein Verhdltnis zu Luther.
John Lang, another good friend, matriculated at Erfurt, 1500, en- tered the Augustinian convent 1506, was forced to leave Erfurt on ac- count of the quarrel of that convent with Staupitz, and so went to teach at Wittenberg 1511-16, when he returned to Erfurt, became prior of the monastery 1516, and District Vicar 1518. Left the monastery 1522, and became pastor of a church at Erfurt, where he remained till his death, 1548. He married twice, in 1522 and 1524. N. Paulus: Usingen 36. Forstemann & Gunther: Brief e an Erasmus (1904), p. 378. Realencyclopddie.
The subject of the following letters is the Reuchlin trial. Pfeffer- kom, a converted Jew, proposed to destroy all Hebrew books save the Old Testament (1509). This proposition was submitted to Reuch- lin, a noted Hebrew scholar, who replied in a memorial, mentioned below, October 6, 1510, advising against this. This memorial was made the basis of a charge of heresy brought by the Dominicans of Cologne. The case was appealed to Rome, and was argued with heat in a host of pamphlets on both sides in Germany. The most famous of these, one of the world's great satires, was the Epistoke Obscurorum Virorum, ridiculing the monks. The first series appeared in the autumn of 1515, and was by Crotus Rubeanus; this was fol- lowed by an enlarged edition in 1516, the additional letters being by Ulrich von Hutten, and by a new series from Hutten's pen in 151 7. The best account of the affair in English is F. G. Stokes: Epistoke Obscurorum Virorum. London, 1909, with Latin text, translation and full introduction.
. . . Moreover I would like to know from you whether
April 8, 1551. He was a good friend of Luther, to whose marriage he was in- vited. Archiv f&r ReformaiionsgtschictUe, vi. 404.
- A gulden was worth fifty cents or two shillings intrinsically, but the purchas-
iaf power of money was about twenty times then what it is now.
K)n the date see Enders, i. la-is, and Rostlin-Kawerau, i. 75a, note i to p. 13J.
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