REUCHLIN, or CAPNIO (a Greek equivalent), JOHANN, a scholar illustrious for his services in the revival of letters and liberation of thought in the fifteenth and following centuries, was born at Pforzheim 28th December 1455. It is stated, on the authority of an ancient chronicle, that his father George was a common messenger; at all events, he was of the humblest ranks of life. A younger brother, Dionysius, who afterwards rose to some distinction, and a sister, Elizabeth, completed the family. At school his sweetness of voice and natural talent for music were remarked, and he was placed in the choir of the chapel of the margrave, who, pleased with his talents, his progress in grammar, and the sweetness of his disposition, sent him to Paris in 1473 with his son Frederic, afterwards bishop of Utrecht. Here he perfected himself in Latin, and applied himself to Greek under Hermonymus of Sparta, the second teacher of Greek in Paris, Georgius Tiphemas having been the first. He also profited by the instructions of Johannes à Lapide, Tardivus, and Robert Gaguin, supporting himself partly by copying parts of Greek authors for richer students. At the end of 1474 he went to Basle, where, while teaching Latin and Greek, he improved his knowledge of the latter under Andronicus Contoblacas. Here also, or previously at Paris, he came under the influence of Wessel (Lux Mundi) who encouraged him in his Greek studies and initiated him in the elements of Hebrew. At Basle he had access to the valuable Greek manuscripts brought thither at the time of the council by the Cardinal de Ragusio. His simpler method of instruction, and the freer exercise of thought and speculation with which he familiarized his pupils in expounding the original text of Aristotle, attracted many, and also brought him much envy and enmity. Having remained at Basle four years, he went to Orleans to study the civil and canon law, and while there taught Latin and Greek with great reputation. He continued these studies in 1480 at Poitiers, and in 1481, having received there the highest degree in law, he returned to his native country, fixing his residence at Tübingen, a town recommended to him by the society of learned men connected with the new university founded by Eberhard im Bart ("the Bearded"), and by the well-known enlightenment of that prince. Here he practised as advocate with great prosperity, and married. Having been taken into Eberhard's confidence, he accompanied him to Rome in 1482, where the regard and esteem he conciliated by his learning, his purer Latin, and eloquence, confirmed him in Eberhard's favour, who till his death, 24th February 1496, continued to employ him in diplomatic business. More important for Reuchlin himself was his intercourse at Rome and Florence, during his two visits to Italy in 1482 and 1489 with Chalcondylas, Marsilius Ficinus, Politianus, and Pico di Mirandola, for from that intercourse his studies and speculations received an entirely new direction.
On his return to Germany in 1482 he remained at Stuttgart with Eberhard. In 1484 he was nominated assessor of the supreme court, and during the life of Eberhard was engaged in many missions which need not be enumerated here. Being employed at the court of the Emperor Frederick III., he so gained the esteem of that potentate as to be ennobled, and presented by him with a valuable Hebrew MS. of the Bible, now preserved in the library of Durlach. From the emperor's Jewish physician, Jakob Jehiel Loanz, he received further instruction in Hebrew. On the death of Eberhard a revolution took place in the court of Württemberg. Eberhard the younger, who succeeded, dismissed his predecessor's counsellors, and a previous adviser of his own, Holzinger, who had been, at Reuchlin's suggestion, thrown into prison, was restored to favour. Reuchlin, who
had everything to fear, fled, first to Worms, and then, on Reuchlin. the invitation of his warm friend Johann von Dalberg, Bishop of Worms, to Heidelberg. Here his life seems to have been one of pleasant labour in the most congenial society. He did much for the university: arranged and increased its library, wrote a Manual of Civil Law for the Bursa or law college, made various translations of Greek books, wrote an epitome of universal history, and procured the erection in 1498 of a Greek chair, to which his brother Dionysius was called from Tübingen. He also wrote a comedy entitled Sergius, aimed at Holzinger, and satirizing the dissolute lives of the monks, but was dissuaded by Dalberg from having it acted, and substituted another, Scenica Progyrnasmata, an imitation of Patelin. Another visit to Rome in 1498, in the cause of Philip the elector-palatine, who had been excommunicated by the Pope for the detention of some monastic revenues, he turned to advantage by availing himself of the instructions in Hebrew of Obadiah Sphoro, a learned Jew, who exacted, however, a heavy price for his lessons. His meeting with Argypulus, then teaching Greek at Rome, and astonishing him by expounding a passage of Thucydides, is well known. He returned, having succeeded in his mission, and brought with him many manuscripts and printed works. While in Rome a counter revolution had taken place in Württemberg; Eberhard had been deposed, and a council appointed till the majority of Ulric. Reuchlin, therefore, returned to Stuttgart, resolved to devote himself entirely to learning. He was again, however, pressed into public business, being appointed (1501) judge of the Swabian League (renewed in 1500), an office he filled for eleven years. With the duties of this office, and the toils of his profession, he contrived to unite laborious study, the fruit of which appeared in 1505 in his great work Linguae Hebraicae Rudimenta, a work important for that time not only in a philological point of view, but as rendering possible that free study of the original Scriptures on which the religious emancipation that was shortly to follow could only have securely founded itself. Besides this work, he put forth many Latin translations of small Greek works; and by his extensive correspondence exerted great influence in directing the studies of earnest scholars. It is clear also, from an inspection of this correspondence, that, while by no means a profound or systematic thinker, or advocate of formulas, his sound discernment of the true end, and proper methods of education, contributed powerfully to its elevation in Germany, and its liberation from an oppressive pedantry. It may be remarked here also, that these letters are of the highest value for the literary history of a period which, in regard to the subsequent revolution, may be called the period of causes, and which has been too exclusively studied from fixed dogmatic stand-points. While to Luther, as chief, is due the positive Reformation, by proclaiming a return to Scripture and free thought as the basis of a purer Christianity, yet previous to Luther's outburst there had long been going on round Reuchlin, as a centre, a quiet movement of free intelligence which could not fail, in spite of its merely negative and unreligious character, to come at last into open collision with the dominant ignorance and superstition. Only an occasion was wanting; and this occurred in 1509. Johann Pfefferkorn, a converted (or rather apostate) Jew of Cologne, and protégé of the Dominicans there, who had already distinguished himself by writing against his former faith, procured, with the assistance of the monks, an order from the Emperor Maximilian that the Jews should give up to be burnt all their books hostile to Christianity. Finding the execution of this order very difficult, partly on account of the restriction stated, partly from the rarity of zeal like his own, he petitioned for a new mandate, removing the restriction, and ordering the destruction of all Jewish books but the Bible. The
Reuchlin, emperor named a commission to consider the question, of whom Reuchlin was one. He accordingly forwarded his Opinion to the Elector of Mentz in August 1510. In this able document, which, with the one presently to be mentioned, will be found in Von der Hardt's Histor. Liter. Reformationis, the reasoning is almost entirely based on the mischievous results to christian learning and zeal of the proposed destruction, but there are indications of a sound doctrine concerning liberty of conscience, and true perception of the real nature of religion, which cannot be propagated by violence, that must have appeared very strange to the monks of Cologne. The Opinion getting abroad by treachery, Pfefferkorn published a virulent personal reply, entitled Handspiegel ("Mirror"), to which Reuchlin returned an Augenspiegel ("Spectacles"). Frightened at the violent measures the Cologneans were taking against this book and the author, he was yet unable to concede the essence of his position, and accordingly the Klare Verstentnus in Teutsch, which he published in 1512 by way of sedative, was as offensive as his two previous tracts. His enemies selected Judaizing propositions from it, and published them. Reuchlin replied in a Defensio contra Calumniatores Colonienses. In 1513, the emperor having imposed silence on both parties, the Dominicans called forth Hochstraten, a Dutch inquisitor, who took charge of the affair as a heresy. We need not follow his proceedings, remarkable only for irregularity and failure. On appeal to Rome in 1516, the Pope (Leo X.) appointed a commission, which by a majority decided in favour of Reuchlin; but Hochstraten, by means, it was said, of bribery, procured from the Pope a mandatum de superscedendo putting off a settlement of the business at his pleasure. In the meantime the literary warfare raged in Germany: a confederacy of Reuchlinists, the most active of whom were Ulrich von Hutten and Willibald Pirckheimer, was formed; and on the other side, Ortuinus Gratus, a Dominican and professor at Cologne, published, under Pfefferkorn's name, many libels against Reuchlin, while Hochstraten sought, among other modes of attack, to find heresy in Reuchlin's cabalistic writings. All these libels and epigrams have perished, but the Epistolæ Obscurorum Virorum, which astounded the combatants on both sides in 1516 (part second, 1517), remains an unsurpassed masterpiece of the cruellest and most truthful satire. The laughers, and they are the most of the world, were now all on one side, and the laugh could only be redoubled by the Lamentationes Obscurorum Virorum, which appeared in 1517 as an answer. To answer a laugh is, in any way, a hopeless thing, but to answer it by a lamentation is a desperate thing. In the war between Franz von Sickingen and Duke Ulrich of Württemberg, Reuchlin was obliged to leave Stuttgart, and retired, by the invitation of Duke William of Bavaria, to Ingolstadt, November 1519. While there, his process was settled by the intervention of Sickingen, who sent an embassy to Cologne, threatening that, unless they paid Reuchlin his expenses, and made him compensation and apology, he would make war on the city. The conditions were, after some attempts at compromise, complied with. At Ingolstadt he received a pension of 200 gold crowns annually from the duke; and lectured on Hebrew and Greek to a great concourse of students. He returned in 1521 to Stuttgart, on account of the plague appearing in Ingolstadt, and was immediately invited by the university of Tübingen to teach there. He removed thither, and began his labours, but falling ill, returned to Stuttgart, where he died of jaundice, December 21, 1521. Erasmus, a cold and timid friend when Reuchlin was alive, wrote the dialogue entitled Apotheosis Capionis, and introduced him into heaven.
Reuchlin was in his age regarded with singular admiration and affection by scholars of all countries; and Germany still regards him, as well she may, as the patriarch of her
erudition. Of his cabalistic philosophy a full account, and a rather one-sided one, will be found in the fourth volume of Brucker's Histor. Crit. Philos. He derived it partly from Mirandola, and partly from his study of the forged cabalistic books of the Jews. A full list of Reuchlin's works will be found in the supplement to Jöcher's Lexikon. His library has been mostly incorporated in that of Carlsruhe. A portrait of him exists in the university of Giessen. (w. n. c.)