Note 269 — Chapter XXIV

For examples of these

Letters of Obscure Men

, see Whitcomb,

Source Book of the German Renaissance

, pp. 67

sq.

, and

Translations and Reprints

, Vol. II, No. 6. The peculiar name of the satire is due to the fact that Reuchlin's sympathizers wrote him many letters of encouragement, which he published under the title,

Letters of Celebrated Men to John Reuchlin

. The humanists then pitched upon the modest title,

Letters of Obscure Men

, for the supposed correspondence of the admirers of the monks. The following is an example of the "obscure men's" poetry. One of them goes to Hagenau and meets a certain humanist, Wolfgang Angst, who, the writer complains, struck him in the eye with his staff.

Et ivi hinc ad Hagenau Da wurden mir die Augen blau Per te, Wolfgang Angst, Gott gib das du hangst, Quia me cum baculo Percusseras in oculo.