ly implanted in
our nature to breed children as it is to eat and drink."[6] The worthy
Janssen observes in a scandalized tone that Luther, as regards certain
matters relating to married life, "gave expression to principles
before unheard of in Christian Europe";[7] and the British
Nonconformist of to-day, if he reads these "immoral" opinions of the
hero of the Reformation, will be disposed to echo the sentiments of
the Ultramontane historian.

The relation of the Reformation to the "New Learning" was in Germany
not unlike that which existed in the other northern countries of
Europe, and notably in England. Whilst the hostility of the latter to
the mediaeval Church was very marked, and it was hence disposed to
regard the religious Reformation as an ally, this had not proceeded
very far before the tendency of the Renaissance spirit was to side
with Catholicism against the new theology and dogma, as merely
destructive and hostile to culture. The men of the Humanist movement
were for the most part Free-thinkers, and it was with them that
free-thought first appeared in modern Europe. They therefore had
little sympathy with the narrow bigotry of religious reformers, and
preferred to remain in touch with the Church, whose then loose and
tolerant Catholicism gave freer play to intellectual speculations,
provided they steered clear of overt theological heterodoxy, than the
newer systems, which, taking theology _au grand serieux_, tended to
regard profane art and learning as more or less superfluous, and spent
their whole time in theological wrangles. Nevertheless, there were not
wanting men who, influenced at first by the revival of learning, ended
by throwing themselves entirely into the Reformation movement, though
in these cases they were usually actuated rather by their hatred of
the Catholic hierarchy than by any positive religious sentiment.

Of such men Ulrich von Hutten, the descendant of an ancient and
influential knightly family, was a noteworthy example. After having
already acquired fame as the author of a series of skits in the new
Latin and other works of classical scholarship, being also well known
as the ardent supporter of Reuchlin in his dispute with the Church,
and as the friend and correspondent of the central Humanist figure of
the time, Erasmus, he watched with absorbing interest the movement
which Luther had inaugurated. Six months after the nailing of the
theses at Wittenberg, he writes enthusiastically