to a friend
respecting the growing ferment in ecclesiastical matters, evidently
regarding the new movement as a Kilkenny-cat fight. "The leaders," he
says, "are bold and hot, full of courage and zeal. Now they shout and
cheer, now they lament and bewail, as loud as they can. They have
lately set themselves to write; the printers are getting enough to do.
Propositions, corollaries, conclusions, and articles are being sold.
For this alone I hope they will mutually destroy each other." "A few
days ago a monk was telling me what was going on in Saxony, to which I
replied: 'Devour each other in order that ye in turn may be devoured
(_sic_).' Pray Heaven that our enemies may fight each other to the
bitter end, and by their obstinacy extinguish each other."

Thus it will be seen that Hutten regarded the Reformation in its
earlier stages as merely a monkish squabble, and failed to see the
tremendous upheaval of all the old landmarks of ecclesiastical
domination which was immanent in it. So soon, however, as he perceived
its real significance, he threw himself wholly into the movement. It
must not be forgotten, moreover, that, although Hutten's zeal for
Humanism made him welcome any attempt to overthrow the power of the
clergy and the monks, he had also an eminently political motive for
his action in what was, in some respects, the main object of his life,
viz. to rescue the "knighthood," or smaller nobility, from having
their independence crushed out by the growing powers of the princes of
the empire. Probably more than one-third of the manors were held by
ecclesiastical dignitaries, so that anything which threatened their
possessions and privileges seemed to strike a blow at the very
foundations of the Imperial system. Hutten hoped that the new
doctrines would set the princes by the ears all round; and that then,
by allying themselves with the reforming party, the knighthood might
succeed in retaining the privileges which still remained to them, but
were rapidly slipping away, and might even regain some of those which
had been already lost. It was not till later, however, that Hutten saw
matters in this light. He was, at the time the above letter was
written, in the service of the Archbishop Albrecht of Mainz, the
leading favourer of the New Learning amongst the prince-prelates, and
it was mainly from the Humanist standpoint that he regarded the
beginnings of the Reformation. After leaving the service of the
archbishop he st