ng over many aspects of Germany ancient and
modern. To us in the present inquiry its interest lies in the
frequency with which the excellence of Germany is asserted against
Italian sneers. The following specimen will illustrate this point, and
also explain Erasmus' epithets. In the chapter on the German language
(ii. 30) Irenicus is throughout engaged in refuting the charge of
German barbarism. 'It may be true', he says, 'that German is not so
much declined as Latin: but complexity does not necessarily bring
refinement. Germany is as rich in dialects as Italy, and to speak
German well merits high praise. Italian may be directly descended from
Latin; but German too has a considerable element of Latin and Greek
words. Guarino and Petrarch have written poetry in their vernaculars,
and so the Italians boast that their language is more suited to
poetry. But more than 1000 years ago Ovid wrote a book of German
poetry[42]; and Trebeta, son of Semiramis, is known to have been the
first person to compose in German.'

[42] Ovid, _Pont._ 4. 13. 19: Getico sermone.

In spite of such stuff, Pirckheimer, who saw the book in manuscript,
was delighted with it. 'You have achieved what many have wished but
few could have carried out. Every German must be obliged to you for
the lustre you have brought to the Fatherland.' After stating that he
had arranged with Koberger for the printing, he points out details
which might be improved: more stress might be laid on the connexion of
the Germans with the Goths, 'which the dregs of the Goths and
Lombards--by which I mean the Italians--try to snatch from us'; and
the universal conquests of the Goths might be more fully treated.
Finally he suggests that before publication the work should be
submitted to Stabius: 'the book deserves learned readers, and I should
wish it to be as perfect as possible.'[43]

[43] The letter is printed in Pirckheimer's _Opera_, 1610, p.
313: but is addressed wrongly, to Beatus Rhenanus.

This brief survey may close with a far more considerable work, the
_Res Germanicae_ of Beatus Rhenanus, published in 1531; from which we
have made some extracts above. The book is sober and serious, and the
subject-matter is handled scientifically; but in his preface Beatus is
careful to point out that German history is as important as Roman,
modern as much worth studying as ancient.

Such was the soil into which fell the seed that Luther went forth to
sow. Whe