nor the general sentiment of the intellectual classes did anything
to encourage interest in native culture, some other influence must have
aroused in the young Kingo what one of his early biographers calls "his
peculiar inclination for his native tongue and Danish poetry". A few
patriotic and forward looking men, it is true, had risen above the
general indifference and sought to inspire a greater interest in the use
and cultivation of the Danish language; but this work was still very much
in its infancy, and it is not likely that the young Kingo knew much about
it.

He graduated from Hilleroed in the spring of 1654, and enrolled at the
university of Copenhagen on May 6 of the same year. But a terrific
outbreak of the plague forced the university to close on May 30, and
Kingo returned to his home. The scourge raged for about eight months,
carrying away one third of the city's population, and it was winter
before Kingo returned to the school and enrolled in the department of
theology. The rules of the university required each student, at the
beginning of his course, to choose a preceptor, a sort of guardian who
should direct his charge in his studies and counsel him in his personal
life and conduct. For this very important position Kingo wisely chose one
of the most distinguished and respected teachers at the university, Prof.
Bartholin, a brother of his former rector. Professor Bartholin was not
only a learned man, known for his years of travel and study in foreign
parts, but he was also a man of rare personal gifts and sincere piety. In
his younger days he had spent four years at the castle of Rosenholm where
the godly and scholarly nobleman, Holger Rosenkrans, then gathered groups
of young nobles about him for study and meditation. Rosenkrans was a
close friend of John Arndt, a leader in the early Pietist movement in
Germany, to which the young Bartholin under his influence became deeply
attached. Nor had this attachment lessened with the years. And
Bartholin's influence upon Kingo was so strong that the latter, when
entering upon his own work, lost no time in showing his adherence to the
Arndt-Rosenkrans view of Christianity.

Meanwhile he applied himself diligently to his work at the university.
Like other disciplines the study of theology at that time was affected by
a considerable portion of dry-rust. Orthodoxy ruled the cathedra. With
that as a weapon, the student must be trained to meet all the wiles of
the dev