ame time praising the virtues of those who had
found in him a kindred spirit. A "knight of the order of poets," he
styles himself, and to all Humanists, to the "fellow-feeling among free
spirits" ("_Gemeingeist unter freien Geistern_") he appeals for
sympathy in his struggle with Loetz.

He had, indeed, not found a foeman worthy of his steel, but he had
shown what a finely tempered blade he bore. Foemen enough he found in
later times, and his steel had need of all its sharpness and temper.
And it never failed him to the last.

Meanwhile he wandered to Vienna, giving lectures there on the art of
poetry. But poetry was abhorred by the schoolmen everywhere, and the
students of the university were forbidden to attend his lectures. He
then went to Italy. When he reached Pavia, he found the city in the
midst of a siege, surrounded by a hostile French army. He fell ill of
a fever, and giving himself up for dead, he composed the famous epitaph
for himself, of which I give a rough translation:

Here, also be it said, a life of ill-fortune is ended;
By evil pursued on the water; beset by wrong upon land.
Here lie Hutten's bones; he, who had done nothing wrongful,
Was wickedly robbed of his life by the sword in a Frenchman's hand.
By Fate, decided that he should see unlucky days only;
Decided that even these days could never be many or long;
Hemmed in by danger and death, he forsook not serving the muses,
And as well as he could, he rendered this service in song.

The Frenchman's sword did not rob him of his life. The Frenchman's
hand took only his money, which was not much, and again sent him
adrift. He now set his pen to writing epigrams on the Emperor, wherein
Maximilian was compared to the eagle which should devour the frogs in
the swamps of Venice. Meanwhile he enlisted as a common soldier in
Maximilian's army.

In Italy, the abuses of the Papacy attracted his attention. Officials
of the Church were then engaged in extending the demand for
indulgences. The sale of pardons "straight from Rome, all hot," was
becoming a scandal in Christendom. All this roused the wrath of
Hutten, who attacked the Pope himself in his songs:

"Heaven now stands for a price to be peddled and sold,
But what new folly is this, as though the fiat of Heaven
Needed an earthly witness, an earthly warrant and seal!"

More prosperous times followed, and we find Hutten honored as a poet,
living in the c