Page "Johann Reuchlin" Paragraph 9

At Heidelberg Reuchlin had many private pupils, among whom Franz von Sickingen is the best known name.

With the monks he had never been liked ; at Stuttgart also his great enemy was the Augustinian Conrad Holzinger.

On this man he took a scholar's revenge in his first Latin comedy Sergius, a satire on worthless monks and false relics.

Through Dalberg, Reuchlin came into contact with Philip, Count Palatine of the Rhine, who employed him to direct the studies of his sons, and in 1498 gave him the mission to Rome which has been already noticed as fruitful for Reuchlin's progress in Hebrew.

He came back laden with Hebrew books, and found when he reached Heidelberg that a change of government had opened the way for his return to Stuttgart, where his wife had remained all along.

His friends had now again the upper hand, and knew Reuchlin's value.

In 1500, or perhaps in 1502, he was given a very high judicial office in the Swabian League, which he held till 1512, when he retired to a small estate near Stuttgart.