most infamous crimes. Hütten's sentiment of religion was deeply wounded, and his anger strongly excited, and he returned to Germany a determined foe of the Roman see.

with characteristic audacity, prefixed to it a dedication to Leo X. This work-as we learn from himself-produced a profound impressión upon the mind of Luther, and had a great influence in inducing him to break entirely with the court of Rome.

During this journey to Italy he had an opportunity of signalizing his personal bravery and skill in the use of the sword.. One day, while on the road to Viterbo, "I have in my hands," he writes to a friend, he heard five Frenchmen ridiculing Maxi-rentius Valla, edited by Hütten. Good God! "the Donation of Constantine, refuted by Laumilian, the German Emperor, and inter- what ignorance or what perversity in that court fered to defend him. The discussion be: of Rome! And how must we wonder at the came warm; words led to blows; swords designs of God, who has permitted that falsewere drawn, and the five Frenchmen at hood so impudent, gross, and impure, should once threw themselves upon Hütten. He, prevail during ages, and should be even renothing daunted, received them gallantly ceived in the decretals, and among the articles -setting his back against a wall to pre- of faith, that nothing might be a-wanting to the pre-most monstrous of monstrosities. I am so agivent his being surrounded-and succeeded, after a severe conflict, in killing one tated, that I scarcely any longer doubt that the Pope is truly Antichrist. All agrees: what he of their number, and putting the rest to does, what he says, and what he ordains." flight. He was finally obliged to leave Italy without the title of doctor of laws; but, instead of this, the Emperor Maximilian-who had heard of his adventures, and of his gallant defense of the imperial honor-made him a knight, and also conferred upon him the title of imperial poet and orator; and, in April, 1517, the laurel crown was placed upon his brows by the beautiful Constance, the daughter of Pentinger, called the Pearl of Augsburgh. The diploma, conferring the title of imperial poet and orator, is still preserved, and from this time, Hütten takes the title of "Poëta et Orator," and is represented on the frontispiece of his works in complete armor, and with his brows girt with laurel. At a later period, when he had commenced his attacks upon Rome, his portraits represent him with his hand upon the hilt of his sword, which is half drawn from its sheath.

The honors conferred upon Hütten by the Emperor, produced a complete reconciliation between him and his father; and Hütten became for some time a resident at the Château of Steckelberg. While there, he discovered, in the library of the Abbey of Fulda, a manuscript. treatise of Laurentius Vallá upon the pretended do. nation of Constantine to the Roman see. The author had, in the preceding century, been condemned as a heretic, and his book burned. It refutes, with great eloquence and learning, the pretended donation, and Hütten judged that he could not better open the campaign against Rome than by its publication. It was printed at the Château of Steckelberg; and Hütten,

A

It may be observed, however, that Hütten's decisive attack against Rome was made several years before Luther took any determined step against the Pope; and it is worthy of note, how the writings of Hütten influenced a genius as original and fearless, but more large and genial than his own.

The year 1519 was one of the busiest in Ulrich's life. In that year he published his terrible philippic against the Duke of Wurtemburg, joined the army that was to chase him from his dominions, edited an edition of the works of Livy, fulminated against Rome and her legates three dialogues, full of energy, eloquence, and sarcasm, and dedicated to Ferdinand, brother of the Emperor Charles V., a work upon the quarrel between the Emperor. Henry IV. and Pope Gregory VII., which, like the treatise of Laurentius Valla, he had discovered in the library of the Abbey of Fulda. At the same time, he maintained a correspondence with the most distinguished men of his time; many of whom exhorted him to continue his efforts against the corruptions and exactions of Rome. The moment appeared favorable. The powerful Archbishop of Mayence was his protector and friend. Erasmus assured him that Ferdinand, the Emperor's brother, held him in the highest esteem. Sickingen, the representative of German chivalry, offered his services; while the Emperor himself was on bad terms with the Pope, who, in the contest for the German empire, had favored the claims of his rival, Francis I. Hütten did not long

hesitate, but with the war-cry, "Jacta est sensation in Germany, and principally alea," (the die is cast,) which afterwards contributed to produce the manifestation became his motto, threw himself into the of popular opinion against the Papal levan of conflict, and prepared to deal an gates, in 1519 and 1520. "By this pameffective blow against Rome. At the phlet," says Cochlans, "Hütten has made same time, he was well aware of the dan- the name of the Romish court the most gers he must encounter; but in the cause odious in Germany." But, at the same of truth and freedom he was prepared to time, it roused against its author the fordare them all. But in order to spare his midable wrath of the Papacy; but, ere it family from the persecutions which men- burst upon his head, he had gained a new aced him, he desired his parents to cease title to it, by the publication, in 1520, of all communication with him; and when, several letters, written by the most famous on his father's death, the succession to the universities of Europe, as to the best family estates opened to him, he gave them means of putting an end to the schism up to his younger brothers. The latter then existing in the Church. His object part of his life is complete self-abnegation. in this publication was to show with what The blow which Hütten meditated, fell freedom and boldness the ancient univerheavily, when he published his Trias sities had written concerning the rights, Romana which was first written in Latin, of the people, the emperor, general counand afterwards translated into German. cils, and the unlawful pretensions of the This terrible wound still rankles in the Popes; and thus to excite the emulation of side of Rome. The satire represents in the great seminaries of learning in his own the most lively and truthful manner her time. Soon after the publication of these enormous corruptions, the intolerable ex-létters, the Archbishop of Mayence reactions and insults to which she had sub- ceived a Papal brief, expressing grief and jected Germany, and the necessity of a astonishment, that such works had been complete and violent revolution. Who suffered by him to be printed within his ever would know to what lengths the Pa- diocese, and almost under his own eyes; pacy dared to proceed, in the days of our fathers, 'should read this book. It is in the form of a dialogue, in which the speakers are Hütten himself and his friend Ehrenhold, to whom Hütten recounts what he has been told of the court of Rome by a traveler, named Vadiscus. These recitals take the form of triads, frequently interrupted by the exclamations and reflections of the two friends. Our limits will only permit us to give a very short specimen, which may, however, af ford some idea of the character, of the work:

"Three things maintain the renown of Rome: the power of the Pope, relics, and indulgences. Three things are brought from Rome by those who go there: a bad conscience, a ruined stomach, an empty purse. Three things are not to be found in Rome: conscience, religion, faith in an oath. At three things the Romans laugh: the probity of their ancestors, the Papacy of St. Peter, the last judgment. Three things abound in Rome: poison, antiquities, empty places. Three things are, completely a-wanting: simplicity, moderation, and loyalty. Three things are publicly sold by the Romans: Christ, ecclesiastical dignities, and women. Of three things they have a horror: a general council, Church reformation, and the progress of.enlightenment."

and further exhorting him to punish the impudence of a certain Hütten, that his ehastisement might prove a warning and an example to others. Upon this,, the Archbishop demanded from Hütten a promise to write nothing farther against the court of Rome, which was promptly refused, and he then forbade the reading of his works, under pain of excommunication.

4

Hütten, thus deprived of his hopes of finding in the Archbishop a coadjutor in his great work, hastened to put himself in communication with Luther, whose energetic character and language he admired, and in whom he was now ready to recog nize the chief of the Reformation. In 1519 he had offered him a safe asylum with Sickingen; and in June, 1520, he wrote to him, exhorting him to be of good cheer, congratulating him on his work, and of fering himself as a second to him in all his strifes. It was during this year that Luther burnt the Pope's bull, and published his Babylonish Captivity, and Appeal to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation for the Reformation of the Church

After this, Hütten repaired to Brabant, where Ferdinand then held his court, in

The Trias Romana created a vast expectation of the arrival of his brother,

"Will not fate at length cease so cruelly to pursue me? My only consolation is, that I have courage equal to my misfortunes. Germany, fallen as she is, can no more afford me into Switzerland, and will perhaps conduct me an asylum: a voluntary flight has brought me further still. I hope that God will one day unite the friends of the truth, now dispersed over the world, and will humble our enemies."

Perhaps this good hope was present with the hero to the end, and soothed the bitterness of a death among strangers, far from his native country, and from all he loved and cherished.

there, on the 12th March, 1523, he had the satisfaction of assisting at the solemn suppression of the Romish ritual. At Mulhausen, Hütten enjoyed for a time much sympathy and kindness, which soothed the bitterness of his patriotic regrets, and made him forget the uncertainty of his position, and the pains of the malady which was sapping his strength. But here he was struck by a barbed arrow from the quiver of a former friend, for he received a letter from Erasmus full of insulting speeches and perfidious attacks upon the principal reformers. This cowardly assault awakened all his indignation, Zwingle had sent Hütten to the island and he replied in a violent pamphlet, in of Uffnau, on the Lake of Zurich, that he which he lashed the compromising, easy might have the benefit of the attendance conscience of the man who wished at once of the clergyman, who was skilled in medito preserve his private life in peace, and cine; and there he died on the 29th Auto send war in the world by his writings. gust, 1524, at the early age of thirty-six, But the exile was not long to enjoy a and there his remains repose. No monuquiet haven. A reäction against the Re-ment marks the grave of one of the noblest formation, excited by the priests, took place champions ever raised up to defend the at Mulhausen, and Hutten found himself civil and religious liberties of mankind; once more compelled to seek a new refuge. and by a strange caprice of destiny, the This he found at Zurich, beside the great burial-place of the deadliest foe of moSwiss reformer, Zwingle, who thus writes nastic establishments now belongs to the of him to his friend Pirckheimer : convent of Einsiedeln. Lamentations over the melancholy and premature death of Hütten were not wanting. Crotus Rubianus and Melancthon paid their tribute of praise and of regret, and his friend Eoban Hess, in a few simple words, has summed up his character and celebrated his virtues: "No one was a greater enemy of the wicked; no one a greater friend of the good."

"Is this your terrible Hütten, that destroyer, that conqueror? He who comforts himself with such humility and sweetness towards his friends, towards children, and the poorest of men! How can we believe that a mouth so amiable has raised such a tempest ?"

But the strength of this indomitable and hardly-tried man was fast failing him. On the 12th May, 1524, he writes to his friend Eoban Hess:

From Bentley's Miscellany.

GOING INTO EXILE; OR, THE DIAMOND BRACELET.

I.

A LITTLE man was striding about his library with impatient steps. He wore a wadded dressing-gown, handsome once, but remarkably shabby now, and he wrapped it closely around him, though the heat of the weather was intense. But Colonel Hope, large as were his coffers, never

spent upon himself a superfluous farthing, especially in the way of personal adornment; and Colonel Hope would not have felt too warm, cased in sheep-skins, for he had spent the best part of his life in India, and was of a chilly nature.

The Colonel had that afternoon been made acquainted with an unpleasant transaction which had occurred in his