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REUCHLIN, roikH'lin,Johann (HellenizedKapnio), German Hebrew scholar andhumanist: b. Pforzheim, Baden, 22 Feb. 1455;d. Liebenzell, 30 June 1522. The excellence ofhis singing procured him a place in the chapelof the Margrave of Baden, who appointed himtraveling companion to his son Frederick, afterwardbishop of Utrecht. In 1473 Reuchlinaccompanied that prince to Paris, and therestudied Greek under Hieronymus of Sparta,besides applying himself assiduously to Latincomposition and Hebrew. In 1475 he went toBasel, and after some time spent in the studyof Greek began to teach that language, withLatin and philosophy. At this time also hewrote his Latin dictionary ‘Breviloquus, id estDictionarium singulas Voces Latinas breviterexplicans’ (1478), the first published inGermany. In 1478 he went hack to France, andstudied law at Orleans, while he taught, at thesame time, the ancient languages. In 1481 hereturned to Germany, and taught law and thebelles-lettres at Tübingen. Eberhard, count ofWürtemberg, soon after took him, as the bestLatinist in Germany, in his train on an embassyto Rome. The Emperor Frederick II createdhim a noble of the empire in 1492. AfterEberhard's death Reuchlin lived several yearsat the court of Philip, elector of the Palatinate.Here he enriched the Heidelberg library withmanuscripts and productions of the new artof printing. He was subsequently appointedpresident of the court of the confederacy whichhad been established by the Swabian princesagainst the encroachments of the house ofBavaria. He was also engaged in translatingthe penitential psalms, preparing a Hebrewgrammar and dictionary, and correcting thetranslation of the Bible. A converted Jew,John Pfeffercorn, and Hoogstraten, an inquisitor,obtained from the Emperor Maximilian,in 1509, an order that all Hebrew works, theOld Testament only excepted, should be burned,on the ground that they were full of blasphemiesagainst Christ. The emperor, however,consulted Reuchlin, who assured him that theseworks, instead of injuring Christianity,contributed, on the contrary, to its honor andglory, since the study of them produced learnedand bold champions to fight for the honor ofthe Christian religion, and that to destroy thesebooks would be to put arms into the hands ofits enemies. The order was thereupon recalled,but the war of pens raged for 10 years.Passages were extracted from Reuchlin's works andtheir meaning perverted; on the ground ofwhich a charge of heresy was brought againsthim. He was summoned in 1513 before theInquisition at Mainz, presided over byHoogstraten, and by a decree of that tribunal hiswritings were consigned to the flames. Thisroused the indignation of the friends of classicalliterature, and an appeal was made to Pope LeoX, who referred the whole matter to the Bishopof Spires. That prelate declaring Reuchlininnocent, ordered the monks to pay the expensesof the investigation. A counter appeal was madeby Hoogstraten; but Reuchlin was then acquittedby a commission of prelates held at Augsburgin 1516; and the pope issued a mandatethat all proceedings against Reuchlin should bestopped. In the course of this contest appearedthe ‘Epistolæ Obscurorum Virorum,’ in whichthe enemies of Reuchlin were ridiculed. When,in 1517, he received the theses propounded byLuther, he exclaimed, “Thanks be to God, atlast they have found a man who will give themso much to do that they will be compelled tolet my old age end in peace.” In 1518 he wasappointed professor of Hebrew and Greek atWittenberg, but sent his nephew Melanchthoninstead, and William of Bavaria appointed himprofessor in the University of Ingolstadt.Although suspected of a leaning toward Protestantism,he never left the Roman CatholicChurch. Consult Geiger, ‘Johann Reuchlin:sein Leben und seine Werke’ (1871); Geiger,L., ‘Johann Reuchlins Briefwechsel’ (1875);Horawitz, A., ‘Zur Biographie und KorrespondenzJ. Reuchlin’ (1877); Holstein, H., ‘J.Reuchlins Komödien’ (1888); Hirsch, L. A.,“Johann Reuchlin” in ‘A Book of Essays’(New York 1904).
