of  them  is  there  anything  inconsistent  with  the  supposition
that  he  knew  of  the  book  beforehand,  and  had  been  admitted
to  the  secret  councils  of  its  authors.  But  whether  he  had  to
do  with  the  first  part  of  the  Letters  or  not,  there  can  be  no
doubt  of  the  presence  of  his  hand  in  the  second.  Many  of
them  are  dated  from  Eome,  and  show  a  minute  acquaintance  with
details  of  life  in  the  Holy  City,  which  could  belong  only  to  a
resident.  We  hear  of  him  as  reading  similar  letters  to  his
friends  at  Bologna,  while,  in  a  letter  to  Erasmus  in  July  1517,
he  distinctly  identifies  himself  with  those  upon  whom  the
Papal  Brief  inflicted  the  penalty  of  excommunication.-'  To
Crotus,  however,  as  the  original  conceiver  of  the  plan  of  the
Letters  and  probably  their  editor,  many  converging  lines  of
evidence  poiut.  Long,  afterwards,  in  1532,  when  he  had
taken  refuge  in  the  ancient  Church,  he  was  made  the  object  of
a  violent  attack  by  an  anonymous  writer,  once  supposed  to  be
Justus  Jonas,  but  now  more  probably  identified  with  Justus
Menius,  both  of  whom  were  zealous  Lutherans,  and  both
students  at  Erfurt.  In  this  document^  the  fact  that  Crotus
was  the  chief  author  of  the  Epistolae  Ohscurorum  Virorum,  and
that  Hutten  was  his  coadjutor,  is  spoken  of  as  universally
known ;  and  Crotus  is  even  reminded  of  the  way  in  which  he
had  been  wont  to  go  about,  making  notes  on  his  tablets  of  any-
thing that  might  serve  his  purpose.  Further  than  this  into
the  question  of  authorship  it  is  not  necessary  to  go.  Eoban
Hess,  Petrejus,  and  possibly  some  other  of  the  Erfurt  humanists
may  have  had  a  share  in  the  book,  but  no  one  can  now  say
what,  or  how  great.  Its  spirit  is  that  of  Crotus,  a  humorist,
who,  if  he  had  a  serious  purpose  underneath  his  laughter,  loved
the  laughter  itself  better.  Had  Hutten  inspired  it,  the  satire
would  have  had  a  sharper  edge,  a  more  definite  moral.  The
creator  of  the  Obscure  Men  loves  his  p"uppets  while  he
smiles  at  their  antic  ways ;  no  seriousness,  as  from  a  dissolving
world,  broods  over  him,  and  he  changes  sides  at  last,  in  all
likelihood,  conscious  of  no  broken  allegiance.
