But  the  Church  always  waits  for  her  opportunity,  and  never
fails  to  seize  it.  Within  a  few  months  a  favourable  occasion
presented  itself  The  letter  to  Eome  was  declared  to  have
been  written  under  compulsion.  Leo  X,  who  by  this  time  had
been  enlightened  by  events  at  Wittenberg,  issued,  in  June  1520,

^  Franoiscus    Poggius    Florentinus  habere  potui.     Homini  fit  injuria.    Cui

nnper  ad  Summum  Pontificem  oravit :  Pontifex  post  multa  respondit :   Noli

Pater  Sancte,  Ego  sumam  mihi  parteis  curare, Poggi,  nonferemusutq^uicquam

Reuchlini  et   volo    stare    loco  ipsius.  malipatiaturhicvir.  PaulGeraeanderto

Legi  suas  lucubrationes  omneis   quas  'Biea(iiiym-.IllustriumVirorumEpistolMe.
Ill  "EPISTOLAE  OBSCURORUM  VIRORUM"  109

a  brief,  quashing  the  judgment  given  at  Speier:  Eeuchlin  was  con-
demned, and  Hoogstraten  restored  to  his  functions  and  dignities.-'
The  progress  of  this  contest  was  watched  with  the  liveliest
interest  by  the  humanists  of  Germany  on  the  one  side,  by  the
monkish  theologians  on  the  other.  It  was  felt  to  be  decisive
as  between  the  old  learning  and  the  new.  The  object  of  the
Dominican  attack  was  an  old  and  famous  scholar,  of  orthodoxy
hitherto  unimpeached,  second  only  to  Erasmus  in  width  of
reputation,  and  superior  even  to  him  in  being  master  of  three
languages.  If  Eeuchlin  could  be  silenced  and  put  to  shame
by  the  Inquisition,  what  hope  for  meaner  men  ?  The  trial  was
the  subject  of  constant  conversation  and  correspondence  among
the  humanists,  and  every  stage  of  it  was  eagerly  discussed.
