nish Literary Society," founded in 1491, to which belonged a host of learned men, – theologians, lawyers, doctors, philosophers, mathematicians, linguists, historians and poets, from the Rhinelands and the Middle and Southwest of Germany. The object of this society, as of many similar ones existing at that time in Germany, was the encouragement and spread of science and the fine arts generally, and of classical learning in particular, as also the furthering of national historical research.[1]
Another great pupil of Schlettstadt was Geiler von Kaisersberg (died 1510), the Cathedral preacher of Strasburg, great not only as theologian and pulpit orator, but also as an ardent promoter of humanistic studies, a friend of the learned Benedictine Johannes Trithemius and of Gabriel Biel of Tübingen, and the leading spirit of a circle of highly gifted men on the Upper Rhine. The third great scholar of Schlettstadt was Wimpheling, called the "Teacher of Germany." As Hegius was the greatest German schoolmaster of his century, so Wimpheling was the most distinguished writer on matters educational, one of the most famous restorers of an enlightened system of education from a Christian point of view. In one of his writings, the Guide for German Youth, (1497), he forcefully points out the defects of the earlier system of education and lays down some golden rules for improvements, especially for mastering the ancient languages. It is the first work published on rational pedagogy and methodics in Germany, a truly national work. According to Wimpheling and other schoolmen of this time, the study of Latin and Greek should not be con-
- ↑ Janssen, l. c., p. 107.
