The ''Epistolæ Obscurorum Virorum'' (

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

: Letters of Obscure Men) was a celebrated collection of

satirical Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming or e ...

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

letters which appeared 1515–1519 in

Hagenau Haguenau (; Alsatian: or ; and historically in English: ''Hagenaw'') is a commune in the Bas-Rhin department of France, of which it is a sub-prefecture. It is second in size in the Bas-Rhin only to Strasbourg, some to the south. To the n ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. They support the German

Humanist Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential and agency of human beings. It considers human beings the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry. The meaning of the term "humani ...

scholar

Johann Reuchlin Johann Reuchlin (; sometimes called Johannes; 29 January 1455 – 30 June 1522) was a German Catholic humanist and a scholar of Greek and Hebrew, whose work also took him to modern-day Austria, Switzerland, and Italy and France. Most of Reuchlin's ...

and they mock the doctrines and modes of living of the

scholastics Scholasticism was a medieval school of philosophy that employed a critical organic method of philosophical analysis predicated upon the Aristotelian 10 Categories. Christian scholasticism emerged within the monastic schools that translate ...

and

monk A monk (, from el, μοναχός, ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a person who practices religious asceticism by monastic living, either alone or with any number of other monks. A monk may be a person who decides to dedica ...

s, mainly by pretending to be letters from fanatic Christian theologians discussing whether all Jewish books should be burned as un-Christian or not.

Background

The work was based upon the real-life public dispute between German humanist

and certain Dominican friars, especially the formerly Jewish convert

Johannes Pfefferkorn Johannes Pfefferkorn (original given name Joseph; 1469, Nuremberg – Oktober 22, 1521, Cologne) was a German Catholicism, Catholic theologian and writer who Conversion to Christianity, converted from Judaism. Pfefferkorn actively preached again ...

who had obtained Imperial authority from

Holy Roman Emperor The Holy Roman Emperor, originally and officially the Emperor of the Romans ( la, Imperator Romanorum, german: Kaiser der Römer) during the Middle Ages, and also known as the Roman-German Emperor since the early modern period ( la, Imperat ...

Maximilian I to burn all known copies of the

Talmud The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cente ...

in 1509. The title is a reference to Reuchlin's 1514 book ''Epistolae clarorum virorum'' (

: Letters of famous/bright men) which provided a collection of letters to Reuchlin on scholarly and intellectual matters from eminent German humanists such as

Ulrich von Hutten Ulrich von Hutten (21 April 1488 – 29 August 1523) was a German knight, scholar, poet and satirist, who later became a follower of Martin Luther and a Protestant reformer. By 1519, he was an outspoken critic of the Roman Catholic Church. Hutte ...

, Johann Crotus,

Konrad Mutian Konrad Mutian (Latin: Conradus Mutianus; 15 October 1470 – 30 March 1526) was a German Renaissance humanist. Biography He was born in Homburg of well-to-do parents named Muth, and was subsequently known as Konrad Mutianus Rufus from his red hai ...

Helius Eobanus Hessus Helius Eobanus Hessus (6 January 1488 – 5 October 1540) was a German Latin poet and later a Lutheran humanist. He was born at Halgehausen in Hesse-Kassel (or Hesse-Cassel). His family name is said to have been Koch; Eoban was the name of a ...

, and others, to show that his position in the controversy with the monks was approved by the learned. The Latin adjective ''obscurus'' ("dark, hidden, obscure") is the opposite of ''clarus'' ("bright, famous, obvious") used in the title of Reuchlin's book.

Structure and presumptive authors

Most of the letters found in ''Epistolæ Obscurorum Virorum'' are addressed to Hardwin von Grätz in

Deventer Deventer (; Sallands: ) is a city and municipality in the Salland historical region of the province of Overijssel, Netherlands. In 2020, Deventer had a population of 100,913. The city is largely situated on the east bank of the river IJssel, bu ...

and contain mock accusations against him, such as allegation that he had been intimate with

's wife (Letter XII) and that Grätz had defecated his pants in public (letter XL). The letters profess to be written by certain ecclesiastics and professors in

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...

and other towns of

. Grätz had made himself odious to the liberal minds of the time by what they saw as his arrogant pretension, his determined hostility to the spirit of the age, and his lax morality. The first issue of the work contained 41 letters, but more were added later. The collection was published anonymously, and the authorship has been a fertile subject of controversy, but the main portion of the letters are attributed to the humanists

Crotus Rubeanus Johann Crotus, or in his native German Johannes Jäger, hence often called ''Venator'', "hunter", but more commonly, in grecized form, ''crotus'', "archer', was a German Humanist. From the name of his birthplace he also received the Latinized appell ...

a.k.a. Johannes Jäger, who is said to have originated the idea and the title;

, who contributed mainly to the second volume;

Erasmus Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus (; ; English: Erasmus of Rotterdam or Erasmus;''Erasmus'' was his baptismal name, given after St. Erasmus of Formiae. ''Desiderius'' was an adopted additional name, which he used from 1496. The ''Roterodamus'' wa ...

; and Reuchlin. The work is credited with hastening the

Protestant Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...

Bans and papal excommunication

The book was banned in many places, and with regard to the rise of

Martin Luther Martin Luther (; ; 10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German priest, theologian, author, hymnwriter, and professor, and Order of Saint Augustine, Augustinian friar. He is the seminal figure of the Reformation, Protestant Refo ...

Pope Leo X Pope Leo X ( it, Leone X; born Giovanni di Lorenzo de' Medici, 11 December 14751 December 1521) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 9 March 1513 to his death in December 1521. Born into the prominent political an ...

excommunicated Excommunication is an institutional act of religious censure used to end or at least regulate the communion of a member of a congregation with other members of the religious institution who are in normal communion with each other. The purpose ...

the authors, readers, and disseminators of the ''Epistolæ Obscurorum Virorum'' in 1517, citing the fact that the discussed matter of burning all Jewish books, especially the Talmud, was not held as a majority view among Christian scholars.

Legacy

The modern term

obscurantism In philosophy, the terms obscurantism and obscurationism describe the anti-intellectual practices of deliberately presenting information in an abstruse and imprecise manner that limits further inquiry and understanding of a subject. There are two ...

derives from the title of this work. Bozman, E. F., ed., ''

Everyman's Encyclopaedia ''Everyman's Encyclopaedia'' is an encyclopedia published by Joseph Dent from 1913 as part of the Everyman's Library. The set was descended from the 1850s ''English Cyclopaedia'' of 1854, which in turn was based on the ''Penny Cyclopaedia'' of ...

'', 5th ed., Vol. 9 (

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

: J. M. Dent & Sons, 1967)
p. 261
As the theologians in the book intended to burn "un-Christian" works, Enlightenment philosophers used the term for conservative, especially religious enemies of progressive Enlightenment and its concept of the liberal spread of knowledge.

Notes

References

* *

External links

* *. . *. . * * *
Bilingual Edition (Latin/English), 1909, translated by Francis Griffin Stokes, with historical introduction and footnotes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Epistole Obscurorum Virorum Collections of letters Satirical books 16th-century Latin books 1515 books 1517 books Works published anonymously Works of uncertain authorship Renaissance Latin literature Erfurt