Page:History of the German people at the close of the Middle Ages vol1.djvu/115

UNIVERSITIES AND OTHER CENTRES OF LEARNING 103 appeared nearly every year in a new edition. He had translated two of the speeches of Demosthenes and a part of the ' Iliad ' into German, several other Greek writers into Latin, and had completed a treatise on the four Greek dialects. In addition to all this he had held a prominent position at the Court of Count Eber- hard of Wurttemberg as a practising barrister, and conducted many important cases for his patron with honour, and had distinctions of all sorts conferred on him. The Emperor Maximilian raised him to the rank of nobility, and created him Count Palatine of the Empire ' in consideration of his high merit and reputa- tion.' When, after the death of Count Eberhard, he took up his residence at Heidelberg for several years, he was nominated by Dalberg to the post of university librarian, and the Count Palatine, Philip, appointed him counsel to the Electorate and first tutor to his sons. In 1493 he became professor of Hebrew, and embarked on his pioneer work in this direction. The knowledge of Hebrew had, however, by no means disappeared among Christians at the time of Eeuchlin's advent. The decree of the Vienna Council (1312), that two chairs of Hebrew and Chaldaic and Arabic should be established respectively in Eome, Bologna, Paris, Oxford, and Sala- manca had not been without influence in Germany. Guides to the study of Hebrew grammar were published by the Dominican, Peter Schwarz, in 1477, and by the Minorite Conrad Peblican in 1503. Eudolph Agricola translated the Psalms from the original text. In Xanten, Cologne, Colmar, and Mentz, we find records of men zealously occupied with Hebrew studies. Lectures on Hebrew were held at Tubingen by the theologians