Page:History of the German people at the close of the Middle Ages vol1.djvu/172

160 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE Scipio, who were also all of them among the most highly esteemed professors of the university. This university, with its hundreds of professors, undoubtedly reached its zenith of glory — its 'golden age ' — under the patronage of Maximilian, who spared no pains or personal sacrifice to raise it to the foremost rank of European universities. Even the University of Paris, according to the Humanist Loriti Glareanus, could not at that time compete with that of Vienna. The French chronicler Pierre Froissart, a man of remarkable learning and keen penetration, speaks with surprise of the number of distinguished scholars whom he met at Vienna, and of the vigorous intellectual activity of the students. He marvelled also at the unrestrained life of the Court, and the friendly and confidential intercourse which existed between the Emperor and the men of letters. ' The Emperor,' he writes, ' not only calls them his friends, but treats them as such, and it appears to me that he seeks their society gladly, and is much influenced by them. There is certainly no other ruler who is so willing to learn from those more learned than he is, and whose own mind is so cultivated that his questions are themselves instructive.' 1 The plastic arts also enjoyed the patronage and encouragement of Maximilian. He caused churches and castles to be built or repaired, employed brass- founders, armourers, workers in gold and silver, painters, wood-cutters, and copper engravers. Many of the finest works of art of that time owed their creation to his patronage. The noble monument on his own tomb at Innsbruck, which he and his friend Conrad Peutinger designed together, is the best testi- mony of the Emperor's artistic power. 1 Lettrcs, pp. 14-16.