Page:History of the German people at the close of the Middle Ages vol1.djvu/83

EDUCATION AND THE OLDER HUMANISTS 71 ing of the Word, in the study of the sciences as in administering the Sacraments, in monastic discipline as in ruling the State, in general morality as in private humanity, they have taken on themselves the apostle- ship of the whole world. They are a simple, upright, long-suffering people. As for the learned sciences,' Eolewink goes on to say, ' I doubt if there be any one field which the Westphalians have not attacked. This one dives into the great mysteries of theology, another lays down the canons of law, a third masters the intricacies of civil rights ; some apply themselves to the study of medicine, others devote all their energies to art, poetry, history, or science, &c.' They had also the character of being a very wandering race. Like the Florentines amongst the Italians, they were called the ' fifth element ' because they were always to be found wheresoever the other four existed. To one of these wandering Westphalians, Ludwig Dringenberg, who laboured as an apostle of education, Alsatia, according to Wimpheling, is indebted for a great part of its culture. To another, Eudolph von Langen, who after long wanderings in Italy returned to his own country, Westphalia owes the flower of its own schools. This latter was, the same as the above-mentioned collegiate provost educated at Deventer, the first Latin poet of taste in Germany and the reformer of the school system of Westphalia. Through his influence Minister enjoyed a period of high intellectual vitality. Supported by several of the canons of the cathedral, and by the four other colleges, Langen raised the cathedral school of Minister to such a high standard that it was attended not only by the youth of West- phalia, the Netherlands, and the Rhine Provinces, but