knocks. Poor Latin! it is worse handled than was Regulus by the
Carthaginians. Forgive this scrawl: I am writing by
candlelight.'

We shall have other occasions to notice the admiration of the Northern
humanists for Lorenzo Valla (d. 1457), the master of Latin style, and
the audacious Canon of the Lateran, who could apply the spirit of
criticism not only to the New Testament but even to the Donation of
Constantine.


2. VRYE TO ARNOLD OF HILDESHEIM (Schoolmaster at Emmerich): Cologne, _c._ 1477>.

'I have still a great many things to do, but I shall not begin
upon them till the printed books from Cologne arrive at
Deventer. My plan was to go to Heidelberg, Freiburg, Basle and
some of the universities in the East and then return to
Deventer through Saxony and Westphalia. But at Coblenz I met
four men from Strasburg who declared that Upper Germany was
almost all overrun by soldiers. This unexpected alarm has
compelled me to dispose of the 1500 copies of _The Revival of
Latin_ amongst the schools.[2] After visiting Deventer and
Zwolle I shall go to Louvain, and then, if it is safe, to
Paris. I thought you ought to know of this change in my plans;
that you might not be taken by surprise at finding me gone
westwards instead of into Upper Germany.

'Please take great pains over the correction of the
manuscripts.'