Hutten, Ulrich von

(1488–1523)

   Polemicist.

   Hutten was born in Steckelberg, Germany. As a child he was placed in a monastery, but he rejected the vocation and travelled as a young man from university to university. He settled finally in Germany in 1517 and entered the service of the Elector of Mainz. He had, by that stage, established a reputation as a poet and satirical writer. After 1519 he became an ardent supporter of Martin luther’s Reformation and, as a result of a series of ironical attacks on the Pope, he was dismissed from the Elector’s household and was under order of arrest from Rome. He was refused sanctuary by the towns of Schlettstadt and Basle and was eventually rescued by zwingli who provided a home on the island of Ufenau until his death. Hutten’s role in the Reformation is a matter of scholarly debate. In general he seems to have been more interested in the political freedom of Germany than in a religious revival. None the less his later books show signs of genuine piety.

   H. Holborn, Ulrich von Hutten and the German Reformation (1978).