They have lately set themselves to write; the printers are getting enough to do.
Propositions, corollaries, conclusions, and articles are being sold.
For this alone I hope they will mutually destroy each other." "A few days ago a monk was telling me what was going on in Saxony, to which I replied: 'Devour each other in order that ye in turn may be devoured (_sic_).' Pray Heaven that our enemies may fight each other to the bitter end, and by their obstinacy extinguish each other." Thus it will be seen that Hutten regarded the Reformation in its earlier stages as merely a monkish squabble, and failed to see the tremendous upheaval of all the old landmarks of ecclesiastical domination which was immanent in it.

So soon, however, as he perceived its real significance, he threw himself wholly into the movement.

It must not be forgotten, moreover, that, although Hutten's zeal for Humanism made him welcome any attempt to overthrow the power of the clergy and the monks, he had also an eminently political motive for his action in what was, in some respects, the main object of his life, viz.

to rescue the "knighthood," or smaller nobility, from having their independence crushed out by the growing powers of the princes of the empire.

Probably more than one-third of the manors were held by ecclesiastical dignitaries, so that anything which threatened their possessions and privileges seemed to strike a blow at the very foundations of the Imperial system.