Erasmus evidently enjoyed the witty contrivance, though he affects to
disapprove it as an anonymous libel. Simler, in his life of Bullinger,
relates that on the first reading Erasmus fell into such a fit of
laughter as to burst an abscess in his face with which he was at that
time troubled, and which prevented the necessity of a surgical
operation.

The literary history of the _Epistolæ_ and the _Dialogue_ is involved in
obscurity. That Ulrich von Hutten had a large share in their concoction
there can be no doubt; and that he was assisted by Crotus Rubianus and
Hermann von Busch, if not by others, seems highly probable. The
authorship of _Lamentationes Obscurorum Virorum_ is a paradox which has
not yet been solved. They are a parody, but a poor one, of the
_Epistolæ_, and in the second edition are attributed to Ortuinus
Gratius. If they are by him, he must have been a dull dog indeed; but by
some it has been thought that they are the work of a Reuchlinist, to
mystify the monks of Cologne, and render them still more ridiculous;
yet, as the Pope's bull against the _Epistolæ_, and Erasmus's
disapproving letter, find a prominent place, and some other
well-grounded inculpations occur, it appears to me that some
slender-witted advocate of the enemies of learning has here shown his
want of skill in handling the weapons of the adversary.

How much Sir Thomas More was pleased with the writings of Hutten we may
gather from the opening of a letter which Erasmus addressed to Hutten,
giving an interesting account of his illustrious friend, in August,
1519:

"Quod Thomæ Mori ingenium sic deamas, ac penè dixerim deperis,