existing between the German States and the cities of Northern Italy,
the mission of Petrarch to the court of Charles IV., the intermingling
of German and Italian scholars at the councils of Constance, Florence,
and Basle, and the exertions of Aeneas Sylvius, afterwards Pius II.,
during his term of office as Chancellor of Frederick III., helped
largely to promote the study of the classics in Germany, especially
when the invention and development of the art of printing had solved
the difficulty of procuring manuscripts. As in Italy, Humanism owes
much of its success to the generosity of powerful patrons such as the
Emperor Maximilian I., Frederick Elector of Saxony and his kinsman,
Duke George, Joachim I. of Brandenburg, and Philip of the Palatinate,
Bishop John von Dalberg of Worms, and Archbishop Albrecht of Mainz;
and as in Italy the academies were the most powerful means of
disseminating classical culture, so also in Germany learned societies
like the /Rhenana/, founded by Bishop Dalberg, and the /Danubiana/ in
Vienna, were most successful in promoting the literary propaganda.

But, unlike the Italian, the German revival was assisted largely by
the universities. Basle, Erfurt, Heidelburg, and Leipzig showed
unmistakably their sympathy towards the movement, and in a short time
the programmes of university studies in nearly all the leading centres
were modified in accordance with the new ideas of education.
Scholasticism was obliged to make way for the classics and natural
science. Cologne, alone in Germany, refused to abandon its old system,
and, though not unfriendly to the classics, as is evident by the
presence of Ortwin Gratius on its list of professors, still it showed
itself highly distrustful of the tendencies of some of the Humanist
leaders. Yet German Humanism had little, if anything, in common with
the flagrant irreligion and immorality of the Italian school. With one
or two exceptions German Humanists never assailed revealed religion as