Though in some respects he was under the fantastic notions of the Areopagite, in others his interpretation was rational, free and undogmatic.

He exercised a considerable influence on Erasmus and on a few choice spirits of the time.
The humanism of Germany centered in the universities.

At the close of the fifteenth century new courses in the Latin classics, in Greek and in Hebrew, began to supplement the medieval curriculum of logic and philosophy.

At every academy there sprang up a circle of "poets," as they called themselves, often of {54} lax morals and indifferent to religion, but earnest in their championship of culture.

Nor were these circles confined entirely to the seats of learning.