His motive was not religious, but patriotic.
He longed to see his country strong and united, and free from the galling oppression of the ultramontane yoke.

He published Valla's _Donation of Constantine_, and wrote epigrams on the popes.

His dialogue _Fever the First_ is a {56} vitriolic attack on the priests.
His _Vadiscus or the Roman Trinity_ [Sidenote: 1520] scourges the vices of the curia where three things are sold: Christ, places and women.
When he first heard of Luther's cause he called it a quarrel of monks, and only hoped they would all destroy one another.

But by 1519 he saw in the Reformer the most powerful of allies against the common foe, and he accordingly embraced his cause with habitual zeal.

His letters at this time breathe out fire and slaughter against the Romanists if anything should happen to Luther.