He was born at
Sassenberg. He studied at
Heidelberg, at
Tübingen, and in
Italy, where he became versed in
Latin. Among his teachers were
Alexander Hegius,
Rodolphus Agricola,
Pomponius Laetus, and
Filippo Beroaldo. He moved back to Munster and the prince-bishop
Heinrich von Schwarzburg, but decided to become a jurist and went to study in
Cologne. He was dismissed from teaching posts, in
Leipzig (1505) and
Erfurt (1507). He became involved in controversy in 1509 around
Ortwin, a conservative figure of the older generation, with whom he had clashed over textbooks, wanting to use
Aelius Donatus. He has been thought to be one of the authors of the
Epistolae Obscurorum Virorum, an anonymous work that includes satirical attacks on Ortwin; but this is not now generally agreed. He joined the leaders of the
Reformation, was a friend of
Ulrich von Hutten, and in 1527 was appointed first professor of
classical literature at the
University of Marburg, founded in that year by
Landgrave Philip the Magnanimous. In addition to
Vallum Humanitatis, a defense of humanistic studies, he wrote three books of
epigrams, and other works. ==Notes==