HIITTEN, Hutton vox, famous in the history of the reformation, was descended of an ancient and noble family, and was born at the family castle of Sieckelberg. in the electorate of Hesse, April, 1488. When he was ten years of age, he was placed in the monastery at Fulda; but disliking this mode of life, he fled to Erfurt in 1104, where be associated with scholars and poets. He then lived at various places in northern Germany till about 1512, when he went to Pavia to study law. After passing several years in Italy, he returned to Germany and made hiniself conspicuous by his publica tions, especially those concerning the affair of Reuchlin apd the Dominican Hoogstra ten, in Cologne, in which he came to the support of ReucItlin, and displayed no small learning and great power of satire. He again went to Italy in 1515, to take the degree of doctor of law, and returned to his native country in 1517. He was crowned with the poet's laurel crown at Augsburg, and the emperor Maximilian conferred a:him the honor of knighthood. In the same year he edited a work of Laurentius Yana, found in a convent, De Falsd Credit& et Ententita Donatione Constantini Magni, and in 1518 accompanied Albert, archbishop of Mentz, to the diet of Augsburg, where Luther had his famous conference with Cajetan. Subsequently', he established a small printing press of his own, and employed himself in writing and disseminating pamphlets fully' exposing the arrogance and wickedness of the Ravish clergy. The archbishop Albert
denounced hint to Rome, whereupon he entered into an immediate and avowed connec tion with Luther, whom he had hitherto despised. At this time, also, he began to write in the German language, instead of Latin. Persecuted by his enemies, he availed himself of the protection of Franz von Sickingen, but was soon forced to flee. From this time Hutton was compelled to adopt a wandering life, and .died Aug. 31, 1523, in the isle of Ufenau, in the lake of Ztirich. Hutten was bolder and more open in the expres sion of his opinions than almost any man of his age. He did much to prepare the way for the reformation, and to promote it. It may be. attributed to him as a fault, that he was too reckless of consequences, and not sufficiently tender in dealing with things that had become venerable in the eyes of many; but he was a man who feared nothing, even when almost all his friends trembled. He was a master of the Latin language. He left 45 different works, of which a collective edition was published at Bert_n in 1821-27, in 6 volumes. Hutten had a share in the Epistalce Obscuroruni Yirorum (q.v.). See life of Hutton by D. F. Strauss (1858), English translation (1874).'