Johann Crotus

Johann Crotus, or in his native German Johannes Jäger, hence often called Venator, "hunter", but more commonly, in grecized form, crotus, "archer', was a German Humanist. From the name of his birthplace he also received the Latinized appellation Rubianus and is generally known as Crotus Rubianus.

Johann was born at Dornheim, in Thuringia, c. 1480. At the age of eighteen he went to the University of Erfurt, then the chief centre of German Humanism, where he obtained his baccalaureate degree in 1500.

Friendship with Conrad Mutianus and Ulrich von Hutten led him from being an upholder of Scholasticism to become an enthusiastic partisan of Humanism and a violent opponent of the older learning. In 1505 he induced Ulrich von Hutten to leave the monastery of Fulda, but in 1506 came back with the latter from Cologne to Erfurt, where in 1508 Crotus obtained a degree of Master of Arts. After this he was absent from Erfurt for a short time as tutor to Count von Henneberg, but by 1509 he had again returned to his studies and in 1510 was the head of the abbey school at Fulda. He now formed close relations with Reuchlin and his supporters in Cologne; about 1514 he was for a short time in Cologne, but soon returned to Fulda where he was ordained priest and obtained a small benefice.

About 1515 he wrote the larger part of the Epistolæ Obscurorum Virorum; the 'letters of obscure men' composed by him are the most violent in character, full of venom and stinging scorn against Scholasticism and monasticism. In 1517 he settled in Bologna as tutor of the Fuchs brothers, and during his stay at this city, up to 1519, he studied successively jurisprudence and theology. Before leaving Italy he went in company with Eoban Hesse to Rome (1519) in order to observe for himself the "see of corruption". While in Bologna he had become acquainted with Martin Luther's writings and actions, learned of the violent stand he had taken and approved it as the beginning of a greatly needed reform of the Church; apparently also he had a share in the anonymous broadsides which appeared in Germany.

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