Ortwin Gratius

Ortwin Gratius
Ortwin Gratius
    Ortwin Gratius
     Catholic_Encyclopedia Ortwin Gratius
    (VAN GRAES)
    Humanist; b. 1475 at Holtwick, near Coesfeld, Westphalia; d. at Cologne, 22 May, 1542. He belonged to an impoverished noble family, and was accordingly received in the house of his uncle Johannes van Graes at Deventer (wherefore he generally called himself Daventriensis), and was educated at the local school, where he received his first scientific instruction from the renowned Alexander Hegius. In 1501 he went to the University of Cologne to pursue his philosophical studies. As a member of the Kuyk Burse he became licentiate in 1505, magister in 1506, and professor artium in 1507. His salary as professor being insufficient, he accepted the position of skilled adviser and corrector in the world-famous Quentell printing establishment, where many classical authors of the Middle Ages were published under his direction. These, according to usage, he provided with introductions and rhymed dedications. As a disciple of Hegius he was naturally a fanatical humanist and a devoted adherent of Peter of Ravenna; he also enjoyed the friendship of the most prominent scientific minds of his time. But things soon changed. He was attacked bitterly by the younger intellectual element, especially their leader, Hermann von dem Busche, on account of his taking the part of the Cologne University theologians and the Dominicans on the occasion of the Reuchlin controversy, as well as on account of his Latin translations of various writings of the Jewish convert, Pfefferkorn. Gratius had at that time just finished a literary tournament with von dem Busche, and had been made the laughing-stock of the literary world by the venomous "Epistolae obscurorum virorum", his adversaries succeeding in vilifying him from both the moral and scientific standpoints, denouncing him as a drunkard and guilty of other vices, and as an incompetent Latin and Greek scholar. This procedure was the more effective from the fact that he ignored attacks, and did not defend himself from the beginning. He only attacked his defamers when Leo X excommunicated the author, readers, and disseminators of the "Epistolae" (1517). His defence, entitled "Lamentationes obscurorum virorum", was very weak and missed its mark, so that the portrayal of his character remained distorted up to modern times and it is only of late that due credit is given him. In 1520 he was ordained to the priesthood and devoted himself thenceforth entirely to literary work. The magnum opus of his literary activity is: "Fasciculus rerum expetendarum ac fugiendarum" (Cologne, 1535), a collection of sixty-six more or less weighty treatises of various authors on ecclesiastical and profane history, dogma and canon law, compiled to expose the noxious elements in the Church's organism, and prepare a way for a future council to remedy them. It has been wrongly claimed that this work, put on the index on account of its anticlerical tendency, was not from the pen of Gratius.
    PATRICIUS SCHLAGER
    Transcribed by Gerald M. Knight

The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume VIII. — New York: Robert Appleton Company. . 1910.


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  • Ortwin — Hardwin von Grätz, known as Ortuinus Gratius or Ortwin[1] (1475 – May 22, 1542), was a German humanist scholar and theologian. Ortwin was born in Holtwick (now in the District of Coesfeld, Westphalia) and died in Cologne. Contents 1 Life 2 Works …   Wikipedia

  • Ortwin — (Ortwein, »Freund des Schwertes«), Name mehrerer Helden der deutschen Sage. O. von Metz, Hagens von Tronege Schwestersohn, des Königs Gunter Neffe und Truchseß, ist im Nibelungenlied einer der gewaltigsten von Gunters Dienstmannen, erscheint aber …   Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon

  • Gratius, Ortwin — • Humanist; b. 1475 at Holtwick, near Coesfeld, Westphalia; d. at Cologne, 22 May, 1542 Catholic Encyclopedia. Kevin Knight. 2006 …   Catholic encyclopedia

  • Gratius — Gratius,   Ortwin, eigentlich O. van Graes [ graːs], Humanist und Theologe, * Holtwick (heute zu Rosendahl, Kreis Coesfeld) um 1480, ✝ Köln 22. 5. 1542; seit 1507 Professor der Philosophie an der Artistenfakultät in Köln, 1514 Priester. Gratius… …   Universal-Lexikon

  • Gratĭus — Gratĭus, 1) Faliscus, aus Falerii, römischer Dichter, Ovids Zeitgenoß; schrieb ein Lehrgedicht: Cynegeticon (von der Jagd mit Hunden), herausgeg. Vened. 1534 u.ö., von Burton, Lond. 1783, dann mit Nemesians Cynegeticon von Küttner, Mitau 1775. 2) …   Pierer's Universal-Lexikon

  • Gratĭus — (de Graes), Ortwin, berüchtigter Gegner der Humanisten, insbes. Reuchlins, geb. 1491 in Holtewick bei Koesfeld, gest. 21. Mai 1542 als Professor der scholastischen Theologie an der Universität in Köln. An ihn, als das Werkzeug des Obskurantismus …   Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon

  • Gratius, Ortwin — (d. 1542)    Ortwin van Graes was born no later than 1480 at Holtwick in Westphalia, descended from a noble family that had fallen onto hard times. An uncle who was a priest at Deventer paid for his education at the chapter school of St. Lebwin,… …   Historical Dictionary of Renaissance

  • GRAES (Gratius), ORTWLN VAN DE° — (1480–1542), Dominican friar and fanatic anti Jewish polemicist. He was coauthor (or translator) of Victor von Carben s De vita et moribus Judaeorum (1509) and translated into Latin some of the polemics of johann pfefferkorn , to whose Judenfeind …   Encyclopedia of Judaism

  • Einfluss des Humanismus auf die Universität zu Köln — Der Einfluss des Humanismus auf die Kölner Universität stellt einen wichtigen Einschnitt in die Entwicklungsgeschichte der frühen Universität zu Köln in der frühen Neuzeit dar. Er war dort maßgeblich an der Reformierung des Bildungssystems… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Dunkelmännerbriefe — Die Dunkelmännerbriefe (Epistolae obscurorum virorum) waren eine mit satirischer Absicht verbreitete Reihe gefälschter lateinischer Briefe, mit der deutsche Humanisten die Scholastik ins Lächerliche zogen. Diese war an den Universitäten damals… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

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