Reuchlin was a learned and able man, and deeply conscious of the need
of reform. When the Greek Argyrophylos heard him read and explain
Thucydides, he exclaimed, "Greece has retired beyond the Alps." He was
the first Hebrew scholar of Germany, and served to restore the Hebrew
Scriptures to the knowledge of the Church. He held that popes could
err and be deceived. He had no faith in human abnegations for
reconciliation with God. He saw no need for hierarchical mediations,
and discredited the doctrine of Purgatory and masses for the dead. He
bravely defended the cause of learning against the ignorant monks,
whom he hated and held up to merciless ridicule. He was a brilliant
and persuasive orator. He was an associate and counselor of kings. He
gave Melanchthon to the Reformation, and did much to promote it.
Luther recognized in him a great light, of vast service to the Gospel
in Germany. But Reuchlin could never have accomplished the
Reformation. The vital principles of it were not sufficiently rooted
in him. He was a humanist, whose sympathies went with the republic of
letters, not with the wants of the soul and the needs of the people.
When he got into trouble he appealed to the pope. And though he lived
to see Luther in agonizing conflict with the hierarchy of Rome, he
refrained from making common cause with him, and died in connection
with the unreformed Church, whose doctrines he had questioned and
whose orders he had so unsparingly ridiculed.