View of Innsbruck from the North by Albrecht Dürer c. 1496.

Almost inexhaustible seemed the wealth of great and noble and strongly marked individualities who, in their schoolrooms and lecture-halls, as well as in the seclusion of their studies, imparted to learning and to art the leaven of spiritual life—teachers with whom ‘the fear of the Lord was the beginning of wisdom,’ humble, believing Christians, and at the same time free, strong, independent, manly thinkers. They showed themselves undaunted in unmasking and fighting against ecclesiastical abuses. Their love for the one Catholic Church spurred them to carry on unflinchingly the work of reform which Nicolaus of Cusa had inaugurated in Germany.

Their love for the Church increased and elevated their loyalty to the people and the Fatherland and their enthusiasm for the Roman emperor of the German nation. As upholders of the ‘sovereignty of the Roman Emperor,’ they set themselves strongly against the separatist independent spirit of the different principalities. They wished for the re-establishment of the ancient unity of the Empire, but they were at the same time anxious to see their representative states well represented in the general march of progress.

…

The wonderful development of spiritual and intellectual life that characterized this period was only possible in view of the fact that all minds were still influenced by the Church doctrine of ‘salvation by good works.’ This teaching resulted, on one hand, in innumerable charitable bequests, in the founding of hospitals, asylums, and orphanages, as well as in the building of churches and cathedrals adorned with all that was most beautiful in art; while it also prompted the establishment of higher and lower education institutions, and the liberal endowment of them.

(6-8)

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