Gracie, Ortwin

Ortwin Grace (him. Ortuin Gratius, own de Graes, 1481-1542) - Professor of Theology at the University of Cologne , mainly known as an opponent of humanists , vividly manifested itself in the so-called "Reichlin dispute".

He was educated in the city of Deventer , which earned him the nickname “Deventersky”. Initially, Gracius Ortwin was a supporter of humanistic ideas, but later abandoned them. When the scandal arose around the name of Professor of Philology Johann Reichlin , who advocated the preservation and study of Jewish books, Gracie Ortwin resolutely sided with opponents of Reichlin. The Cologne professorship placed great hopes on Ortwin, as he, being some time in the ranks of humanists, could compete with I. Reichlin's supporters in the field of elegant literature.

Professor Gracie Ortwin began by attacking Reichlin in his Latin poems. In particular, when the Cologne Institute published its devastating analysis of the Reichlin's "Eye Mirror", Gracius Ortwin prefaced this analysis with his own poem. However, Johann Reichlin himself rather lowly estimated Orthuin's intercession, and in Defense against the Cologne Slanderers, he openly mocks the enemy's poems.

In the famous “ Letters of Dark People, ” advocates of Johann Reuchlin mocked the activities of Grazia Ortwin and conservatives loyal to him. Wanting to adequately respond to the challenge, in 1518, Professor Ortwin wrote the book "The Complaints of Dark People" ( Lamentationes obscurorum virorum ). For his work, the professor of theology also chooses an epistolary genre . On the pages of “The Settlements of the Dark People,” Gracius Ortwin complains about the timelessly gone times of tough church discipline and modern moral decline. The Cologne theologian uses the papal bull of March 15, 1517 as a prologue to his work. In contrast to the Letters of the Dark People, the creators of which purposely wrote in spoiled Latin, he tries to express himself in the refined Latin of humanists, but now and then goes on to the more familiar spoiled Latin of scholastics. Many of the letters created by Grace Ortwin were unnaturally short and, from the point of view of enlightened humanists, unconvincing. To the former accusations against Professor Ortwin, he was also accused of not having any wit. The ideological defeat of Ortwin and his supporters was obvious.

However, despite his departure from humanism and the scandalous story of Johann Reichlin, Gracius Ortwin was not completely devoid of historical understanding and impartiality. In his most significant work, Fasciculus rerum expentendarum ac fugiendarum (1535), which is a collection of pamphlets and documents of former times directed against the pope, he demonstrates a rather critical attitude to the activities of the Roman curia. Later this work was entered in the Index of prohibited books .