A Brief Ulrich von Hutten Bio
by PoetrySoup
Hutten (Ulrich von), German poet and reformer, b. of noble family Steckelberg, Hesse Cassel, 22 April 1488. He was sent to Fulda to become a monk, but fled in 1504 to Erfurt, where he studied humaniora. After some wild adventures he went to Wittenberg in 1510, and Vienna 1512, and also studied at Pavia and Bologna. He returned to Germany in 1517 as a common soldier in the army of Maximilian. His great object was to free his country from sacerdotalism, and most of his writings are satires against the Pope, monks and clergy. Persecution drove him to Switzerland, but the Council of Zurich drove him out of their territory and he died on the isle of Ufnau, Lake Zürich, 29 Aug. 1523.