A zealous humanist and reformer, born in the castle of Steckelberg, in Hesse, of an ancient and noble family; allied himself as a scholar with Erasmus, and then with Luther as a man; entered heart and soul into the Reformation of the latter to a rupture with the former, and by his writings, which included invectives against the clergy and appeals to the nation, did much, amid many perils, to advance the cause of German emancipation from the thraldom of the Church (1488-1523).