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48 LETTERS OF ERASMUS [nga ment lapsed and Sapidus was chosen to fill the vacancy (cf. MHE. i. 6), at first for a year, and then, 12 Feb. 1512, on a more permanent basis (cf. Ep. 364. 30 n.). His tenure was marked by great prosperity, the school numbers rising under him to 900. In August 1525, however, he resigned rather than take part in what he considered an obsolete church ceremony, his sympathies being with the Reformers. The citizenship of Schlettstadt was conferred on him shortly afterwards, but in Oct. 1526 he abandoned it and withdrew to Strasburg, where he continued his scholastic and humanistic activities until his death. At Schlettstadt he was a prominent member of the literary circle to which Beatus Rhenanus, Wimpfeling, Volz, and many others belonged. A volume of his Epigrammata was printed there by Laz. Schtirer, March 1520 ; and the Epistolae eruditorum virorum (p. 126) contains a letter from him to Lee with some remarkably free-spoken abuse. K See Gény, Die Reichsstadt Schlettstadt; Strüver, Die Schule zu Schlettstadt; BRE. ; MHE. iii; and ADB.] IOANNES SAPIDVS DOMINO ERASMO S, D. P. Qvop iam diu quamplures occasiones ad te scribendi silentio praeteriuerim, nec quidem eo inficias; sed non modo propter scholares et domesticas occupationes id factum esse scito, quae me sibi semper rapiunt, vix aliquid ocii vel respirandi impartientes, 5 verum etiam studiis tuis et illis in rem tam litterariam quam Christianam laboriosissimis obstrepere meis nugis veritus sum; quae quanta sint, nemo studiosorum cum maxima nominis tui celebratione non olim praedicabit. Nolo tamen eam ob taciturnitatem me abs te putari tui oblitum, quum nec minimam quidem horulam o sine tui honestissima iuxta ac dulcissima mentione, ne memoria dixerim, agere possim, et Erasmo nouos amatores parere non desinam; qualis est dominus Iacobus Specularis (vt alios interim omittam), diui n under Conrad Celtis, and where he 323. 12. Specularis] James Spiegel of published at this time a translation of Schlettstadt (c. 1483—p. 30 June 1547); a nephew of Wimpfeling. After his father’s death in 1493 he was educated by hisuncle at Spires. On 7 Oct.1497he matriculated at Heidelberg as ‘Iacobus Wimpfling alias Spiegel’, and he was B.A. 20 Jan. 1500. He then studied law, probably at Freiburg under Zasius, and in the autumn of 1504 entered the Imperial Chancery. He accompanied the Archduke Philip on the campaign against Gueldres 1504-5, and in June 1505 attended the Diet at Cologne. In Feb. 1506 he was secretary to Peter Bonomo, Bp. of Trieste, AE. 58, from which it appears that some Russian letters received at the Imperial court were sent to Spiegel at Trieste for translation. An oration on the death of Philip in 1506 brought him an offering of books from Aldus, whom he afterwards visited at Venice, perhaps in 1508. In 1511-12 he studied at Tübingen, and in 1513 he was Professor of Law at Vienna; where he is said to have studied previously Isoerates’ De regno gubernando (H. Vietor and J. Singren, 13 Feb. 1514). He subsequently returned to the Chancery, but on the death of Maximilian (t2 Jan. 1519) his appointment lapsed ; whereupon he settled at Schlettstadt and interested himself in letters, publishing amongst other works Jn hymnum awiae Christi Annae dictum ab Erasmo Roterodamo Scholia, Augsburg, S. Grimm and M. Wyrsung, 4 March 1519. He attempted without success to enter the service of the Abp. of Mainz, but in May 1520 obtained employment in the Chancery of Charles V, and attended the Diet of Worms as Imperial Secretary, where Aleander found him a useful source of information. At the end of 1522, with Erasmus’ recommendation, he entered the service of Ferdinand, from which he retired in 1526. See a life by Knod ; Gény, Die Reichsstadt Schlettstadt ; BRE. ; VE. ; HE. ; and ADB.
