Johann Crotus
German writer
Johann Crotus, or in his native German Johannes Jäger, hence often called Venator, "hunter", but more commonly, in grecized form, crotus, "archer", was a German Humanist. From the name of his birthplace he also received the Latinized appellation Rubianus and is generally known as Crotus Rubianus.
Biography
Johann was born at Dornheim, in Thuringia, c. 1480. At the age of eighteen he went to the University of Erfurt, then the chief centre of German Humanism, where he obtained his baccalaureate degree in 1500. Friendship with Conrad Mutianus and Ulrich von Hutten led him from being an upholder of Scholasticism to become an enthusiastic partisan of Humanism and a violent opponent of the older learning. In 1505 he induced Ulrich von Hutten to leave the monastery of Fulda, but in 1506 came back with the latter from Cologne to Erfurt, where in 1508 Crotus obtained a degree of Master of Arts. After this he was absent from Erfurt for a short time as tutor to Count von Henneberg, but by 1509 he had again returned to his studies and in 1510 was the head of the abbey school at Fulda. He now formed close relations with Reuchlin and his supporters in Cologne; about 1514 he was for a short time in Cologne, but soon returned to Fulda where he was ordained priest and obtained a small benefice.
About 1515, he wrote the larger part of the Epistolæ Obscurorum Virorum; the 'letters of obscure men' composed by him are the most violent in character, full of venom and stinging scorn against Scholasticism and monasticism.
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The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 5, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q72649. VIAF identifies the subject as 88042637. The Library of Congress control number is nr96020165. 3 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1480, 1500, 1505 and 1506.
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This entry incorporates text from “Johann Crotus” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.