Background
Ortwin was born in Holtwick (now in the District of Coesfeld, Westphalia) and died in Cologne, Germany.
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Ortwin Von Gratz
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In 1501 he left to pursue philosophical studies at the University of Cologne. He supplemented his salary by proofing documents for Quentell printers and wrote introductions and poetic dedications in the volumes of classical authors of the Middle Ages. Because Ortwin sided with the Cologne University theologians and the Dominicans during the Reuchlin controversy, he found himself the subject of aggressive attacks from Hermann von den Buschel and the younger generation who were not pleased with his translations of the Jewish convert, Pfefferkorn.
Ortwin had at that time just finished a literary tournament with von dem Busche and had been made the laughing-stock of the literary world by the venomous Epistolae obscurorum virorum, letters that were addressed to him.
His adversaries succeeded in vilifying him on both moral and scientific grounds, denouncing his Latin and Greek scholarship and portraying him as a drunkard and worse. Ortwin made no response until Pope Leo X excommunicated the author, readers, and distributors of the Epistolary (1517).
After his weak and ineffective defense, entitled Lamentationes obscurorum virorum, his damaged reputation remained distorted for centuries. In 1520 he was ordained to the priesthood and thereafter focused entirely on literary work.
