First among earthly monarchs, A fount of honour clear, Sprung of a noble lineage, Where shall we find his peer? ... He stands a bright ensample For other Princes' eyes, The lieges all appraise him The Noble and the Wise. His justice is apportioned To poor and rich the same. Just before God Eternal Shall ever be his name. And God the Lord hath willed it, Our pure, immortal King, And welcomed him in glory, Where ceaseless praises ring. Our hero hath departed, Time's sceptre laying down, Since God hath, of His goodness, Prepared a deathless crown.[96] A vital distinction is at once apparent between the Italian and the German Renaissance. In Italy the movement was essentially aristocratic and largely dependent upon the various Courts--the Medici, the Popes, the Dukes of Urbino. In Germany such open-handed patrons were few and far between. Albert of Mainz, Frederick of Saxony, and Eberhard of Würtemberg stand alone among the princes as patrons of learning; while Ulrich von Hutten is the sole representative of the Knightly order in the ranks of the Humanists.[96a] The political and intellectual development of the German towns is of great importance during this transition period, and it is in {80} them that the leaders of the German Renaissance are to be found. The movement remained throughout municipal rather than aristocratic, making itself first felt where there was closest commercial intercourse with Italy--notably in the cities of Swabia and the Rhine valley. But for this very reason Humanism took deep root in the soul of the German people. Not merely aesthetic or sensuous, like the Italian movement, it had a profound ethical and national basis, on which the powerful art of Dürer, the sonorous language of Luther, the sweet singing of Hans Sachs, might safely rest. Almost from the very beginning it pursued a moral aim. It was inspired by no mere sordid quest of pleasure, but by a noble dream of purer manners and loftier ideals. It realized the decadence into which society, both lay and ecclesiastical, had fallen, and earnestly strove to arrest it in the only possible way--by the introduction of a new spirit at once into the details of daily life, and into the broad principles of national existence. But as the Humanist movement gathered strength and influence, it remained isolated from politics and from those who ruled the destinies of the Empire, and, developing in various places and under separate leaders, tended to waste its energies through lack of systematic or united effort. Under such circumstances its unspoken appeal for assistance in high places met with an eager response from Maximilian. For the last twenty-five years of his life he forms the central figure of the new movement--possibly not its most glorious or most brilliant representative, but yet giving life and uniformity to the whole. If for nought else, he would deserve to be remembered as the connecting