Ulrich von Hutten and Franz von Sickingen were two. Hutten was a colorful Humanist figure who was named poet laureate by the emperor and who despised Rome’s treatment of Germany. He said that Rome treated his Germany like some “private cow” to be milked for nefarious Italian purposes and thought that if Germany could unify its various territories and free cities into something resembling a bona fide nation, as Spain and France had done, they would be more successful in dealing with the pope’s grasping greediness.
