AlltheearlyHebrewgrammars，fromthatofReuchlindown，assertthedivineoriginandmiraculousclaimsofHebrew。Itisconstantlymentionedas“thesacredtongue“——sanctalingua。In1506，Reuchlin，thoughhimselfpersecutedbyalargefactionintheChurchforadvancedviews，referstoHebrewas“spokenbythemouthofGod。”
ThisideawaspopularizedbytheeditionoftheMargaritaPhilosophica，publishedatStrasburgin1508。Thatwork，initssuccessiveeditionsamirrorofhumanknowledgeatthecloseoftheMiddleAgesandtheopeningofmoderntimes，containsacuriousintroductiontothestudyofHebrew，InthisitisdeclaredthatHebrewwastheoriginalspeech“usedbetweenGodandmanandbetweenmenandangels。”Itsfull-pagefrontispiecerepresentsMosesreceivingfromGodthetablesofstonewritteninHebrew；and，asaconclusiveargument，itremindsusthatChristhimself，bychoosingaHebrewmaidforhismother，madethathismothertongue。
Itmustbenotedhere，however，thatLuther，inoneofthoseoutburstsofstrongsensewhichsooftenappearinhiscareer，enforcedtheexplanationthatthewords“Godsaid“hadnothingtodowiththearticulationofhumanlanguage。Still，heevidentlyyieldedtothegeneralview。IntheRomanChurchatthesameperiodwehaveatypicalexampleofthetheologicmethodappliedtophilology，aswehaveseenitappliedtoothersciences，inthestatementbyLuther’sgreatopponent，Cajetan，thatthethreelanguagesoftheinscriptiononthecrossofCalvary“weretherepresentativesofalllanguages，becausethenumberthreedenotesperfection。”
In1538Postillusmadeaveryimportantendeavouratacomparativestudyoflanguages，butwiththeorthodoxassumptionthatallwerederivedfromonesource，namely，theHebrew。
Naturally，ComparativePhilologyblunderedandstumbledalongthispathintoendlessabsurdities。Themostamazingeffortsweremadetotracebackeverythingtothesacredlanguage。