The relations with John, the parish priest of Wurtzen, are more harmonious.  There is a frequent exchange of presents, John sending tools for wood-carving, and crayfish; which seem to have been common in his neighbourhood, for Nicholas occasionally asks for them.  The only lecture is one passed on from Barbara.  John had been created a chaplain to Maximilian, an honorific title, with few or no duties; and Barbara had feared that he might neglect the flock in his parish.  On another occasion Nicholas urges him to follow Elizabeth’s advice, and get an unmarried man to be his housekeeper.  He had proposed to have a man with a family; and Elizabeth was afraid for his reputation.  John was a frequent guest at Ottobeuren, and one of Nicholas’ invitations contains what is unusual among the humanists, an appreciation of the charms of the country:  ‘Come,’ he says, ’and hear the songs of the birds, the shepherds’ pipes and the children’s horns, the choruses of reapers and ploughmen, and the voices of the girls as they work in the fields.’

By his younger relatives, Ellenbog did his duty unfailingly.  Elizabeth’s eldest son, John Gesler, was at school at Memmingen.  When a new schoolmaster was appointed, Ellenbog wrote to bespeak his interest in the boy, and to suggest the books that he should read:  Donatus’ Grammar and the letters of Filelfo.  At 14 he persuaded the parents to send John to Heidelberg, and took a great deal of trouble in arranging that the boy should be lodged with his own teacher, Peter of Wimpina.  When two years later Elizabeth grew anxious about John’s health and proposed to take him with her to some of the numerous baths, which then as now abounded in Germany and Switzerland, it was again Nicholas who made the arrangements; and in 1515, when John had left Heidelberg, Nicholas proposed to exchange letters with him daily, in order that he might not forget his Latin.  In January 1515 Elizabeth’s eldest daughter, Barbara, was married to a certain Conrad Ankaryte.  In December 1530 he writes to one of the nuns at Heppach to announce that he has persuaded two girls, the children of this marriage, to embrace the religious life.  The elder, Anna, aged 13, was forward with her education, as she was well acquainted with German literature and was reading Latin with her father[19]; by the following summer she would be ready to come to Heppach.  For the younger, who was not yet 7, he begged a few years’ grace, though she was eager to come at once.  Truly children developed earlier in those days.

     [19] quae legere literas vernaculae linguae satis expedite
          nouit, nunc per patrem imbuitur Latinis.