THE CLOSE OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 779
would have been shaken by such a social revolution in the 16th century as the world has seldom seen.^
In England, the restlessness was scarcely less demonstrative and the condition of the laboring classes scarcely less deplorable. Their hardships in the 14th century called forth the rebellion of Watt Tyler. The famous statute of laborers of 1350 fixed the wages of reapers at 3 pence a day ; the statute of 1444, a century later, raised it to 5 pence. The laws of 1495, Cunningham says, were intended to keep down the wages of the daily toiler. English legislation was habitually bent on preventing an artificial enhancement of prices. At the very close of the Middle Ages, 1515, a regulation fixed the day's work from 5 in the morning until 7 or 8 in the evening in summer and during the hours of daylight during the winter. Legislation was sought to put a limit on prices against the inflation of combinations. Frauds and adulterations in articles offered for sale, bad work and false weights were officially condemned in 1504. Against the proclivity of the gilds to fix the prices of their wares at unreasonable figures, Henry VII. set himself with determination. With the development of sheep-walks, farm hands lost their employment.^ To the author of Utopia the act of parliament in 1515, fixing wages, seemed to be " nothing else than a conspiracy of the rich against the poor," and " the laboring man was doomed to a life so wretched that even a beast's life in comparison seemed to be enviable."
The discoveries in the New World and the nautical exploits, which carried^ Portuguese sailors around the Cape of Good Hope, also stimulated this feeling of restlessness. While the horizon of the natural world was being enlarged and new highways of commerce were being opened, thoughtful men had questions whether the geography of the spiritual world, as outlined in the scholastic systems, did not need revision. The
1 Ficker, p. 107 sq. ; Miiller: Kirchengesch. II. 196 sq. Among these peasant leaders, the piper of Niklashausen was one of the most prominent. In the last quarter of the 15th century, tracts were circulated among the peasants, calling upon them to resist the oppression of the ruling classes and demand the secularization of Church lands. '^ Rogers, p. 143 ; Cunningham, pp. 399, 457 sq., 468 sqq., 476 sqq., 484.
780 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1294-1517.
j:esuiTectiun of the Bible as a popular book stimulated the curiosity and questioning. Tlie Bible also was a new world. The trade, the enterprise, the thought awakened during the last 70 years of the Middle Ages were incomparably more vital than had been awakened by the Crusades and the Crusaders' tales. When the Reformation came, the chief centres of business in Germany and England became, for the most part, seats of the new religious movement, Niirnberg, Ulm, Augsburg, Geneva, Strassburg, Frankfurt, Liibeck and London.
The Renaissance, as has already been set forth, was another potent factor contributing to the forward impulse of the last century of the Middle Ages. All the faculties of man were to be recognized as worthy of cultivation. Europe arose as out of a deep sleep. Men opened their eyes and saw, as Mr. Taine put it. The Renaissance made the discovery of man and the earth. The Schoolmen had forgotten both. Here also a new world was revealed to view and Ulrich von Ilutten, referring to it and to the age as a whole could exclaim, " O century, studies flourish, spirits are awaking. It is a pleasure to live ! "
But in the Renaissance Providence seems to have had the design of showing again that intellectual and artistic culture may flourish, while the process of moral and social decline goes on. No regenerating wave passed over Italy's society or cleansed her palaces and convents. The outward forms of civilization did not check the inward decline. The Italian character, says Gregorovius, " in the last 30 years of the 15th century displays a trait of diabolical passion. Tyrannicide, conspiracies and deeds of treachery were iniiversal." In the period of Athenian greatness, the process of the intellectual sublimation of the few was accompanied by the process of moral decay in the many. So now, art did not purify. The Renaissance did not And out what repentance was or feel the need of it. Savonarola's admiring disciple, Pico della Mirandola, presented a memorial to the Fifth Lateran which declared that, if the prelates " delayed to heal the wounds of the Church, Christ would cut ofl: the corrupted members witli fire and sword. Christ had cast out the money-changers, why should not Leo exile the worshippers of the many golden calves? " In Italy, remarks Ranke, " no one