: here neither
prejudice nor privilege interfered with the free exercise of native
talent. Many a poor apprentice in the bureau of Bergen eventually
became the progenitor of a long race of distinguished merchants; and
some of these families are flourishing in Europe to-day. It is but
natural that the handicraftsman, once released from his bonds, should
have desired to share these privileges, more particularly as the old
aristocratic _regime_ constantly became more assertive and
presumptuous. It is necessary also to consider that the former social
position of the artisan should not be measured by present standards;
for the difference in the educational status of the classes was not
nearly so pronounced then as now, and the workman, moreover, was
characterized by a spirit often as chivalrous as that of the
commercial magnate. There is a well-authenticated case of a shoemaker
challenging another member of his craft to a duel--which, by the way,
had a fatal termination--without exciting either serious comment or
ridicule.

History teaches that where commerce and industry flourish, art also
secures its triumphs. The glorious Gothic cathedrals of the Hanseatic
cities bear eloquent testimony to this truth. "The Northlander who
entered the Trave or the Vistula and beheld the multitude of soaring
church spires must have felt as did once the German pilgrim to Rome,"
says a modern investigator. The principal representative and patron of
this art culture, here as elsewhere during the Middle Ages, was the
Church. But the splendid town halls as well as the few private
mansions preserved, with their step-like aggregation of gables, afford
convincing evidence alike of the solid appreciation of art as of the
love of splendor which characterized that distant generation. Certain
it is that they greatly surpassed us in the domain of Gothic
architecture. Owing to the strict adherence to the Catholic dogma a
scientific development in the modern sense was, of course, impossible
in those days; and, although most of the parish churches had their
schools also, these were commonly designed chiefly for the sons of
patricians, whose schooling usually embraced a little Latin and some
reading, writing, and singing. Not infrequently the only scholar in
the place was the town clerk, the forerunner of our present recorder.

The robust, healthy German of that day, yielding to a tendency which
has characterized our people from immemorial times, preferre