secret powers of nature. Every wonder-worker
was received with open arms by learned and unlearned alike. The
possibility of producing that which was out of the ordinary range of
natural occurrences was not seriously doubted by any. Spells and
enchantments, conjurations, calculations of nativities, were matters
earnestly investigated at Universities and Courts.

There were, of course, persons who were eager to detect impostors: and
amongst them some of the most zealous votaries of the occult arts--for
example, Trittheim and the learned Humanist, Conrad Muth or Mutianus,
both of whom professed to have regarded Faust as a fraudulent person.
But this did not imply any disbelief in the possibility of the alleged
pretensions. In the Faust-myth is embodied, moreover, the opposition
between the new learning on its physical side and the old religious
faith. The theory that the investigation of the mysteries of nature
had in it something sinister and diabolical which had been latent
throughout the Middle Ages, was brought into especial prominence by
the new religious movements. The popular feeling that the line between
natural magic and the black art was somewhat doubtful, that the one
had a tendency to shade off into the other, now received fresh
stimulus. The notion of compacts with the devil was a familiar one,
and that they should be resorted to for the purpose of acquiring an
acquaintance with hidden lore and magical powers seemed quite natural.

It will have already been seen from what we have said that the
religious revolt was largely economical in its causes. The intense
hatred, common alike to the smaller nobility, the burghers, and the
peasants, of the ecclesiastical hierarchy, was obviously due to its
ever-increasing exactions. The chief of these were the _pallium_ or
price paid to the Pope for an ecclesiastical investiture; the
_annates_ or first year's revenues of a church fief; and the _tithes_
which were of two kinds, the great tithe paid in agricultural produce,
and the small tithe consisting in a head of cattle. The latter seems
to have been especially obnoxious to the peasant. The sudden increase
in the sale of indulgences, like the proverbial last straw, broke down
the whole system; but any other incident might have served the purpose
equally well. The prince-prelates were in some instances, at the
outset, not averse to the movement; they would not have been
indisposed to have converted their territories into