gious were the
examples of the Reformers. [Sidenote: 1536] Venice forbade gifts or
legacies to church or cloisters. [Sidenote: 1557] France, where
confiscation was proposed, [Sidenote: 1516] partially attained the same
ends by subjecting the clergy to the power of the crown.

[Sidenote: Bourgeoisie]

Among the groups into which society naturally falls is that of the
intellectual class, the body of professional men, scientists, writers
and teachers. [Sidenote: Bribes the intelligentsia] This group, just
as it came into a new prominence in the sixteenth century, at the same
time became in part an annex and a servant to the money power. The
high expense of education as compared with the Middle Ages, the
enormous fees then charged for graduating in professional schools, the
custom of buying {552} livings in the church and practices in law and
medicine, the need of patronage in letters and art, made it nearly
impossible for the sons of the poor to enter into the palace of
learning. Moreover the patronage of the wealthy, their assertion of a
monopoly of good form and social prestige, seduced the professional
class that now ate from the merchant's hand, aped his manners, and
served his interests. For four hundred years law, divinity,
journalism, art, and education, have cut their coats, at least to some
extent, in the fashion of the court of wealth.

[Sidenote: And subjugates the proletariat]

Last of all, there remained the only power that proved itself nearly a
match for money, that of labor. Far outnumbering the capitalists, in
every other way the workers were their inferiors,--in education, in
organization, in leadership and in material resources. One thing that
made their struggle so hard was that those men of exceptional ability
who might have been their leaders almost always made fortunes of their
own and then turned their strength against their former comrades.
Labor also suffered terribly from quacks and ranters with counsels of
folly or of madness.

The social wars of the sixteenth century partook of the characteristics
of both medieval and modern times. The Peasants' Revolt in Germany was
both communistic and religious; the risings of Communeros and the
Hermandad in Spain were partly communistic; the several rebellions in
England were partly religious. But a new element marked them all, the
demand on the part of the workers for better wages and living
conditions. The proletariat of town and minin