ll the forces making for equality among men probably the education
of the masses by means of cheap books and papers has been the
strongest. But this force has been slow to ripen; at the close of the
Middle Ages the common man was still helpless. The old privileged
orders were indeed weakened and despoiled of part of their
prerogatives, but it was chiefly by the rise of a new aristocracy, that
of wealth.

[Sidenote: Nobility]

The decay of feudalism and of ecclesiastical privilege took the form of
a changed and not of an abolished position for peer and priest. They
were not cashiered, {492} but they were retained on cheaper terms. The
feudal baron had been a petty king; his descendant had the option of
becoming either a highwayman or a courtier. As the former alternative
became less and less rewarding, the greater part of the old nobles
abandoned their pretensions to independence and found a congenial
sphere as satellities of a monarch, "le roi soleil," as a typical king
was aptly called, whose beams they reflected and around whom they
circled.

As titles of nobility began now to be quite commonly given to men of
wealth and also to politicians, the old blood was renewed at the
expense of the ancient pride. Not, indeed, that the latter showed any
signs of diminishing. The arrogance of the noble was past all
toleration. Men of rank treated the common citizens like dirt beneath
their feet, and even regarded artists and other geniuses as menials.
Alphonso, duke of Ferrara, wrote to Raphael in terms that no king would
now use to a photographer, calling him a liar and chiding him for
disrespect to his superior. The same duke required Ariosto to
prostitute his genius by writing an apology for a fratricide committed
by his grace. The duke of Mayenne poniarded one of his most devoted
followers for having aspired to the hand of the duke's widowed
daughter-in-law. So difficult was it to conceive of a "gentleman"
without gentle blood that Castiglione, the arbiter of manners, lays
down as the first prerequisite to a perfect courtier that he shall be
of high birth. And of course those who had not this advantage
pretended to it. An Italian in London noticed in 1557 that all
gentlemen without other title insisted on being called "mister."

[Sidenote: Professions]

One sign of the break-up of the old medieval castes was the new
classification of men by calling, or profession. It is true that two
of the professions, t