236 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ical and ecclesiastical powers, intertwined almost inextricably, had 

 to be overtlirown. All the theories of Nature and society, all the 

 absurd and hideous superstitions that disgraced the mediieval intel- 

 lect, had to be modified or destroyed. To prevent such a revolution, 

 which was certain not only to wipe out the moral abuses but to 

 reduce the enormous power and revenue of the state and church, the 

 fiercest conflict of modern times was precipitated. Although the 

 battle was a drawn one and brought about a reversion to intellectual 

 and political despotism, the human mind was not destined to be 

 reduced to its old enslavement. It had made acquisitions in free- 

 dom and knowledge that subsequent wars, subversive as they were, 

 could not take away. 



The social revolution that accompanied the action of the forces 

 set in operation by peace and industry was as great and far-reaching 

 as the political and intellectual. It swept away that vast, compli- 

 cated, and artificial system of class distinctions that prevailed in 

 every feudal country. Birth ceased to be the only title to rank, and 

 the profession of the soldier the only profession of a gentleman. The 

 creation of wealth outside of land, which was the only form of 

 property that could not be destroyed or carried away, brought a new 

 standard of social worth into the world. Other pursuits besides the 

 noble one of murder and pillage established a claim to social consid- 

 eration. Men of character and ability engaged in industrial and 

 professional occupations began to rank with the warrior and 

 noble. Merchants, bankers, and lawyers that rose to wealth and 

 eminence received the same honors that were bestowed upon men 

 that won reno%vn on the field of battle. Like the Fuggers in Ger- 

 many and Jacques Coeur and Jean Ango in France, they became the 

 friends and confidants of kings and princes. " Louis XI, like Charles 

 VIII," says Pigeonneau, " surrounded himself with men of the 

 middle class; he knew that they had more special knowledge, more 

 docility, more fidelity, ' because they could not outrank him.' " So 

 great was the esteem in which industrial pursuits were held in the 

 ISTetherlands that even Philip II created the Order of the Golden 

 Fleece to reward the men that had achieved eminence in them. 

 Alarmed at the havoc that industrialism was working with the social 

 hierarchy in France, the Due de Sully, the chief minister of Henry 

 IV, complained that " the confusion of ranks " and " the degradation 

 of people of quality " were among the evils that endangered the mon- 

 archy. As early as the reign of Francis I, which had been preceded 

 by the great outburst of national prosperity that followed the close 

 of the Hundred Years' War, a similar complaint had been made. 

 " Because of the opulence and peace that prevail in France," says a 

 writer of the time, " the pride of all classes has increased more and 



