THE GROWTH OF FREEDOM 63 



Peasant life of the old style, already beginning 

 to decay in the XlVth century, had its peculiar 

 features of which it is desirable to obtain 

 some general impression, before proceeding 

 to consider the reconstruction of rural 

 England that began in the later years of that century. 



The peasantry, who formed the bulk of the nation, 

 lived a hard life and were occasionally the victims 

 of great disasters, famines, plagues and devastating 

 armies. But there is little reason to believe that the 

 life was degraded : the peasants, indeed, lived in close 

 touch with nature, and from nature they derived not 

 only a certain breadth of vision but a definite religious 

 outlook on life. This outlook accorded with the 

 position held in those days by the Church, a body 

 powerful not only in spiritual but in material matters. 

 In the village the Church was represented by the priest, 

 a man who had much work to do outside his religious 

 duties. Not only had he land to cultivate, but much 

 public business fell to him. He took a leading part 

 in the parish meetings and other forms of local 

 government, worked with his parishioners in the gilds, 

 if such there were, and in the organization of amuse- 

 ments and social life ; relieved poverty with a share 

 of the tithes or other dues that came into his hands, 

 and generally kept in close touch with the peoples' 

 lives. Sometimes he himself belonged to the peasant 

 class, and in few cases could he have been much above 

 it, for the aristocratic rector, though not unknown, 

 must have been a rarity. The Church was also repre- 

 sented by the great monasteries and the prelates, 

 controlling as landholders a large part of the country- 

 side : they had a widespread influence even beyond 

 their own estates, through the help they gave in the 



