Early European History Part 108

A few years after the first Statute of Laborers the restlessness and discontent among the ma.s.ses led to a serious outbreak. It was one of the few attempts at violent revolution which the English working people have made. One of the inspirers of the rebellion was a wandering priest named John Ball. He went about preaching that all goods should be held in common and the distinction between lords and serfs wiped away. "When Adam delved and Eve span, who was then the gentleman?" asked John Ball. Uprisings occurred in nearly every part of England, but the one in Kent had most importance. The rioters marched on London and presented their demands to the youthful king, Richard II. He promised to abolish serfdom and to give them a free pardon. As soon, however, as Richard had gathered an army, he put down the revolt by force and hanged John Ball and about a hundred of his followers.

THE JACQUERIE, 1358 A.D.

The rebellion in England may be compared with the far more terrible Jacquerie [25] in France, a few years earlier. The French peasants, who suffered from feudal oppression and the effects of the Hundred Years' War, raged through the land, burning the castles and murdering their feudal lords. The movement had scarcely any reasonable purpose; it was an outburst of blind pa.s.sion. The n.o.bles avenged themselves by slaughtering the peasants in great numbers.

[Ill.u.s.tration: RICHARD II After an engraving based on the original in Westminster Abbey. Probably the oldest authentic portrait in England.]

EXTINCTION OF SERFDOM

Though these first great struggles of labor against capital were failures, the emanc.i.p.ation of the peasantry went steadily on throughout the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. By 1500 A.D. serfdom had virtually disappeared in Italy, in most parts of France, and in England. Some less- favored countries retained serfdom much longer. Prussian, Austrian, and Russian serfs did not receive their freedom until the nineteenth century.

CONDITION OF THE PEASANTRY

The extinction of serfdom was, of course, a forward step in human freedom, but the lot of the English and Continental peasantry long remained wretched. The poem of _Piers Plowman_, written in the time of Chaucer, shows the misery of the age and reveals a very different picture than that of the gay, holiday-making, merry England seen in the _Canterbury Tales_.

One hundred and fifty years later, the English humanist, Sir Thomas More, a friend of Erasmus, published his _Utopia_ as a protest against social abuses. _Utopia_, or "Nowhere," is an imaginary country whose inhabitants choose their own rulers, hold all property in common, and work only nine hours a day. In Utopia a public system of education prevails, cruel punishments are unknown, and every one enjoys complete freedom to wors.h.i.+p G.o.d. This remarkable book, though it pictures an ideal commonwealth, really antic.i.p.ates many social reforms of the present time.

STUDIES

1. Prepare a chronological chart showing the leading men of letters, artists, scientists, and educators mentioned in this chapter.

2. For what were the following persons noted: Chrysoloras; Vittorino da Feltre; Gutenberg; Boccaccio; Machiavelli; Harvey; and Galileo?

3. How did the words "machiavellism" and "utopian" get their present meanings?

4. Distinguish and define the three terms, "Renaissance," "Revival of Learning," and "Humanism."

5. "Next to the discovery of the New World, the recovery of the ancient world is the second landmark that divides us from the Middle Ages and marks the transition to modern life." Comment on this statement.

6. Why did the Renaissance begin as "an Italian event"?

7. "City-states have always proved favorable to culture." Ill.u.s.trate this remark.

8. Why was the revival of Greek more important in the history of civilization than the revival of Latin?

9. Show that printing was an "emanc.i.p.ating force."

10. With what paintings by the "old masters" are you familiar?

11. How does the opera differ from the oratorio?

12. Why has Froissart been styled the "French Herodotus"?

13. How many of Shakespeare's plays can you name? How many have you read?

14. Can you mention any of Shakespeare's plays which are founded on Italian stories or whose scenes are laid in Italy?

15. Why did the cla.s.sical scholar come to be regarded as the only educated man?

16. In what respects is the American system of education a realization of the ideals of Comenius?

17. Did the medieval interest in astrology r.e.t.a.r.d or further astronomical research?

18. How did the discoveries of Galileo and Kepler confirm the Copernican theory?

19. What is meant by the "emanc.i.p.ation of the peasantry"?

FOOTNOTES

[1] Webster, _Readings in Medieval and Modern History_, chapter xix, "A Scholar of the Renaissance"; chapter xx, "Renaissance Artists."

[2] See page 545.

[3] See page 413.

[4] See page 604.

[5] Latin _humanitas,_ from _h.o.m.o_, "man."

[6] See page 560.

[7] A Latin word meaning "cradle" or "birthplace," and so the beginning of anything.

[8] See page 574.

[9] See the plate facing page 591.

[10] See the ill.u.s.tration, page 202.

[11] For instance, the Invalides in Paris, St. Paul's in London, and the Capitol at Was.h.i.+ngton.

[12] In this chapel the election of a new pope takes place.

[13] See page 336.

[14] The so-called _Complutensian Polyglott_, issued at Alcala in Spain by Cardinal Jimenes, did even more for the advance of Biblical scholars.h.i.+p.

This was the first printed text of the Greek New Testament, but it was not actually published till 1522 A.D., six years after the appearance of the edition by Erasmus.

[15] A list of the great European painters would include at least the following names: Durer (1471-1582 A.D.) and Hans Holbein the Younger (1497-1543 A.D.) in Germany; Rubens (1577-1640 A.D.) and Van Dyck (1599- 1641 A.D.) in Flanders; Rembrandt (1606-1669 A.D.) in Holland; Claude Lorraine (1600-1682 A.D.) in France; and Velasquez (1599-1660 A.D.) and Murillo (1617-1682 A.D.) in Spain.

[16] See the ill.u.s.tration, page 442.

[17] The three-hundredth anniversary of Shakespeare's death was appropriately observed in 1916 A.D. throughout the world.

[18] See page 572.

[19] See page 133.