Page:History of the German people at the close of the Middle Ages vol1.djvu/148

 136 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE description all agree in praising his works for their simplicity, brevity, and clearness. He was called ' The King of Theologians/ Summenhart and Biel may be cited with Trithemius, Heynlin, Eeiseh, and others, as instances of the in- difference shown by the leading German scholastics at the close of the fifteenth century to empty speculations and subtleties of thought, and of the manner in which they grappled with the questions and requirements of the day. Bid's opinions on the prices of goods and on the question of wages are still well worthy of study. His work on gold coinage is, indeed, a ' golden book.' On the subject of the prince's right to determine the coin value he expresses himself as follows : ' The ruler, it is true, has the right of coinage, but the coins in circula- tion do not belong to him, but to those among whom they circulate, who have received them in exchange for bread, labour, and so forth. It is, therefore, an act of fraud for the ruler to recall it at a depreciated value ; this would be as despotic and tyrannical as if he fixed a price on his subject's corn with a view to specula- tion.' Biel is equally emphatic in his condemnation of the State for infringing on the forest, pasture, and water rights of the people. Under the growing despotism of the princes it was high time for Biel to sound the cry that ' the princes were only there to carry out the wishes of the nation, and that to oppress the people with taxes was an offence before God and man.' Ingolstadt, the fourth of the newly founded uni- versities in South Germany, attained a high reputa- tion in the first decades of its existence, and drew to