Page:History of the German people at the close of the Middle Ages vol1.djvu/240

 228 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE The grotesque carvings in the churches and monas- teries, particularly on the choir seats, fulfilled the same mission to the clergy that the Court jester did to the nobles. In accordance with the spirit of the times, jesters were given to the princes, ' as highly polished mirrors which humorously reflected their own weak- nesses.' As long as the position of the Church on her eternal pillars was acknowledged, it pleased her to see the spirit of humour lashing the abuses of those who held secular or spiritual power by ridiculing the public luxury and extreme love of worldly things. These railleries became dangerous only when authority was weakened and the spirit of God Himself denied. All restraint being then removed, what had previously been light banter became lawless license and vulgar caricature, threatening popu- lar demoralisation. In an age when a protecting law forbade excess and the object proposed was understood, the bringing into contrast of things elevated with things commonplace was not only tolerated, but encouraged, even though it sometimes bordered on the coarse ; for example, we find an artist with great patience and pious reverence illuminating a prophecy in a prayer-book, and in the decoration of the vignette he draws an ape like a hunter aiming his arrow at another, who turns his back for a target. The pen-and-ink sketches with which Diirer illustrated a prayer-book for the Emperor Maximilian are full of comic allusions. 1 For instance, 1 A. Diirer's Randzeichmmgcn aus dem Gebetbuch Maximilia7is X. (Stoger : Munich, 1850). For explanations see Heller, i. pp. 369-386 ; Thausing, Diirer's Leben, pp. 380-381 ; Schafer, Deutsche Stadtnahr- zeichen, Hire Entstehung, Geschichte und Deutung, vol. i. (Leipsic, 1858).