Page:History of the German people at the close of the Middle Ages vol1.djvu/300

 288 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE earnestness and the fearless humour which were the most characteristic features of the German middle classes of the period. He left the impress of his own individuality on the language, and more than one of his peculiar expressions or turns form the linguistic graces of succeeding generations. With fearless candour Brant reproaches those in power, both clerics and laymen, with their shortcomings. When and wherever he en- counters vice he exposes it unsparingly. Sometimes with severity, and again with wit, he brings before our eyes the miser and the usurer, the builder and the mechanic, the peasant and the beggar, the litigious, the gambler, and the astrologer. Of the latter he says : ' It is not fitting that a Christian should have recourse to pagan practices — that he should consult the planets whether it be the day to buy, to build, to fight, to many, or to form a friendship. Our work and conduct and recom- pense should come from God, and tend to Him alone.' It was not alone the vices and weaknesses of his time that Brant scourged unmercifully, but those which are common to humanity in all ages ; as, for instance, when he attacks the pride which makes men aspire beyond their condition, the vanity of the world, the dishonesty of adulterating merchandise, the want of conscience with which the labourer or mechanic ac- complishes his task, we see our own age as clearly mirrored as that in which the poet wrote. It speaks well, however, for the contemporaries of Brant that they accepted in such a good spirit corrections so severely given by him, Heynlin, and Geiler von Kaisers- berg. Brant is not a mere satirist or moralist, but a fervently religious poet, who brands all those as fools