39 2 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
which supported sacerdotalism. From the sixteenth century on the direct exploitation of the devout by the clergy greatly declined. The church, so far as it was still animated by greed, allied itself with the rising state and looked to the monarchy for revenue as a reward for throwing its influence in support of "the powers that be."
It is scarcely necessary to point out that fraud, although used freely by every exploiting class, is a favorite instrument of the class that aspires to the mastery of the mind. In connection with the church parasitic we have but to recall the False Decretals, the pseudo-miracles, the legends accumulating about saints and shrines, the Index librorum prohibitorum, the consecra- tion of "safe" science, the falsification of history, and the clerical control of the universities. It is noteworthy that, on the other hand, nearly every movement against parasitism has endeavored to dispel the ignorance of the masses by some form of free popular instruction. Taborites, Waldenses, Bohemian Brethren, Reformers, New England Puritans, French Revolu- tionists, and European Liberals, all have given enlightenment a leading place in their program of emancipation.
Over against fraud and superstition has been elaborated a technique of enlightenment. Freedom of meeting, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, the inviolability of the mails, the autonomy of institutions of learning, the liberty of investiga- tion, the freedom of teaching, the free public university, the free open library not without good cause have these come to be prized by democratic peoples.
Once the material foundations of its rule have crumbled an aristocratic class inevitably comes to attach great importance to pomp and circumstance. Pageantry, which is originally the swollen crimson crest of lordly pride, becomes an obligation and a solemnity when the nobility is no longer a match for the commonalty in physical contest. As the lords lose their power over the bodies of their subjects it is the more necessary to con- sider the impression on their minds. Accordingly the exterior of upper-class life comes in time to be regulated with an eye to the effect on the lower orders. Outwardly the mode of life of
