The didactic poetry of the Middle Ages, devoid as it largely is of romantic charm and artistic beauty, presents, nevertheless, a phenomenon of no little interest to the historical student. The growth of this species of literature is simultaneous with the decay of chivalric poetry, and it is one of the first manifestations of that commercial spirit which, together with the failure of the Crusades and the break down of the Hohenstaufén dynasty, marks the thirteenth century as one of the great turning epochs in European history. Three features of the didactic poetry are especially significant in this respect. First, what may be called the democratic attitude of the didactic writers. As a rule,1 they detest war, they abhor the unproductive life and the shallow amusements of the nobility, they extol the honesty and industry of the peaceful citizen; and if few of them go so far as to say with Hugo von Trimberg, that true love of mankind could be found only with the lower classes, since they alone were capable of self sacrifice, yet it is an adequate expression of the prevailing sentiment of his fellow writers when the sturdy Ulric Boner says that a poor freeman is richer than a rich man in dependence.