The fall of feudalism, which meant the break-up of the power of the nobles, had as great an influence on the position of women in England as the overthrow of the supremacy of the Roman Church. Women in everyday life are more affected by a social than a religious change. The king might refuse to acknowledge the authority of the Pope, monasteries might be stripped of their wealth and the Church of its endowments, but women who were not nuns, or destined for a religious life, did not feel the upheaval which was undermining the power of the priest as they felt the storm which shattered the power of the noble. Whatever the form of Church government might be, women did not cease to recognize the duty of obedience to spiritual directors. But when the family no longer owed obedience to a feudal lord, when personal service was at an end, when the labourer was free to work for his own profit, the change that was passing over social life was very distinctly felt by families in the humbler ranks. Of the third great force, the mental freedom given by the Renaissance, there are naturally fewer signs, for its influence was confined chiefly to the upper classes. The dawn of the sixteenth century was the dawn of a new era, social, religious, and commercial. It was the beginning of a gradual transformation which with every century, with every generation, takes some new form, and is sometimes called progress, sometimes revolution, but which moves on with the same relentless persistence as the laws that govern the earth. It was a rough world in which women found themselves at liberty to come and go, to taste new pleasures, enjoy fresh luxuries, hear new opinions, and think new thoughts. But, at least, it was a world of action, of striving, of pushing forward. Despotic as was the throne, oppressive as were the new landowning class, a freer spirit prevailed. Social changes work gradually, and their influence is not at once perceived; but the germ of modern England was working in those days of religious stress, intellectual activity, and commercial enterprise. The visits of foreigners to England in the sixteenth century enable us to see ourselves as others saw us. The position of women and the relations of the sexes always excited comment from strangers.