It's easy to think modern day intellectual "aristocrats" are extreme in their dismissal of peasants who fail to share their academic pedigree and views. But this point I came across in Charles Scribner's book about Peter Paul Rubens is interesting for the way things were back when aristocracy was based on actual lineage rather than credentials and correctness of views.
Rubens, who was quite the accomplished classical scholar and  a long time diplomat emissary, very well experienced in the intricacies of Catholic/Protestant and international relationships, was nominated for the post of Spanish ambassador to England, but he was passed over, as a person who made his living as an artist, ". . . because he practices a craft that in the end is base and done by hand. . ."