As the 14th century ends, there is still no real sign of a diminution of the powers of astrologers. The French and English courts, the Bohemian court, the German court all relied on them to some extent, and it is difficult not to see serious attacks on them as uncharacteristic and even eccentric - except for jokes at the expense of the over-credulous; such as that of Sebastian Brant, in his Das Narrenschiff (Ship of fools), first published in 1494 in Basel.
This long satirical work sees the whole world as populated by fools, and attacks dishonest cooks, crooked lawyers, jerry-builders, blasphemers, cheating tradesmen, adulterous wives, with equally splenetic vigour. Astrologers, or 'star-gazers', were among his targets (as these lines, from William Gillis's translation, illustrate):
The stars, they say, aren't independent,
Events both great and small attendant
Upon them; every flea-brain notion
Is read in each celestial motion:
What he should say and what advise.
And will his fortunes sink or rise,
His plans, his actions, well or sick
Outrageous hocus-pocus trick.
The world, which grows more stultified,
To trust in fools is satisfied.
The traffic in these divinations
Appeals to printers' inclinations;
They print as much as fools can bring,
Each shameful word dolts say or sing.
The public's failure to reprove it
Must witness that the folk approve it ...
http://www.meta-religion.com/Esoterism/Astrology/first_cause_of_motion.htm