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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Mediaeval Socialism, by Bede Jarrett
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Mediaeval Socialism
+
+
+Author: Bede Jarrett
+
+
+
+Release Date: October 4, 2006  [eBook #19468]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MEDIAEVAL SOCIALISM***
+
+
+E-text prepared by David Clarke, Martin Pettit, and the Project Gutenberg
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net/) from page
+images generously made available by Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries
+(http://www.archive.org/details/toronto)
+
+
+
+Note: Images of the original pages are available through
+      Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries. See
+      http://www.archive.org/details/mediaevalsocial00jarruoft
+
+
+
+
+
+MEDIAEVAL SOCIALISM
+
+by
+
+BEDE JARRETT, O.P., M.A.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Logo]
+
+
+
+London: T. C. & E. C. Jack
+67 Long Acre, W.C., and Edinburgh
+New York: Dodge Publishing Co.
+
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+CHAP.                               PAGE
+
+  I. INTRODUCTION                      5
+
+ II. SOCIAL CONDITIONS                17
+
+III. THE COMMUNISTS                   29
+
+ IV. THE SCHOOLMEN                    41
+
+  V. THE LAWYERS                      55
+
+ VI. THE SOCIAL REFORMERS             68
+
+VII. THE THEORY OF ALMS-GIVING        80
+
+     BIBLIOGRAPHY                     91
+
+     INDEX                            93
+
+
+MEDIAEVAL SOCIALISM
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+
+The title of this book may not unnaturally provoke suspicion. After all,
+howsoever we define it, socialism is a modern thing, and dependent
+almost wholly on modern conditions. It is an economic theory which has
+been evolved under pressure of circumstances which are admittedly of no
+very long standing. How then, it may be asked, is it possible to find
+any real correspondence between theories of old time and those which
+have grown out of present-day conditions of life? Surely whatever
+analogy may be drawn between them must be based on likenesses which
+cannot be more than superficial.
+
+The point of view implied in this question is being increasingly adopted
+by all scientific students of social and political opinions, and is most
+certainly correct. Speculation that is purely philosophic may indeed
+turn round upon itself. The views of Grecian metaphysicians may continue
+for ever to find enthusiastic adherents; though even here, in the realm
+of purely abstract reasoning, the progressive development of science, of
+psychology, and kindred branches of knowledge cannot fail by its
+influence to modify the form and arrangement of thought. But in those
+purely positive sciences (if indeed sciences they can properly be
+called) which deal with the life of man and its organisation, the very
+principles and postulates will be found to need continual readjustment.
+For with man's life, social, political, economic, we are in contact with
+forces which are of necessity always in a state of flux. For example,
+the predominance of agriculture, or of manufacture, or of commerce in
+the life of the social group must materially alter the attitude of the
+statesman who is responsible for its fortunes; and the progress of the
+nation from one to another stage of her development often entails (by
+altering from one class to another the dominant position of power) the
+complete reversal of her traditional maxims of government. Human life is
+not static, but dynamic. Hence the theories weaved round it must
+themselves be subject to the law of continuous development.
+
+It is obvious that this argument cannot be gainsaid; and yet at the same
+time we may not be in any way illogical in venturing on an inquiry as to
+whether, in centuries not wholly dissimilar from our own, the mind of
+man worked itself out along lines parallel in some degree to
+contemporary systems of thought. Man's life differs, yet are the
+categories which mould his ideas eternally the same.
+
+But before we go on to consider some early aspects of socialism, we must
+first ascertain what socialism itself essentially implies. Already
+within the lifetime of the present generation the word has greatly
+enlarged the scope of its significance. Many who ten years ago would
+have objected to it as a name of ill-omen see in it now nothing which
+may not be harmonised with the most ordinary of political and social
+doctrines. It is hardly any longer the badge of a school. Yet it does
+retain at any rate the bias of a tendency. It suggests chiefly the
+transference of ownership in land and capital from private hands into
+their possession in some form or other by the society. The means of this
+transference, and the manner in which this social possession is to be
+maintained, are very widely debated, and need not here be determined; it
+is sufficient for the matter of this book to have it granted that in
+this lies the germ of the socialistic theory of the State.
+
+Once more it must be admitted that the meaning of "private ownership"
+and "social possession" will vary exceedingly in each age. When private
+dominion has become exceedingly individual and practically absolute, the
+opposition between the two terms will necessarily be very sharp. But in
+those earlier stages of national and social evolution, when the
+community was still regarded as composed, not of persons, but of groups,
+the antagonism might be, in point of theory, extremely limited; and in
+concrete cases it might possibly be difficult to determine where one
+ended and the other began. Yet it is undeniable that socialism in itself
+need mean no more than the central principle of State-ownership of
+capital and land. Such a conception is consistent with much private
+property in other forms than land and capital, and will be worked out in
+detail differently by different minds. But it is the principle, the
+essence of it, which justifies any claims made to the use of the name.
+We may therefore fairly call those theories socialistic which are
+covered by this central doctrine, and disregard, as irrelevant to the
+nature of the term, all added peculiarities contributed by individuals
+who have joined their forces to the movement.
+
+By socialistic theories of the Middle Ages, therefore, we mean no more
+than those theories which from time to time came to the surface of
+political and social speculation in the form of communism, or of some
+other way of bringing about the transference which we have just
+indicated. But before plunging into the tanglement of these rather
+complicated problems, it will make for clearness if we consider quite
+briefly the philosophic heritage of social teaching to which the Middle
+Ages succeeded.
+
+The Fathers of the Church had found themselves confronted with
+difficulties of no mean subtlety. On the one hand, the teaching of the
+Scriptures forced upon them the religious truth of the essential
+equality of all human nature. Christianity was a standing protest
+against the exclusiveness of the Jewish faith, and demanded through the
+attendance at one altar the recognition of an absolute oneness of all
+its members. The Epistles of St. Paul, which were the most scientific
+defence of Christian doctrine, were continually insisting on the fact
+that for the new faith there was no real division between Greek or
+barbarian, bond or free. Yet, on the other hand, there were equally
+unequivocal expressions concerning the reverence and respect due to
+authority and governance. St. Peter had taught that honour should be
+paid to Caesar, when Caesar was no other than Nero. St. Paul had as
+clearly preached subjection to the higher powers. Yet at the same time
+we know that the Christian truth of the essential equality of the whole
+human race was by some so construed as to be incompatible with the
+notion of civil authority. How, then, was this paradox to be explained?
+If all were equal, what justification would there be for civil
+authority? If civil authority was to be upheld, wherein lay the meaning
+of St. Paul's many boasts of the new levelling spirit of the Christian
+religion? The paradox was further complicated by two other problems. The
+question of the authority of the Imperial Government was found to be
+cognate with the questions of the institution of slavery and of private
+property. Here were three concrete facts on which the Empire seemed to
+be based. What was to be the Christian attitude towards them?
+
+After many attempted explanations, which were largely personal, and,
+therefore, may be neglected here, a general agreement was come to by the
+leading Christian teachers of East and West. This was based on a
+theological distinction between human nature as it existed on its first
+creation, and then as it became in the state to which it was reduced
+after the fall of Adam. Created in original justice, as the phrase ran,
+the powers of man's soul were in perfect harmony. His sensitive nature,
+_i.e._ his passions, were in subjection to his will, his will to his
+reason, his reason to God. Had man continued in this state of innocence,
+government, slavery, and private property would never have been
+required. But Adam fell, and in his fall, said these Christian doctors,
+the whole conditions of his being were disturbed. The passions broke
+loose, and by their violence not unfrequently subjected the will to
+their dictatorship; together with the will they obscured and prejudiced
+the reason, which under their compulsion was no longer content to follow
+the Divine Reason or the Eternal Law of God. In a word, where order had
+previously reigned, a state of lawlessness now set in. Greed, lust for
+power, the spirit of insubordination, weakness of will, feebleness of
+mind, ignorance, all swarmed into the soul of man, and disturbed not
+merely the internal economy of his being, but his relations also to his
+fellows. The sin of Cain is the social result of this personal upheaval.
+
+Society then felt the evils which attended this new condition of things,
+and it was driven, according to this patristic idea, to search about for
+remedies in order to restrain the anarchy which threatened to overwhelm
+the very existence of the race. Hence was introduced first of all the
+notion of a civil authority. It was found that without it, to use a
+phrase which Hobbes indeed has immortalised, but which can be easily
+paralleled from the writings of St. Ambrose or St. Augustine, "life was
+nasty, brutish, and short." To this idea of authority, there was quickly
+added the kindred ideas of private property and slavery. These two were
+found equally necessary for the well-being of human society. For the
+family became a determined group in which the patriarch wielded absolute
+power; his authority could be effective only when it could be employed
+not only over his own household, but also against other households, and
+thus in defence of his own. Hence the family must have the exclusive
+right to certain things. If others objected, the sole arbitrament was an
+appeal to force, and then the vanquished not only relinquished their
+claims to the objects in dispute, but became the slaves of those to whom
+they had previously stood in the position of equality and rivalry.
+
+Thus do the Fathers of the Church justify these three institutions. They
+are all the result of the Fall, and result from sin. Incidentally it may
+be added that much of the language in which Hildebrand and others spoke
+of the civil power as "from the devil" is traceable to this theological
+concept of the history of its origin, and much of their hard language
+means no more than this. Private property, therefore, is due to the
+Fall, and becomes a necessity because of the presence of sin in the
+world.
+
+But it is not only from the Fathers of the Church that the mediaeval
+tradition drew its force. For parallel with this patristic explanation
+came another, which was inherited from the imperial legalists. It was
+based upon a curious fact in the evolution of Roman law, which must now
+be shortly described.
+
+For the administration of justice in Rome two officials were chosen, who
+between them disposed of all the cases in dispute. One, the _Praetor
+Urbanus_, concerned himself in all litigation between Roman citizens;
+the other, the _Praetor Peregrinus_, had his power limited to those
+matters only in which foreigners were involved; for the growth of the
+Roman _Imperium_ had meant the inclusion of many under its suzerainty
+who could not boast technical citizenship. The _Praetor Urbanus_ was
+guided in his decisions by the codified law of Rome; but the _Praetor
+Peregrinus_ was in a very different position. He was left almost
+entirely to his own resources. Hence it was customary for him, on his
+assumption of office, to publish a list of the principles by which he
+intended to settle all the disputes between foreigners that were brought
+to his court. But on what foundation could his declaratory act be based?
+He was supposed to have previously consulted the particular laws of as
+many foreign nations as was possible, and to have selected from among
+them those which were found to be held in common by a number of tribes.
+The fact of this consensus to certain laws on the part of different
+races was supposed to imply that these were fragments of some larger
+whole, which came eventually to be called indifferently the Law of
+Nature, or the Law of Nations. For at almost the very date when this
+Law of Nations was beginning thus to be built up, the Greek notion of
+one supreme law, which governed the whole race and dated from the lost
+Golden Age, came to the knowledge of the lawyers of Rome. They proceeded
+to identify the two really different concepts, and evolved for
+themselves the final notion of a fundamental rule, essential to all
+moral action. In time, therefore, this supposed Natural Law, from its
+venerable antiquity and universal acceptance, acquired an added sanction
+and actually began to be held in greater respect than even the declared
+law of Rome. The very name of Nature seemed to bring with it greater
+dignity. But at the same time it was carefully explained that this _Lex
+Naturae_ was not absolutely inviolable, for its more accurate
+description was _Lex_ or _Jus Gentium_. That is to say, it was not to be
+considered as a primitive law which lay embedded like first principles
+in human nature; but that it was what the nations had derived from
+primitive principles, not by any force of logic, but by the simple
+evolution of life. The human race had found by experience that the
+observance of the natural law entailed as a direct consequence the
+establishment of certain institutions. The authority, therefore, which
+these could boast was due to nothing more than the simple struggle for
+existence. Among these institutions were those same three (civil
+authority, slavery, private property), which the Fathers had come to
+justify by so different a method of argument. Thus, by the late Roman
+lawyers private property was upheld on the grounds that it had been
+found necessary by the human race in its advance along the road of life.
+To our modern ways of thinking it seems as though they had almost
+stumbled upon the theory of evolution, the gradual unfolding of social
+and moral perfection due to the constant pressure of circumstances, and
+the ultimate survival of what was most fit to survive. It was almost by
+a principle of natural selection that mankind was supposed to have
+determined the necessity of civil authority, slavery, private property,
+and the rest. The pragmatic test of life had been applied and had proved
+their need.
+
+A third powerful influence in the development of Christian social
+teaching must be added to the others in order the better to grasp the
+mental attitude of the mediaeval thinkers. This was the rise and growth
+of monasticism. Its early history has been obscured by much legendary
+detail; but there is sufficient evidence to trace it back far into the
+beginnings of Christianity. Later there had come the stampede into the
+Thebaid, where both hermit life and the gathering together of many into
+a community seem to have been equally allowed as methods of asceticism.
+But by the fifth century, in the East and the West the movement had been
+effectively organised. First there was the canonical theory of life,
+introduced by St. Augustine. Then St. Basil and St. Benedict composed
+their Rules of Life, though St. Benedict disclaimed any idea of being
+original or of having begun something new. Yet, as a matter of fact, he,
+even more efficiently than St. Basil, had really introduced a new force
+into Christendom, and thereby became the undoubted father of Western
+monasticism.
+
+Now this monasticism had for its primary intention the contemplation of
+God. In order to attain this object more perfectly, certain subsidiary
+observances were considered necessary. Their declared purpose was only
+to make contemplation easier; and they were never looked upon as
+essential to the monastic profession, but only as helps to its better
+working. Among these safeguards of monastic peace was included the
+removal of all anxieties concerning material well-being. Personal
+poverty--that is, the surrender of all personal claim to things the care
+of which might break in upon the fixed contemplation of God--was
+regarded as equally important for this purpose as obedience, chastity,
+and the continued residence in a certain spot. It had indeed been
+preached as a counsel of perfection by Christ Himself in His advice to
+the rich young man, and its significance was now very powerfully set
+forth by the Benedictine and other monastic establishments.
+
+It is obvious that the existence of institutions of this kind was bound
+to exercise an influence upon Christian thought. It could not but be
+noticed that certain individual characters, many of whom claimed the
+respect of their generation, treated material possessions as hindrances
+to spiritual perfection. Through their example private property was
+forsworn, and community of possession became prominently put forward as
+being more in accordance with the spirit of Christ, who had lived with
+His Apostles, it was declared, out of the proceeds of a common purse.
+The result, from the point of view of the social theorists of the day,
+was to confirm the impression that private property was not a thing of
+much sanctity. Already, as we have seen, the Fathers had been brought to
+look at it as something sinful in its origin, in that the need of it was
+due entirely to the fall of our first parents. Then the legalists of
+Rome had brought to this the further consideration that mere expedience,
+universal indeed, but of no moral sanction, had dictated its institution
+as the only way to avoid continual strife among neighbours. And now the
+whole force of the religious ideals of the time was thrown in the same
+balance. Eastern and Western monasticism seemed to teach the same
+lesson, that private property was not in any sense a sacred thing.
+Rather it seemed to be an obstacle to the perfect devotion of man's
+being to God; and community of possession and life began to boast itself
+to be the more excellent following of Christ.
+
+Finally it may be asserted that the social concept of feudalism lent
+itself to the teaching of the same lesson. For by it society was
+organised upon a system of land tenure whereby each held what was his of
+one higher than he, and was himself responsible for those beneath him in
+the social scale. Landowners, therefore, in the modern sense of the
+term, had no existence--there were only landholders. The idea of
+absolute dominion without condition and without definite duties could
+have occurred to none. Each lord held his estate in feud, and with a
+definite arrangement for participating in the administration of justice,
+in the deliberative assembly, and in the war bands of his chief, who in
+turn owed the same duties to the lord above him. Even the king, who
+stood at the apex of this pyramid, was supposed to be merely holding his
+power and his territorial domain as representing the nation. At his
+coronation he bound himself to observe certain duties as the condition
+of his royalty, and he had to proclaim his own acceptance of these
+conditions before he could be anointed and crowned as king. Did he break
+through his coronation-oath, then the pledge of loyalty made by the
+people was considered to be in consequence without any binding force,
+and his subjects were released from their obedience. In this way, then,
+also private property was not likely to be deemed equivalent to absolute
+possession. It was held conditionally, and was not unfrequently
+forfeited for offences against the feudal code. It carried with it
+burdens which made its holding irksome, especially for all those who
+stood at the bottom of the scale, and found that the terms of their
+possession were rigorously enforced against them. The death of the
+tenant and the inheriting of his effects by his eldest son was made the
+occasion for exactions by the superior lord; for to him belonged certain
+of the dead man's military accoutrements as pledges, open and manifest,
+of the continued supremacy to be exercised over the successor.
+
+Thus the extremely individual ideas as regards the holding of land which
+are to-day so prevalent would then have been hardly understood. Every
+external authority, the whole trend of public opinion, the teaching of
+the Christian Fathers, the example of religious bodies, the inherited
+views that had come down to the later legalists from the digests of the
+imperial era, the basis of social order, all deflected the scale against
+the predominance of any view of land tenure or holding which made it an
+absolute and unrestricted possession. Yet at the same time, and for the
+same cause, the modern revolt against all individual possession would
+have been for the mediaeval theorists equally hard to understand.
+Absolute communism, or the idea of a State which under the magic of that
+abstract title could interfere with the whole social order, was too
+utterly foreign to their ways of thinking to have found a defender. The
+king they knew, and the people, and the Church; but the State (which the
+modern socialist invokes) would have been an unimaginable thing.
+
+In that age, therefore, we must not expect to find any fully-fledged
+Socialism. We must be content to notice theories which are socialistic
+rather than socialist.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+SOCIAL CONDITIONS
+
+
+So long as a man is in perfect health, the movements of his life-organs
+are hardly perceptible to him. He becomes conscious of their existence
+only when something has happened to obstruct their free play. So, again,
+is it with the body politic, for just so long as things move easily and
+without friction, hardly are anyone's thoughts stimulated in the
+direction of social reform. But directly distress or disturbance begin
+to be felt, public attention is awakened, and directed to the
+consideration of actual conditions. Schemes are suggested, new ideas
+broached. Hence, that there were at all in the Middle Ages men with
+remedies to be applied to "the open sores of the world," makes us
+realise that there must have been in mediaeval life much matter for
+discontent. Perhaps not altogether unfortunately, the seeds of unrest
+never need much care in sowing, for the human heart would else advance
+but little towards "the perfect day." The rebels of history have been as
+necessary as the theorists and the statesmen; indeed, but for the
+rebels, the statesmen would probably have remained mere politicians.
+
+Upon the ruins of the late Empire the Germanic races built up their
+State. Out of the fragments of the older _villa_ they erected the
+_manor_. No doubt this new social unit contained the strata of many
+civilisations; but it will suffice here to recognise that, while it is
+perhaps impossible to apportion out to each its own particular
+contribution to the whole result, the manor must have been affected
+quite considerably by Roman, Celt, and Teuton. The chief difference
+which we notice between this older system and the conditions of modern
+agricultural life--for the manor was pre-eminently a rural
+organism--lies in the enormous part then played in the organisation of
+society by the idea of Tenure. For, through all Western civilisation,
+from the seventh century to the fourteenth, the personal equation was
+largely merged in the territorial. One and all, master and man, lord and
+tenant, were "tied to the soil." Within the manor there was first the
+land held in demesne, the "in-land"--this was the perquisite of the lord
+himself; it was farmed by him directly. Only when modern methods began
+to push out the old feudal concepts do we find this portion of the
+estate regularly let out to tenants, though there are evidences of its
+occasionally having been done even in the twelfth century. But besides
+what belonged thus exclusively to the lord of the manor, there was a
+great deal more that was legally described as held in villeinage. That
+is to say, it was in the hands of others, who had conditional use of it.
+In England these tenants were chiefly of three kinds--the villeins, the
+cottiers, the serfs. The first held a house and yard in the village
+street, and had in the great arable fields that surrounded them strips
+of land amounting sometimes to thirty acres. To their lord they owed
+work for three days each week; they also provided oxen for the plough.
+But more than half of their time could be devoted to the farming of
+their property. Then next in order came the cottiers, whose holding
+probably ran to not more than five acres. They had no plough-work, and
+did more of the manual labour of the farm, such as hedging,
+nut-collecting, &c. A much greater portion of their time than was the
+case with the villeins was at the disposal of their master, nor indeed,
+owing to the lesser extent of their property, did they need so much
+opportunity for working their own land. Lowest in the scale of all
+(according to the Domesday Book of William I, the first great land-value
+survey of all England, they numbered not more than sixteen per cent. of
+the whole population) came the slaves or serfs. These had almost
+exclusively the live stock to look after, being engaged as foresters,
+shepherds, swineherds, and servants of the household. They either lived
+under the lord's own roof, or might even have their cottage in the
+village with its strip of land about it, sufficient, with the provisions
+and cloth provided them, to eke out a scanty livelihood. Distinct from
+these three classes and their officials (bailiffs, seneschals, reeves,
+&c.) were the free tenants, who did no regular work for the manor, but
+could not leave or part with their land. Their services were
+requisitioned at certain periods like harvest-time, when there came a
+demand for more than the ordinary number of hands. This sort of labour
+was known as boon-work.
+
+It is clear at once that, theoretically at least, there was no room in
+such a community for the modern landless labourer. Where all the workers
+were paid by their tenancy of land, where, in other words, fixity and
+stability of possession were the very basis of social life, the fluidity
+of labour was impossible. Men could not wander from place to place
+offering to employers the hire of their toil. Yet we feel sure that, in
+actual fact, wherever the population increased, there must have grown up
+in the process of time a number of persons who could find neither work
+nor maintenance on their father's property. Younger sons, or more remote
+descendants, must gradually have found that there was no scope for them,
+unless, like an artisan class, they worked for wages. Exactly at what
+date began the rise of this agricultural and industrial class of fee
+labourers we cannot very clearly tell. But in England--and probably the
+same holds good elsewhere--between 1200 and 1350 there are traces of its
+great development. There is evidence, which each year becomes more ample
+and more definite, that during that period there was an increasingly
+large number of people pressing on the means of subsistence. Though the
+land itself might be capable of supporting a far greater number of
+inhabitants, the part under cultivation could only just have been enough
+to keep the actually existing population from the margin of destitution.
+The statutes in English law which protest against a wholesale occupation
+of the common-land by individuals were not directed merely against the
+practices of a landlord class, for the makers of the law were themselves
+landlords. It is far more likely that this invasion of village rights
+was due to the action of these "landless men," who could not otherwise
+be accommodated. The superfluous population was endeavouring to find for
+itself local maintenance.
+
+Precisely at this time, too, in England--where the steps in the
+evolution from mediaeval to modern conditions have been more clearly
+worked out than elsewhere--increase of trade helped to further the same
+development. Money, species, in greater abundance was coming into
+circulation. The traders were beginning to take their place in the
+national life. The Guilds were springing into power, and endeavouring to
+capture the machinery of municipal government. As a result of all this
+commercial activity money payments became more frequent. The villein was
+able to pay his lord instead of working for him, and by the sale of the
+produce from his own yard-land was put in a position to hire helpers for
+himself, and to develop his own agricultural resources. Nor was it the
+tenant alone who stood to gain by this arrangement. The lord, too, was
+glad of being possessed of money. He, too, needed it as a substitute for
+his duty of military service to the king, for scutage (the payment of a
+tax graduated according to the number of knights, which each baron had
+to lead personally in time of war as a condition of holding land at all)
+had taken the place of the old feudal levy. Moreover, he was probably
+glad to obtain hired labour in exchange for the forced labour which the
+system of tenure made general; just as later the abolition of slavery
+was due largely to the fact that, in the long run, it did not pay to
+have the plantations worked by men whose every advantage it was to shirk
+as much toil as possible.
+
+But in most cases, as far as can be judged now, the lord was methodical
+in releasing services due to him. The week-work was first and freely
+commuted, for regular hired labour was easy to obtain; but the
+boon-work--the work, that is, which was required for unusual
+circumstances of a purely temporary character (such as harvesting,
+&c.)--was, owing to the obvious difficulty of its being otherwise
+supplied, only arranged for in the last resort. Thus, by one of the many
+paradoxes of history, the freest of all tenants were the last to achieve
+freedom. When the serfs had been set at liberty by manumission, the
+socage-tenants or free-tenants, as they were called, were still bound by
+their fixed agreements of tenure. It is evident, however, that such
+emancipation as did take place was conditioned by the supply of free
+labour, primarily, that is, by the rising surplus of population. Not
+until he was certain of being able to hire other labourers would a
+landholder let his own tenants slip off the burdens of their service.
+
+But this process, by which labour was rendered less stationary, was
+immeasurably hastened by the advent of a terrible catastrophe. In 1347
+the Black Death arrived from the East. Across Europe it moved, striking
+fear by the inevitableness of its coming. It travelled at a steady rate,
+so that its arrival could be easily foretold. Then, too, the
+unmistakable nature of its symptoms and the suddenness of the death it
+caused also added to the horror of its approach.
+
+On August 15, 1349, it got to Bristol, and by Michaelmas had reached
+London. For a year or more it ravaged the countryside, so that whole
+villages were left without inhabitants. Seeing England so stunned by the
+blow, the Scots prepared to attack, thinking the moment propitious for
+paying off old scores; but their army, too, was smitten by the
+pestilence, and their forces broke up. Into every glen of Wales it
+worked its havoc; in Ireland only the English were affected--the "wild
+Irish" were immune. But in 1357 even these began to suffer. Curiously
+enough, Geoffrey Baker in his Chronicle (which, written in his own hand,
+after six hundred years yet remains in the Bodleian at Oxford) tells us
+that none fell till they were afraid of it. Still more curiously,
+Chaucer, Langland, and Wycliff, who all witnessed it, hardly mention it
+at all. There could not be any more eloquent tribute to the nameless
+horror that it caused than this hushed silence on the part of three of
+England's greatest writers.
+
+Henry Knighton of Leicester Abbey, canon and chronicler, tells us some
+of the consequences following on the plague, and shows us very clearly
+the social upheaval it effected. The population had now so much
+diminished that prices of live stock went down, an ox costing 4_s._, a
+cow 12_d._, and a sheep 3_d._ But for the same reason wages went up, for
+labour had suddenly grown scarce. For want of hands to bring in the
+harvest, whole crops rotted in the fields. Many a manor had lost a third
+of its inhabitants, and it was difficult, under the fixed services of
+land tenure, to see what remedy could be applied. In despair the feudal
+system was set aside, and lord competed with lord to obtain landless
+labourers, or to entice within their jurisdiction those whose own
+masters ill-treated them in any way. The villeins themselves sought to
+procure enfranchisement, and the right to hire themselves out to their
+lords, or to any master they might choose. Commutation was not
+particularly in evidence as the legal method of redress; though it too
+was no doubt here and there arranged for. But for the most part the
+villein took the law into his own hands, left his manor, and openly sold
+his labour to the highest bidder.
+
+But at once the governing class took fright. In their eyes it seemed as
+though their tenants were taking an unfair advantage of the
+disorganisation of the national life. Even before Parliament could meet,
+in 1349 an ordnance was issued by the King (Edward III), which compelled
+all servants, whether bond or free, to take up again the customary
+services, and forced work on all who had no income in land, or were not
+otherwise engaged. The lord on whose manor the tenant had heretofore
+dwelt had preferential claim to his labour, and could threaten with
+imprisonment every refractory villein. Within two years a statute had
+been enacted by Parliament which was far more detailed in its operation,
+fixing wages at the rate they had been in the twentieth year of the
+King's reign (_i.e._ at a period before the plague, when labour was
+plentiful), and also with all appearance of justice determining the
+prices of agricultural produce. It was the first of a very long series
+of Acts of Parliament that, with every right intention, but with a
+really obvious futility, endeavoured to reduce everything to what it had
+been in the past, to put back the hands of the clock, and keep them
+back. But one strange fact is noticeable.
+
+Whether unconsciously or not, the framers of these statutes were
+themselves striking the hardest blow at the old system of tenure. From
+1351 the masters' preferential claim to the villeins of their own manor
+disappears, or is greatly limited. Henceforth the labourers are to
+appear in the market place with their tools, and (reminiscent of
+scriptural conditions) wait till some man hired them. The State, not the
+lord, is now regulating labour. Labour itself has passed from being
+"tied to the soil," and has become fluid. It is no longer a personal
+obligation, but a commodity.
+
+Even Parliament recognised that in many respects at least the old order
+had passed away. The statute of 1351 allows "men of the counties of
+Stafford, Lancaster, Derby, the borders of Wales and Scotland, &c., to
+come in August time to labour in other counties, and to return in
+safety, as they were heretofore wont to do." It is the legalisation of
+what had been looked at, up till then, askance. The long, silent
+revolution had become conscious. But the lords were, as we have said,
+not altogether sorry for the turn things had taken. Groaning under
+pressure from the King's heavy war taxation, and under the demands which
+the advance of new standards of comfort (especially between 1370 and
+1400) entailed, they let off on lease even the demesne land, and became
+to a very great extent mere rent-collectors. Commutation proceeded
+steadily, with much haggling so as to obtain the highest price from the
+eager tenant. Wages rose slowly, it is true, but rose all the same; and
+rent, though still high, was becoming, on the whole, less intolerable.
+
+But the drain of the French war, and the peculation in public funds
+brought about the final upheaval which completed what the Black Death
+had begun. The capricious and unfairly graduated poll-tax of 1381 came
+as a climax, and roused the Great Revolt of that year, a revolt
+carefully engineered and cleverly organised, which yet for the demands
+it made is a striking testimony to the moderation, the good sense, and
+also the oppressed state of the English peasant.
+
+The fourfold petition presented to the King by the rebels was:
+
+
+     (1) The abolition of serfdom.
+
+     (2) The reduction of rent to 4_d._ per acre.
+
+     (3) The liberty to buy and sell in market.
+
+     (4) A free pardon.
+
+
+Compare the studiously restrained tone of these articles with the
+terrible atrocities and vengeance wreaked by the Jacquerie in France,
+and the no less awful mob violence perpetrated in Florence by the
+Ciompi. While it shows no doubt in a kindly light the more equitable
+rule of the English landholder, it remains a monument, also, of the
+fair-mindedness of the English worker.
+
+In the towns much the same sort of struggle had been going on; for the
+towns themselves, more often than not, sprang up on the demesne of some
+lord, whether king, Church, or baron. But here the difficulties were
+complicated still further by the interference of the Guilds, which in
+the various trades regulated the hours of labour, the quality of the
+work, and the rate of remuneration. Yet, on the other hand, it is
+undoubted that, once the squalor of the earlier stages of urban life had
+been removed or at least improved, the social condition of the poor,
+from the fourteenth century onwards, was immeasurably superior in the
+towns to what it was in the country districts.
+
+The quickening influence of trade was making itself felt everywhere. In
+1331 the cloth trade was introduced at Bristol, and settled down then
+definitely in the west of England. In the north we notice the beginnings
+of the coal trade. Licence was given to the burgesses of Newcastle to
+dig for coal in 1351; and in 1368 two merchants of the same city had
+applied for and obtained royal permission to send that precious
+commodity "to any part of the kingdom, either by land or water." Even
+vast speculations were opening up for English commercial enterprise,
+when, by cornering the wool and bribing the King, a ring of merchants
+were able to break the Italian banking houses, and disorganise the
+European money market, for on the Continent all this energy in trade was
+already old. The house of Anjou, for example, had made the kingdom of
+Naples a great trading centre. Its corn and cattle were famous the world
+over. But in Naples it was the sovereigns (like Edward III and Edward IV
+in England) who patronised the commercial instincts of their people. By
+the indefatigable genius of the royal house, industry was stimulated,
+and private enterprise encouraged. By wise legislation the interests of
+the merchants were safeguarded; and by the personal supervision of
+Government, fiscal duties were moderated, the currency kept pure and
+stable, weights and measures reduced to uniformity, the ease and
+security of communications secured.
+
+No doubt trade not seldom, even in that age, led to much evil.
+Parliament in England raised its voice against the trickery and deceit
+practised by the greater merchants towards the small shopkeepers, and
+complained bitterly of the growing custom of the King to farm out to the
+wealthier among them the subsidies and port-duties of the kingdom. For
+the whole force of the break-up of feudal conditions was to turn the
+direction of power into the hands of a small, but moneyed class. Under
+Edward III there is a distinct appearance of a set of _nouveaux riches_,
+who rise to great prominence and take their places beside the old landed
+nobility. De la Pole, the man who did most to establish the prosperity
+of Hull, is an excellent example of what is often thought to be a
+decidedly modern type. He introduced bricks from the Low Countries, and
+apparently by this means and some curious banking speculations of very
+doubtful honesty achieved a great fortune. The King paid a visit to his
+country house, and made him Chief Baron of the Exchequer, in which
+office he was strongly suspected of not always passing to the right
+quarter some of the royal moneys. His son became Earl of Suffolk and
+Lord Chancellor; and a marriage with royalty made descendants of the
+family on more than one occasion heirs-at-law of the Crown.
+
+Even the peasant was beginning to feel the amelioration of his lot,
+found life easy, and work something to be shirked. In his food, he was
+starting to be delicate. Says Langland in his "Vision of Piers Plowman":
+
+
+     "Then labourers landless that lived by their hands,
+     Would deign not to dine upon worts a day old.
+     No penny-ale pleased them, no piece of good bacon,
+     Only fresh flesh or fish, well-fried or well-baked,
+     Ever hot and still hotter to heat well their maw."
+
+
+And he speaks elsewhere of their laziness:
+
+
+     "Bewailing his lot as a workman to live,
+     He grumbles against God and grieves without reason,
+     And curses the king and his council after
+     Who licence the laws that the labourers grieve."
+
+
+That the poor could thus become fastidious was a good sign of the rising
+standard of comfort.
+
+But for all that life was hard, and much at the mercy of the weather,
+and of the assaults of man's own fellows. The houses of the better folk
+were of brick and stone, and glass windows were just becoming known,
+whereas the substitute of oiled paper had been neither cheerful nor of
+very much protection. But the huts of the poor were of plastered mud;
+and even the walls of a quite respectable man's abode, we know from one
+court summons to have been pierced by arrows shot at him by a pugnacious
+neighbour. The plaintiff offered to take judge and jury then and there
+and show them these "horrid weapons" still sticking to the exterior. In
+the larger houses the hall had branched off, by the fourteenth century,
+into withdrawing-rooms, and parlours, and bedrooms, such as the Paston
+Letters describe with much curious wealth of detail. Lady Milicent
+Falstolf, we are told, was the only one in her father's household who
+had a ewer and washing-basin.
+
+Yet with all the lack of the modern necessities of life, human nature
+was still much the same. The antagonism between rich and poor, which the
+collapse of feudal relations had strained to breaking-point, was not
+perhaps normally so intense as it is to-day; yet there was certainly
+much oppression and unnecessary hardships to be suffered by the weak,
+even in that age. The Ancren Riwle, that quaint form of life for
+ankeresses drawn up by a Dominican in the thirteenth century, shows
+that even then, despite the distance of years and the passing of so many
+generations, the manners and ways and mental attitudes of people
+depended very much as to whether they were among those who had, or who
+had not; the pious author in one passage of homely wit compares certain
+of the sisters to "those artful children of rich parents who purposely
+tear their clothes that they may have new ones."
+
+There have always been wanton waste and destitution side by side; and on
+the prophecy of the One to whom all things were revealed, we know that
+the poor shall be always with us. Yet we must honour those who, like
+their Master, strive to smooth away the anxious wrinkles of the world.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+THE COMMUNISTS
+
+
+There have always been religious teachers for whom all material creation
+was a thing of evil. Through the whole of the Middle Ages, under the
+various names of Manicheans, Albigensians, Vaudois, &c., they became
+exceedingly vigorous, though their importance was only fitful. For them
+property was essentially unclean, something to be avoided as carrying
+with it the in-dwelling of the spirit of evil. Etienne de Bourbon, a
+Dominican preacher of the thirteenth century, who got into communication
+with one of these strange religionists, has left us a record,
+exceedingly unprejudiced, of their beliefs. And amongst their other
+tenets, he mentions this, that they condemned all who held landed
+property. It will be here noticed that as regards these Vaudois (or Poor
+Men of Lyons, as he informs us they were called), there could have been
+no question of communism at all, for a common holding of property would
+have been as objectionable as private property. To hold material things
+either in community or severalty was in either case to bind oneself to
+the evil principle. Yet Etienne tells us that there was a sect among
+them which did sanction communism; they were called, in fact, the
+_Communati_ (_Tractatus de Diversis Materiis Predicabilibus_, Paris,
+1877, p. 281). How they were able to reconcile this social state with
+their beliefs it is quite impossible to say; but the presumption is that
+the example of the early Christians was cited as of sufficient authority
+by some of these teachers. Certain it is that a sect still lingered on
+into the thirteenth century, called the _Apostolici_, who clung to the
+system which had been in vogue among the Apostles. St. Thomas Aquinas
+(_Summa Theologica_, 2_a_, 2_ae_, 66, 2) mentions them, and quotes St.
+Augustine as one who had already refuted them. But these were seemingly
+a Christian body, whereas the Albigensians could hardly make any such
+claim, since they repudiated any belief in Christ's humanity, for it
+conflicted with their most central dogma.
+
+Still it is clear that there were in existence certain obscure bodies
+which clung to communism. The published records of the Inquisition refer
+incessantly to preachers of this kind who denied private property,
+asserted that no rich man could get to heaven, and attacked the practice
+of almsgiving as something utterly immoral.
+
+The relation between these teachers and the Orders of friars has never
+been adequately investigated. We know that the Dominicans and
+Franciscans were from their earliest institution sent against them, and
+must therefore have been well acquainted with their errors. And, as a
+fact, we find rising among the friars a party which seemed no little
+infected with the "spiritual" tendency of these very Vaudois. The
+Franciscan reverence for poverty, which the Poor Man of Assisi had so
+strenuously advocated, had in fact become almost a superstition. Instead
+of being, as the saint had intended it to be, merely a means to an end,
+it had in process of time become looked upon as the essential of
+religion. When, therefore, the excessive adoption of it made religious
+life an almost impossible thing, an influential party among the
+Franciscans endeavoured to have certain modifications made which should
+limit it within reasonable bounds. But opposed to them was a determined,
+resolute minority, which vigorously refused to have any part in such
+"relaxations." The dispute between these two branches of the Order
+became at last so tempestuous that it was carried to the Pope, who
+appointed a commission of cardinals and theologians to adjudicate on the
+rival theories. Their award was naturally in favour of those who, by
+their reasonable interpretation of the meaning of poverty, were fighting
+for the efficiency of their Order. But this drove the extreme party into
+still further extremes. They rejected at once all papal right to
+interfere with the constitutions of the friars, and declared that only
+St. Francis could undo what St. Francis himself had bound up. Nor was
+this all, for in the pursuance of their zeal for poverty they passed
+quickly from denunciations of the Pope and the wealthy clergy (in which
+their rhetoric found very effective matter for argument) into abstract
+reasoning on the whole question of the private possession of property.
+The treatises which they have left in crabbed Latin and involved methods
+of argument make wearisome and irritating reading. Most are exceedingly
+prolix. After pages of profound disquisitions, the conclusions reached
+seem to have advanced the problem no further. Yet the gist of the whole
+is certainly an attempt to deny to any Christian the right to temporal
+possessions. Michael of Cesena, the most logical and most effective of
+the whole group, who eventually became the Minister-General of this
+portion of the Order, does not hesitate to affirm the incompatibility of
+Christianity and private property. From being a question as to the
+teaching of St. Francis, the matter had grown to one as to the teaching
+of Christ; and in order to prove satisfactorily that the practice of
+poverty as inculcated by St. Francis was absolute and inviolable, it was
+found necessary to hold that it was equally the declared doctrine of
+Christ.
+
+Even Ockham, a brilliant Oxford Franciscan, who, together with Michael,
+defended the Emperor, Louis of Bavaria, in his struggle against Pope
+John XXII, let fall in the heat of controversy some sayings which must
+have puzzled his august patron; for Louis would have been the very last
+person for whom communism had any charms. Closely allied in spirit with
+these "Spiritual Franciscans," as they were called, or Fraticelli, were
+those curious mediaeval bodies of Beguins and Beghards. Hopelessly
+pantheistic in their notion of the Divine Being, and following most
+peculiar methods of reaching on earth the Beatific Vision, they took up
+with the same doctrine of the religious duty of the communistic life.
+They declared the practice of holding private property to be contrary to
+the Divine Law.
+
+Another preacher of communism, and one whose name is well known for the
+active propaganda of his opinions, and for his share in the English
+Peasant Revolt of 1381, was John Ball, known to history as "The Mad
+Priest of Kent." There is some difficulty in finding out what his real
+theories were, for his chroniclers were his enemies, who took no very
+elaborate steps to ascertain the exact truth about him. Of course there
+is the famous couplet which is said to have been the text of all his
+sermons:
+
+
+     "Whaune Adam dalf and Eve span,
+     Who was thane a gentilman?"[1]
+
+
+at least, so it is reported of him in the _Chronicon Angliae_, the work
+of an unknown monk of St. Albans (Roll Series, 1874, London, p. 321).
+Froissart, that picturesque journalist, who naturally, as a friend of
+the Court, detested the levelling doctrines of this political rebel,
+gives what he calls one of John Ball's customary sermons. He is
+evidently not attempting to report any actual sermon, but rather to give
+a general summary of what was supposed to be Ball's opinions. As such,
+it is worth quoting in full.
+
+"My good friends, things cannot go on well in England, nor ever will
+until everything shall be in common; when there shall be neither vassal
+nor lord, and all distinctions levelled; when lords shall be no more
+masters than ourselves. How ill have they used us! and for what reason
+do they thus hold us in bondage? Are we not all descended from the same
+parents--Adam and Eve? And what can they show, and what reason give, why
+they should be more the masters than ourselves? Except, perhaps, in
+making us labour and work for them to spend." Froissart goes on to say
+that for speeches of this nature the Archbishop of Canterbury put Ball
+in prison, and adds that for himself he considers that "it would have
+been better if he had been confined there all his life, or had been put
+to death." However, the Archbishop "set him at liberty, for he could not
+for conscience sake have put him to death" (Froissart's _Chronicle_,
+1848, London, book ii. cap. 73, pp. 652-653).
+
+From this extract all that can be gathered with certainty is the popular
+idea of the opinions John Ball held; and it is instructive to find that
+in the Primate's eyes there was nothing in the doctrine to warrant the
+extreme penalty of the law. But in reality we have no certainty as to
+what Ball actually taught, for in another account we find that,
+preaching on Corpus Christi Day, June 13, 1381, during the last days of
+the revolt, far fiercer words are ascribed to him. He is made to appeal
+to the people to destroy the evil lords and unjust judges, who lurked
+like tares among the wheat. "For when the great ones have been rooted up
+and cast away, all will enjoy equal freedom--all will have common
+nobility, rank, and power." Of course it may be that the war-fever of
+the revolt had affected his language; but the sudden change of tone
+imputed in the later speeches makes the reader somewhat suspicious of
+the authenticity.
+
+The same difficulty which is experienced in discovering the real mind of
+Ball is encountered when dealing with Wat Tyler and Jack Straw, who
+were, with him, the leaders of the revolt. The confession of Jack Straw
+quoted in the _Chronicon Angliae_, like nearly all mediaeval
+"confessions," cannot be taken seriously. His accusers and judges
+readily supplied what they considered he should have himself admitted.
+Without any better evidence we cannot with safety say along what lines
+he pushed his theories, or whether, indeed, he had any theories at all.
+Again, Wat Tyler is reported to have spoken threateningly to the King on
+the morning of his murder by Lord Mayor Walworth; but the evidence is
+once more entirely one-sided, contributed by those who were only too
+anxious to produce information which should blacken the rebels in the
+minds of the educated classes. As a matter of fact, the purely official
+documents, in which we can probably put much more reliance (such as the
+petitions that poured in from all parts of the country on behalf of the
+peasants, and the proclamations issued by Richard II, in which all their
+demands were granted on condition of their immediate withdrawal from the
+capital), do not leave the impression that the people really advocated
+any communistic doctrines; oppression is complained of, the lawyers
+execrated, the labour laws are denounced, and that is practically all.
+
+It may be, indeed, that the traditional view of Ball and his followers,
+which makes them one with the contemporaneous revolts of the Jacquerie
+in France, the Ciompi in Florence, &c., has some basis in fact. But at
+present we have no means of gauging the precise amount of truth it
+contains.
+
+But even better known than John Ball is one who is commonly connected
+with the Peasant Revolt, and whose social opinions are often grouped
+under the same heading as that of the "Mad Priest of Kent,"--John
+Wycliff, Master of Balliol, and parson of Lutterworth. This Oxford
+professor has left us a number of works from which to quarry materials
+to build up afresh the edifice he intended to erect. His chief
+contribution is contained in his _De Civili Dominio_, but its
+composition extended over a long period of years, during which time his
+views were evidently changing; so that the precise meaning of his famous
+theory on the Dominion of Grace is therefore difficult to ascertain.
+
+But in the opening of his treatise he lays down the two main "truths"
+upon which his whole system rests:
+
+
+     I. No one in mortal sin has any right to the gifts of God;
+
+     II. Whoever is in a state of grace has a right, not indeed to
+     possess the good things of God, but to use them.
+
+
+He seems to look upon the whole question from a feudal point of view.
+Sin is treason, involving therefore the forfeiture of all that is held
+of God. Grace, on the other hand, makes us the liegemen of God, and
+gives us the only possible right to all His good gifts. But, he would
+seem to argue, it is incontestable that property and power are from God,
+for so Scripture plainly assures us. Therefore, he concludes, by grace,
+and grace alone, are we put in dominion over all things; once we are in
+loyal subjection to God, we own all things, and hold them by the only
+sure title. "Dominion by grace" is thus made to lead direct to
+communism. His conclusion is quite clear: _Omnia debent esse communia_.
+
+In one of his sermons (Oxford, 1869, vol. i. p. 260), when he has proved
+this point with much complacent argumentation, he poses himself with the
+obvious difficulty that in point of fact this is not true; for many who
+are apparently in mortal sin do possess property and have dominion.
+What, then, is to be done, for "they be commonly mighty, and no man dare
+take from them"? His answer is not very cheerful, for he has to console
+his questioner with the barren scholastic comfort that "nevertheless, he
+hath them not, but occupieth things that be not his." Emboldened by the
+virtue of this dry logic, he breaks out into his gospel of plain
+assertion that "the saints have now all things that they would have."
+His whole argument, accordingly, does not get very far, for he is still
+speaking really (though he does not at times very clearly distinguish
+between the two) much more about the right to a thing than its actual
+possession. He does not really defend the despoiling of the evil rich at
+all--in his own graphic phrase, "God must serve the Devil"; and all that
+the blameless poor can do is to say to themselves that though the rich
+"possess" or "occupy," the poor "have." It seems a strange sort of
+"having"; but he is careful to note that, "as philosophers say, 'having
+is in many manners.'"
+
+Wycliff himself, perhaps, had not definitely made up his mind as to the
+real significance of his teaching; for the system which he sketches does
+not seem to have been clearly thought out. His words certainly appear to
+bear a communistic sense; but it is quite plain that this was not the
+intention of the writer. He defends Plato at some length against the
+criticism of Aristotle, but only on the ground that the disciple
+misunderstood the master: "for I do not think Socrates to have so
+intended, but only to have had the true catholic idea that each should
+have the use of what belongs to his brother" (_De Civili Dominio_,
+London, 1884-1904, vol. i. p. 99). And just a few lines farther on he
+adds, "But whether Socrates understood this or not, I shall not further
+question. This only I know, that by the law of charity every Christian
+ought to have the just use of what belongs to his neighbour." What else
+is this really but the teaching of Aristotle that there should be
+"private property and common use"? It is, in fact, the very antithesis
+of communism.
+
+Some have thought that he was fettered in his language by his academic
+position; but no Oxford don has ever said such hard things about his
+Alma Mater as did this master of Balliol. "Universities," says he,
+"houses of study, colleges, as well as degrees and masterships in them,
+are vanities introduced by the heathen, and profit the Church as little
+and as much as does Satan himself." Surely it were impossible to accuse
+such a man of economy of language, and of being cowed by any University
+fetish.
+
+His words, we have noted above, certainly can bear the interpretation of
+a very levelling philosophy. Even in his own generation he was accused
+through his followers of having had a hand in instigating the revolt.
+His reply was an angry expostulation (Trevelyan's _England in the Age of
+Wycliff_, 1909, London, p. 201). Indeed, considering that John of Gaunt
+was his best friend and protector, it would be foolish to connect
+Wycliff with the Peasant Rising. The insurgents, in their hatred of
+Gaunt, whom they looked upon as the cause of their oppression, made all
+whom they met swear to have no king named John (_Chronicon Angliae_, p.
+286). And John Ball, whom the author of the _Fasciculi Zizaniorum_ (p.
+273, Roll Series, 1856, London) calls the "darling follower" of Wycliff,
+can only be considered as such in his doctrinal teaching on the dogma of
+the Real Presence. It must be remembered that to contemporary England
+Wycliff's fame came from two of his opinions, viz. his denial of a real
+objective Presence in the Mass (for Christ was there only by "ghostly
+wit"), and his advice to King and Parliament to confiscate Church lands.
+But whenever Ball or anyone else is accused of being a follower of
+Wycliff, nothing else is probably referred to than the professor's
+well-known opinion on the sacrament of the Eucharist. Hence it is that
+the _Chronicon Angliae_ speaks of John Ball as having been imprisoned
+earlier in life for his Wycliffite errors, which it calls simply
+_perversa dogmata_. The "Morning Star of the Reformation" being
+therefore declared innocent of complicity with the Peasant Revolt, it
+is interesting to note to whom it is that he ascribes the whole force of
+the rebellion. For him the head and front of all offending was the hated
+friars.
+
+Against this imputation the four Orders of friars (the Dominicans,
+Franciscans, Augustinians, and Carmelites) issued a protest. Fortunately
+in their spirited reply they give the reasons on account of which they
+are supposed to have shared in the rising. These were principally
+negative. Thus it was stated that their influence with the people was so
+great that had they ventured to oppose the spirit of revolt their words
+would have been listened to (_Fasciculi Zizaniorum_, p. 293). The
+chronicler of St. Albans is equally convinced of their weakness in not
+preventing it, and declares that the flattery which they used alike on
+rich and poor had also no mean share in producing the social unrest
+(_Chronicon Angliae_, p. 312). Langland also, in his "Vision of Piers
+Plowman," goes out of his way to denounce them for their levelling
+doctrines:
+
+
+     "Envy heard this and bade friars go to school,
+     And learn logic and law and eke contemplation,
+     And preach men of Plato and prove it by Seneca
+     That all things under Heaven ought to be in common,
+     And yet he lieth, as I live, and to the lewd so preacheth
+     For God made to men a law and Moses it taught--
+
+            _Non concupisces rem proximi tui_"
+       (Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's goods).
+
+
+Here then it is distinctly asserted that the spread of communistic
+doctrines was due to the friars. Moreover, the same popular opinion is
+reflected in the fabricated confession of Jack Straw, for he is made to
+declare that had the rebels been successful, all the monastic orders, as
+well as the secular clergy, would have been put to death, and only the
+friars would have been allowed to continue. Their numbers would have
+sufficed for the spiritual needs of the whole kingdom (_Chronicon
+Angliae_, p. 309). Moreover, it has been noticed that not a few of them
+actually took part in the revolt, heading some of the bands of
+countrymen who marched on London.
+
+It will have been seen, therefore, that Communism was a favourite
+rallying-cry throughout the Middle Ages for all those on whom the
+oppression of the feudal yoke bore heavily. It was partly also a
+religious ideal for some of the strange gnostic sects which flourished
+at that era. Moreover, it was an efficient weapon when used as an
+accusation, for Wycliff and the friars alike both dreaded its
+imputation. Perhaps of all that period, John Ball alone held it
+consistently and without shame. Eloquent in the way of popular appeal,
+he manifestly endeavoured to force it as a social reform on the
+peasantry, who were suffering under the intolerable grievance of the
+Statutes of Labourers. But though he roused the countryside to his
+following, and made the people for the first time a thing of dread to
+nobles and King, it does not appear that his ideas spread much beyond
+his immediate lieutenants. Just as in their petitions the rebels made no
+doctrinal statements against Church teaching, nor any capital out of
+heretical attacks (except, singularly enough, to accuse the Primate,
+whom they subsequently put to death, of overmuch leniency to Lollards),
+so, too, they made no reference to the central idea of Ball's social
+theories. In fact, little abstract matter could well have appealed to
+them. Concrete oppression was all they knew, and were this done away
+with, it is evident that they would have been well content.
+
+The case of the friars is curious. For though their superiors made many
+attempts to prove their hostility to the rebels, it is evident that
+their actual teaching was suspected by those in high places. It is the
+exact reversal of the case of Wycliff. His views, which sounded so
+favourable to communism, are found on examination to be really nothing
+but a plea to leave things alone, "for the saints have now all they
+would have"; while on the other hand the theories of the friars, in
+themselves so logical and consistent, and in appearance obviously
+conservative to the fullest extent, turn out to contain the germ of
+revolution.
+
+Said Lord Acton with his sober wit: "Not the devil, but St. Thomas
+Aquinas, was the first Whig."
+
+FOOTNOTE:
+
+[1] This rhyme is of course much older than John Ball; _cf._ Richard
+Rolle (1300-1349), i. 73, London, 1895.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE SCHOOLMEN
+
+
+The schoolmen in their adventurous quest after a complete harmony of all
+philosophic learning could not neglect the great outstanding problems of
+social and economic life. They flourished at the very period of European
+history when commerce and manufacture were coming back to the West, and
+their rise synchronises with the origin of the great houses of the
+Italian and Jewish bankers. Yet there was very little in the past
+learning of Christian teachers to guide them in these matters, for the
+patristic theories, which we have already described, and a few isolated
+passages cited in the Decretals of Gratian, formed as yet almost the
+only contribution to the study of these sciences. However, this absence
+of any organised body of knowledge was for them but one more stimulus
+towards the elaboration of a thorough synthesis of the moral aspect of
+wealth. A few of the earlier masters made reference, detached and
+personal, to the subject of dispute, but it was rather in the form of a
+disorderly comment than the definite statement of a theory.
+
+Then came the translation of Aristotle's _Politics_, with the keen
+criticism they contain of the views Plato had advocated. Here at once
+the intellect of Europe found an exact exposition of principles, and
+began immediately to debate their excellence and their defect. St.
+Thomas Aquinas set to work on a literal commentary, and at his express
+desire an accurate translation was made direct from the Greek by his
+fellow-Dominican, William of Moerbeke. Later on, when all this had had
+time to settle and find its place, St. Thomas worked out his own theory
+of private property in two short articles in his famous _Summa
+Theologica_. In his treatise on Justice, which occupies a large
+proportion of the _Secund Secundae_ of the _Summa_, he found himself
+forced to discuss the moral evil of theft; and to do this adequately he
+had first to explain what he meant by private possessions. Without
+these, of course, there could be no theft at all.
+
+He began, therefore, by a preliminary article on the actual state of
+created things--that is, the material, so to say, out of which private
+property is evolved. Here he notes that the nature of things, their
+constituent essence, is in the hands of God, not man. The worker can
+change the form, and, in consequence, the value of a thing, but the
+substance which lies beneath all the outward show is too subtle for him
+to affect it in any way. To the Supreme Being alone can belong the power
+of creation, annihilation, and absolute mutation. But besides this
+tremendous force which God holds incommunicably, there is another which
+He has given to man, namely, the use of created things. For when man was
+made, he was endowed with the lordship of the earth. This lordship is
+obviously one without which he could not live. The air, and the forces
+of nature, the beasts of the field, the birds and fishes, the vegetation
+in fruit and root, and the stretches of corn are necessary for man's
+continued existence on the earth. Over them, therefore, he has this
+limited dominion.
+
+Moreover, St. Thomas goes on, man has not merely the present moment to
+consider. He is a being possessed of intelligence and will, powers which
+demand and necessitate their own constant activity. Instinct, the gift
+of brute creation, ensures the preservation of life by its blind
+preparation for the morrow. Man has no such ready-made and spontaneous
+faculty. His powers depend for their effectiveness on their deliberative
+and strenuous exertions. And because life is a sacred thing, a lamp of
+which the once extinguished light cannot be here re-enkindled, it
+carries with it, when it is intelligent and volitional, the duty of
+self-preservation. Accordingly the human animal is bound by the law of
+his own being to provide against the necessities of the future. He has,
+therefore, the right to acquire not merely what will suffice for the
+instant, but to look forward and arrange against the time when his power
+of work shall have lessened, or the objects which suffice for his
+personal needs become scarcer or more difficult of attainment. Property,
+therefore, of some kind or other, says Aquinas, is required by the very
+nature of man. Individual possessions are not a mere adventitious luxury
+which time has accustomed him to imagine as something he can hardly do
+without, nor are they the result of civilised culture, which by the law
+of its own development creates fresh needs for each fresh demand
+supplied; but in some form or other they are an absolute and dire
+necessity, without which life could not be lived at all. Not simply for
+his "well-being," but for his very existence, man finds them to be a
+sacred need. Thus as they follow directly from the nature of creation,
+we can term them "natural."
+
+St. Thomas then proceeds in his second article to enter into the
+question of the rights of private property. The logical result of his
+previous argument is only to affirm the need man has of some property;
+the practice of actually dividing goods among individuals requires
+further elaboration if it is to be reasonably defended. Man must have
+the use of the fruits of the earth, but why these rather than those
+should belong to him is an entirely different problem. It is the problem
+of Socialism. For every socialist must demand for each member of the
+human race the right to some possessions, food and other such
+necessities. But why he should have this particular thing, and why that
+other thing should belong to someone else, is the question which lies at
+the basis of all attempts to preserve or destroy the present fabric of
+society. Now, the argument which we have so far cited from St. Thomas is
+simply based on the indefeasible right of the individual to the
+maintenance of his life. Personality implies the right of the individual
+to whatever is needful to him in achieving his earthly purpose, but does
+not in itself justify the right to private property.
+
+"Two offices pertain to man with regard to exterior things" (thus he
+continues). "The first is the power of procuring and dispensing, and in
+respect to this, it is lawful for man to hold things as his own." Here
+it is well to note that St. Thomas in this single sentence teaches that
+private property, or the individual occupation of actual land or capital
+or instruments of wealth, is not contrary to the moral law. Consequently
+he would repudiate the famous epigram, "_La Propriété c'est le vol_."
+Man may hold and dispose of what belongs to him, may have private
+property, and in no way offend against the principles of justice,
+whether natural or divine.
+
+But in the rest of the article St. Thomas goes farther still. Not merely
+does he hold the moral proposition that private property is lawful, but
+he adds to it the social proposition that private property is necessary.
+"It is even necessary," says he, "for human life, and that for three
+reasons. Firstly, because everyone is more solicitous about procuring
+what belongs to himself alone than that which is common to all or many,
+since each shunning labour leaves to another what is the common burden
+of all, as happens with a multitude of servants. Secondly, because human
+affairs are conducted in a more orderly fashion if each has his own duty
+of procuring a certain thing, while there would be confusion if each
+should procure things haphazard. Thirdly, because in this way the peace
+of men is better preserved, for each is content with his own. Whence we
+see that strife more frequently arises among those who hold a thing in
+common and individually. The other office which is man's concerning
+exterior things, is the use of them; and with regard to this a man ought
+not to hold exterior things as his own, but as common to all, that he
+may portion them out to others readily in time of need." (The
+translation is taken from _New Things and Old_, by H. C. O'Neill, 1909,
+London, pp. 253-4.) The wording and argument of this will bear, and is
+well worth, careful analysis. For St. Thomas was a man, as Huxley
+witnesses, of unique intellectual power, and, moreover, his theories on
+private property were immediately accepted by all the schoolmen. Each
+succeeding writer did little else than make more clear and defined the
+outlines of the reasoning here elaborated. We shall, therefore, make no
+further apology for an attempt to set out the lines of thought sketched
+by Aquinas.
+
+It will be noticed at once that the principles on which private property
+are here based are of an entirely different nature from those by which
+the need of property itself was defended. For the latter we were led
+back to the very nature of man himself and confronted with his right and
+duty to preserve his own life. From this necessity of procuring supply
+against the needs of the morrow, and the needs of the actual hour, was
+deduced immediately the conclusion that property of some kind (_i.e._
+the possession of some material things) was demanded by the law of man's
+nature. It was intended as an absolute justification of a sacred right.
+But in this second article a completely different process is observed.
+We are no longer considering man's essential nature in the abstract, but
+are becoming involved in arguments of concrete experience. The first was
+declared to be a sacred right, as it followed from a law of nature; the
+second is merely conditioned by the reasons brought forward to support
+it. To repeat the whole problem as it is put in the _Summa_, we can
+epitomise the reasoning of St. Thomas in this easier way. The question
+of property implies two main propositions: (_a_) the right to property,
+_i.e._ to the use of material creation; (_b_) the right to private
+property, _i.e._ to the actual division of material things among the
+determined individuals of a social group. The former is a sacred,
+inalienable right, which can never be destroyed, for it springs from the
+roots of man's nature. If man exists, and is responsible for his
+existence, then he must necessarily have the right to the means without
+which his existence is made impossible. But the second proposition must
+be determined quite differently. The kind of property here spoken of is
+simply a matter not of right, but of experienced necessity, and is to be
+argued for on the distinct grounds that without it worse things would
+follow: "it is even necessary for human life, and that for three
+reasons." This is a purely conditional necessity, and depends entirely
+on the practical effect of the three reasons cited. Were a state of
+society to exist in which the three reasons could no longer be urged
+seriously, then the necessity which they occasioned would also cease to
+hold. In point of fact, St. Thomas was perfectly familiar with a social
+group in which these conditions did not exist, and the law of individual
+possession did not therefore hold, namely, the religious orders. As a
+Dominican, he had defended his own Order against the attacks of those
+who would have suppressed it altogether; and in his reply to William of
+St. Amour he had been driven to uphold the right to common life, and
+consequently to deny that private property was inalienable.
+
+Of course it was perfectly obvious that for St. Thomas himself the idea
+of the Commune or the State owning all the land and capital, and
+allowing to the individual citizens simply the use of these common
+commodities, was no doubt impracticable; and the three reasons which he
+gives are his sincere justification of the need of individual ownership.
+Without this division of property, he considered that national life
+would become even more full of contention than it was already.
+Accordingly, it was for its effectiveness in preventing a great number
+of quarrels that he defended the individual ownership of property.
+
+Besides this article, there are many other expressions and broken
+phrases in which Aquinas uses the same phrase, asserting that the actual
+division of property was due to human nature. "Each field considered in
+itself cannot be looked upon as naturally belonging to one rather than
+to another" (2, 2, 57, 3); "distinction of property is not inculcated by
+nature" (1_a_, 2_ae_, 94, 5); but again he is equally clear in insisting
+on the other proposition, that there is no moral law which forbids the
+possession of land in severalty. "The common claim upon things is
+traceable to the natural law, not because the natural law dictates that
+all things should be held in common, and nothing as belonging to any
+individual person, but because according to the natural law there is no
+distinction of possessions which comes by human convention" (2_a_,
+2_ae_, 66, 2_ad_ 1_m_.).
+
+To apprehend the full significance of this last remark, reference must
+be made to the theories of the Roman legal writers, which have been
+already explained. The law of nature was looked upon as some primitive
+determination of universal acceptance, and of venerable sanction, which
+sprang from the roots of man's being. This in its absolute form could
+never be altered or changed; but there was besides another law which had
+no such compelling power, but which rested simply on the experience of
+the human race. This was reversible, for it depended on specific
+conditions and stages of development. Thus nature dictated no division
+of property, though it implied the necessity of some property; the need
+of the division was only discovered when men set to work to live in
+social intercourse. Then it was found that unless divisions were made,
+existence was intolerable; and so by human convention, as St. Thomas
+sometimes says, or by the law of nature, as he elsewhere expresses it,
+the division into private property was agreed upon and took place.
+
+This elaborate statement of St. Thomas was widely accepted through all
+the Middle Ages. Wycliff alone, and a few like him, ventured to oppose
+it; but otherwise this extremely logical and moderate defence of
+existing institutions received general adhesion. Even Scotus, like
+Ockham, a brilliant Oxford scholar whose hidden tomb at Cologne finds
+such few pilgrims kneeling in its shade, so hardy in his thought and so
+eager to find a flaw in the arguments of Aquinas, has no alternative to
+offer. Franciscan though he was, and therefore, perhaps, more likely to
+favour communistic teaching, his own theory is but a repetition of what
+his rival had already propounded. Thus, for example, he writes in a
+typical passage: "Even supposing it as a principle of positive law that
+'life must be lived peaceably in a state of polity,' it does not
+straightway follow 'Therefore everyone must have separate possessions.'
+For peace could be observed even if all things were in common. Nor even
+if we presuppose the wickedness of those who live together is it a
+necessary consequence. Still a distinction of property is decidedly in
+accord with a peaceful social life. For the wicked rather take care of
+their private possessions, and rather seek to appropriate to themselves
+than to the community common goods. Whence come strife and contention.
+Hence we find it (division of property) admitted in almost every
+positive law. And although there is a fundamental principle from which
+all other laws and rights spring, still from that fundamental principle
+positive human laws do not follow absolutely or immediately. Rather it
+is as declarations or explanations in detail of that general principle
+that they come into being, and must be considered as evidently in accord
+with the universal law of nature." (_Super Sententias Quaestiones_, Bk.
+4, Dist. 15, q. 2. Venice, 1580.)
+
+Here again, then, are the same salient points we have already noticed in
+the _Summa_. There is the idea clearly insisted on that the division of
+property is not a first principle nor an immediate deduction from a
+first principle, that in itself it is not dictated by the natural law
+which leaves all things in common, that it is, however, not contrary to
+natural law, but evidently in accord with it, that its necessity and its
+introduction were due entirely to the actual experience of the race.
+
+Again, to follow the theory chronologically still farther forward, St.
+Antonino, whose charitable institutions in Florence have stamped deeply
+with his personality that scene of his life's labours, does little more
+than repeat the words of St. Thomas, though the actual phrase in which
+he here compresses many pages of argument is reproduced from a work by
+the famous Franciscan moralist John de Ripa. "It is by no means right
+that here upon earth fallen humanity should have all things in common,
+for the world would be turned into a desert, the way to fraud and all
+manner of evils would be opened, and the good would have always the
+worse, and the bad always the better, and the most effective means of
+destroying all peace would be established" (_Summa Moralis_, 3, 3, 2,
+1). Hence he concludes that "such a community of goods never could
+benefit the State." These are none other arguments than those already
+advanced by St. Thomas. His articles, already quoted, are indeed the
+_Locus Classicus_ for all mediaeval theorists, and, though references
+in every mediaeval work on social and economic questions are freely made
+to Aristotle's _Politics_, it is evident that it is really Aquinas who
+is intended.
+
+Distinction of property, therefore, though declared so necessary for
+peaceable social life, does not, for these thinkers, rest on natural
+law, nor a divine law, but on positive human law under the guidance of
+prudence and authority. Communism is not something evil, but rather an
+ideal too lofty to be ever here realised. It implied so much generosity,
+and such a vigour of public spirit, as to be utterly beyond the reach of
+fallen nature. The Apostles alone could venture to live so high a life,
+"for their state transcended that of every other mode of living"
+(Ptolomeo of Lucca, _De Regimine Principio_, book iv., cap. 4, Parma,
+1864, p. 273). However, that form of communism which entailed an
+absolutely even division of all wealth among all members of the group,
+though it had come to them on the authority of Phileas and Lycurgus, was
+indeed to be reprobated, for it contradicted the prime feature of all
+creation. God made all things in their proper number, weight, and
+measure. Yet in spite of all this it must be insisted on at the risk of
+repetition that the socialist theory of State ownership is never
+considered unjust, never in itself contrary to the moral law. Albertus
+Magnus, the master of Aquinas, and the leader in commenting on
+Aristotle's _Politics_, freely asserts that community of goods "is not
+impossible, especially among those who are well disciplined by the
+virtue of philanthropy--that is, the common love of all; for love, of
+its own nature, is generous." But to arrange it, the power of the State
+must be called into play; it cannot rest on any private authority. "This
+is the proper task of the legislator, for it is the duty of the
+legislator to arrange everything for the best advantage of the
+citizens" (_In Politicis_, ii. 2, p. 70, Lyons, 1651). Such, too, is the
+teaching of St. Antonino, who even goes so far as to assert that "just
+as the division of property at the beginning of historic time was made
+by the authority of the State, it is evident that the same authority is
+equally competent to reverse its decision and return to its earlier
+social organisation" (_Summa Moralis_, ii. 3, 2, Verona, 1740, p. 182).
+He lays down, indeed, a principle so broad that it is difficult to
+understand where it could well end: "That can be justly determined by
+the prince which is necessary for the peaceful intercourse of the
+citizens." And in defence he points triumphantly to the fact that the
+prince can set aside a just claim to property, and transfer it to
+another who happens to hold it by prescription, on the ground of the
+numerous disputes which might otherwise be occasioned. That is to say,
+that the law of his time already admitted that in certain circumstances
+the State could take what belonged to one and give it to another,
+without there being any fault on the part of the previous owner to
+justify its forfeiture; and he defends this proceeding on the axiom just
+cited (_ibid._, pp. 182-3), namely, its necessity "for the peaceful
+intercourse of the citizens."
+
+The Schoolmen can therefore be regarded as a consistent and logical
+school. They had an extreme dislike to any broad generalisation, and
+preferred rather, whenever the occasion could be discovered, to
+distinguish rather than to concede or deny. Hence, confronted by the
+communistic theory of State ownership which had been advanced by Plato,
+and by a curious group of strange, heterodox teachers, and which had,
+moreover, the actual support of many patristic sayings, and the strong
+bias of monastic life, they set out joyfully to resolve it into the
+simplest and most unassailable series of propositions. They began,
+therefore, by admitting that nature made no division of property, and in
+that sense held all things in common; that in the early stages of human
+history, when man, as yet unfallen, was conceived as living in the
+Garden of Eden in perfect innocency, common property amply satisfied his
+sinless and unselfish moral character; that by the Fall lust and greed
+overthrew this idyllic state, and led to a continued condition of
+internecine strife, and the supremacy of might; that experience
+gradually brought men to realise that their only hope towards peaceful
+intercourse lay in the actual division of property, and the
+establishment of a system of private ownership; that this could only be
+set aside by men who were themselves perfect, or had vowed themselves to
+pursue perfection, namely, Our Lord, His Apostles, and the members of
+religious orders. To this list of what they held to be historic events
+they added another which contained the moral deductions to be made from
+these facts. This began by the assertion that private property in itself
+was not in any sense contrary to the virtue of justice; that it was
+entirely lawful; that it was even necessary on account of certain evil
+conditions which otherwise would prevail; that the State, however, had
+the right in extreme cases and for a just cause to transfer private
+property from one to another; that it could, when the needs of its
+citizens so demanded, reverse its primitive decision, and re-establish
+its earlier form of common ownership; that this last system, however
+possible, and however much it might be regretted as a vanished and lost
+ideal, was decidedly now a violent and impracticable proceeding.
+
+These theories, it is evident, though they furnish the only arguments
+which are still in use among us to support the present social
+organisation, are also patent of an interpretation which might equally
+lead to the very opposite conclusion. In his fear of any general
+contradiction to communism which should be open to dispute, and in his
+ever-constant memory of his own religious life as a Dominican friar,
+Aquinas had to mark with precision to what extent and in what sense
+private property could be justified. But at the same time he was forced
+by the honesty of his logical training to concede what he could in
+favour of the other side. He took up in this question, as in every
+other, a middle course, in which neither extreme was admitted, but both
+declared to contain an element of truth. It is clear, too, that his
+scholastic followers, even to our own date, in their elaborate
+commentaries can find no escape from the relentless logic of his
+conclusions. Down the channel that he dug flowed the whole torrent of
+mediaeval and modern scholasticism.[2] But for those whose minds were
+practical rather than abstract, one or other proposition he advanced,
+isolated from the context of his thought, could be quoted as of moment,
+and backed by the greatness of his name. His assertion of the absolute
+impracticable nature of socialistic organisation, as he knew it in his
+own age, was too good a weapon to be neglected by those who sought about
+for means of defence for their own individualistic theories; whereas
+others, like the friars of whom Wycliff and Langland spoke, and who
+headed bands of luckless peasants in the revolt of 1381 against the
+oppression of an over-legalised feudalism, were blind to this remarkable
+expression of Aquinas' opinion, and quoted him only when he declared
+that "by nature all things were in common," and when he protested that
+the socialist theory of itself contained nothing contrary to the
+teaching of the gospel or the doctrines of the Church.
+
+Truth is blinding in its brilliance. Half-truths are easy to see, and
+still easier to explain. Hence the full and detailed theory elaborated
+by the Schoolmen has been tortured to fit first one and then another
+scheme of political reform. Yet all the while its perfect adjustment of
+every step in the argument remains a wonderful monument of the
+intellectual delicacy and hardihood of the Schoolmen.
+
+FOOTNOTE:
+
+[2] _Cf._ Coutenson, _Theologia Mentis et Cordis_, iii. 388-389, Paris,
+1875; and Billnart, _De Justitia_, i. 123-124, Liège, 1746.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE LAWYERS
+
+
+Besides the Schoolmen, by whom the problems of life were viewed in the
+refracted light of theology and philosophy, there was another important
+class in mediaeval times which exercised itself over the same social
+questions, but visaged them from an entirely different angle. This was
+the great brotherhood of the law, which, whether as civil or canonical,
+had its own theories of the rights of private ownership. It must be
+remembered, too, that just as the theologians supported their views by
+an appeal to what were considered historic facts in the origin of
+property, so, too, the legalists depended for the material of their
+judgment on circumstances which the common opinion of the time admitted
+as authentic.
+
+When the West drifted out from the clouds of barbaric invasion, and had
+come into calm waters, society was found to be organised on a basis of
+what has been called feudalism. That is to say, the natural and
+universal result of an era of conquest by a wandering people is that the
+new settlers hold their possessions from the conqueror on terms
+essentially contractual. The actual agreements have varied constantly in
+detail, but the main principle has always been one of reciprocal rights
+and duties. So at the early dawn of the Middle Ages, after the period
+picturesquely styled the Wanderings of the Nations, we find the
+subjugating races have encamped in Europe, and hold it by a series of
+fiefs. The action, for example, of William the Norman, as plainly shown
+in Domesday Book, is typical of what had for some three or four
+centuries been happening here and on the Continent. Large tracts of land
+were parcelled out among the invading host, and handed over to
+individual barons to hold from the King on definite terms of furnishing
+him with men in times of war, of administering justice within their
+domains, and of assisting at his Council Board when he should stand in
+need of their advice. The barons, to suit their own convenience, divided
+up these territories among their own retainers on terms similar to those
+by which they held their own. And thus the whole organisation of the
+country was graduated from the King through the greater barons to
+tenants who held their possessions, whether a castle, or a farm, or a
+single hut, from another to whom they owed suit and service.
+
+This roughly (constantly varying, and never actually quite so absolutely
+carried out) is the leading principle of feudalism. It is clearly based
+upon a contract between each man and his immediate lord; but, and this
+is of importance in the consideration of the feudal theory of private
+property, whatever rights and duties held good were not public, but
+private. There was not at the first, and in the days of what we may
+call "pure feudalism," any concept of a national law or natural right,
+but only a bundle of individual rights. Appeal from injustice was not
+made at a supreme law-court, but only to the courts of the barons to
+whom both litigants owed allegiance. The action of the King was quite
+naturally always directed towards breaking open this enclosed sphere of
+influence, and endeavouring to multiply the occasions on which his
+officials might interfere in the courts of his subjects. Thus the idea
+gradually grew up (and its growth is perhaps the most important matter
+of remark in mediaeval history), by which the King's law and the King's
+rights were looked upon as dominating those of individuals or groups.
+The courts baron and customary, and the sokes of privileged townships
+were steadily emptied of their more serious cases, and shorn of their
+primitive powers. This, too, was undoubtedly the reason for the royal
+interference in the courts Christian (the feudal name for the clerical
+criminal court). The King looked on the Church, as he looked on his
+barons and his exempted townships, as outside his royal supremacy, and,
+in consequence, quarrelled over investiture and criminous clerks, and
+every other point in which he had not as yet secured that his writs and
+judgments should prevail. There was a whole series of courts of law
+which were absolutely independent of his officers and his decision. His
+restless energy throughout this period had, therefore, no other aim than
+to bring all these into a line with his own, and either to capture them
+for himself, or to reduce them to sheer impotence. But at the beginning
+there was little notion of a royal judge who should have power to
+determine cases in which barons not immediately holding their fiefs of
+the King were implicated. The concern of each was only with the lord
+next above him. And the whole conception of legal rights was, therefore,
+considered simply as private rights.
+
+The growth of royal power consequently acted most curiously on
+contemporary thinkers. It meant centralisation, the setting up of a
+definite force which should control the whole kingdom. It resulted in
+absolutism increasing, with an ever-widening sphere of royal control. It
+culminated in the Reformation, which added religion to the other
+departments of State in which royal interference held predominance. Till
+then the Papacy, as in some sort "a foreign power," world-wide and
+many-weaponed, could treat on more than equal terms with any European
+monarch, and secure independence for the clergy. With the lopping off of
+the national churches from the parent stem, this energising force from a
+distant centre of life ceased. Each separate clerical organisation could
+now depend only on its own intrinsic efficiency. For most this meant
+absolute surrender.
+
+The civil law therefore which supplanted feudalism entailed two
+seemingly contradicting principles which are of importance in
+considering the ownership of land. On the one hand, the supremacy of the
+King was assured. The people became more and more heavily taxed, their
+lands were subjected to closer inspection, their criminal actions were
+viewed less as offences against individuals than as against the peace of
+the King. It is an era in which, therefore, as we have already stated,
+the power of the individual sinks gradually more and more into
+insignificance in comparison with the rising force of the King's
+dominion. Private rights are superseded by public rights.
+
+Yet, on the other hand, and by the development of identically the same
+principles, the individual gains. His tenure of land becomes far less a
+matter of contract. He himself escapes from his feudal chief, and his
+inferior tenants slip also from his control. He is no longer one in a
+pyramid of grouped social organisation, but stands now as an individual
+answerable only to the head of the State. He has duties still; but no
+longer a personal relationship to his lord. It is the King and that
+vague abstraction called the State which now claim him as a subject; and
+by so doing are obliged to recognise his individual status. This new and
+startling prominence of the individual disturbed the whole concept of
+ownership. Originally under the influence of that pure feudalism which
+nowhere existed in its absolute form, the two great forces in the life
+of each member of the social group were his own and that of his
+immediate lord. These fitted together into an almost indissoluble union;
+and therefore absolute ownership of the soil was theoretically
+impossible. Now, however, the individual was emancipated from his lord.
+He was still, it is true, subject to the King, whose power might be a
+great deal more oppressive than the barons' had been. But the King was
+far off, whereas the baron had been near, and nearly always in full
+evidence. Hence the result was the emphasis of the individual's absolute
+dominion. Not, indeed, as though it excluded the dominion of the King,
+but precisely because the royal predominance could only be recognised by
+the effective shutting out of the interference of the lord. To exclude
+the "middle-man," the King was driven to recognise the absolute dominion
+of the individual over his own possessions.
+
+This is brought out in English law by Bracton and his school. Favourers
+as they were of the royal prerogative, they were driven to take up the
+paradoxical ground that the King was not the sole owner of property. To
+defend the King they were obliged to dispossess him. To put his control
+on its most effective basis, they had no other alternative left them
+than to admit the fullest rights of the individual against the King. For
+only if the individual had complete ownership, could there be no
+interference on the part of the lord; only if the possessions of the
+tenants were his own, were they prevented from falling under the
+baronial jurisdiction. Therefore by apparently denying the royal
+prerogative the civil lawyers were in effect, as they perfectly well
+recognised, really extending it and enabling it to find its way into
+cases and courts where it could not else well have entered.
+
+Seemingly, therefore, all idea of socialism or nationalisation of land
+(at that date the great means of production) was now excluded. The
+individualistic theory of property had suddenly appeared; and
+simultaneously the old group forms, which implied collectivism in some
+shape or other, ceased any longer to be recognised as systems of tenure.
+Yet, at the same time, by a paradox as evident as that by which the
+civilians exalted the royal prerogative apparently at its own expense,
+or as that by which Wycliff's communism is found to be in reality a
+justification of the policy of leaving things as they are, while St.
+Thomas's theory of property is discovered as far less oppressive and
+more adaptable to progressive developments of national wealth, it is
+noticed that, from the point of view of the socialist, monarchical
+absolutism is the most favourable form of a State's constitution. For
+wherever a very strictly centralised system of government exists, it is
+clear that a machinery, which needs little to turn it to the advantage
+of the absolute rule of a rebellious minority, has been already
+constructed. In a country where, on the other hand, local government has
+been enormously encouraged, it is obviously far more difficult for
+socialism to force an entrance into each little group. There are all
+sorts of local conditions to be squared, vagaries of law and
+administration to be reduced to order, connecting bridges to be thrown
+from one portion of the nation to the next, so as to form of it one
+single whole. Were the socialists of to-day to seize on the machinery of
+government in Germany and Russia, they could attain their purposes
+easily and smoothly, and little difference in constitutional forms would
+be observed in these countries, for already the theory of State
+ownership and State interference actually obtains. They would only have
+to substitute a _bloc_ for a man. But in France and England, where the
+centralisation is far less complete, the success of the socialistic
+party and its achievement of supreme power would mean an almost entire
+subversal of all established methods of administration, for all the
+threads would have first to be gathered into a single hand.
+
+Consequently feudalism, which turned the landowners into petty
+sovereigns and insisted on local courts, &c., though seemingly
+communistic or socialistic, was really, from its intense local
+colouring, far less easy of capture by those who favoured State
+interference. It was individualistic, based on private rights. But the
+new royal prerogative led the way to the consideration of the evident
+ease by which, once the machine was possessed, the rest of the system
+could without difficulty be brought into harmony with the new theories.
+To make use of comparison, it was Cardinal Wolsey's assumption of full
+legatine power by permission of the Pope which first suggested to Henry
+VIII that he could dispense with His Holiness altogether. He saw that
+the Cardinal wielded both spiritual and temporal jurisdiction. He
+coveted his minister's position, and eventually achieved it by ousting
+both Clement and Wolsey, who had unwittingly shown him in which way more
+power lay.
+
+So, similarly, the royal despotism itself, by centralising all power
+into the hands of a single prince, accustomed men to the idea of the
+absolute supremacy of national law, drove out of the field every
+defender of the rights of minorities, and thus paved the way for the
+substitution of the people for itself. The French Revolution was the
+logical conclusion to be drawn from the theories of Louis XIV. It needed
+only the fire of Rousseau to burn out the adventitious ornamentation
+which in the shape of that monarch's personal glorification still
+prevented the naked structure from being seen in all its clearness.
+_L'Etat c'est moi_ can be as aptly the watchword of a despotic
+oligarchy, or a levelling socialism, as of a kingly tyranny, according
+as it passes from the lips of the one to the few or the many. It is true
+that the last phase was not completed till long after the Middle Ages
+had closed, but the tendency towards it is evident in the teachings of
+the civil lawyers.
+
+
+Thus, for example, State absolutism is visible in the various
+suggestions made by men like Pierre du Bois and Wycliff (who, in the
+expression of their thoughts, are both rather lawyers than schoolmen) to
+dispossess the clergy of their temporalities. The principles urged, for
+instance, by these two in justification of this spoliation could be
+applied equally well to the estates of laymen. For the same principles
+put into the King's hand the undetermined power of doing what was
+necessary for the well-being of the State. It is true that Pierre du
+Bois (_De Recuperatione Terre Sancte_, pp. 39-41, 115-8) asserted that
+the royal authority was limited to deal in this way with Church lands,
+and could not touch what belonged to others. But this proviso was
+obviously inserted so arbitrarily that its logical force could not have
+had any effect. Political necessity alone prevented it from being used
+against the nobility and gentry.
+
+Ockham, however, the clever Oxford Franciscan, who formed one of the
+group of pamphleteers that defended Louis of Bavaria against Pope John
+XXII, quite clearly enlarged the grounds for Church disendowment so as
+to include the taking over by the State of all individual property. He
+was a thinker whose theories were strangely compounded of absolutism and
+democracy. The Emperor was to be supported because his autocracy came
+from the people. Hence, when Ockham is arguing about ecclesiastical
+wealth, and the way in which it could be quite fairly confiscated by the
+Government, he enters into a discussion about the origin of the imperial
+dignity. This, he declares, was deliberately handed over by the people
+to the Emperor. To escape making the Pope the original donor of the
+imperial title, Ockham concedes that privilege to the people. It was
+they, the people, who had handed over to the Caesars of the Holy Roman
+Empire all their own rights and powers. Hence Louis was a monarch whose
+absolutism rested on a popular basis. Then he proceeds in his argument
+to say that the human positive law by which private property was
+introduced was made by the people themselves, and that the right or
+power by which this was done was transferred by them to the Emperor
+along with the imperial dignity.
+
+Louis, therefore, had the same right to undo what they had done, for in
+him all their powers now resided. This, of course, formed an excellent
+principle from which to argue to his right to dispossess the Church of
+its superfluous wealth--indeed of all its wealth. But it could prove
+equally effectual against the holding by the individual of any property
+whatever. It made, in effect, private ownership rest on the will of the
+prince.
+
+Curiously, too, in quite another direction the same form of argument had
+been already worked out by Nicole Oresme, a famous Bishop of Lisieux,
+who first translated into French the _Politics_ of Aristotle, and who
+helped so largely in the reforms of Charles V of France. His great work
+was in connection with the revision of the coinage, on which he composed
+a celebrated treatise. He held that the change of the value of money,
+either by its deliberate depreciation, or by its being brought back to
+its earlier standard of face value, carried such widespread consequences
+that the people should most certainly be consulted on it. It was not
+fair to them to take such a step without their willing co-operation. Yet
+he admits fully that, though this is the wiser and juster way of acting,
+there was no absolute need for so doing, since all possession and all
+property sprang from the King. And this last conclusion was advocated by
+his rival, Philip de Meziers, whose advice Charles ultimately followed.
+Philip taught that the king was sole judge of whatever was for public
+use.
+
+But there was a further point in the same question which afforded matter
+for an interesting discussion among the lawyers. Pope Innocent IV, who
+had first been famous as a canonist, and retained as Pontiff his old
+love for disputations of this kind, developed a theory of his own on the
+relation between the right of the individual to possess and the right
+of the State over that possession. He distinguished carefully between
+two entirely different concepts, namely, the right and its exercise. The
+first he admitted to be sacred and inviolable, because it sprang from
+the very nature of man. It could not be disturbed or in any way
+molested; the State had therefore no power to interfere with the right.
+But he suggested that the exercise of that right, or, to use his actual
+phrase, the "actions in accord with that right," rested on the basis of
+civil, positive law, and could therefore be controlled by legal
+decisions. The right was sacred, its exercise was purely conventional.
+Thus every man has a right to property; he can never by any possible
+means divest himself of it, for it is rooted in the depths of his being,
+and supported by his human nature. But this right appears especially to
+be something internal, intrinsic. For him to exercise it--that is to
+say, to hold this land or that, or indeed any land at all--the State's
+intervention must be secured. At least the State can control his action
+in buying, selling, or otherwise obtaining it. His right cannot be
+denied, but for reasons of social importance its exercise well may be.
+Nor did this then appear as a merely unmeaning distinction; he would not
+admit that a right which could not be exercised was hardly worth
+consideration. And, in point of fact, the Pope's private theory found
+very many supporters.
+
+There were others, however, who judged it altogether too fantastical.
+The most interesting of his opponents was a certain Antonio Roselli, a
+very judiciously-minded civil lawyer, who goes very thoroughly into the
+point at issue. He gives Innocent's views, and quotes what authority he
+can find for them in the Digest and Decretals. But for himself he would
+prefer to admit that the right to private property is not at all sacred
+or natural in the sense of being inviolable. He willingly concedes to
+the State the right to judge all claims of possession. This is the more
+startling since ordinarily his views are extremely moderate, and
+throughout the controversy between Pope and Emperor he succeeded in
+steering a very careful, delicate course. To him, however, all rights to
+property were purely civil and arguable only on principles of positive
+law. There was no need, therefore, to discriminate between the right and
+its exercise, for both equally could be controlled by the State. There
+are evidences to show that he admitted the right of each man to the
+support of his own life, and, therefore, to private property in the form
+of actual food, &c., necessary for the immediate moment; but he
+distinctly asserts as his own personal idea that "the prince could take
+away my right to a thing, and any exercise of that right," adding only
+that for this there must be some cause. The prince cannot arbitrarily
+confiscate property; he must have some reasonable motive of sufficient
+gravity to outweigh the social inconveniences which confiscation would
+necessarily produce. Not every cause is a sufficient one, but those only
+which concern "public liberty or utility." Hence he decides that the
+Pope cannot alienate Church lands without some justifying reason, nor
+hand them over to the prince unless there happens to be an urgent need,
+springing from national circumstances. It does not follow, however, that
+he wishes to make over to the State absolute right to individual
+property under normal conditions. The individual has the sole dominion
+over his own possessions; that dominion reverts to the State only in
+some extreme instance. His treatise, therefore (Goldast, _De Monarchia_,
+1611-1614, Hanover, p. 462, &c.), may be looked upon as summing up the
+controversy as it then stood. The legal distinction suggested by
+Innocent IV had been given up by the lawyers as insufficient. The
+theories of Du Bois, Wycliff, Ockham, and the others had ceased to have
+much significance, because they gave the royal power far too absolute a
+jurisdiction over the possessions of its subjects. The feudal
+contractual system, which these suggested reforms had intended to drive
+out, had failed for entirely different reasons, and could evidently be
+brought back only at the price of a complete and probably unsuccessful
+disturbance of the social and economic organisation. The centralisation
+which had risen on the ruins of the older local sovereignties and
+immunities, had brought with it an emphasised recognition of the public
+rights and duties of all subjects, and had at the same time confirmed
+the individual in the ownership of his little property, and given him at
+the last not a conditional, but an absolute possession. To safeguard
+this, and to prevent it from becoming a block in public life, a factor
+of discontent, the lawyers were engaged in framing an additional clause
+which should give to the State an ultimate jurisdiction, and would
+enable it to overrule any objections on the part of the individual to a
+national policy or law. The suggested distinction that the word "right"
+should be emptied of its deeper meaning, by refusing it the further
+significance of "exercise," was too subtle and too legal to obtain much
+public support. So that the lawyers were driven to admit that for a just
+cause the very right itself could be set aside, and every private
+possession (when public utility and liberty demanded it) confiscated or
+transferred to another.
+
+Even the right to compensation for such confiscation was with equal
+cleverness explained away. For it was held that, when an individual had
+lost his property through State action, and without his having done
+anything to deserve it as a punishment, compensation could be claimed.
+But whenever a whole people or nation was dispossessed by the State,
+there was no such right at all to any indemnity.
+
+Thus was the wholesale adoption of land-nationalism to be justified.
+Thus could the State capture all private possessions without any fear of
+being guilty of robbery. It was considered that it was only the
+oppression of the individual and class spoliation which really
+contravened the moral law.
+
+The legal theories, therefore, which supplanted the old feudal concepts
+were based on the extension of royal authority, and the establishment of
+public rights. Individualistic possession was emphasised; yet the
+simultaneous setting up of the absolute monarchies of the sixteenth
+century really made their ultimate capture by the Socialist party more
+possible.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE SOCIAL REFORMERS
+
+
+It may seem strange to class social reforms under the wider heading of
+Socialistic Theories, and the only justification for doing so is that
+which we have already put forward in defence of the whole book; namely,
+that the term "socialistic" has come to bear so broad an interpretation
+as to include a great deal that does not strictly belong to it. And it
+is only on the ground of their advocating State interference in the
+furtherance of their reforms that the reformers here mentioned can be
+spoken of as socialistic.
+
+Of course there have been reformers in every age who came to bring to
+society their own personal measures of relief. But in the Middle Ages
+hardly a writer took pen in hand who did not note in the body politic
+some illness, and suggest some remedy. Howsoever abstruse might be the
+subject of the volume, there was almost sure to be a reference to
+economic or social life. It was not an epoch of specialists such as is
+ours. Each author composed treatises in almost every branch of learning.
+The same professor, according to mediaeval notions, might lecture to-day
+on Scripture, to-morrow on theology or philosophy, and the day after on
+natural science. For them a university was a place where each student
+learnt, and each professor taught, universal knowledge. Still from time
+to time men came to the front with some definite social message to be
+delivered to their own generation. Some were poets like Langland, some
+strike-leaders like John Ball, some religious enthusiasts like John
+Wycliff, some royal officials like Pierre du Bois.
+
+This latter in his famous work addressed to King Edward I of England
+(_De Recuperatione Sancte Terre_), has several most interesting and
+refreshing chapters on the education of women. His bias is always
+against religious orders, and, consequently, he favours the suppression
+of almost every conventual establishment. Still, as these were at his
+own date the only places where education could be considered to exist at
+all, he had to elaborate for himself a plan for the proper instruction
+of girls. First, of course, the nunneries must be confiscated by
+Government. For him this was no act of injustice, since he regarded the
+possessions of the whole clerical body as something outside the ordinary
+laws of property. But having in this way cleared the ground of all
+rivals, and captured some magnificent buildings, he can now go forward
+in his scheme of education. He insists on having only lay-mistresses,
+and prescribes the course of study which these are to teach. There
+should be, he held, many lectures on literature, and music, and poetry,
+and the arts and crafts of home life. Embroidery and home-management are
+necessities for the woman's work in after years, so they must be
+acquired in these schools. But education cannot limit itself to these
+branches of useful knowledge. It must take the woman's intelligence and
+develop that as skilfully as it does the man's. She is not inferior to
+him in power of reason, but only in her want of its right cultivation.
+Hence the new schools are to train her to equal man in all the arts of
+peace. Such is the main point in his programme, which even now sounds
+too progressive for the majority of our educational critics. He appeals
+for State interference that the colleges may be endowed out of the
+revenues of the religious houses, and that they may be supported in such
+a fashion as would always keep them abreast of the growing science of
+the times. And when, after a schooling of such a kind as this, the girls
+go out into their life-work as wives and mothers, he would wish them a
+more complete equality with their men-folk than custom then allowed. The
+spirit of freedom which is felt working through all his papers makes him
+the apostle of what would now be called the "new woman."
+
+After him, there comes a lull in reforming ideas. But half a century
+later occurs a very curious and sudden outburst of rebellion all over
+Europe. From about the middle of the fourteenth century to the early
+fifteenth there seemed to be an epidemic of severe social unrest. There
+were at Paris, which has always been the nursery of revolutions, four
+separate risings. Etienne Marcel, who, however, was rather a tribune of
+the people than a revolutionary leader, came into prominence in 1355;
+he was followed by the Jacquerie in 1358, by the Maillotins in 1382, and
+the Cabochiens in 1411. In Rome we know of Rienzi in 1347, who
+eventually became hardly more than a popular demagogue; in Florence
+there was the outbreak of Ciompi in 1378; in Bohemia the excesses of
+Taborites in 1409; in England the Peasant Revolt of 1381.
+
+It is perfectly obvious that a series of social disturbances of this
+nature could not leave the economic literature of the succeeding period
+quite as placid as it had found it. We notice now that, putting away
+questions of mere academic character, the thinkers and writers concern
+themselves with the actual state of the people. Parliament has its
+answer to the problem in a long list of statutes intended to muzzle the
+turbulent and restless revolutionaries. But this could not satisfy men
+who set their thought to study the lives and circumstances of their
+fellow-citizens. Consequently, as a result, we can notice the rise of a
+school of writers who interest themselves above all things in the
+economic conditions of labour. Of this school the easiest exponent to
+describe is Antonino of Florence, Archbishop and canonised saint. His
+four great volumes on the exposition of the moral law are fascinating as
+much for the quotations of other moralists which they contain, as for
+the actual theories of the saint himself. For the Archbishop cites on
+almost every page contemporary after contemporary who had had his say on
+the same problems. He openly asserts that he has read widely, taken
+notes of all his reading, has deliberately formed his opinions on the
+judgments, reasoned or merely expressed, of his authors. To read his
+books, then, is to realise that Antonino is summing up the whole
+experience of his generation. Indeed he was particularly well placed for
+one who wished for information. Florence, then at the height of its
+renown under the brilliant despotism of Cosimo dei Medici, was the scene
+where the great events of the life of Antonino took place. There he had
+seen within the city walls, three Popes, a Patriarch of Constantinople,
+the Emperors of East and West, and the most eminent men of both
+civilisations. He had taken part in a General Council of the Church, and
+knew thinkers as widely divergent as Giovanni Dominici and Æneas Sylvius
+Piccolomini. He was, therefore, more likely than most to have heard
+whatever theories were proposed by the various great political statesmen
+of Europe, whether they were churchmen or lawyers. Consequently, his
+schemes, as we might well expect, are startlingly advanced.
+
+He begins by attacking the growing spirit of usury, and the resulting
+idleness. Men were finding out that under the new conditions which
+governed the money market it was possible to make a fortune without
+having done a day's work. The sons of the aristocracy of Florence, which
+was built up of merchant princes, and which had amassed its own fortunes
+in honest trading, had been tempted by the bankers to put their wealth
+out to interest, and to live on the surplus profit. The ease and
+security with which this could be done made it a popular investment,
+especially among the young men of fashion who came in, simply by
+inheritance, for large sums of money. As a consequence Florence found
+itself, for the first time in its history, beginning to possess a
+wealthy class of men who had never themselves engaged in any profession.
+The old reverence, therefore, which had always existed in the city for
+the man who laboured in his art or guild, began to slacken. No longer
+was there the same eagerness noticeable which used to boast openly that
+its rewards consisted in the consciousness of work well done. Instead,
+idleness became the badge of gentility, and trade a slur upon a man's
+reputation. No city can long survive so listless and languid an ideal.
+The Archbishop, therefore, denounced this new method of usurious
+traffic, and hinted further that to it was due the fierce rebellion
+which had for a while plunged Florence into the horrors of the
+Jacquerie. Wealth, he taught, should not of itself breed wealth, but
+only through the toil of honest labour, and that labour should be the
+labour of oneself, not of another.
+
+Then he proceeded to argue that as upon the husband lies the labour of
+trade, the greater portion of his day must necessarily be passed outside
+the circle of family life. The breadwinner can attend neither to works
+of piety nor of charity in the way he should, and, consequently, to his
+wife it must be left to supply for his defects. She must take his place
+in the church, and amid the slums of the poor; she must for him and his
+lift her hands in prayer, and dispense his superfluous wealth in
+succouring the poverty-stricken. For the Archbishop will have none of
+the soothing doctrine which the millionaire preaches to the mob. He
+asserts that poverty is not a good thing; in itself it is an evil, and
+can be considered to lead only accidentally to any good. When,
+therefore, it assumes the form of destitution, every effort must be made
+to banish it from the State. For if it were to become at all prevalent
+in a nation, then would that people be on the pathway to its ruin. The
+politicians should therefore make it the end of their endeavours--though
+this, it may be, is an ideal which can never be fully brought to
+realisation--to leave each man in a state of sufficiency. No one, for
+whatever reason, should be allowed to become destitute. Even should it
+be by his own fault that he were brought low, he must be provided for by
+the State, which has, however, in these circumstances, at the same time,
+the duty of punishing him.
+
+But he remarks that the cause of poverty is more often the unjust rate
+of wages. The competition even of those days made men beat each other
+down in clamouring for work to be given them, and afforded to the
+employers an opportunity of taking workers who willingly accepted an
+inadequate scale of remuneration. This state of things he considered to
+be unjustifiable and unjust. No one had any right to make profit out of
+the wretchedness of the poor. Each human being had the duty of
+supporting his own life, and this he could not do except by the hiring
+of his own labour to another. That other, therefore, by the immutable
+laws of justice, when he used the powers of his fellow-man, was obliged
+in conscience to see that those powers could be fittingly sustained by
+the commodity which he exchanged for them. That is, the employer was
+bound to take note that his employees received such return for their
+labour as should compensate them for his use of it. The payment promised
+and given should be, in other words, what we would now speak of as a
+"living wage." But further, above this mere margin, additional rewards
+should be added according to the skill of the workman, or the dangerous
+nature of his employment, or the number of his children. The wages also
+should be paid promptly, without delay.
+
+But it may sometimes happen that the labour which a man can contribute
+is not of such a kind as will enable him to receive the fair
+remuneration that should suffice for his bodily comfort. The saint is
+thinking of boy-labour, and the case of those too enfeebled by age or
+illness to work adequately, or perhaps at all. What is to be done for
+them? Let the State look to it, is his reply. The community must, by the
+law of its own existence, support all its members, and out of its
+superfluous wealth must provide for its weaker citizens. Those,
+therefore, who can labour harder than they need, or who already possess
+more riches than suffice for them, are obliged by the natural law of
+charity to give to those less favourably circumstanced than themselves.
+
+St. Antonino does not, therefore, pretend to advocate any system of
+rigid equality among men. There is bound to be, in his opinion, variety
+among them, and from this variety comes indeed the harmony of the
+universe. For some are born to rule, and others, by the feebleness of
+their understanding or of their will, are fitted only to obey. The
+workman and servant must faithfully discharge the duties of their trade
+or service, be quick to receive a command, and reverent in their
+obedience. And the masters, in their turn, must be forbearing in their
+language, generous in their remuneration, and temperate in their
+commands. It is their business to study the powers of each of those whom
+they employ, and to measure out the work to each one according to the
+capacity which is discoverable in him. When a faithful labourer has
+become ill, the employer must himself tend and care for him, and be in
+no hurry to send him to a hospital.
+
+About the hospitals themselves he has his own ideas, or at least he has
+picked out the sanest that he can find in the books and conversation of
+people whom he has come across. He insists strongly that women should,
+as matrons and nurses, manage those institutions which are solely for
+the benefit of women; and even in those where men also are received, he
+can see no incompatibility in their being administered by these same
+capable directors. He much commends the custom of chemists in Florence
+on Sundays, feast-days, and holidays of opening their dispensaries in
+turn. So that even should all the other shops be closed, there would
+always be one place open where medicines and drugs could be obtained in
+an emergency.
+
+The education of the citizens, too, is another work which the State must
+consider. It is not something merely optional which is to be left to the
+judgment of the parent. The Archbishop holds that its proper
+organisation is the duty of the prince. Education, in his eyes, means
+that the children must be taught the knowledge of God, of letters, and
+of the arts and crafts they are to pursue in after life.
+
+Again, he has thought out the theory of taxation. He admits its
+necessity. The State is obliged to perform certain duties for the
+community. It is obliged, for example, to make its roads fit for
+travelling, and so render them passable for the transfer of merchandise.
+It is bound to clear away all brigandage, highway robbery, and the like,
+for were this not done, no merchant would venture out through that
+State's territory, and its people would accordingly suffer.
+
+Hence, again, he deduces the need for some sort of army, so that the
+goods of the citizens may be secured against the invader, for without
+this security there would be no stimulus to trade. Bridges must be
+built, and fords kept in repair. Since, therefore, the State is obliged
+to incur expenses in order to attain these objects, the State has the
+right, and indeed the duty, to order it so that the community shall pay
+for the benefits which it is to receive. Hence follows taxation.
+
+But he sees at once that this power of demanding forced contributions
+from wealthy members of society needs safeguarding against abuse. Thus
+he is careful to insist that taxation can be valid only when it is
+levied by public authority, else it becomes sheer brigandage. No less is
+it to be reprobated when ordered indeed by public authority, but not
+used for public benefit. Thus, should it happen that a prince or other
+ruler of a State extorted money from his subjects on pretence of keeping
+the roads in good order, or similar works for the advantage of the
+community, and yet neglected to put the contributions of his people to
+this use, he would be defrauding the public, and guilty of treason
+against his country. So, too, to lay heavier burdens on his subjects
+than they could bear, or to graduate the scale in such a fashion as to
+weigh more heavily on one class than another, would be, in the ruler, an
+aggravated form of theft. Taxation must therefore be decreed by public
+authority, and be arranged according to some reasonable measure, and
+rest on the motive of benefiting the social organisation.
+
+The citizens therefore who are elected to settle the incidence of
+taxation must be careful to take account of the income of each man, and
+so manage that on no one should the burden be too oppressive. He
+suggests himself the percentage of one pound per hundred. Nor, again,
+must there be any deliberate attempt to penalise political opponents, or
+to make use of taxation in order to avenge class-oppression. Were this
+to be done, the citizens so acting would be bound to make restitution to
+the persons whom they had thus injured.
+
+Then St. Antonino takes the case of those who make a false declaration
+of their income. These, too, he convicts of injustice, and requires of
+them that they also should make restitution, but to the State. An
+exception to this, however, he allows. For if it happens to be the
+custom for each to make a declaration of income which is obviously below
+the real amount, then simply because all do it and all are known to do
+it, there is no obligation for the individual to act differently from
+his neighbours. It is not injustice, for the law evidently recognises
+the practice. And were he, on the other hand, to announce his full
+yearly wage of earnings, he would allow himself to be taxed beyond the
+proper measure of value. But to refuse to pay, or to elude by some
+subterfuge the just contribution which a man owes of his wealth to the
+easing of the public burdens, is in the eyes of the Archbishop a crime
+against the State. It would be an act of injustice, of theft, all the
+more heinous in that, as he declares with a flash of the energy of
+Rousseau, the "common good is something almost divine."
+
+We have dwelt rather at length on the schemes of this one economist, and
+may seem, therefore, to have overlooked the writings of others equally
+full of interest. But the reason has been because this Florentine
+moralist does stand so perfectly for a whole school. He has read
+omnivorously, and has but selected most of his thoughts. He compares
+himself, indeed, in one passage of these volumes, to the laborious ant,
+"that tiny insect which wanders here and there, and gathers together
+what it thinks to be of use to its community." He represents a whole
+school, and represents it at its best, for there is no extreme dogmatism
+in him, no arguing from grounds that are purely arbitrary, or from _a
+priori_ principles. It is his knowledge of the people among whom he had
+laboured so long which fits him to speak of the real sufferings of the
+poor. But experience requires for its being effectually put to the best
+advantage, that it should be wielded by one whose judgment is sober and
+careful. Now, St. Antonino was known in his own day as Antonino the
+Counsellor; and his justly-balanced decision, his delicately-poised
+advice, the straightness of his insight, are noticeable in the masterly
+way in which he sums up all the best that earlier and contemporary
+writers had devised in the domain of social economics.
+
+There is, just at the close of the period with which this book deals, a
+rising school of reformers who can be grouped round More's _Utopia_.
+Some foreshadowed him, and others continued his speculations. Men like
+Harrington in his _Oceana_, and Milton in his _Areopagitica_, really
+belong to the same band; but life for them had changed very greatly, and
+already become something far more complex than the earlier writers had
+had to consider. There seemed no possibility of reforming it by the
+simple justice which St. Antonino and his fellows judged to be
+sufficient to set things back again as they had been in the Golden Age.
+The new writers are rather political than social. For them, as for the
+Greeks, it is the constitution which must be repaired. Whereas the
+mediaeval socialists thought, as St. Thomas indeed never wearied of
+repeating, that unrest and discontent would continue under any form of
+government whatever. The more each city changed its constitution, the
+more it remained the same. Florence, whether under a republic or a
+despotism, was equally happy and equally sad. For it was the spirit of
+government alone which, in the eyes of the scholastic social writers,
+made the State what it happened to be.
+
+In this the modern sociologist of to-day finds himself more akin with
+the mediaeval thinkers than with the idealists of the parliamentary era
+in England, or of the Revolution in France. These fixed their hopes on
+definite organisations of government, and on the exact balance of
+executive and legislative powers. But for Scotus, and Wycliff, and St.
+Antonino, the cause of the evil is far deeper and more personal. Not in
+any form of the constitution, nor in any division of ruling authority,
+nor in its union under a firm despot, nor in the divine right of kings,
+or nobles, or people, was security to be found, or the well-ordering of
+the nation. But peace and rest from faction could be achieved with
+certainty only on the conditions of strict justice between man and man,
+on the observance of God's commandments.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE THEORY OF ALMSGIVING
+
+
+Any description of mediaeval socialistic ideals which contained no
+reference to mediaeval notions of almsgiving would not be complete.
+Almsgiving was for them a necessary corollary to their theories of
+private possession. In the passage already quoted from St. Thomas
+Aquinas (p. 45), wherein he sets forth the theological aspect of
+property, he makes use of a broad distinction between what he calls "the
+power of procuring and dispensing" exterior things and "the use of
+them." We have already at some length tried to show what economists then
+meant by this first "power." Now we must establish the significance of
+what they intended by the second. And to do this the more clearly it
+will be as well to repeat the words in which St. Thomas briefly notes
+it: "The other office which is man's concerning exterior things is the
+use of them; and with regard to this a man ought not to hold exterior
+things as his own, but as common to all, that he may portion them out
+readily to others in time of need."
+
+In this sentence is summed up the whole mediaeval concept of the law of
+almsdeeds. Private property is allowed--is, in fact, necessary for human
+life--but on certain conditions. These imply that the possession of
+property belongs to the individual, but also that the use of it is not
+limited to him. The property is private, the use should be common.
+Indeed, it is only this common enjoyment which at all justifies private
+possession. It was as obvious then as now that there were inequalities
+in life, that one man was born to ease or wealth, or a great name,
+whereas another came into existence without any of these advantages,
+perhaps even hampered by positive disadvantages. Henry of Langenstein
+(1325-1397) in his famous _Tractatus de Contractibus_ (published among
+the works of Gerson at Cologne, 1484, tom. iv. fol. 188), draws out this
+variety of fortune and misfortune in a very detailed fashion, and puts
+before his reader example after example of what they were then likely to
+have seen. But all the while he has his reason for so doing. He
+acknowledges the fact, and proceeds from it to build up his own
+explanation of it. The world is filled with all these men in their
+differing circumstances. Now, to make life possible for them, he asserts
+that private property is necessary. He is very energetic in his
+insistence upon that point. Without private property he thinks that
+there will be continual strife in which might, and not right, will have
+the greater probability of success. But simultaneously, and as a
+corrective to the evils which private property of itself would cause
+there should be added to it the condition of common use. That is to say,
+that although I own what is mine, yet I should put no obstacle in the
+way of its reasonable use by others. This is, of course, really the
+ideal of Aristotle in his book of _Politics_, when he makes his reply to
+Plato's communism. In Plato's judgment, the republic should be governed
+in the reverse way, _Common property and private use_; he would really
+make this, which is a feature of monastic life, compulsory on all. But
+Aristotle, looking out on the world, an observer of human nature, a
+student of the human heart, sets up as more feasible, more practical,
+the phrase which the Middle Ages repeat, _Private property and common
+use_. The economics of a religious house are hardly of such a kind,
+thought the mediaevalists, as to suit the ways and fancies of this
+workaday world.
+
+But the Middle Ages do not simply repeat, they Christianise Aristotle.
+They are dominated by his categories of thought, but they perfect them
+in the light of the New Dispensation. Faith is added to politics, love
+of the brotherhood is made to extend the mere brutality of the
+economists' teaching. In "common use" they find the philosophic name for
+"almsdeeds." "A man ought not to hold exterior things as his own, but as
+common to all, that he may portion them out readily to others in time of
+need." This sentence, an almost literal translation from the _Book of
+Politics_, takes on a fuller meaning and is softened by the
+unselfishness of Christ when it is found in the _Summa Theologica_ of
+Aquinas.
+
+Let us take boldly the passage from St. Thomas in which he lays down the
+law of almsgiving.
+
+(2_a_, 2_ae_, 32, 5.) "Since love of one's neighbour is commanded us, it
+follows that everything without which that love cannot be preserved, is
+also commanded us. But it is essential to the love of one's neighbour,
+not merely to wish him well, but to act well towards him; as says St.
+John (1 Ep. 3), 'Let us not love in word nor in tongue, but in deed and
+in truth.' But to wish and to act well towards anyone implies that we
+should succour him when he is in need, and this is done by almsgiving.
+Hence almsgiving is a matter of precept. But because precepts are given
+in things that concern virtuous living, the almsgiving here referred to
+must be of such a kind as shall promote virtuous living. That is to say,
+it must be consonant with right reason; and this in turn implies a
+twofold consideration, namely, from the point of view of the giver, and
+from that of the receiver. As regards the giver, it must be noted that
+what is given should not be necessary to him, as says St. Luke 'That
+which is superfluous, give in alms.' And by 'not necessary' I mean not
+only to himself (_i.e._ what is over and above his individual needs),
+but to those who depend on him. For a man must first provide for himself
+and those of whom he has the care, and can then succour such of the rest
+as are necessitous--that is, such as are without what their personal
+needs entail. For so, too, nature provides that nutrition should be
+communicated first to the body, and only secondly to that which is to be
+begotten of it. As regards the receiver, it is required that he should
+really be in need, else there is no reason for alms being given him. But
+since it is impossible for one man to succour all who are in need, he is
+only under obligation to help such as cannot otherwise be provided for.
+For in this case the words of Ambrose become applicable: 'Feed them
+that are dying of starvation, else shall you be held their murderer.'
+Hence it is a matter of precept to give alms to whosoever is in extreme
+necessity. But in other cases (namely, where the necessity is not
+extreme) almsgiving is simply a counsel, and not a command."
+
+(_Ad_ 2_m._) "Temporal goods which are given a man by God are his as
+regards their possession, but as regards their use, if they should be
+superfluous to him, they belong also to others who may be provided for
+out of them. Hence St. Basil says: 'If you admit that God gave these
+temporal goods to you, is God unjust in thus unequally distributing His
+favours? Why should you abound, and another be forced to beg, unless it
+is intended thereby that you should merit by your generosity, and he by
+his patience? For it is the bread of the starving that you cling to; it
+is the clothes of the naked that hang locked in your wardrobe; it is the
+shoes of the barefooted that are ranged in your room; it is the silver
+of the needy that you hoard. For you are injuring whoever is in want.'
+And Ambrose repeats the same thing."
+
+Here it will be noticed that we find the real meaning of those words
+about a man's duty of portioning out readily to another's use what
+belongs to himself. It is the correlative to the right to private
+property.
+
+But a second quotation must be made from another passage closely
+following on the preceding:
+
+"There is a time when to withhold alms is to commit mortal sin. Namely,
+when on the part of the receiver there is evident and urgent necessity,
+and he does not seem likely to be provided for otherwise, and when on
+the part of the giver he has superfluities of which he has not any
+probable immediate need. Nor should the future be in question, for this
+would be looking to the morrow, which the Master has forbidden (Matt.
+6)."
+
+(_Ibid._, 32, 6.) "But 'superfluous' and 'necessity' are to be
+interpreted according to their most probable and generally accepted
+meaning. 'Necessary' has two meanings. First, it implies something
+without which a thing cannot exist. Interpreted in this sense, a man has
+no business to give alms out of what is necessary to him; for example,
+if a man has only enough wherewith to feed himself and his sons or
+others dependent on him. For to give alms out of this would be to
+deprive himself and his of very life, unless it were indeed for the sake
+of prolonging the life of someone of extreme importance to Church and
+State. In that case it might be praiseworthy to expose his life and the
+lives of others to grave risk, for the common good is to be preferred to
+our own private interests. Secondly, 'necessary' may mean that without
+which a person cannot be considered to uphold becomingly his proper
+station, and that of those dependent on him. The exact measure of this
+necessity cannot be very precisely determined, as to how far things
+added may be beyond the necessity of his station, or things taken away
+be below it. To give alms, therefore, out of these is a matter not of
+precept, but of counsel. For it would not be right to give alms out of
+these, so as to help others, and thereby be rendered unable to fulfil
+the obligations of his state of life. For no one should live
+unbecomingly. Three exceptions, however, should be made. First, when a
+man wishes to change his state of life. Thus it would be an act of
+perfect virtue if a man, for the purpose of entering a religious order,
+distributed to the poor for Christ's sake all that he possessed.
+Secondly, when a man gives alms out of what is necessary for his state
+of life, and yet does so knowing that they can very easily be supplied
+to him again without much personal inconvenience. Thirdly, when some
+private person, still more when the State itself, is in the gravest
+need. In these cases it would be most praiseworthy for a man to give
+what seemingly was required for the upkeep of his station in life in
+order to provide against some far greater need."
+
+From these passages it will be possible to construct the theory in vogue
+during the whole of the Middle Ages. The landholder was considered to
+possess his property on a system of feudal tenure, and to be obliged
+thereby to certain acts of suit and service to his immediate lord, or
+eventually to the King. But besides these burdens which the
+responsibility of possession entailed, there were others incumbent on
+him, because of his brotherhood with all Christian folk. He owed a debt,
+not merely to his superiors, but also to his equals. Such was the
+interpretation of Christ's commandment which the mediaeval theologians
+adopted. With one voice they declare that to give away to the needy what
+is superfluous is no act of charity, but of justice. St. Jerome's words
+were often quoted: "If thou hast more than is necessary for thy food and
+clothing, give that away, and consider that in thus acting thou art but
+paying a debt" (Epist. 50 ad Edilia q. i.); and those others of St.
+Augustine, "When superfluities are retained, it is the property of
+others which is retained" (in Psalm 147). These and like sayings of the
+Fathers constitute the texts on which the moral economic doctrine of
+what is called the Scholastic School is based. Albertus Magnus (vol. iv.
+in Sent. 4, 14, p. 277, Lyons, 1651) puts to himself the question
+whether to give alms is a matter of justice or of charity, and the
+answer which he makes is compressed finally into this sentence: "For a
+man to give out of his superfluities is a mere act of justice, because
+he is rather the steward of them for the poor than the owner." St.
+Thomas Aquinas is equally explicit, as another short sentence shall show
+(2_a_, 2_ae_, 66, 2, _ad_ 3_m_): "When Ambrose says 'Let no one call his
+own that which is common property,' he is referring to the use of
+property. Hence he adds: 'Whatever a man possesses above what is
+necessary for his sufficient comfort, he holds by violence.'" And the
+same view could be backed by quotations from Henry of Ghent, Duns
+Scotus, St. Bonaventure, the sermons of Wycliff, and almost every writer
+of any consequence in that age.
+
+Perhaps to us this decided tone may appear remarkable, and even
+ill-considered. But it is evident that the whole trouble lies in the
+precise meaning to be attached to the expressions "superfluous" and
+"needy." And here, where we feel most of all the need of guidance, it
+must be confessed that few authors venture to speak with much
+definiteness. The instance, indeed, of a man placed in extreme
+necessity, all quote and explain in nearly identical language. Should
+anyone be reduced to these last circumstances, so as to be without means
+of subsistence or sufficient wealth to acquire them, he may, in fact
+must, take from anywhere whatever suffices for his immediate
+requirements. If he begs for the necessities of life, they cannot be
+withheld from him. Nor is the expression "necessities of life" to be
+interpreted too nicely. Says Albertus Magnus: "I mean by necessary not
+that without which he cannot live, but that also without which he cannot
+maintain his household, or exercise the duties proper to his condition"
+(_loc. cit._, art. 16, p. 280). This is a very generous interpretation
+of the phrase, but it is the one pretty generally given by all the chief
+writers of that period. Of course they saw at once that there were
+practical difficulties in the way of such a manner of acting. How was it
+possible to determine whether such a one was in real need or not? And
+the only answer given was that, if it was evident that a man was so
+placed, there could be no option about giving; almsdeeds then became of
+precept. But that, if there were no convincing signs of absolute need,
+then the obligation ceased, and almsgiving, from a command, became a
+counsel.
+
+In an instance of this extreme nature it is not difficult to decide, but
+the matter becomes perilously complicated when an attempt is made to
+gauge the relative importance of "need" and "superfluity" in concrete
+cases. How much "need" must first be endured before a man has a just
+claim on another's superfluity? By what standard are "superfluities"
+themselves to be judged? For it is obvious that when the need among a
+whole population is general, things possessed by the richer classes,
+which in normal circumstances might not have been considered luxuries,
+instantly become such. However then the words are taken, however
+strictly or laxly interpreted, it must always be remembered that the
+terms used by the Scholastics do not really solve the problem. They
+suggest standards, but do not define them, give names, but cannot tell
+us their precise meaning.
+
+Should we say, then, that in this way they had failed? It is not in
+place in a book of this kind to sit in judgment on the various theories
+quoted, and test them to see how far they hold good, or to what extent
+they should be disregarded, for it is the bare recital of mere historic
+views which can be here considered. The object has been simply to tell
+what systems were thought out and held, without attempting to apprize
+them or measure their value, or point out how far they are applicable to
+modern times. But in this affair of almsdeeds it is perhaps well to note
+that the Scholastics could make this much defence of their vagueness. In
+cases of this kind, they might say, we are face to face with human
+nature, not as an abstract thing, but in its concrete personal
+existence. The circumstances must therefore differ in each single
+instance. General laws can be laid down, but only on the distinct
+understanding that they are mere principles of direction--in other
+words, that they are nothing more than general laws. The Scholastics,
+the mediaeval writers of every school, except a few of that Manichean
+brood of sects, admitted the necessity of almsgiving. They looked on it
+from a moral point of view as a high virtue, and from an economic
+standpoint as a correlative to their individualistic ideas on private
+property. The one without the other would be unjust. Alone, they would
+be unworkable; together, mutually independent, they would make the State
+a fair and perfect thing.
+
+But to fix the exact proportion between the two terms, they held to be
+the duty of the individual in each case that came to his notice. To give
+out of a man's superfluities to the needy was, they held, undoubtedly a
+bounden duty. But they could make no attempt to apprize in definite
+language what in the receiver was meant by need, and in the giver by
+superfluity. They made no pretence to do this, and thereby showed their
+wisdom, for obviously the thing cannot be done. Yet we must note, last
+of all, that they drew up a list of principles which shall here be set
+down, because they sum up in a few sentences the wit of mediaeval
+economists, their spirit of orderly arrangement, and their unanimous
+opinion on man's moral obligations.
+
+
+     (I) A man is obliged to help another in his extreme need, even at
+     the risk of grave inconvenience to himself.
+
+     (II) A man is obliged to help another who, though not in extreme
+     need, is yet in considerable distress, but not at the risk of grave
+     inconvenience to himself.
+
+     (III) A man is not obliged to help another whose necessity is
+     slight, even though the risk to himself should be quite trifling.
+
+
+In other words, the need of his fellow must be adjusted against the
+inconvenience to himself. Where the need of the one is great, the
+inconvenience to the other must at least be as great, if it is to excuse
+him from the just debt of his alms. His possession of superfluities does
+not compel him to part with them unless there is some real want which
+they can be expected to supply. In fine, the mediaevalists would contend
+that almsgiving, to be necessary, implies two conditions, both
+concomitant:--
+
+
+     (_a_) That the giver should possess superfluities.
+
+     (_b_) That the receiver should be in need.
+
+
+Where both these suppositions are fulfilled, the duty of almsgiving
+becomes a matter not of charity, but of justice.
+
+
+
+
+BIBLIOGRAPHY
+
+
+Among the original works by mediaeval writers on economic subjects,
+which can be found in most of the greater libraries in England, we would
+place the following:
+
+
+     _De Recuperatione Terre Sancte_, by Pierre du Bois. Edited by C. V.
+     Langlois in Paris. 1891.
+
+     _Commentarium in Politicos Aristotelis_, by Albertus Magnus. Vol.
+     iv. Lyons. 1651.
+
+     _Summa Theologica_, of St. Thomas Aquinas. This is being translated
+     by the English Dominicans, published by Washborne. London. 1911.
+     But the parts that deal with Aquinas' theories of property, &c.,
+     have not yet been published.
+
+     _De Regimine Principio_, probably by Ptolomeo de Lucca. It will be
+     found printed among the works of St. Thomas Aquinas, who wrote the
+     first chapters. The portion here to be consulted is in book iv.
+
+     _Tractatus de Civili Dominio_, by Wycliff, published in four vols.
+     in London. 1885-1904.
+
+     _Unprinted Works of John Wycliff_, edited at Oxford in three vols.
+     1869-1871.
+
+     _Fasciculus Zizaniorum_ and the _Chronicon Angliae_, both edited in
+     the Roll Series, help in elucidating the exact meaning of Wycliff,
+     and his relation to the insurgents of 1381.
+
+     _Monarchia_, edited by Goldast of Hanover in 1611, gives a
+     collection of fifteenth-century writers, including Ockham, Cesena,
+     Roselli, &c.
+
+     _Summa Moralis_, by St. Antonino of Florence, contains a great deal
+     of economic moralising. But the whole four volumes (Verona, 1740)
+     must be searched for it.
+
+
+Among modern books which can be consulted with profit are:--
+
+
+     _Illustrations of the Mediaeval Thought_, by Reginald Lane Poole.
+     1884. London.
+
+     _Political Theories of the Middle Ages_, by F. W. Maitland. 1900.
+     Cambridge.
+
+     _History of Mediaeval Political Thought_, by A. J. Carlyle. 1903.
+     &c. Oxford (unfinished).
+
+     _History of English Law_, by Pollock and Maitland. 1898. Cambridge.
+
+     _Introduction to English Economic History_, by W. J. Ashley. 1892.
+     London.
+
+     _Economie Politique au Moyen Age_, by V. Brandts. 1895. Louvain.
+
+     _La Propriété après St. Thomas_, by Mgr. Deploige, Revue
+     Neo-Scholastique. 1895, 1896. Louvain.
+
+     _History of Socialism_, by Thomas Kirkup. 1909. London.
+
+     _Great Revolt of 1381_, by C. W. C. Oman. 1906. Oxford.
+
+     _Lollardy and the Reformation_, by Gairdner. 1908-1911 (three
+     vols.) London.
+
+     _England in the Age of Wycliff_, by G. M. Trevelyan. 1909. London.
+
+     _Leaders of the People_, by J. Clayton. 1910. London. A sympathetic
+     account of Ball, Cade, &c.
+
+     _Social Organisation_, by G. Unwin. 1906. Oxford.
+
+     _Outlines of Economic History of England_, by H. O. Meredith. 1908.
+     London.
+
+     _Mutual Aid in a Mediaeval City_, by Prince Kropotkin (Nineteenth
+     Century Review. Vol. xxxvi. p. 198).
+
+
+
+
+
+INDEX
+
+
+Albertus Magnus, 51, 86, 87
+Albigensians, 29
+Almsgiving, 80
+Ambrose, St., 10, 87
+Antonino, St., 50, 52, 71, 80
+Aquinas, St. Thomas, 30, 42, 51, 60, 79, 80, 83
+Aristotle, 35, 42, 51, 64, 82
+Augustine, St., 10, 86
+Authority, 8, 10
+
+
+Ball, John, 32, 38
+Bavaria, Louis of, 32, 63
+Beghards, 32
+Beguins, 32
+Benedict, St., 13
+Black Death, 22
+Bois, Pierre du, 62, 69
+Bonaventure, St., 87
+Bourbon, Etienne de, 29
+Bracton, 59
+
+
+Cabochiens, 71
+Cesena, Michael de, 32
+Ciompi, 25, 71
+Communism, 29
+
+
+Destitution, 71
+Dominicans, 30, 39, 47
+
+
+Education, 76
+
+
+Fall, 9
+Fathers of Church, 8
+Feudalism, 15, 56
+Francis, St., 31
+Franciscans, 30, 31, 39
+Friars, 39
+Froissart, 33
+
+
+Ghent, Henry of, 87
+
+
+Harrington, 79
+Hildebrand, 10
+Hospitals, 75
+
+
+Innocent IV, 64
+
+
+Jacquerie, 25, 71
+Jerome, St., 86
+John XXII, 32, 63
+
+
+King, 15, 56
+
+
+Labourers, landless, 19, 27
+Langenstein, Henry of, 81
+Langland, 27, 39
+Law of Nations, 11
+Law of Nature, 11
+Lawyers, 55
+Legalists, 11
+Lucca, Ptolomeo de, 51
+
+
+Maillotins, 71
+Manicheans, 29
+Manor, 71
+Marcel, Etienne, 71
+Meziers, Philip de, 64
+Milton, 79
+Moerbeke, 42
+Monasticism, 13
+More, Sir Thomas, 79
+
+
+Necessities, 83
+
+
+Ockham, 32, 49, 63
+Oresme, Nichole, 64
+
+
+Parliament, 43
+Peasant Revolt, 25, 32, 71
+Plato, 35, 52, 82
+_Praetor Peregrinus_, 11
+_Praetor Urbanus_, 11
+Property, 10, 12, 29, 41, 80
+
+
+Rienzi, 71
+Ripa, John de, 50
+Roselli, Antonio, 65
+
+
+Schoolmen, 41, 88
+Scotus, Duns, 49, 80, 87
+Slavery, 10
+Socialism, 6, 16, 60
+Straw, Jack, 34, 39
+Superfluities, 83
+
+
+Taborites, 71
+Taxation, 76
+Tyler, Wat, 34
+
+
+Vaudois, 29
+
+
+Wages, 23, 25, 74
+Women, 70, 73
+Wycliff, 35, 49, 60, 62, 80, 87
+
+
+Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO.
+Edinburgh & London
+
+
+
+
+ADVERTISEMENTS
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+THE FIRST HUNDRED VOLUMES
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+The volumes issued (Spring 1913) are marked with an asterisk
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+
+SCIENCE
+
+
+  *1. The Foundations of Science     By W. C. D. Whetham, F.R.S.
+  *2. Embryology--The Beginnings     By Prof. Gerald Leighton, M.D.
+        of Life
+   3. Biology--The Science of Life   By Prof. W. D. Henderson, M.A.
+  *4. Zoology: The Study of Animal   By Prof. E. W. MacBride, F.R.S.
+        Life
+  *5. Botany; The Modern Study of    By M. C. Stopes, D.Sc., Ph.D.
+        Plants
+   6. Bacteriology                   By W. E. Carnegie Dickson, M.D.
+  *7. The Structure of the Earth     By the Rev. T. G. Bonney, F.R.S.
+  *8. Evolution                      By E. S. Goodrich, M.A., F.R.S.
+   9. Darwin                         By Prof. W. Garstang, M.A., D.Sc.
+ *10. Heredity                       By J. A. S. Watson, B.Sc.
+ *11. Inorganic Chemistry            By Prof. E. C. C. Baly, F.R.S.
+ *12. Organic Chemistry              By Prof. J. B. Cohen, B.Sc., F.R.S.
+ *13. The Principles of Electricity  By Norman R. Campbell, M.A.
+ *14. Radiation                      By P. Phillips, D.Sc.
+ *15. The Science of the Stars       By E. W. Maunder, F.R.A.S.
+ *16. The Science of Light           By P. Phillips, D.Sc.
+ *17. Weather-Science                By R. G. K. Lempfert, M.A.
+ *18. Hypnotism                      By Alice Hutchison, M.D.
+ *19. The Baby: A Mother's Book      By a University Woman.
+ *20. Youth and Sex--Dangers and    {By Mary Scharlieb, M.D., M.S.,
+      Safeguards for Boys and Girls {and G. E. C. Pritchard, M.A., M.D.
+ *21. Motherhood--A Wife's Handbook  By H. S. Davidson, F.R.C.S.E.
+ *22. Lord Kelvin                    By A. Russell, M.A., D.Sc.
+ *23. Huxley                         By Professor G. Leighton, M.D.
+  24. Sir W. Huggins and            {By E. W. Maunder, F.R.A.S., of the
+        Spectroscopic Astronomy     {Royal Observatory, Greenwich.
+ *62. Practical Astronomy            By H. Macpherson, Jr., F.R.A.S.
+ *63. Aviation                       By Sydney F. Walker, R.N., M.I.E.E.
+ *64. Navigation                     By W. Hall, R.N., B.A.
+ *65. Pond Life                      By E. C. Ash, M.R.A.C.
+ *66. Dietetics                      By Alex. Bryce, M.D., D.P.H.
+ *94. The Nature of Mathematics      By P. G. B. Jourdain, M.A.
+  95. Applications of Electricity    By Alex. Ogilvie, B.Sc.
+ *96. Gardening                      By A. Cecil Bartlett.
+  97. The Care of the Teeth          By J. A. Young, L.D.S.
+ *98. Atlas of the World             By J. Bartholomew, F.R.G.S.
+*110. British Birds                  By F. B. Kirkman, B.A.
+
+
+PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION
+
+
+ 25. The Meaning of Philosophy      By T. Loveday, M.A.
+*26. Henri Bergson                  By H. Wildon Carr.
+*27. Psychology                     By H. J. Watt, M.A., Ph.D.
+*28. Ethics                         By Canon Rashdall, D. Litt., F.B.A.
+ 29. Kant's Philosophy              By A. D. Lindsay, M.A.
+ 30. The Teaching of Plato          By A. D. Lindsay, M.A.
+*67. Aristotle                      By Prof. A. E. Taylor, M.A., F.B.A.
+*68. Nietzsche                      By M. A. Mügge, Ph.D.
+*69. Eucken                         By A. J. Jones, M.A., B.Sc., Ph.D.
+ 70. The Experimental Psychology    By C. W. Valentine, B.A.
+       of Beauty
+*71. The Problem of Truth           By H. Wildon Carr.
+ 99. George Berkeley: the           By G. Dawes Hicks, Litt.D.
+       Philosophy of Idealism
+ 31. Buddhism                       By Prof. T. W. Rhys Davids, F.B.A.
+*32. Roman Catholicism              By H. B. Coxon.
+*33. The Oxford Movement            By Wilfrid P. Ward.
+*34. The Bible in the Light of the {By Rev. W. F. Adeney, M.A., and
+       Higher Criticism            {Rev. Prof. W. H. Bennett, Litt.D.
+ 35. Cardinal Newman                By Wilfrid Meynell.
+*72. The Church of England          By Rev. Canon Masterman.
+ 73. Anglo-Catholicism              By A. E. Manning Foster.
+*74. The Free Churches              By Rev. Edward Shillito, M.A.
+*75. Judaism                        By Ephraim Levine, B.A.
+*76. Theosophy                      By Annie Besant.
+
+
+HISTORY
+
+
+ *36. The Growth of Freedom         By H. W. Nevinson.
+  37. Bismarck                      By Prof. F. M. Powicke, M.A.
+ *38. Oliver Cromwell               By Hilda Johnstone, M.A.
+ *39. Mary Queen of Scots           By E. O'Neill, M.A.
+ *40. Cecil Rhodes                  By Ian Colvin.
+ *41. Julius Cæsar                  By Hilary Hardinge.
+
+        History of England--
+
+  42. England in the Making         By Prof. F. J. C. Hearnshaw, LL.D.
+ *43. England in the Middle Ages    By E. O'Neill, M.A.
+  44. The Monarchy and the People   By W. T. Waugh, M.A.
+  45. The Industrial Revolution     By A. Jones, M.A.
+  46. Empire and Democracy          By G. S. Veitch, M.A.
+ *61. Home Rule                     By L. G. Redmond Howard.
+  77. Nelson                        By H. W. Wilson.
+ *78. Wellington and Waterloo       By Major G. W. Redway.
+ 100. A History of Greece           By E. Fearenside, B.A.
+ 101. Luther and the Reformation    By L. D. Agate, M.A.
+ 102. The Discovery of the          By F. B. Kirkman, B.A.
+        New World
+*103. Turkey and the Eastern        By John Macdonald.
+        Question
+ 104. A History of Architecture     By Mrs. Arthur Bell.
+
+
+SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC
+
+
+ *47. Women's Suffrage              By M. G. Fawcett, LL.D.
+  48. The Working of the British    By Prof. Ramsay Muir, M.A.
+        System of Government to-day
+  49. An Introduction to Economic   By Prof. H. O. Meredith, M.A.
+        Science
+  50. Socialism                     By F. B. Kirkman, B.A.
+ *79. Mediaeval Socialism           By Rev. B. Jarrett, O.P., M.A.
+ *80. Syndicalism                   By J. H. Harley, M.A.
+  81. Labour and Wages              By H. M. Hallsworth, M.A., B.Sc.
+ *82. Co-operation                  By Joseph Clayton.
+ *83. Insurance as Investment       By W. A. Robertson, F.F.A.
+ *92. The Training of the Child     By G. Spiller.
+*105. Trade Unions                  By Joseph Clayton.
+*106. Everyday Law                  By J. J. Adams.
+
+
+LETTERS
+
+
+ *51. Shakespeare                   By Prof. C. H. Herford, Litt.D.
+ *52. Wordsworth                    By Rosaline Masson.
+ *53. Pure Gold--A Choice of        By H. C. O'Neill.
+        Lyrics and Sonnets
+ *54. Francis Bacon                 By Prof. A. R. Skemp, M.A.
+ *55. The Brontës                   By Flora Masson.
+ *56. Carlyle                       By the Rev. L. MacLean Watt.
+ *57. Dante                         By A. G. Ferrers Howell.
+  58. Ruskin                        By A. Blyth Webster, M.A.
+  59. Common Faults in Writing      By Prof. A. R. Skemp, M.A.
+        English
+ *60. A Dictionary of Synonyms.     By Austin K. Gray, B.A.
+  84. Classical Dictionary          By A. E. Stirling.
+ *85. History of English            By A. Compton-Rickett.
+        Literature
+  86. Browning                      By Prof. A. R. Skemp, M.A.
+ *87. Charles Lamb                  By Flora Masson.
+  88. Goethe                        By Prof. C. H. Herford, Litt.D.
+  89. Balzac                        By Frank Harris.
+  90. Rousseau                      By H. Sacher.
+  91. Ibsen                         By Hilary Hardinge.
+ *93. Tennyson                      By Aaron Watson.
+ 107. R. L. Stevenson               By Rosaline Masson.
+*108. Shelley                       By Sydney Waterlow, M.A.
+ 109. William Morris                By A. Blyth Webster, M.A.
+
+
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+<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, Mediaeval Socialism, by Bede Jarrett</h1>
+<pre>
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre>
+<p>Title: Mediaeval Socialism</p>
+<p>Author: Bede Jarrett</p>
+<p>Release Date: October 4, 2006  [eBook #19468]</p>
+<p>Language: English</p>
+<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p>
+<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MEDIAEVAL SOCIALISM***</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h4>E-text prepared by David Clarke, Martin Pettit,<br />
+    and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br />
+    (<a href="http://www.pgdp.net/">http://www.pgdp.net/</a>)<br />
+    from page images generously made available by<br />
+    Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries<br />
+    (<a href="http://www.archive.org/details/toronto">http://www.archive.org/details/toronto</a>)</h4>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="10" style="background-color: #ccccff;">
+  <tr>
+    <td valign="top">
+      Note:
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+      Images of the original pages are available through
+	  Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries. See
+	  <a href="http://www.archive.org/details/mediaevalsocial00jarruoft">
+      http://www.archive.org/details/mediaevalsocial00jarruoft</a>
+    </td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h1>MEDIAEVAL SOCIALISM</h1>
+
+<h2><span class="smcap">By</span> BEDE JARRETT, O.P., M.A.</h2>
+
+<p class="center"><img src="images/logo.jpg" width='200' height='197' alt="logo" /></p>
+
+<p class='tbrk'>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p class='tbrk'>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h3>LONDON: T. C. &amp; E. C. JACK<br />67 LONG ACRE, W.C., AND EDINBURGH<br />
+NEW YORK: DODGE PUBLISHING CO.</h3>
+
+<hr />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_iii" id="Page_iii">[Pg iii]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+
+<div class="contents">
+<ul>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_I">I.</a></span>&nbsp; &nbsp; INTRODUCTION</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_II">II.</a></span>&nbsp; &nbsp; SOCIAL CONDITIONS</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_III">III.</a></span>&nbsp; &nbsp; THE COMMUNISTS</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_IV">IV.</a></span>&nbsp; &nbsp; THE SCHOOLMEN</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_V">V.</a></span>&nbsp; &nbsp; THE LAWYERS</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_VI">VI.</a></span>&nbsp; &nbsp; THE SOCIAL REFORMERS</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_VII">VII.</a></span>&nbsp; &nbsp; THE THEORY OF ALMS-GIVING</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</span>&nbsp; &nbsp; <a href="#BIBLIOGRAPHY">BIBLIOGRAPHY</a></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</span>&nbsp; &nbsp; <a href="#INDEX">INDEX</a></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</span>&nbsp; &nbsp; <a href="#ADVERTISEMENTS">ADVERTISEMENTS</a></li>
+</ul>
+</div>
+
+<hr />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span></p>
+<h1>MEDIAEVAL SOCIALISM</h1>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2>
+
+<h3>INTRODUCTION</h3>
+
+<p>The title of this book may not unnaturally provoke suspicion. After all,
+howsoever we define it, socialism is a modern thing, and dependent
+almost wholly on modern conditions. It is an economic theory which has
+been evolved under pressure of circumstances which are admittedly of no
+very long standing. How then, it may be asked, is it possible to find
+any real correspondence between theories of old time and those which
+have grown out of present-day conditions of life? Surely whatever
+analogy may be drawn between them must be based on likenesses which
+cannot be more than superficial.</p>
+
+<p>The point of view implied in this question is being increasingly adopted
+by all scientific students of social and political opinions, and is most
+certainly correct. Speculation that is purely philosophic may indeed
+turn round upon itself. The views of Grecian metaphysicians may continue
+for ever to find enthusiastic adherents; though even here, in the realm
+of purely abstract reasoning, the progressive development of science, of
+psychology, and kindred branches of knowledge cannot<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> fail by its
+influence to modify the form and arrangement of thought. But in those
+purely positive sciences (if indeed sciences they can properly be
+called) which deal with the life of man and its organisation, the very
+principles and postulates will be found to need continual readjustment.
+For with man's life, social, political, economic, we are in contact with
+forces which are of necessity always in a state of flux. For example,
+the predominance of agriculture, or of manufacture, or of commerce in
+the life of the social group must materially alter the attitude of the
+statesman who is responsible for its fortunes; and the progress of the
+nation from one to another stage of her development often entails (by
+altering from one class to another the dominant position of power) the
+complete reversal of her traditional maxims of government. Human life is
+not static, but dynamic. Hence the theories weaved round it must
+themselves be subject to the law of continuous development.</p>
+
+<p>It is obvious that this argument cannot be gainsaid; and yet at the same
+time we may not be in any way illogical in venturing on an inquiry as to
+whether, in centuries not wholly dissimilar from our own, the mind of
+man worked itself out along lines parallel in some degree to
+contemporary systems of thought. Man's life differs, yet are the
+categories which mould his ideas eternally the same.</p>
+
+<p>But before we go on to consider some early aspects of socialism, we must
+first ascertain what socialism itself essentially implies. Already
+within the lifetime of the present generation the word has greatly
+enlarged the scope of its significance. Many who ten years ago would
+have objected to it as a name of ill-omen see in it now nothing which
+may not be harmonised with the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> most ordinary of political and social
+doctrines. It is hardly any longer the badge of a school. Yet it does
+retain at any rate the bias of a tendency. It suggests chiefly the
+transference of ownership in land and capital from private hands into
+their possession in some form or other by the society. The means of this
+transference, and the manner in which this social possession is to be
+maintained, are very widely debated, and need not here be determined; it
+is sufficient for the matter of this book to have it granted that in
+this lies the germ of the socialistic theory of the State.</p>
+
+<p>Once more it must be admitted that the meaning of "private ownership"
+and "social possession" will vary exceedingly in each age. When private
+dominion has become exceedingly individual and practically absolute, the
+opposition between the two terms will necessarily be very sharp. But in
+those earlier stages of national and social evolution, when the
+community was still regarded as composed, not of persons, but of groups,
+the antagonism might be, in point of theory, extremely limited; and in
+concrete cases it might possibly be difficult to determine where one
+ended and the other began. Yet it is undeniable that socialism in itself
+need mean no more than the central principle of State-ownership of
+capital and land. Such a conception is consistent with much private
+property in other forms than land and capital, and will be worked out in
+detail differently by different minds. But it is the principle, the
+essence of it, which justifies any claims made to the use of the name.
+We may therefore fairly call those theories socialistic which are
+covered by this central doctrine, and disregard, as irrelevant to the
+nature of the term, all added peculiarities contributed by individuals
+who have joined their forces to the movement.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span>By socialistic theories of the Middle Ages, therefore, we mean no more
+than those theories which from time to time came to the surface of
+political and social speculation in the form of communism, or of some
+other way of bringing about the transference which we have just
+indicated. But before plunging into the tanglement of these rather
+complicated problems, it will make for clearness if we consider quite
+briefly the philosophic heritage of social teaching to which the Middle
+Ages succeeded.</p>
+
+<p>The Fathers of the Church had found themselves confronted with
+difficulties of no mean subtlety. On the one hand, the teaching of the
+Scriptures forced upon them the religious truth of the essential
+equality of all human nature. Christianity was a standing protest
+against the exclusiveness of the Jewish faith, and demanded through the
+attendance at one altar the recognition of an absolute oneness of all
+its members. The Epistles of St. Paul, which were the most scientific
+defence of Christian doctrine, were continually insisting on the fact
+that for the new faith there was no real division between Greek or
+barbarian, bond or free. Yet, on the other hand, there were equally
+unequivocal expressions concerning the reverence and respect due to
+authority and governance. St. Peter had taught that honour should be
+paid to Caesar, when Caesar was no other than Nero. St. Paul had as
+clearly preached subjection to the higher powers. Yet at the same time
+we know that the Christian truth of the essential equality of the whole
+human race was by some so construed as to be incompatible with the
+notion of civil authority. How, then, was this paradox to be explained?
+If all were equal, what justification would there be for civil
+authority? If civil authority was to be upheld, wherein lay the meaning<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span>
+of St. Paul's many boasts of the new levelling spirit of the Christian
+religion? The paradox was further complicated by two other problems. The
+question of the authority of the Imperial Government was found to be
+cognate with the questions of the institution of slavery and of private
+property. Here were three concrete facts on which the Empire seemed to
+be based. What was to be the Christian attitude towards them?</p>
+
+<p>After many attempted explanations, which were largely personal, and,
+therefore, may be neglected here, a general agreement was come to by the
+leading Christian teachers of East and West. This was based on a
+theological distinction between human nature as it existed on its first
+creation, and then as it became in the state to which it was reduced
+after the fall of Adam. Created in original justice, as the phrase ran,
+the powers of man's soul were in perfect harmony. His sensitive nature,
+<i>i.e.</i> his passions, were in subjection to his will, his will to his
+reason, his reason to God. Had man continued in this state of innocence,
+government, slavery, and private property would never have been
+required. But Adam fell, and in his fall, said these Christian doctors,
+the whole conditions of his being were disturbed. The passions broke
+loose, and by their violence not unfrequently subjected the will to
+their dictatorship; together with the will they obscured and prejudiced
+the reason, which under their compulsion was no longer content to follow
+the Divine Reason or the Eternal Law of God. In a word, where order had
+previously reigned, a state of lawlessness now set in. Greed, lust for
+power, the spirit of insubordination, weakness of will, feebleness of
+mind, ignorance, all swarmed into the soul of man, and disturbed not
+merely the internal economy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> of his being, but his relations also to his
+fellows. The sin of Cain is the social result of this personal upheaval.</p>
+
+<p>Society then felt the evils which attended this new condition of things,
+and it was driven, according to this patristic idea, to search about for
+remedies in order to restrain the anarchy which threatened to overwhelm
+the very existence of the race. Hence was introduced first of all the
+notion of a civil authority. It was found that without it, to use a
+phrase which Hobbes indeed has immortalised, but which can be easily
+paralleled from the writings of St. Ambrose or St. Augustine, "life was
+nasty, brutish, and short." To this idea of authority, there was quickly
+added the kindred ideas of private property and slavery. These two were
+found equally necessary for the well-being of human society. For the
+family became a determined group in which the patriarch wielded absolute
+power; his authority could be effective only when it could be employed
+not only over his own household, but also against other households, and
+thus in defence of his own. Hence the family must have the exclusive
+right to certain things. If others objected, the sole arbitrament was an
+appeal to force, and then the vanquished not only relinquished their
+claims to the objects in dispute, but became the slaves of those to whom
+they had previously stood in the position of equality and rivalry.</p>
+
+<p>Thus do the Fathers of the Church justify these three institutions. They
+are all the result of the Fall, and result from sin. Incidentally it may
+be added that much of the language in which Hildebrand and others spoke
+of the civil power as "from the devil" is traceable to this theological
+concept of the history of its origin, and much of their hard language
+means no more than this. Private property, therefore, is due to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span>
+Fall, and becomes a necessity because of the presence of sin in the
+world.</p>
+
+<p>But it is not only from the Fathers of the Church that the mediaeval
+tradition drew its force. For parallel with this patristic explanation
+came another, which was inherited from the imperial legalists. It was
+based upon a curious fact in the evolution of Roman law, which must now
+be shortly described.</p>
+
+<p>For the administration of justice in Rome two officials were chosen, who
+between them disposed of all the cases in dispute. One, the <i>Praetor
+Urbanus</i>, concerned himself in all litigation between Roman citizens;
+the other, the <i>Praetor Peregrinus</i>, had his power limited to those
+matters only in which foreigners were involved; for the growth of the
+Roman <i>Imperium</i> had meant the inclusion of many under its suzerainty
+who could not boast technical citizenship. The <i>Praetor Urbanus</i> was
+guided in his decisions by the codified law of Rome; but the <i>Praetor
+Peregrinus</i> was in a very different position. He was left almost
+entirely to his own resources. Hence it was customary for him, on his
+assumption of office, to publish a list of the principles by which he
+intended to settle all the disputes between foreigners that were brought
+to his court. But on what foundation could his declaratory act be based?
+He was supposed to have previously consulted the particular laws of as
+many foreign nations as was possible, and to have selected from among
+them those which were found to be held in common by a number of tribes.
+The fact of this consensus to certain laws on the part of different
+races was supposed to imply that these were fragments of some larger
+whole, which came eventually to be called indifferently the Law of
+Nature, or the Law of Nations. For at almost the very date when this
+Law<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> of Nations was beginning thus to be built up, the Greek notion of
+one supreme law, which governed the whole race and dated from the lost
+Golden Age, came to the knowledge of the lawyers of Rome. They proceeded
+to identify the two really different concepts, and evolved for
+themselves the final notion of a fundamental rule, essential to all
+moral action. In time, therefore, this supposed Natural Law, from its
+venerable antiquity and universal acceptance, acquired an added sanction
+and actually began to be held in greater respect than even the declared
+law of Rome. The very name of Nature seemed to bring with it greater
+dignity. But at the same time it was carefully explained that this <i>Lex
+Naturae</i> was not absolutely inviolable, for its more accurate
+description was <i>Lex</i> or <i>Jus Gentium</i>. That is to say, it was not to be
+considered as a primitive law which lay embedded like first principles
+in human nature; but that it was what the nations had derived from
+primitive principles, not by any force of logic, but by the simple
+evolution of life. The human race had found by experience that the
+observance of the natural law entailed as a direct consequence the
+establishment of certain institutions. The authority, therefore, which
+these could boast was due to nothing more than the simple struggle for
+existence. Among these institutions were those same three (civil
+authority, slavery, private property), which the Fathers had come to
+justify by so different a method of argument. Thus, by the late Roman
+lawyers private property was upheld on the grounds that it had been
+found necessary by the human race in its advance along the road of life.
+To our modern ways of thinking it seems as though they had almost
+stumbled upon the theory of evolution, the gradual unfolding of social
+and moral perfection due to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> the constant pressure of circumstances, and
+the ultimate survival of what was most fit to survive. It was almost by
+a principle of natural selection that mankind was supposed to have
+determined the necessity of civil authority, slavery, private property,
+and the rest. The pragmatic test of life had been applied and had proved
+their need.</p>
+
+<p>A third powerful influence in the development of Christian social
+teaching must be added to the others in order the better to grasp the
+mental attitude of the mediaeval thinkers. This was the rise and growth
+of monasticism. Its early history has been obscured by much legendary
+detail; but there is sufficient evidence to trace it back far into the
+beginnings of Christianity. Later there had come the stampede into the
+Thebaid, where both hermit life and the gathering together of many into
+a community seem to have been equally allowed as methods of asceticism.
+But by the fifth century, in the East and the West the movement had been
+effectively organised. First there was the canonical theory of life,
+introduced by St. Augustine. Then St. Basil and St. Benedict composed
+their Rules of Life, though St. Benedict disclaimed any idea of being
+original or of having begun something new. Yet, as a matter of fact, he,
+even more efficiently than St. Basil, had really introduced a new force
+into Christendom, and thereby became the undoubted father of Western
+monasticism.</p>
+
+<p>Now this monasticism had for its primary intention the contemplation of
+God. In order to attain this object more perfectly, certain subsidiary
+observances were considered necessary. Their declared purpose was only
+to make contemplation easier; and they were never looked upon as
+essential to the monastic profession, but only as helps to its better
+working. Among<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> these safeguards of monastic peace was included the
+removal of all anxieties concerning material well-being. Personal
+poverty&mdash;that is, the surrender of all personal claim to things the care
+of which might break in upon the fixed contemplation of God&mdash;was
+regarded as equally important for this purpose as obedience, chastity,
+and the continued residence in a certain spot. It had indeed been
+preached as a counsel of perfection by Christ Himself in His advice to
+the rich young man, and its significance was now very powerfully set
+forth by the Benedictine and other monastic establishments.</p>
+
+<p>It is obvious that the existence of institutions of this kind was bound
+to exercise an influence upon Christian thought. It could not but be
+noticed that certain individual characters, many of whom claimed the
+respect of their generation, treated material possessions as hindrances
+to spiritual perfection. Through their example private property was
+forsworn, and community of possession became prominently put forward as
+being more in accordance with the spirit of Christ, who had lived with
+His Apostles, it was declared, out of the proceeds of a common purse.
+The result, from the point of view of the social theorists of the day,
+was to confirm the impression that private property was not a thing of
+much sanctity. Already, as we have seen, the Fathers had been brought to
+look at it as something sinful in its origin, in that the need of it was
+due entirely to the fall of our first parents. Then the legalists of
+Rome had brought to this the further consideration that mere expedience,
+universal indeed, but of no moral sanction, had dictated its institution
+as the only way to avoid continual strife among neighbours. And now the
+whole force of the religious ideals of the time was thrown in the same
+balance. Eastern and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> Western monasticism seemed to teach the same
+lesson, that private property was not in any sense a sacred thing.
+Rather it seemed to be an obstacle to the perfect devotion of man's
+being to God; and community of possession and life began to boast itself
+to be the more excellent following of Christ.</p>
+
+<p>Finally it may be asserted that the social concept of feudalism lent
+itself to the teaching of the same lesson. For by it society was
+organised upon a system of land tenure whereby each held what was his of
+one higher than he, and was himself responsible for those beneath him in
+the social scale. Landowners, therefore, in the modern sense of the
+term, had no existence&mdash;there were only landholders. The idea of
+absolute dominion without condition and without definite duties could
+have occurred to none. Each lord held his estate in feud, and with a
+definite arrangement for participating in the administration of justice,
+in the deliberative assembly, and in the war bands of his chief, who in
+turn owed the same duties to the lord above him. Even the king, who
+stood at the apex of this pyramid, was supposed to be merely holding his
+power and his territorial domain as representing the nation. At his
+coronation he bound himself to observe certain duties as the condition
+of his royalty, and he had to proclaim his own acceptance of these
+conditions before he could be anointed and crowned as king. Did he break
+through his coronation-oath, then the pledge of loyalty made by the
+people was considered to be in consequence without any binding force,
+and his subjects were released from their obedience. In this way, then,
+also private property was not likely to be deemed equivalent to absolute
+possession. It was held conditionally, and was not unfrequently
+forfeited for offences against the feudal code. It carried with it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span>
+burdens which made its holding irksome, especially for all those who
+stood at the bottom of the scale, and found that the terms of their
+possession were rigorously enforced against them. The death of the
+tenant and the inheriting of his effects by his eldest son was made the
+occasion for exactions by the superior lord; for to him belonged certain
+of the dead man's military accoutrements as pledges, open and manifest,
+of the continued supremacy to be exercised over the successor.</p>
+
+<p>Thus the extremely individual ideas as regards the holding of land which
+are to-day so prevalent would then have been hardly understood. Every
+external authority, the whole trend of public opinion, the teaching of
+the Christian Fathers, the example of religious bodies, the inherited
+views that had come down to the later legalists from the digests of the
+imperial era, the basis of social order, all deflected the scale against
+the predominance of any view of land tenure or holding which made it an
+absolute and unrestricted possession. Yet at the same time, and for the
+same cause, the modern revolt against all individual possession would
+have been for the mediaeval theorists equally hard to understand.
+Absolute communism, or the idea of a State which under the magic of that
+abstract title could interfere with the whole social order, was too
+utterly foreign to their ways of thinking to have found a defender. The
+king they knew, and the people, and the Church; but the State (which the
+modern socialist invokes) would have been an unimaginable thing.</p>
+
+<p>In that age, therefore, we must not expect to find any fully-fledged
+Socialism. We must be content to notice theories which are socialistic
+rather than socialist.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2>
+
+<h3>SOCIAL CONDITIONS</h3>
+
+<p>So long as a man is in perfect health, the movements of his life-organs
+are hardly perceptible to him. He becomes conscious of their existence
+only when something has happened to obstruct their free play. So, again,
+is it with the body politic, for just so long as things move easily and
+without friction, hardly are anyone's thoughts stimulated in the
+direction of social reform. But directly distress or disturbance begin
+to be felt, public attention is awakened, and directed to the
+consideration of actual conditions. Schemes are suggested, new ideas
+broached. Hence, that there were at all in the Middle Ages men with
+remedies to be applied to "the open sores of the world," makes us
+realise that there must have been in mediaeval life much matter for
+discontent. Perhaps not altogether unfortunately, the seeds of unrest
+never need much care in sowing, for the human heart would else advance
+but little towards "the perfect day." The rebels of history have been as
+necessary as the theorists and the statesmen; indeed, but for the
+rebels, the statesmen would probably have remained mere politicians.</p>
+
+<p>Upon the ruins of the late Empire the Germanic races built up their
+State. Out of the fragments of the older <i>villa</i> they erected the
+<i>manor</i>. No doubt this new social unit contained the strata of many
+civilisations; but it will suffice here to recognise that, while it is
+perhaps impossible to apportion out to each its own particular
+contribution to the whole result, the manor must have been affected
+quite considerably by Roman, Celt, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> Teuton. The chief difference
+which we notice between this older system and the conditions of modern
+agricultural life&mdash;for the manor was pre-eminently a rural
+organism&mdash;lies in the enormous part then played in the organisation of
+society by the idea of Tenure. For, through all Western civilisation,
+from the seventh century to the fourteenth, the personal equation was
+largely merged in the territorial. One and all, master and man, lord and
+tenant, were "tied to the soil." Within the manor there was first the
+land held in demesne, the "in-land"&mdash;this was the perquisite of the lord
+himself; it was farmed by him directly. Only when modern methods began
+to push out the old feudal concepts do we find this portion of the
+estate regularly let out to tenants, though there are evidences of its
+occasionally having been done even in the twelfth century. But besides
+what belonged thus exclusively to the lord of the manor, there was a
+great deal more that was legally described as held in villeinage. That
+is to say, it was in the hands of others, who had conditional use of it.
+In England these tenants were chiefly of three kinds&mdash;the villeins, the
+cottiers, the serfs. The first held a house and yard in the village
+street, and had in the great arable fields that surrounded them strips
+of land amounting sometimes to thirty acres. To their lord they owed
+work for three days each week; they also provided oxen for the plough.
+But more than half of their time could be devoted to the farming of
+their property. Then next in order came the cottiers, whose holding
+probably ran to not more than five acres. They had no plough-work, and
+did more of the manual labour of the farm, such as hedging,
+nut-collecting, &amp;c. A much greater portion of their time than was the
+case with the villeins was at the disposal of their master, nor indeed,
+owing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> to the lesser extent of their property, did they need so much
+opportunity for working their own land. Lowest in the scale of all
+(according to the Domesday Book of William I, the first great land-value
+survey of all England, they numbered not more than sixteen per cent. of
+the whole population) came the slaves or serfs. These had almost
+exclusively the live stock to look after, being engaged as foresters,
+shepherds, swineherds, and servants of the household. They either lived
+under the lord's own roof, or might even have their cottage in the
+village with its strip of land about it, sufficient, with the provisions
+and cloth provided them, to eke out a scanty livelihood. Distinct from
+these three classes and their officials (bailiffs, seneschals, reeves,
+&amp;c.) were the free tenants, who did no regular work for the manor, but
+could not leave or part with their land. Their services were
+requisitioned at certain periods like harvest-time, when there came a
+demand for more than the ordinary number of hands. This sort of labour
+was known as boon-work.</p>
+
+<p>It is clear at once that, theoretically at least, there was no room in
+such a community for the modern landless labourer. Where all the workers
+were paid by their tenancy of land, where, in other words, fixity and
+stability of possession were the very basis of social life, the fluidity
+of labour was impossible. Men could not wander from place to place
+offering to employers the hire of their toil. Yet we feel sure that, in
+actual fact, wherever the population increased, there must have grown up
+in the process of time a number of persons who could find neither work
+nor maintenance on their father's property. Younger sons, or more remote
+descendants, must gradually have found that there was no scope for them,
+unless, like an artisan class, they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> worked for wages. Exactly at what
+date began the rise of this agricultural and industrial class of fee
+labourers we cannot very clearly tell. But in England&mdash;and probably the
+same holds good elsewhere&mdash;between 1200 and 1350 there are traces of its
+great development. There is evidence, which each year becomes more ample
+and more definite, that during that period there was an increasingly
+large number of people pressing on the means of subsistence. Though the
+land itself might be capable of supporting a far greater number of
+inhabitants, the part under cultivation could only just have been enough
+to keep the actually existing population from the margin of destitution.
+The statutes in English law which protest against a wholesale occupation
+of the common-land by individuals were not directed merely against the
+practices of a landlord class, for the makers of the law were themselves
+landlords. It is far more likely that this invasion of village rights
+was due to the action of these "landless men," who could not otherwise
+be accommodated. The superfluous population was endeavouring to find for
+itself local maintenance.</p>
+
+<p>Precisely at this time, too, in England&mdash;where the steps in the
+evolution from mediaeval to modern conditions have been more clearly
+worked out than elsewhere&mdash;increase of trade helped to further the same
+development. Money, species, in greater abundance was coming into
+circulation. The traders were beginning to take their place in the
+national life. The Guilds were springing into power, and endeavouring to
+capture the machinery of municipal government. As a result of all this
+commercial activity money payments became more frequent. The villein was
+able to pay his lord instead of working for him, and by the sale of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> the
+produce from his own yard-land was put in a position to hire helpers for
+himself, and to develop his own agricultural resources. Nor was it the
+tenant alone who stood to gain by this arrangement. The lord, too, was
+glad of being possessed of money. He, too, needed it as a substitute for
+his duty of military service to the king, for scutage (the payment of a
+tax graduated according to the number of knights, which each baron had
+to lead personally in time of war as a condition of holding land at all)
+had taken the place of the old feudal levy. Moreover, he was probably
+glad to obtain hired labour in exchange for the forced labour which the
+system of tenure made general; just as later the abolition of slavery
+was due largely to the fact that, in the long run, it did not pay to
+have the plantations worked by men whose every advantage it was to shirk
+as much toil as possible.</p>
+
+<p>But in most cases, as far as can be judged now, the lord was methodical
+in releasing services due to him. The week-work was first and freely
+commuted, for regular hired labour was easy to obtain; but the
+boon-work&mdash;the work, that is, which was required for unusual
+circumstances of a purely temporary character (such as harvesting,
+&amp;c.)&mdash;was, owing to the obvious difficulty of its being otherwise
+supplied, only arranged for in the last resort. Thus, by one of the many
+paradoxes of history, the freest of all tenants were the last to achieve
+freedom. When the serfs had been set at liberty by manumission, the
+socage-tenants or free-tenants, as they were called, were still bound by
+their fixed agreements of tenure. It is evident, however, that such
+emancipation as did take place was conditioned by the supply of free
+labour, primarily, that is, by the rising surplus of population. Not
+until he was certain of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> being able to hire other labourers would a
+landholder let his own tenants slip off the burdens of their service.</p>
+
+<p>But this process, by which labour was rendered less stationary, was
+immeasurably hastened by the advent of a terrible catastrophe. In 1347
+the Black Death arrived from the East. Across Europe it moved, striking
+fear by the inevitableness of its coming. It travelled at a steady rate,
+so that its arrival could be easily foretold. Then, too, the
+unmistakable nature of its symptoms and the suddenness of the death it
+caused also added to the horror of its approach.</p>
+
+<p>On August 15, 1349, it got to Bristol, and by Michaelmas had reached
+London. For a year or more it ravaged the countryside, so that whole
+villages were left without inhabitants. Seeing England so stunned by the
+blow, the Scots prepared to attack, thinking the moment propitious for
+paying off old scores; but their army, too, was smitten by the
+pestilence, and their forces broke up. Into every glen of Wales it
+worked its havoc; in Ireland only the English were affected&mdash;the "wild
+Irish" were immune. But in 1357 even these began to suffer. Curiously
+enough, Geoffrey Baker in his Chronicle (which, written in his own hand,
+after six hundred years yet remains in the Bodleian at Oxford) tells us
+that none fell till they were afraid of it. Still more curiously,
+Chaucer, Langland, and Wycliff, who all witnessed it, hardly mention it
+at all. There could not be any more eloquent tribute to the nameless
+horror that it caused than this hushed silence on the part of three of
+England's greatest writers.</p>
+
+<p>Henry Knighton of Leicester Abbey, canon and chronicler, tells us some
+of the consequences following on the plague, and shows us very clearly
+the social upheaval it effected. The population had now so much<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span>
+diminished that prices of live stock went down, an ox costing 4<i>s.</i>, a
+cow 12<i>d.</i>, and a sheep 3<i>d.</i> But for the same reason wages went up, for
+labour had suddenly grown scarce. For want of hands to bring in the
+harvest, whole crops rotted in the fields. Many a manor had lost a third
+of its inhabitants, and it was difficult, under the fixed services of
+land tenure, to see what remedy could be applied. In despair the feudal
+system was set aside, and lord competed with lord to obtain landless
+labourers, or to entice within their jurisdiction those whose own
+masters ill-treated them in any way. The villeins themselves sought to
+procure enfranchisement, and the right to hire themselves out to their
+lords, or to any master they might choose. Commutation was not
+particularly in evidence as the legal method of redress; though it too
+was no doubt here and there arranged for. But for the most part the
+villein took the law into his own hands, left his manor, and openly sold
+his labour to the highest bidder.</p>
+
+<p>But at once the governing class took fright. In their eyes it seemed as
+though their tenants were taking an unfair advantage of the
+disorganisation of the national life. Even before Parliament could meet,
+in 1349 an ordnance was issued by the King (Edward III), which compelled
+all servants, whether bond or free, to take up again the customary
+services, and forced work on all who had no income in land, or were not
+otherwise engaged. The lord on whose manor the tenant had heretofore
+dwelt had preferential claim to his labour, and could threaten with
+imprisonment every refractory villein. Within two years a statute had
+been enacted by Parliament which was far more detailed in its operation,
+fixing wages at the rate they had been in the twentieth year of the
+King's reign (<i>i.e.</i> at a period before the plague, when labour was
+plentiful), and also<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> with all appearance of justice determining the
+prices of agricultural produce. It was the first of a very long series
+of Acts of Parliament that, with every right intention, but with a
+really obvious futility, endeavoured to reduce everything to what it had
+been in the past, to put back the hands of the clock, and keep them
+back. But one strange fact is noticeable.</p>
+
+<p>Whether unconsciously or not, the framers of these statutes were
+themselves striking the hardest blow at the old system of tenure. From
+1351 the masters' preferential claim to the villeins of their own manor
+disappears, or is greatly limited. Henceforth the labourers are to
+appear in the market place with their tools, and (reminiscent of
+scriptural conditions) wait till some man hired them. The State, not the
+lord, is now regulating labour. Labour itself has passed from being
+"tied to the soil," and has become fluid. It is no longer a personal
+obligation, but a commodity.</p>
+
+<p>Even Parliament recognised that in many respects at least the old order
+had passed away. The statute of 1351 allows "men of the counties of
+Stafford, Lancaster, Derby, the borders of Wales and Scotland, &amp;c., to
+come in August time to labour in other counties, and to return in
+safety, as they were heretofore wont to do." It is the legalisation of
+what had been looked at, up till then, askance. The long, silent
+revolution had become conscious. But the lords were, as we have said,
+not altogether sorry for the turn things had taken. Groaning under
+pressure from the King's heavy war taxation, and under the demands which
+the advance of new standards of comfort (especially between 1370 and
+1400) entailed, they let off on lease even the demesne land, and became
+to a very great extent mere rent-collectors. Commutation proceeded
+steadily, with much haggling<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> so as to obtain the highest price from the
+eager tenant. Wages rose slowly, it is true, but rose all the same; and
+rent, though still high, was becoming, on the whole, less intolerable.</p>
+
+<p>But the drain of the French war, and the peculation in public funds
+brought about the final upheaval which completed what the Black Death
+had begun. The capricious and unfairly graduated poll-tax of 1381 came
+as a climax, and roused the Great Revolt of that year, a revolt
+carefully engineered and cleverly organised, which yet for the demands
+it made is a striking testimony to the moderation, the good sense, and
+also the oppressed state of the English peasant.</p>
+
+<p>The fourfold petition presented to the King by the rebels was:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>(1) The abolition of serfdom.</p>
+
+<p>(2) The reduction of rent to 4<i>d.</i> per acre.</p>
+
+<p>(3) The liberty to buy and sell in market.</p>
+
+<p>(4) A free pardon.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Compare the studiously restrained tone of these articles with the
+terrible atrocities and vengeance wreaked by the Jacquerie in France,
+and the no less awful mob violence perpetrated in Florence by the
+Ciompi. While it shows no doubt in a kindly light the more equitable
+rule of the English landholder, it remains a monument, also, of the
+fair-mindedness of the English worker.</p>
+
+<p>In the towns much the same sort of struggle had been going on; for the
+towns themselves, more often than not, sprang up on the demesne of some
+lord, whether king, Church, or baron. But here the difficulties were
+complicated still further by the interference of the Guilds, which in
+the various trades regulated the hours<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> of labour, the quality of the
+work, and the rate of remuneration. Yet, on the other hand, it is
+undoubted that, once the squalor of the earlier stages of urban life had
+been removed or at least improved, the social condition of the poor,
+from the fourteenth century onwards, was immeasurably superior in the
+towns to what it was in the country districts.</p>
+
+<p>The quickening influence of trade was making itself felt everywhere. In
+1331 the cloth trade was introduced at Bristol, and settled down then
+definitely in the west of England. In the north we notice the beginnings
+of the coal trade. Licence was given to the burgesses of Newcastle to
+dig for coal in 1351; and in 1368 two merchants of the same city had
+applied for and obtained royal permission to send that precious
+commodity "to any part of the kingdom, either by land or water." Even
+vast speculations were opening up for English commercial enterprise,
+when, by cornering the wool and bribing the King, a ring of merchants
+were able to break the Italian banking houses, and disorganise the
+European money market, for on the Continent all this energy in trade was
+already old. The house of Anjou, for example, had made the kingdom of
+Naples a great trading centre. Its corn and cattle were famous the world
+over. But in Naples it was the sovereigns (like Edward III and Edward IV
+in England) who patronised the commercial instincts of their people. By
+the indefatigable genius of the royal house, industry was stimulated,
+and private enterprise encouraged. By wise legislation the interests of
+the merchants were safeguarded; and by the personal supervision of
+Government, fiscal duties were moderated, the currency kept pure and
+stable, weights and measures reduced to uniformity, the ease and
+security of communications secured.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>No doubt trade not seldom, even in that age, led to much evil.
+Parliament in England raised its voice against the trickery and deceit
+practised by the greater merchants towards the small shopkeepers, and
+complained bitterly of the growing custom of the King to farm out to the
+wealthier among them the subsidies and port-duties of the kingdom. For
+the whole force of the break-up of feudal conditions was to turn the
+direction of power into the hands of a small, but moneyed class. Under
+Edward III there is a distinct appearance of a set of <i>nouveaux riches</i>,
+who rise to great prominence and take their places beside the old landed
+nobility. De la Pole, the man who did most to establish the prosperity
+of Hull, is an excellent example of what is often thought to be a
+decidedly modern type. He introduced bricks from the Low Countries, and
+apparently by this means and some curious banking speculations of very
+doubtful honesty achieved a great fortune. The King paid a visit to his
+country house, and made him Chief Baron of the Exchequer, in which
+office he was strongly suspected of not always passing to the right
+quarter some of the royal moneys. His son became Earl of Suffolk and
+Lord Chancellor; and a marriage with royalty made descendants of the
+family on more than one occasion heirs-at-law of the Crown.</p>
+
+<p>Even the peasant was beginning to feel the amelioration of his lot,
+found life easy, and work something to be shirked. In his food, he was
+starting to be delicate. Says Langland in his "Vision of Piers Plowman":</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<div>"Then labourers landless that lived by their hands,</div>
+<div>Would deign not to dine upon worts a day old.</div>
+<div>No penny-ale pleased them, no piece of good bacon,</div>
+<div>Only fresh flesh or fish, well-fried or well-baked,</div>
+<div>Ever hot and still hotter to heat well their maw."</div>
+</div></div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span>And he speaks elsewhere of their laziness:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<div>"Bewailing his lot as a workman to live,</div>
+<div>He grumbles against God and grieves without reason,</div>
+<div>And curses the king and his council after</div>
+<div>Who licence the laws that the labourers grieve."</div>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>That the poor could thus become fastidious was a good sign of the rising
+standard of comfort.</p>
+
+<p>But for all that life was hard, and much at the mercy of the weather,
+and of the assaults of man's own fellows. The houses of the better folk
+were of brick and stone, and glass windows were just becoming known,
+whereas the substitute of oiled paper had been neither cheerful nor of
+very much protection. But the huts of the poor were of plastered mud;
+and even the walls of a quite respectable man's abode, we know from one
+court summons to have been pierced by arrows shot at him by a pugnacious
+neighbour. The plaintiff offered to take judge and jury then and there
+and show them these "horrid weapons" still sticking to the exterior. In
+the larger houses the hall had branched off, by the fourteenth century,
+into withdrawing-rooms, and parlours, and bedrooms, such as the Paston
+Letters describe with much curious wealth of detail. Lady Milicent
+Falstolf, we are told, was the only one in her father's household who
+had a ewer and washing-basin.</p>
+
+<p>Yet with all the lack of the modern necessities of life, human nature
+was still much the same. The antagonism between rich and poor, which the
+collapse of feudal relations had strained to breaking-point, was not
+perhaps normally so intense as it is to-day; yet there was certainly
+much oppression and unnecessary hardships to be suffered by the weak,
+even in that age. The Ancren Riwle, that quaint form of life for
+ankeresses drawn up by a Dominican in the thirteenth century,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> shows
+that even then, despite the distance of years and the passing of so many
+generations, the manners and ways and mental attitudes of people
+depended very much as to whether they were among those who had, or who
+had not; the pious author in one passage of homely wit compares certain
+of the sisters to "those artful children of rich parents who purposely
+tear their clothes that they may have new ones."</p>
+
+<p>There have always been wanton waste and destitution side by side; and on
+the prophecy of the One to whom all things were revealed, we know that
+the poor shall be always with us. Yet we must honour those who, like
+their Master, strive to smooth away the anxious wrinkles of the world.</p>
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2>
+
+<h3>THE COMMUNISTS</h3>
+
+<p>There have always been religious teachers for whom all material creation
+was a thing of evil. Through the whole of the Middle Ages, under the
+various names of Manicheans, Albigensians, Vaudois, &amp;c., they became
+exceedingly vigorous, though their importance was only fitful. For them
+property was essentially unclean, something to be avoided as carrying
+with it the in-dwelling of the spirit of evil. Etienne de Bourbon, a
+Dominican preacher of the thirteenth century, who got into communication
+with one of these strange religionists, has left us a record,
+exceedingly unprejudiced, of their beliefs. And amongst their other
+tenets, he mentions this, that they condemned all who held landed
+property. It will be here noticed that as regards these Vaudois (or Poor
+Men of Lyons, as he informs us they were called), there could have been
+no question of com<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span>munism at all, for a common holding of property would
+have been as objectionable as private property. To hold material things
+either in community or severalty was in either case to bind oneself to
+the evil principle. Yet Etienne tells us that there was a sect among
+them which did sanction communism; they were called, in fact, the
+<i>Communati</i> (<i>Tractatus de Diversis Materiis Predicabilibus</i>, Paris,
+1877, p. 281). How they were able to reconcile this social state with
+their beliefs it is quite impossible to say; but the presumption is that
+the example of the early Christians was cited as of sufficient authority
+by some of these teachers. Certain it is that a sect still lingered on
+into the thirteenth century, called the <i>Apostolici</i>, who clung to the
+system which had been in vogue among the Apostles. St. Thomas Aquinas
+(<i>Summa Theologica</i>, 2<i>a</i>, 2<i>ae</i>, 66, 2) mentions them, and quotes St.
+Augustine as one who had already refuted them. But these were seemingly
+a Christian body, whereas the Albigensians could hardly make any such
+claim, since they repudiated any belief in Christ's humanity, for it
+conflicted with their most central dogma.</p>
+
+<p>Still it is clear that there were in existence certain obscure bodies
+which clung to communism. The published records of the Inquisition refer
+incessantly to preachers of this kind who denied private property,
+asserted that no rich man could get to heaven, and attacked the practice
+of almsgiving as something utterly immoral.</p>
+
+<p>The relation between these teachers and the Orders of friars has never
+been adequately investigated. We know that the Dominicans and
+Franciscans were from their earliest institution sent against them, and
+must therefore have been well acquainted with their errors. And, as a
+fact, we find rising among the friars a party which seemed no little
+infected with the "spiritual"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> tendency of these very Vaudois. The
+Franciscan reverence for poverty, which the Poor Man of Assisi had so
+strenuously advocated, had in fact become almost a superstition. Instead
+of being, as the saint had intended it to be, merely a means to an end,
+it had in process of time become looked upon as the essential of
+religion. When, therefore, the excessive adoption of it made religious
+life an almost impossible thing, an influential party among the
+Franciscans endeavoured to have certain modifications made which should
+limit it within reasonable bounds. But opposed to them was a determined,
+resolute minority, which vigorously refused to have any part in such
+"relaxations." The dispute between these two branches of the Order
+became at last so tempestuous that it was carried to the Pope, who
+appointed a commission of cardinals and theologians to adjudicate on the
+rival theories. Their award was naturally in favour of those who, by
+their reasonable interpretation of the meaning of poverty, were fighting
+for the efficiency of their Order. But this drove the extreme party into
+still further extremes. They rejected at once all papal right to
+interfere with the constitutions of the friars, and declared that only
+St. Francis could undo what St. Francis himself had bound up. Nor was
+this all, for in the pursuance of their zeal for poverty they passed
+quickly from denunciations of the Pope and the wealthy clergy (in which
+their rhetoric found very effective matter for argument) into abstract
+reasoning on the whole question of the private possession of property.
+The treatises which they have left in crabbed Latin and involved methods
+of argument make wearisome and irritating reading. Most are exceedingly
+prolix. After pages of profound disquisitions, the conclusions reached
+seem to have advanced the problem no further. Yet the gist of the whole
+is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> certainly an attempt to deny to any Christian the right to temporal
+possessions. Michael of Cesena, the most logical and most effective of
+the whole group, who eventually became the Minister-General of this
+portion of the Order, does not hesitate to affirm the incompatibility of
+Christianity and private property. From being a question as to the
+teaching of St. Francis, the matter had grown to one as to the teaching
+of Christ; and in order to prove satisfactorily that the practice of
+poverty as inculcated by St. Francis was absolute and inviolable, it was
+found necessary to hold that it was equally the declared doctrine of
+Christ.</p>
+
+<p>Even Ockham, a brilliant Oxford Franciscan, who, together with Michael,
+defended the Emperor, Louis of Bavaria, in his struggle against Pope
+John XXII, let fall in the heat of controversy some sayings which must
+have puzzled his august patron; for Louis would have been the very last
+person for whom communism had any charms. Closely allied in spirit with
+these "Spiritual Franciscans," as they were called, or Fraticelli, were
+those curious mediaeval bodies of Beguins and Beghards. Hopelessly
+pantheistic in their notion of the Divine Being, and following most
+peculiar methods of reaching on earth the Beatific Vision, they took up
+with the same doctrine of the religious duty of the communistic life.
+They declared the practice of holding private property to be contrary to
+the Divine Law.</p>
+
+<p>Another preacher of communism, and one whose name is well known for the
+active propaganda of his opinions, and for his share in the English
+Peasant Revolt of 1381, was John Ball, known to history as "The Mad
+Priest of Kent." There is some difficulty in finding out what his real
+theories were, for his chroniclers were his enemies, who took no very
+elaborate<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> steps to ascertain the exact truth about him. Of course there
+is the famous couplet which is said to have been the text of all his
+sermons:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<div>"Whaune Adam dalf and Eve span,</div>
+<div>Who was thane a gentilman?"<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></div>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>at least, so it is reported of him in the <i>Chronicon Angliae</i>, the work
+of an unknown monk of St. Albans (Roll Series, 1874, London, p. 321).
+Froissart, that picturesque journalist, who naturally, as a friend of
+the Court, detested the levelling doctrines of this political rebel,
+gives what he calls one of John Ball's customary sermons. He is
+evidently not attempting to report any actual sermon, but rather to give
+a general summary of what was supposed to be Ball's opinions. As such,
+it is worth quoting in full.</p>
+
+<p>"My good friends, things cannot go on well in England, nor ever will
+until everything shall be in common; when there shall be neither vassal
+nor lord, and all distinctions levelled; when lords shall be no more
+masters than ourselves. How ill have they used us! and for what reason
+do they thus hold us in bondage? Are we not all descended from the same
+parents&mdash;Adam and Eve? And what can they show, and what reason give, why
+they should be more the masters than ourselves? Except, perhaps, in
+making us labour and work for them to spend." Froissart goes on to say
+that for speeches of this nature the Archbishop of Canterbury put Ball
+in prison, and adds that for himself he considers that "it would have
+been better if he had been confined there all his life, or had been put
+to death." However, the Archbishop "set him at liberty, for he could not
+for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> conscience sake have put him to death" (Froissart's <i>Chronicle</i>,
+1848, London, book ii. cap. 73, pp. 652-653).</p>
+
+<p>From this extract all that can be gathered with certainty is the popular
+idea of the opinions John Ball held; and it is instructive to find that
+in the Primate's eyes there was nothing in the doctrine to warrant the
+extreme penalty of the law. But in reality we have no certainty as to
+what Ball actually taught, for in another account we find that,
+preaching on Corpus Christi Day, June 13, 1381, during the last days of
+the revolt, far fiercer words are ascribed to him. He is made to appeal
+to the people to destroy the evil lords and unjust judges, who lurked
+like tares among the wheat. "For when the great ones have been rooted up
+and cast away, all will enjoy equal freedom&mdash;all will have common
+nobility, rank, and power." Of course it may be that the war-fever of
+the revolt had affected his language; but the sudden change of tone
+imputed in the later speeches makes the reader somewhat suspicious of
+the authenticity.</p>
+
+<p>The same difficulty which is experienced in discovering the real mind of
+Ball is encountered when dealing with Wat Tyler and Jack Straw, who
+were, with him, the leaders of the revolt. The confession of Jack Straw
+quoted in the <i>Chronicon Angliae</i>, like nearly all mediaeval
+"confessions," cannot be taken seriously. His accusers and judges
+readily supplied what they considered he should have himself admitted.
+Without any better evidence we cannot with safety say along what lines
+he pushed his theories, or whether, indeed, he had any theories at all.
+Again, Wat Tyler is reported to have spoken threateningly to the King on
+the morning of his murder by Lord Mayor Walworth; but the evidence is
+once more entirely one-sided, contributed by those<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> who were only too
+anxious to produce information which should blacken the rebels in the
+minds of the educated classes. As a matter of fact, the purely official
+documents, in which we can probably put much more reliance (such as the
+petitions that poured in from all parts of the country on behalf of the
+peasants, and the proclamations issued by Richard II, in which all their
+demands were granted on condition of their immediate withdrawal from the
+capital), do not leave the impression that the people really advocated
+any communistic doctrines; oppression is complained of, the lawyers
+execrated, the labour laws are denounced, and that is practically all.</p>
+
+<p>It may be, indeed, that the traditional view of Ball and his followers,
+which makes them one with the contemporaneous revolts of the Jacquerie
+in France, the Ciompi in Florence, &amp;c., has some basis in fact. But at
+present we have no means of gauging the precise amount of truth it
+contains.</p>
+
+<p>But even better known than John Ball is one who is commonly connected
+with the Peasant Revolt, and whose social opinions are often grouped
+under the same heading as that of the "Mad Priest of Kent,"&mdash;John
+Wycliff, Master of Balliol, and parson of Lutterworth. This Oxford
+professor has left us a number of works from which to quarry materials
+to build up afresh the edifice he intended to erect. His chief
+contribution is contained in his <i>De Civili Dominio</i>, but its
+composition extended over a long period of years, during which time his
+views were evidently changing; so that the precise meaning of his famous
+theory on the Dominion of Grace is therefore difficult to ascertain.</p>
+
+<p>But in the opening of his treatise he lays down the two main "truths"
+upon which his whole system rests:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span></p>
+
+<blockquote><p>I. No one in mortal sin has any right to the gifts of God;</p>
+
+<p>II. Whoever is in a state of grace has a right, not indeed to
+possess the good things of God, but to use them.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>He seems to look upon the whole question from a feudal point of view.
+Sin is treason, involving therefore the forfeiture of all that is held
+of God. Grace, on the other hand, makes us the liegemen of God, and
+gives us the only possible right to all His good gifts. But, he would
+seem to argue, it is incontestable that property and power are from God,
+for so Scripture plainly assures us. Therefore, he concludes, by grace,
+and grace alone, are we put in dominion over all things; once we are in
+loyal subjection to God, we own all things, and hold them by the only
+sure title. "Dominion by grace" is thus made to lead direct to
+communism. His conclusion is quite clear: <i>Omnia debent esse communia</i>.</p>
+
+<p>In one of his sermons (Oxford, 1869, vol. i. p. 260), when he has proved
+this point with much complacent argumentation, he poses himself with the
+obvious difficulty that in point of fact this is not true; for many who
+are apparently in mortal sin do possess property and have dominion.
+What, then, is to be done, for "they be commonly mighty, and no man dare
+take from them"? His answer is not very cheerful, for he has to console
+his questioner with the barren scholastic comfort that "nevertheless, he
+hath them not, but occupieth things that be not his." Emboldened by the
+virtue of this dry logic, he breaks out into his gospel of plain
+assertion that "the saints have now all things that they would have."
+His whole argument, accordingly, does not get very far, for he is still
+speaking really (though he does not at times very clearly dis<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span>tinguish
+between the two) much more about the right to a thing than its actual
+possession. He does not really defend the despoiling of the evil rich at
+all&mdash;in his own graphic phrase, "God must serve the Devil"; and all that
+the blameless poor can do is to say to themselves that though the rich
+"possess" or "occupy," the poor "have." It seems a strange sort of
+"having"; but he is careful to note that, "as philosophers say, 'having
+is in many manners.'"</p>
+
+<p>Wycliff himself, perhaps, had not definitely made up his mind as to the
+real significance of his teaching; for the system which he sketches does
+not seem to have been clearly thought out. His words certainly appear to
+bear a communistic sense; but it is quite plain that this was not the
+intention of the writer. He defends Plato at some length against the
+criticism of Aristotle, but only on the ground that the disciple
+misunderstood the master: "for I do not think Socrates to have so
+intended, but only to have had the true catholic idea that each should
+have the use of what belongs to his brother" (<i>De Civili Dominio</i>,
+London, 1884-1904, vol. i. p. 99). And just a few lines farther on he
+adds, "But whether Socrates understood this or not, I shall not further
+question. This only I know, that by the law of charity every Christian
+ought to have the just use of what belongs to his neighbour." What else
+is this really but the teaching of Aristotle that there should be
+"private property and common use"? It is, in fact, the very antithesis
+of communism.</p>
+
+<p>Some have thought that he was fettered in his language by his academic
+position; but no Oxford don has ever said such hard things about his
+Alma Mater as did this master of Balliol. "Universities," says he,
+"houses of study, colleges, as well as degrees and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> masterships in them,
+are vanities introduced by the heathen, and profit the Church as little
+and as much as does Satan himself." Surely it were impossible to accuse
+such a man of economy of language, and of being cowed by any University
+fetish.</p>
+
+<p>His words, we have noted above, certainly can bear the interpretation of
+a very levelling philosophy. Even in his own generation he was accused
+through his followers of having had a hand in instigating the revolt.
+His reply was an angry expostulation (Trevelyan's <i>England in the Age of
+Wycliff</i>, 1909, London, p. 201). Indeed, considering that John of Gaunt
+was his best friend and protector, it would be foolish to connect
+Wycliff with the Peasant Rising. The insurgents, in their hatred of
+Gaunt, whom they looked upon as the cause of their oppression, made all
+whom they met swear to have no king named John (<i>Chronicon Angliae</i>, p.
+286). And John Ball, whom the author of the <i>Fasciculi Zizaniorum</i> (p.
+273, Roll Series, 1856, London) calls the "darling follower" of Wycliff,
+can only be considered as such in his doctrinal teaching on the dogma of
+the Real Presence. It must be remembered that to contemporary England
+Wycliff's fame came from two of his opinions, viz. his denial of a real
+objective Presence in the Mass (for Christ was there only by "ghostly
+wit"), and his advice to King and Parliament to confiscate Church lands.
+But whenever Ball or anyone else is accused of being a follower of
+Wycliff, nothing else is probably referred to than the professor's
+well-known opinion on the sacrament of the Eucharist. Hence it is that
+the <i>Chronicon Angliae</i> speaks of John Ball as having been imprisoned
+earlier in life for his Wycliffite errors, which it calls simply
+<i>perversa dogmata</i>. The "Morning Star of the Reformation" being
+therefore<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> declared innocent of complicity with the Peasant Revolt, it
+is interesting to note to whom it is that he ascribes the whole force of
+the rebellion. For him the head and front of all offending was the hated
+friars.</p>
+
+<p>Against this imputation the four Orders of friars (the Dominicans,
+Franciscans, Augustinians, and Carmelites) issued a protest. Fortunately
+in their spirited reply they give the reasons on account of which they
+are supposed to have shared in the rising. These were principally
+negative. Thus it was stated that their influence with the people was so
+great that had they ventured to oppose the spirit of revolt their words
+would have been listened to (<i>Fasciculi Zizaniorum</i>, p. 293). The
+chronicler of St. Albans is equally convinced of their weakness in not
+preventing it, and declares that the flattery which they used alike on
+rich and poor had also no mean share in producing the social unrest
+(<i>Chronicon Angliae</i>, p. 312). Langland also, in his "Vision of Piers
+Plowman," goes out of his way to denounce them for their levelling
+doctrines:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<div>"Envy heard this and bade friars go to school,</div>
+<div>And learn logic and law and eke contemplation,</div>
+<div>And preach men of Plato and prove it by Seneca</div>
+<div>That all things under Heaven ought to be in common,</div>
+<div>And yet he lieth, as I live, and to the lewd so preacheth</div>
+<div>For God made to men a law and Moses it taught&mdash;</div>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<div class="i4"><i>Non concupisces rem proximi tui</i>"</div>
+<div class="i2">(Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's goods).</div>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Here then it is distinctly asserted that the spread of communistic
+doctrines was due to the friars. Moreover, the same popular opinion is
+reflected in the fabricated confession of Jack Straw, for he is made to
+declare that had the rebels been successful, all the monastic orders, as
+well as the secular clergy, would have been put to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> death, and only the
+friars would have been allowed to continue. Their numbers would have
+sufficed for the spiritual needs of the whole kingdom (<i>Chronicon
+Angliae</i>, p. 309). Moreover, it has been noticed that not a few of them
+actually took part in the revolt, heading some of the bands of
+countrymen who marched on London.</p>
+
+<p>It will have been seen, therefore, that Communism was a favourite
+rallying-cry throughout the Middle Ages for all those on whom the
+oppression of the feudal yoke bore heavily. It was partly also a
+religious ideal for some of the strange gnostic sects which flourished
+at that era. Moreover, it was an efficient weapon when used as an
+accusation, for Wycliff and the friars alike both dreaded its
+imputation. Perhaps of all that period, John Ball alone held it
+consistently and without shame. Eloquent in the way of popular appeal,
+he manifestly endeavoured to force it as a social reform on the
+peasantry, who were suffering under the intolerable grievance of the
+Statutes of Labourers. But though he roused the countryside to his
+following, and made the people for the first time a thing of dread to
+nobles and King, it does not appear that his ideas spread much beyond
+his immediate lieutenants. Just as in their petitions the rebels made no
+doctrinal statements against Church teaching, nor any capital out of
+heretical attacks (except, singularly enough, to accuse the Primate,
+whom they subsequently put to death, of overmuch leniency to Lollards),
+so, too, they made no reference to the central idea of Ball's social
+theories. In fact, little abstract matter could well have appealed to
+them. Concrete oppression was all they knew, and were this done away
+with, it is evident that they would have been well content.</p>
+
+<p>The case of the friars is curious. For though their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> superiors made many
+attempts to prove their hostility to the rebels, it is evident that
+their actual teaching was suspected by those in high places. It is the
+exact reversal of the case of Wycliff. His views, which sounded so
+favourable to communism, are found on examination to be really nothing
+but a plea to leave things alone, "for the saints have now all they
+would have"; while on the other hand the theories of the friars, in
+themselves so logical and consistent, and in appearance obviously
+conservative to the fullest extent, turn out to contain the germ of
+revolution.</p>
+
+<p>Said Lord Acton with his sober wit: "Not the devil, but St. Thomas
+Aquinas, was the first Whig."</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTE:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> This rhyme is of course much older than John Ball; <i>cf.</i>
+Richard Rolle (1300-1349), i. 73, London, 1895.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2>
+
+<h3>THE SCHOOLMEN</h3>
+
+<p>The schoolmen in their adventurous quest after a complete harmony of all
+philosophic learning could not neglect the great outstanding problems of
+social and economic life. They flourished at the very period of European
+history when commerce and manufacture were coming back to the West, and
+their rise synchronises with the origin of the great houses of the
+Italian and Jewish bankers. Yet there was very little in the past
+learning of Christian teachers to guide them in these matters, for the
+patristic theories, which we have already described, and a few isolated
+passages cited in the Decretals of Gratian, formed as yet almost the
+only contribution to the study of these sciences. However, this absence
+of any organised body of knowledge was for them but one more stimulus
+towards the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> elaboration of a thorough synthesis of the moral aspect of
+wealth. A few of the earlier masters made reference, detached and
+personal, to the subject of dispute, but it was rather in the form of a
+disorderly comment than the definite statement of a theory.</p>
+
+<p>Then came the translation of Aristotle's <i>Politics</i>, with the keen
+criticism they contain of the views Plato had advocated. Here at once
+the intellect of Europe found an exact exposition of principles, and
+began immediately to debate their excellence and their defect. St.
+Thomas Aquinas set to work on a literal commentary, and at his express
+desire an accurate translation was made direct from the Greek by his
+fellow-Dominican, William of Moerbeke. Later on, when all this had had
+time to settle and find its place, St. Thomas worked out his own theory
+of private property in two short articles in his famous <i>Summa
+Theologica</i>. In his treatise on Justice, which occupies a large
+proportion of the <i>Secund Secundae</i> of the <i>Summa</i>, he found himself
+forced to discuss the moral evil of theft; and to do this adequately he
+had first to explain what he meant by private possessions. Without
+these, of course, there could be no theft at all.</p>
+
+<p>He began, therefore, by a preliminary article on the actual state of
+created things&mdash;that is, the material, so to say, out of which private
+property is evolved. Here he notes that the nature of things, their
+constituent essence, is in the hands of God, not man. The worker can
+change the form, and, in consequence, the value of a thing, but the
+substance which lies beneath all the outward show is too subtle for him
+to affect it in any way. To the Supreme Being alone can belong the power
+of creation, annihilation, and absolute mutation. But besides this
+tremendous force which God holds incom<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span>municably, there is another which
+He has given to man, namely, the use of created things. For when man was
+made, he was endowed with the lordship of the earth. This lordship is
+obviously one without which he could not live. The air, and the forces
+of nature, the beasts of the field, the birds and fishes, the vegetation
+in fruit and root, and the stretches of corn are necessary for man's
+continued existence on the earth. Over them, therefore, he has this
+limited dominion.</p>
+
+<p>Moreover, St. Thomas goes on, man has not merely the present moment to
+consider. He is a being possessed of intelligence and will, powers which
+demand and necessitate their own constant activity. Instinct, the gift
+of brute creation, ensures the preservation of life by its blind
+preparation for the morrow. Man has no such ready-made and spontaneous
+faculty. His powers depend for their effectiveness on their deliberative
+and strenuous exertions. And because life is a sacred thing, a lamp of
+which the once extinguished light cannot be here re-enkindled, it
+carries with it, when it is intelligent and volitional, the duty of
+self-preservation. Accordingly the human animal is bound by the law of
+his own being to provide against the necessities of the future. He has,
+therefore, the right to acquire not merely what will suffice for the
+instant, but to look forward and arrange against the time when his power
+of work shall have lessened, or the objects which suffice for his
+personal needs become scarcer or more difficult of attainment. Property,
+therefore, of some kind or other, says Aquinas, is required by the very
+nature of man. Individual possessions are not a mere adventitious luxury
+which time has accustomed him to imagine as something he can hardly do
+without, nor are they the result of civilised culture, which by the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> law
+of its own development creates fresh needs for each fresh demand
+supplied; but in some form or other they are an absolute and dire
+necessity, without which life could not be lived at all. Not simply for
+his "well-being," but for his very existence, man finds them to be a
+sacred need. Thus as they follow directly from the nature of creation,
+we can term them "natural."</p>
+
+<p>St. Thomas then proceeds in his second article to enter into the
+question of the rights of private property. The logical result of his
+previous argument is only to affirm the need man has of some property;
+the practice of actually dividing goods among individuals requires
+further elaboration if it is to be reasonably defended. Man must have
+the use of the fruits of the earth, but why these rather than those
+should belong to him is an entirely different problem. It is the problem
+of Socialism. For every socialist must demand for each member of the
+human race the right to some possessions, food and other such
+necessities. But why he should have this particular thing, and why that
+other thing should belong to someone else, is the question which lies at
+the basis of all attempts to preserve or destroy the present fabric of
+society. Now, the argument which we have so far cited from St. Thomas is
+simply based on the indefeasible right of the individual to the
+maintenance of his life. Personality implies the right of the individual
+to whatever is needful to him in achieving his earthly purpose, but does
+not in itself justify the right to private property.</p>
+
+<p>"Two offices pertain to man with regard to exterior things" (thus he
+continues). "The first is the power of procuring and dispensing, and in
+respect to this, it is lawful for man to hold things as his own." Here
+it is well to note that St. Thomas in this single sentence<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> teaches that
+private property, or the individual occupation of actual land or capital
+or instruments of wealth, is not contrary to the moral law. Consequently
+he would repudiate the famous epigram, "<i>La Propri&eacute;t&eacute; c'est le vol</i>."
+Man may hold and dispose of what belongs to him, may have private
+property, and in no way offend against the principles of justice,
+whether natural or divine.</p>
+
+<p>But in the rest of the article St. Thomas goes farther still. Not merely
+does he hold the moral proposition that private property is lawful, but
+he adds to it the social proposition that private property is necessary.
+"It is even necessary," says he, "for human life, and that for three
+reasons. Firstly, because everyone is more solicitous about procuring
+what belongs to himself alone than that which is common to all or many,
+since each shunning labour leaves to another what is the common burden
+of all, as happens with a multitude of servants. Secondly, because human
+affairs are conducted in a more orderly fashion if each has his own duty
+of procuring a certain thing, while there would be confusion if each
+should procure things haphazard. Thirdly, because in this way the peace
+of men is better preserved, for each is content with his own. Whence we
+see that strife more frequently arises among those who hold a thing in
+common and individually. The other office which is man's concerning
+exterior things, is the use of them; and with regard to this a man ought
+not to hold exterior things as his own, but as common to all, that he
+may portion them out to others readily in time of need." (The
+translation is taken from <i>New Things and Old</i>, by H. C. O'Neill, 1909,
+London, pp. 253-4.) The wording and argument of this will bear, and is
+well worth, careful analysis. For St. Thomas<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> was a man, as Huxley
+witnesses, of unique intellectual power, and, moreover, his theories on
+private property were immediately accepted by all the schoolmen. Each
+succeeding writer did little else than make more clear and defined the
+outlines of the reasoning here elaborated. We shall, therefore, make no
+further apology for an attempt to set out the lines of thought sketched
+by Aquinas.</p>
+
+<p>It will be noticed at once that the principles on which private property
+are here based are of an entirely different nature from those by which
+the need of property itself was defended. For the latter we were led
+back to the very nature of man himself and confronted with his right and
+duty to preserve his own life. From this necessity of procuring supply
+against the needs of the morrow, and the needs of the actual hour, was
+deduced immediately the conclusion that property of some kind (<i>i.e.</i>
+the possession of some material things) was demanded by the law of man's
+nature. It was intended as an absolute justification of a sacred right.
+But in this second article a completely different process is observed.
+We are no longer considering man's essential nature in the abstract, but
+are becoming involved in arguments of concrete experience. The first was
+declared to be a sacred right, as it followed from a law of nature; the
+second is merely conditioned by the reasons brought forward to support
+it. To repeat the whole problem as it is put in the <i>Summa</i>, we can
+epitomise the reasoning of St. Thomas in this easier way. The question
+of property implies two main propositions: (<i>a</i>) the right to property,
+<i>i.e.</i> to the use of material creation; (<i>b</i>) the right to private
+property, <i>i.e.</i> to the actual division of material things among the
+determined individuals of a social group. The former is a sacred,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span>
+inalienable right, which can never be destroyed, for it springs from the
+roots of man's nature. If man exists, and is responsible for his
+existence, then he must necessarily have the right to the means without
+which his existence is made impossible. But the second proposition must
+be determined quite differently. The kind of property here spoken of is
+simply a matter not of right, but of experienced necessity, and is to be
+argued for on the distinct grounds that without it worse things would
+follow: "it is even necessary for human life, and that for three
+reasons." This is a purely conditional necessity, and depends entirely
+on the practical effect of the three reasons cited. Were a state of
+society to exist in which the three reasons could no longer be urged
+seriously, then the necessity which they occasioned would also cease to
+hold. In point of fact, St. Thomas was perfectly familiar with a social
+group in which these conditions did not exist, and the law of individual
+possession did not therefore hold, namely, the religious orders. As a
+Dominican, he had defended his own Order against the attacks of those
+who would have suppressed it altogether; and in his reply to William of
+St. Amour he had been driven to uphold the right to common life, and
+consequently to deny that private property was inalienable.</p>
+
+<p>Of course it was perfectly obvious that for St. Thomas himself the idea
+of the Commune or the State owning all the land and capital, and
+allowing to the individual citizens simply the use of these common
+commodities, was no doubt impracticable; and the three reasons which he
+gives are his sincere justification of the need of individual ownership.
+Without this division of property, he considered that national life
+would become even more full of contention than it was already.
+Ac<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span>cordingly, it was for its effectiveness in preventing a great number
+of quarrels that he defended the individual ownership of property.</p>
+
+<p>Besides this article, there are many other expressions and broken
+phrases in which Aquinas uses the same phrase, asserting that the actual
+division of property was due to human nature. "Each field considered in
+itself cannot be looked upon as naturally belonging to one rather than
+to another" (2, 2, 57, 3); "distinction of property is not inculcated by
+nature" (1<i>a</i>, 2<i>ae</i>, 94, 5); but again he is equally clear in insisting
+on the other proposition, that there is no moral law which forbids the
+possession of land in severalty. "The common claim upon things is
+traceable to the natural law, not because the natural law dictates that
+all things should be held in common, and nothing as belonging to any
+individual person, but because according to the natural law there is no
+distinction of possessions which comes by human convention" (2<i>a</i>,
+2<i>ae</i>, 66, 2<i>ad</i> 1<i>m</i>.).</p>
+
+<p>To apprehend the full significance of this last remark, reference must
+be made to the theories of the Roman legal writers, which have been
+already explained. The law of nature was looked upon as some primitive
+determination of universal acceptance, and of venerable sanction, which
+sprang from the roots of man's being. This in its absolute form could
+never be altered or changed; but there was besides another law which had
+no such compelling power, but which rested simply on the experience of
+the human race. This was reversible, for it depended on specific
+conditions and stages of development. Thus nature dictated no division
+of property, though it implied the necessity of some property; the need
+of the division was only discovered when men set to work to live in
+social inter<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span>course. Then it was found that unless divisions were made,
+existence was intolerable; and so by human convention, as St. Thomas
+sometimes says, or by the law of nature, as he elsewhere expresses it,
+the division into private property was agreed upon and took place.</p>
+
+<p>This elaborate statement of St. Thomas was widely accepted through all
+the Middle Ages. Wycliff alone, and a few like him, ventured to oppose
+it; but otherwise this extremely logical and moderate defence of
+existing institutions received general adhesion. Even Scotus, like
+Ockham, a brilliant Oxford scholar whose hidden tomb at Cologne finds
+such few pilgrims kneeling in its shade, so hardy in his thought and so
+eager to find a flaw in the arguments of Aquinas, has no alternative to
+offer. Franciscan though he was, and therefore, perhaps, more likely to
+favour communistic teaching, his own theory is but a repetition of what
+his rival had already propounded. Thus, for example, he writes in a
+typical passage: "Even supposing it as a principle of positive law that
+'life must be lived peaceably in a state of polity,' it does not
+straightway follow 'Therefore everyone must have separate possessions.'
+For peace could be observed even if all things were in common. Nor even
+if we presuppose the wickedness of those who live together is it a
+necessary consequence. Still a distinction of property is decidedly in
+accord with a peaceful social life. For the wicked rather take care of
+their private possessions, and rather seek to appropriate to themselves
+than to the community common goods. Whence come strife and contention.
+Hence we find it (division of property) admitted in almost every
+positive law. And although there is a fundamental principle from which
+all other laws and rights spring,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> still from that fundamental principle
+positive human laws do not follow absolutely or immediately. Rather it
+is as declarations or explanations in detail of that general principle
+that they come into being, and must be considered as evidently in accord
+with the universal law of nature." (<i>Super Sententias Quaestiones</i>, Bk.
+4, Dist. 15, q. 2. Venice, 1580.)</p>
+
+<p>Here again, then, are the same salient points we have already noticed in
+the <i>Summa</i>. There is the idea clearly insisted on that the division of
+property is not a first principle nor an immediate deduction from a
+first principle, that in itself it is not dictated by the natural law
+which leaves all things in common, that it is, however, not contrary to
+natural law, but evidently in accord with it, that its necessity and its
+introduction were due entirely to the actual experience of the race.</p>
+
+<p>Again, to follow the theory chronologically still farther forward, St.
+Antonino, whose charitable institutions in Florence have stamped deeply
+with his personality that scene of his life's labours, does little more
+than repeat the words of St. Thomas, though the actual phrase in which
+he here compresses many pages of argument is reproduced from a work by
+the famous Franciscan moralist John de Ripa. "It is by no means right
+that here upon earth fallen humanity should have all things in common,
+for the world would be turned into a desert, the way to fraud and all
+manner of evils would be opened, and the good would have always the
+worse, and the bad always the better, and the most effective means of
+destroying all peace would be established" (<i>Summa Moralis</i>, 3, 3, 2,
+1). Hence he concludes that "such a community of goods never could
+benefit the State." These are none other arguments than those already
+advanced by St. Thomas. His articles, already quoted, are indeed the
+<i>Locus Classicus</i> for all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> mediaeval theorists, and, though references
+in every mediaeval work on social and economic questions are freely made
+to Aristotle's <i>Politics</i>, it is evident that it is really Aquinas who
+is intended.</p>
+
+<p>Distinction of property, therefore, though declared so necessary for
+peaceable social life, does not, for these thinkers, rest on natural
+law, nor a divine law, but on positive human law under the guidance of
+prudence and authority. Communism is not something evil, but rather an
+ideal too lofty to be ever here realised. It implied so much generosity,
+and such a vigour of public spirit, as to be utterly beyond the reach of
+fallen nature. The Apostles alone could venture to live so high a life,
+"for their state transcended that of every other mode of living"
+(Ptolomeo of Lucca, <i>De Regimine Principio</i>, book iv., cap. 4, Parma,
+1864, p. 273). However, that form of communism which entailed an
+absolutely even division of all wealth among all members of the group,
+though it had come to them on the authority of Phileas and Lycurgus, was
+indeed to be reprobated, for it contradicted the prime feature of all
+creation. God made all things in their proper number, weight, and
+measure. Yet in spite of all this it must be insisted on at the risk of
+repetition that the socialist theory of State ownership is never
+considered unjust, never in itself contrary to the moral law. Albertus
+Magnus, the master of Aquinas, and the leader in commenting on
+Aristotle's <i>Politics</i>, freely asserts that community of goods "is not
+impossible, especially among those who are well disciplined by the
+virtue of philanthropy&mdash;that is, the common love of all; for love, of
+its own nature, is generous." But to arrange it, the power of the State
+must be called into play; it cannot rest on any private authority. "This
+is the proper task of the legislator, for it is the duty of the
+legislator to arrange<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> everything for the best advantage of the
+citizens" (<i>In Politicis</i>, ii. 2, p. 70, Lyons, 1651). Such, too, is the
+teaching of St. Antonino, who even goes so far as to assert that "just
+as the division of property at the beginning of historic time was made
+by the authority of the State, it is evident that the same authority is
+equally competent to reverse its decision and return to its earlier
+social organisation" (<i>Summa Moralis</i>, ii. 3, 2, Verona, 1740, p. 182).
+He lays down, indeed, a principle so broad that it is difficult to
+understand where it could well end: "That can be justly determined by
+the prince which is necessary for the peaceful intercourse of the
+citizens." And in defence he points triumphantly to the fact that the
+prince can set aside a just claim to property, and transfer it to
+another who happens to hold it by prescription, on the ground of the
+numerous disputes which might otherwise be occasioned. That is to say,
+that the law of his time already admitted that in certain circumstances
+the State could take what belonged to one and give it to another,
+without there being any fault on the part of the previous owner to
+justify its forfeiture; and he defends this proceeding on the axiom just
+cited (<i>ibid.</i>, pp. 182-3), namely, its necessity "for the peaceful
+intercourse of the citizens."</p>
+
+<p>The Schoolmen can therefore be regarded as a consistent and logical
+school. They had an extreme dislike to any broad generalisation, and
+preferred rather, whenever the occasion could be discovered, to
+distinguish rather than to concede or deny. Hence, confronted by the
+communistic theory of State ownership which had been advanced by Plato,
+and by a curious group of strange, heterodox teachers, and which had,
+moreover, the actual support of many patristic sayings,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> and the strong
+bias of monastic life, they set out joyfully to resolve it into the
+simplest and most unassailable series of propositions. They began,
+therefore, by admitting that nature made no division of property, and in
+that sense held all things in common; that in the early stages of human
+history, when man, as yet unfallen, was conceived as living in the
+Garden of Eden in perfect innocency, common property amply satisfied his
+sinless and unselfish moral character; that by the Fall lust and greed
+overthrew this idyllic state, and led to a continued condition of
+internecine strife, and the supremacy of might; that experience
+gradually brought men to realise that their only hope towards peaceful
+intercourse lay in the actual division of property, and the
+establishment of a system of private ownership; that this could only be
+set aside by men who were themselves perfect, or had vowed themselves to
+pursue perfection, namely, Our Lord, His Apostles, and the members of
+religious orders. To this list of what they held to be historic events
+they added another which contained the moral deductions to be made from
+these facts. This began by the assertion that private property in itself
+was not in any sense contrary to the virtue of justice; that it was
+entirely lawful; that it was even necessary on account of certain evil
+conditions which otherwise would prevail; that the State, however, had
+the right in extreme cases and for a just cause to transfer private
+property from one to another; that it could, when the needs of its
+citizens so demanded, reverse its primitive decision, and re-establish
+its earlier form of common ownership; that this last system, however
+possible, and however much it might be regretted as a vanished and lost
+ideal, was decidedly now a violent and impracticable proceeding.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span>These theories, it is evident, though they furnish the only arguments
+which are still in use among us to support the present social
+organisation, are also patent of an interpretation which might equally
+lead to the very opposite conclusion. In his fear of any general
+contradiction to communism which should be open to dispute, and in his
+ever-constant memory of his own religious life as a Dominican friar,
+Aquinas had to mark with precision to what extent and in what sense
+private property could be justified. But at the same time he was forced
+by the honesty of his logical training to concede what he could in
+favour of the other side. He took up in this question, as in every
+other, a middle course, in which neither extreme was admitted, but both
+declared to contain an element of truth. It is clear, too, that his
+scholastic followers, even to our own date, in their elaborate
+commentaries can find no escape from the relentless logic of his
+conclusions. Down the channel that he dug flowed the whole torrent of
+mediaeval and modern scholasticism.<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> But for those whose minds were
+practical rather than abstract, one or other proposition he advanced,
+isolated from the context of his thought, could be quoted as of moment,
+and backed by the greatness of his name. His assertion of the absolute
+impracticable nature of socialistic organisation, as he knew it in his
+own age, was too good a weapon to be neglected by those who sought about
+for means of defence for their own individualistic theories; whereas
+others, like the friars of whom Wycliff and Langland spoke, and who
+headed bands of luckless peasants in the revolt of 1381 against the
+oppression of an over-legalised feudalism, were blind to this remarkable
+ex<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span>pression of Aquinas' opinion, and quoted him only when he declared
+that "by nature all things were in common," and when he protested that
+the socialist theory of itself contained nothing contrary to the
+teaching of the gospel or the doctrines of the Church.</p>
+
+<p>Truth is blinding in its brilliance. Half-truths are easy to see, and
+still easier to explain. Hence the full and detailed theory elaborated
+by the Schoolmen has been tortured to fit first one and then another
+scheme of political reform. Yet all the while its perfect adjustment of
+every step in the argument remains a wonderful monument of the
+intellectual delicacy and hardihood of the Schoolmen.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTE:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> <i>Cf.</i> Coutenson, <i>Theologia Mentis et Cordis</i>, iii.
+388-389, Paris, 1875; and Billnart, <i>De Justitia</i>, i. 123-124, Li&egrave;ge,
+1746.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h2>
+
+<h3>THE LAWYERS</h3>
+
+<p>Besides the Schoolmen, by whom the problems of life were viewed in the
+refracted light of theology and philosophy, there was another important
+class in mediaeval times which exercised itself over the same social
+questions, but visaged them from an entirely different angle. This was
+the great brotherhood of the law, which, whether as civil or canonical,
+had its own theories of the rights of private ownership. It must be
+remembered, too, that just as the theologians supported their views by
+an appeal to what were considered historic facts in the origin of
+property, so, too, the legalists depended for the material of their
+judgment on circumstances which the common opinion of the time admitted
+as authentic.</p>
+
+<p>When the West drifted out from the clouds of barbaric invasion, and had
+come into calm waters, society was found to be organised on a basis of
+what has been called<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> feudalism. That is to say, the natural and
+universal result of an era of conquest by a wandering people is that the
+new settlers hold their possessions from the conqueror on terms
+essentially contractual. The actual agreements have varied constantly in
+detail, but the main principle has always been one of reciprocal rights
+and duties. So at the early dawn of the Middle Ages, after the period
+picturesquely styled the Wanderings of the Nations, we find the
+subjugating races have encamped in Europe, and hold it by a series of
+fiefs. The action, for example, of William the Norman, as plainly shown
+in Domesday Book, is typical of what had for some three or four
+centuries been happening here and on the Continent. Large tracts of land
+were parcelled out among the invading host, and handed over to
+individual barons to hold from the King on definite terms of furnishing
+him with men in times of war, of administering justice within their
+domains, and of assisting at his Council Board when he should stand in
+need of their advice. The barons, to suit their own convenience, divided
+up these territories among their own retainers on terms similar to those
+by which they held their own. And thus the whole organisation of the
+country was graduated from the King through the greater barons to
+tenants who held their possessions, whether a castle, or a farm, or a
+single hut, from another to whom they owed suit and service.</p>
+
+<p>This roughly (constantly varying, and never actually quite so absolutely
+carried out) is the leading principle of feudalism. It is clearly based
+upon a contract between each man and his immediate lord; but, and this
+is of importance in the consideration of the feudal theory of private
+property, whatever rights and duties held good were not public, but
+private. There was not at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> the first, and in the days of what we may
+call "pure feudalism," any concept of a national law or natural right,
+but only a bundle of individual rights. Appeal from injustice was not
+made at a supreme law-court, but only to the courts of the barons to
+whom both litigants owed allegiance. The action of the King was quite
+naturally always directed towards breaking open this enclosed sphere of
+influence, and endeavouring to multiply the occasions on which his
+officials might interfere in the courts of his subjects. Thus the idea
+gradually grew up (and its growth is perhaps the most important matter
+of remark in mediaeval history), by which the King's law and the King's
+rights were looked upon as dominating those of individuals or groups.
+The courts baron and customary, and the sokes of privileged townships
+were steadily emptied of their more serious cases, and shorn of their
+primitive powers. This, too, was undoubtedly the reason for the royal
+interference in the courts Christian (the feudal name for the clerical
+criminal court). The King looked on the Church, as he looked on his
+barons and his exempted townships, as outside his royal supremacy, and,
+in consequence, quarrelled over investiture and criminous clerks, and
+every other point in which he had not as yet secured that his writs and
+judgments should prevail. There was a whole series of courts of law
+which were absolutely independent of his officers and his decision. His
+restless energy throughout this period had, therefore, no other aim than
+to bring all these into a line with his own, and either to capture them
+for himself, or to reduce them to sheer impotence. But at the beginning
+there was little notion of a royal judge who should have power to
+determine cases in which barons not immediately holding their fiefs of
+the King were implicated.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> The concern of each was only with the lord
+next above him. And the whole conception of legal rights was, therefore,
+considered simply as private rights.</p>
+
+<p>The growth of royal power consequently acted most curiously on
+contemporary thinkers. It meant centralisation, the setting up of a
+definite force which should control the whole kingdom. It resulted in
+absolutism increasing, with an ever-widening sphere of royal control. It
+culminated in the Reformation, which added religion to the other
+departments of State in which royal interference held predominance. Till
+then the Papacy, as in some sort "a foreign power," world-wide and
+many-weaponed, could treat on more than equal terms with any European
+monarch, and secure independence for the clergy. With the lopping off of
+the national churches from the parent stem, this energising force from a
+distant centre of life ceased. Each separate clerical organisation could
+now depend only on its own intrinsic efficiency. For most this meant
+absolute surrender.</p>
+
+<p>The civil law therefore which supplanted feudalism entailed two
+seemingly contradicting principles which are of importance in
+considering the ownership of land. On the one hand, the supremacy of the
+King was assured. The people became more and more heavily taxed, their
+lands were subjected to closer inspection, their criminal actions were
+viewed less as offences against individuals than as against the peace of
+the King. It is an era in which, therefore, as we have already stated,
+the power of the individual sinks gradually more and more into
+insignificance in comparison with the rising force of the King's
+dominion. Private rights are superseded by public rights.</p>
+
+<p>Yet, on the other hand, and by the development of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> identically the same
+principles, the individual gains. His tenure of land becomes far less a
+matter of contract. He himself escapes from his feudal chief, and his
+inferior tenants slip also from his control. He is no longer one in a
+pyramid of grouped social organisation, but stands now as an individual
+answerable only to the head of the State. He has duties still; but no
+longer a personal relationship to his lord. It is the King and that
+vague abstraction called the State which now claim him as a subject; and
+by so doing are obliged to recognise his individual status. This new and
+startling prominence of the individual disturbed the whole concept of
+ownership. Originally under the influence of that pure feudalism which
+nowhere existed in its absolute form, the two great forces in the life
+of each member of the social group were his own and that of his
+immediate lord. These fitted together into an almost indissoluble union;
+and therefore absolute ownership of the soil was theoretically
+impossible. Now, however, the individual was emancipated from his lord.
+He was still, it is true, subject to the King, whose power might be a
+great deal more oppressive than the barons' had been. But the King was
+far off, whereas the baron had been near, and nearly always in full
+evidence. Hence the result was the emphasis of the individual's absolute
+dominion. Not, indeed, as though it excluded the dominion of the King,
+but precisely because the royal predominance could only be recognised by
+the effective shutting out of the interference of the lord. To exclude
+the "middle-man," the King was driven to recognise the absolute dominion
+of the individual over his own possessions.</p>
+
+<p>This is brought out in English law by Bracton and his school. Favourers
+as they were of the royal pre<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span>rogative, they were driven to take up the
+paradoxical ground that the King was not the sole owner of property. To
+defend the King they were obliged to dispossess him. To put his control
+on its most effective basis, they had no other alternative left them
+than to admit the fullest rights of the individual against the King. For
+only if the individual had complete ownership, could there be no
+interference on the part of the lord; only if the possessions of the
+tenants were his own, were they prevented from falling under the
+baronial jurisdiction. Therefore by apparently denying the royal
+prerogative the civil lawyers were in effect, as they perfectly well
+recognised, really extending it and enabling it to find its way into
+cases and courts where it could not else well have entered.</p>
+
+<p>Seemingly, therefore, all idea of socialism or nationalisation of land
+(at that date the great means of production) was now excluded. The
+individualistic theory of property had suddenly appeared; and
+simultaneously the old group forms, which implied collectivism in some
+shape or other, ceased any longer to be recognised as systems of tenure.
+Yet, at the same time, by a paradox as evident as that by which the
+civilians exalted the royal prerogative apparently at its own expense,
+or as that by which Wycliff's communism is found to be in reality a
+justification of the policy of leaving things as they are, while St.
+Thomas's theory of property is discovered as far less oppressive and
+more adaptable to progressive developments of national wealth, it is
+noticed that, from the point of view of the socialist, monarchical
+absolutism is the most favourable form of a State's constitution. For
+wherever a very strictly centralised system of government exists, it is
+clear that a machinery, which needs little to turn it to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> advantage
+of the absolute rule of a rebellious minority, has been already
+constructed. In a country where, on the other hand, local government has
+been enormously encouraged, it is obviously far more difficult for
+socialism to force an entrance into each little group. There are all
+sorts of local conditions to be squared, vagaries of law and
+administration to be reduced to order, connecting bridges to be thrown
+from one portion of the nation to the next, so as to form of it one
+single whole. Were the socialists of to-day to seize on the machinery of
+government in Germany and Russia, they could attain their purposes
+easily and smoothly, and little difference in constitutional forms would
+be observed in these countries, for already the theory of State
+ownership and State interference actually obtains. They would only have
+to substitute a <i>bloc</i> for a man. But in France and England, where the
+centralisation is far less complete, the success of the socialistic
+party and its achievement of supreme power would mean an almost entire
+subversal of all established methods of administration, for all the
+threads would have first to be gathered into a single hand.</p>
+
+<p>Consequently feudalism, which turned the landowners into petty
+sovereigns and insisted on local courts, &amp;c., though seemingly
+communistic or socialistic, was really, from its intense local
+colouring, far less easy of capture by those who favoured State
+interference. It was individualistic, based on private rights. But the
+new royal prerogative led the way to the consideration of the evident
+ease by which, once the machine was possessed, the rest of the system
+could without difficulty be brought into harmony with the new theories.
+To make use of comparison, it was Cardinal Wolsey's assumption of full
+legatine power by permission of the Pope which first suggested to Henry
+VIII that he could<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> dispense with His Holiness altogether. He saw that
+the Cardinal wielded both spiritual and temporal jurisdiction. He
+coveted his minister's position, and eventually achieved it by ousting
+both Clement and Wolsey, who had unwittingly shown him in which way more
+power lay.</p>
+
+<p>So, similarly, the royal despotism itself, by centralising all power
+into the hands of a single prince, accustomed men to the idea of the
+absolute supremacy of national law, drove out of the field every
+defender of the rights of minorities, and thus paved the way for the
+substitution of the people for itself. The French Revolution was the
+logical conclusion to be drawn from the theories of Louis XIV. It needed
+only the fire of Rousseau to burn out the adventitious ornamentation
+which in the shape of that monarch's personal glorification still
+prevented the naked structure from being seen in all its clearness.
+<i>L'Etat c'est moi</i> can be as aptly the watchword of a despotic
+oligarchy, or a levelling socialism, as of a kingly tyranny, according
+as it passes from the lips of the one to the few or the many. It is true
+that the last phase was not completed till long after the Middle Ages
+had closed, but the tendency towards it is evident in the teachings of
+the civil lawyers.</p>
+
+<p class='tbrk'>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>Thus, for example, State absolutism is visible in the various
+suggestions made by men like Pierre du Bois and Wycliff (who, in the
+expression of their thoughts, are both rather lawyers than schoolmen) to
+dispossess the clergy of their temporalities. The principles urged, for
+instance, by these two in justification of this spoliation could be
+applied equally well to the estates of laymen. For the same principles
+put into the King's hand the undetermined power of doing what was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span>
+necessary for the well-being of the State. It is true that Pierre du
+Bois (<i>De Recuperatione Terre Sancte</i>, pp. 39-41, 115-8) asserted that
+the royal authority was limited to deal in this way with Church lands,
+and could not touch what belonged to others. But this proviso was
+obviously inserted so arbitrarily that its logical force could not have
+had any effect. Political necessity alone prevented it from being used
+against the nobility and gentry.</p>
+
+<p>Ockham, however, the clever Oxford Franciscan, who formed one of the
+group of pamphleteers that defended Louis of Bavaria against Pope John
+XXII, quite clearly enlarged the grounds for Church disendowment so as
+to include the taking over by the State of all individual property. He
+was a thinker whose theories were strangely compounded of absolutism and
+democracy. The Emperor was to be supported because his autocracy came
+from the people. Hence, when Ockham is arguing about ecclesiastical
+wealth, and the way in which it could be quite fairly confiscated by the
+Government, he enters into a discussion about the origin of the imperial
+dignity. This, he declares, was deliberately handed over by the people
+to the Emperor. To escape making the Pope the original donor of the
+imperial title, Ockham concedes that privilege to the people. It was
+they, the people, who had handed over to the Caesars of the Holy Roman
+Empire all their own rights and powers. Hence Louis was a monarch whose
+absolutism rested on a popular basis. Then he proceeds in his argument
+to say that the human positive law by which private property was
+introduced was made by the people themselves, and that the right or
+power by which this was done was transferred by them to the Emperor
+along with the imperial dignity.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span>Louis, therefore, had the same right to undo what they had done, for in
+him all their powers now resided. This, of course, formed an excellent
+principle from which to argue to his right to dispossess the Church of
+its superfluous wealth&mdash;indeed of all its wealth. But it could prove
+equally effectual against the holding by the individual of any property
+whatever. It made, in effect, private ownership rest on the will of the
+prince.</p>
+
+<p>Curiously, too, in quite another direction the same form of argument had
+been already worked out by Nicole Oresme, a famous Bishop of Lisieux,
+who first translated into French the <i>Politics</i> of Aristotle, and who
+helped so largely in the reforms of Charles V of France. His great work
+was in connection with the revision of the coinage, on which he composed
+a celebrated treatise. He held that the change of the value of money,
+either by its deliberate depreciation, or by its being brought back to
+its earlier standard of face value, carried such widespread consequences
+that the people should most certainly be consulted on it. It was not
+fair to them to take such a step without their willing co-operation. Yet
+he admits fully that, though this is the wiser and juster way of acting,
+there was no absolute need for so doing, since all possession and all
+property sprang from the King. And this last conclusion was advocated by
+his rival, Philip de Meziers, whose advice Charles ultimately followed.
+Philip taught that the king was sole judge of whatever was for public
+use.</p>
+
+<p>But there was a further point in the same question which afforded matter
+for an interesting discussion among the lawyers. Pope Innocent IV, who
+had first been famous as a canonist, and retained as Pontiff his old
+love for disputations of this kind, developed a theory of his own on the
+relation between the right of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> the individual to possess and the right
+of the State over that possession. He distinguished carefully between
+two entirely different concepts, namely, the right and its exercise. The
+first he admitted to be sacred and inviolable, because it sprang from
+the very nature of man. It could not be disturbed or in any way
+molested; the State had therefore no power to interfere with the right.
+But he suggested that the exercise of that right, or, to use his actual
+phrase, the "actions in accord with that right," rested on the basis of
+civil, positive law, and could therefore be controlled by legal
+decisions. The right was sacred, its exercise was purely conventional.
+Thus every man has a right to property; he can never by any possible
+means divest himself of it, for it is rooted in the depths of his being,
+and supported by his human nature. But this right appears especially to
+be something internal, intrinsic. For him to exercise it&mdash;that is to
+say, to hold this land or that, or indeed any land at all&mdash;the State's
+intervention must be secured. At least the State can control his action
+in buying, selling, or otherwise obtaining it. His right cannot be
+denied, but for reasons of social importance its exercise well may be.
+Nor did this then appear as a merely unmeaning distinction; he would not
+admit that a right which could not be exercised was hardly worth
+consideration. And, in point of fact, the Pope's private theory found
+very many supporters.</p>
+
+<p>There were others, however, who judged it altogether too fantastical.
+The most interesting of his opponents was a certain Antonio Roselli, a
+very judiciously-minded civil lawyer, who goes very thoroughly into the
+point at issue. He gives Innocent's views, and quotes what authority he
+can find for them in the Digest and Decretals. But for himself he would
+prefer to admit<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> that the right to private property is not at all sacred
+or natural in the sense of being inviolable. He willingly concedes to
+the State the right to judge all claims of possession. This is the more
+startling since ordinarily his views are extremely moderate, and
+throughout the controversy between Pope and Emperor he succeeded in
+steering a very careful, delicate course. To him, however, all rights to
+property were purely civil and arguable only on principles of positive
+law. There was no need, therefore, to discriminate between the right and
+its exercise, for both equally could be controlled by the State. There
+are evidences to show that he admitted the right of each man to the
+support of his own life, and, therefore, to private property in the form
+of actual food, &amp;c., necessary for the immediate moment; but he
+distinctly asserts as his own personal idea that "the prince could take
+away my right to a thing, and any exercise of that right," adding only
+that for this there must be some cause. The prince cannot arbitrarily
+confiscate property; he must have some reasonable motive of sufficient
+gravity to outweigh the social inconveniences which confiscation would
+necessarily produce. Not every cause is a sufficient one, but those only
+which concern "public liberty or utility." Hence he decides that the
+Pope cannot alienate Church lands without some justifying reason, nor
+hand them over to the prince unless there happens to be an urgent need,
+springing from national circumstances. It does not follow, however, that
+he wishes to make over to the State absolute right to individual
+property under normal conditions. The individual has the sole dominion
+over his own possessions; that dominion reverts to the State only in
+some extreme instance. His treatise, therefore (Goldast, <i>De Monarchia</i>,
+1611-1614, Hanover,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> p. 462, &amp;c.), may be looked upon as summing up the
+controversy as it then stood. The legal distinction suggested by
+Innocent IV had been given up by the lawyers as insufficient. The
+theories of Du Bois, Wycliff, Ockham, and the others had ceased to have
+much significance, because they gave the royal power far too absolute a
+jurisdiction over the possessions of its subjects. The feudal
+contractual system, which these suggested reforms had intended to drive
+out, had failed for entirely different reasons, and could evidently be
+brought back only at the price of a complete and probably unsuccessful
+disturbance of the social and economic organisation. The centralisation
+which had risen on the ruins of the older local sovereignties and
+immunities, had brought with it an emphasised recognition of the public
+rights and duties of all subjects, and had at the same time confirmed
+the individual in the ownership of his little property, and given him at
+the last not a conditional, but an absolute possession. To safeguard
+this, and to prevent it from becoming a block in public life, a factor
+of discontent, the lawyers were engaged in framing an additional clause
+which should give to the State an ultimate jurisdiction, and would
+enable it to overrule any objections on the part of the individual to a
+national policy or law. The suggested distinction that the word "right"
+should be emptied of its deeper meaning, by refusing it the further
+significance of "exercise," was too subtle and too legal to obtain much
+public support. So that the lawyers were driven to admit that for a just
+cause the very right itself could be set aside, and every private
+possession (when public utility and liberty demanded it) confiscated or
+transferred to another.</p>
+
+<p>Even the right to compensation for such confiscation was with equal
+cleverness explained away. For it was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> held that, when an individual had
+lost his property through State action, and without his having done
+anything to deserve it as a punishment, compensation could be claimed.
+But whenever a whole people or nation was dispossessed by the State,
+there was no such right at all to any indemnity.</p>
+
+<p>Thus was the wholesale adoption of land-nationalism to be justified.
+Thus could the State capture all private possessions without any fear of
+being guilty of robbery. It was considered that it was only the
+oppression of the individual and class spoliation which really
+contravened the moral law.</p>
+
+<p>The legal theories, therefore, which supplanted the old feudal concepts
+were based on the extension of royal authority, and the establishment of
+public rights. Individualistic possession was emphasised; yet the
+simultaneous setting up of the absolute monarchies of the sixteenth
+century really made their ultimate capture by the Socialist party more
+possible.</p>
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2>
+
+<h3>THE SOCIAL REFORMERS</h3>
+
+<p>It may seem strange to class social reforms under the wider heading of
+Socialistic Theories, and the only justification for doing so is that
+which we have already put forward in defence of the whole book; namely,
+that the term "socialistic" has come to bear so broad an interpretation
+as to include a great deal that does not strictly belong to it. And it
+is only on the ground of their advocating State interference in the
+furtherance of their reforms that the reformers here mentioned can be
+spoken of as socialistic.</p>
+
+<p>Of course there have been reformers in every age<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> who came to bring to
+society their own personal measures of relief. But in the Middle Ages
+hardly a writer took pen in hand who did not note in the body politic
+some illness, and suggest some remedy. Howsoever abstruse might be the
+subject of the volume, there was almost sure to be a reference to
+economic or social life. It was not an epoch of specialists such as is
+ours. Each author composed treatises in almost every branch of learning.
+The same professor, according to mediaeval notions, might lecture to-day
+on Scripture, to-morrow on theology or philosophy, and the day after on
+natural science. For them a university was a place where each student
+learnt, and each professor taught, universal knowledge. Still from time
+to time men came to the front with some definite social message to be
+delivered to their own generation. Some were poets like Langland, some
+strike-leaders like John Ball, some religious enthusiasts like John
+Wycliff, some royal officials like Pierre du Bois.</p>
+
+<p>This latter in his famous work addressed to King Edward I of England
+(<i>De Recuperatione Sancte Terre</i>), has several most interesting and
+refreshing chapters on the education of women. His bias is always
+against religious orders, and, consequently, he favours the suppression
+of almost every conventual establishment. Still, as these were at his
+own date the only places where education could be considered to exist at
+all, he had to elaborate for himself a plan for the proper instruction
+of girls. First, of course, the nunneries must be confiscated by
+Government. For him this was no act of injustice, since he regarded the
+possessions of the whole clerical body as something outside the ordinary
+laws of property. But having in this way cleared the ground of all
+rivals, and captured some magnificent buildings, he can now go forward
+in his scheme of education. He<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> insists on having only lay-mistresses,
+and prescribes the course of study which these are to teach. There
+should be, he held, many lectures on literature, and music, and poetry,
+and the arts and crafts of home life. Embroidery and home-management are
+necessities for the woman's work in after years, so they must be
+acquired in these schools. But education cannot limit itself to these
+branches of useful knowledge. It must take the woman's intelligence and
+develop that as skilfully as it does the man's. She is not inferior to
+him in power of reason, but only in her want of its right cultivation.
+Hence the new schools are to train her to equal man in all the arts of
+peace. Such is the main point in his programme, which even now sounds
+too progressive for the majority of our educational critics. He appeals
+for State interference that the colleges may be endowed out of the
+revenues of the religious houses, and that they may be supported in such
+a fashion as would always keep them abreast of the growing science of
+the times. And when, after a schooling of such a kind as this, the girls
+go out into their life-work as wives and mothers, he would wish them a
+more complete equality with their men-folk than custom then allowed. The
+spirit of freedom which is felt working through all his papers makes him
+the apostle of what would now be called the "new woman."</p>
+
+<p>After him, there comes a lull in reforming ideas. But half a century
+later occurs a very curious and sudden outburst of rebellion all over
+Europe. From about the middle of the fourteenth century to the early
+fifteenth there seemed to be an epidemic of severe social unrest. There
+were at Paris, which has always been the nursery of revolutions, four
+separate risings. Etienne Marcel, who, however, was rather a tribune of
+the people than a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> revolutionary leader, came into prominence in 1355;
+he was followed by the Jacquerie in 1358, by the Maillotins in 1382, and
+the Cabochiens in 1411. In Rome we know of Rienzi in 1347, who
+eventually became hardly more than a popular demagogue; in Florence
+there was the outbreak of Ciompi in 1378; in Bohemia the excesses of
+Taborites in 1409; in England the Peasant Revolt of 1381.</p>
+
+<p>It is perfectly obvious that a series of social disturbances of this
+nature could not leave the economic literature of the succeeding period
+quite as placid as it had found it. We notice now that, putting away
+questions of mere academic character, the thinkers and writers concern
+themselves with the actual state of the people. Parliament has its
+answer to the problem in a long list of statutes intended to muzzle the
+turbulent and restless revolutionaries. But this could not satisfy men
+who set their thought to study the lives and circumstances of their
+fellow-citizens. Consequently, as a result, we can notice the rise of a
+school of writers who interest themselves above all things in the
+economic conditions of labour. Of this school the easiest exponent to
+describe is Antonino of Florence, Archbishop and canonised saint. His
+four great volumes on the exposition of the moral law are fascinating as
+much for the quotations of other moralists which they contain, as for
+the actual theories of the saint himself. For the Archbishop cites on
+almost every page contemporary after contemporary who had had his say on
+the same problems. He openly asserts that he has read widely, taken
+notes of all his reading, has deliberately formed his opinions on the
+judgments, reasoned or merely expressed, of his authors. To read his
+books, then, is to realise that Antonino is summing up the whole<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span>
+experience of his generation. Indeed he was particularly well placed for
+one who wished for information. Florence, then at the height of its
+renown under the brilliant despotism of Cosimo dei Medici, was the scene
+where the great events of the life of Antonino took place. There he had
+seen within the city walls, three Popes, a Patriarch of Constantinople,
+the Emperors of East and West, and the most eminent men of both
+civilisations. He had taken part in a General Council of the Church, and
+knew thinkers as widely divergent as Giovanni Dominici and &AElig;neas Sylvius
+Piccolomini. He was, therefore, more likely than most to have heard
+whatever theories were proposed by the various great political statesmen
+of Europe, whether they were churchmen or lawyers. Consequently, his
+schemes, as we might well expect, are startlingly advanced.</p>
+
+<p>He begins by attacking the growing spirit of usury, and the resulting
+idleness. Men were finding out that under the new conditions which
+governed the money market it was possible to make a fortune without
+having done a day's work. The sons of the aristocracy of Florence, which
+was built up of merchant princes, and which had amassed its own fortunes
+in honest trading, had been tempted by the bankers to put their wealth
+out to interest, and to live on the surplus profit. The ease and
+security with which this could be done made it a popular investment,
+especially among the young men of fashion who came in, simply by
+inheritance, for large sums of money. As a consequence Florence found
+itself, for the first time in its history, beginning to possess a
+wealthy class of men who had never themselves engaged in any profession.
+The old reverence, therefore, which had always existed in the city for
+the man who laboured in his art or guild, began to slacken.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> No longer
+was there the same eagerness noticeable which used to boast openly that
+its rewards consisted in the consciousness of work well done. Instead,
+idleness became the badge of gentility, and trade a slur upon a man's
+reputation. No city can long survive so listless and languid an ideal.
+The Archbishop, therefore, denounced this new method of usurious
+traffic, and hinted further that to it was due the fierce rebellion
+which had for a while plunged Florence into the horrors of the
+Jacquerie. Wealth, he taught, should not of itself breed wealth, but
+only through the toil of honest labour, and that labour should be the
+labour of oneself, not of another.</p>
+
+<p>Then he proceeded to argue that as upon the husband lies the labour of
+trade, the greater portion of his day must necessarily be passed outside
+the circle of family life. The breadwinner can attend neither to works
+of piety nor of charity in the way he should, and, consequently, to his
+wife it must be left to supply for his defects. She must take his place
+in the church, and amid the slums of the poor; she must for him and his
+lift her hands in prayer, and dispense his superfluous wealth in
+succouring the poverty-stricken. For the Archbishop will have none of
+the soothing doctrine which the millionaire preaches to the mob. He
+asserts that poverty is not a good thing; in itself it is an evil, and
+can be considered to lead only accidentally to any good. When,
+therefore, it assumes the form of destitution, every effort must be made
+to banish it from the State. For if it were to become at all prevalent
+in a nation, then would that people be on the pathway to its ruin. The
+politicians should therefore make it the end of their endeavours&mdash;though
+this, it may be, is an ideal which can never be fully brought to
+realisation&mdash;to leave each man in a state of sufficiency. No one,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> for
+whatever reason, should be allowed to become destitute. Even should it
+be by his own fault that he were brought low, he must be provided for by
+the State, which has, however, in these circumstances, at the same time,
+the duty of punishing him.</p>
+
+<p>But he remarks that the cause of poverty is more often the unjust rate
+of wages. The competition even of those days made men beat each other
+down in clamouring for work to be given them, and afforded to the
+employers an opportunity of taking workers who willingly accepted an
+inadequate scale of remuneration. This state of things he considered to
+be unjustifiable and unjust. No one had any right to make profit out of
+the wretchedness of the poor. Each human being had the duty of
+supporting his own life, and this he could not do except by the hiring
+of his own labour to another. That other, therefore, by the immutable
+laws of justice, when he used the powers of his fellow-man, was obliged
+in conscience to see that those powers could be fittingly sustained by
+the commodity which he exchanged for them. That is, the employer was
+bound to take note that his employees received such return for their
+labour as should compensate them for his use of it. The payment promised
+and given should be, in other words, what we would now speak of as a
+"living wage." But further, above this mere margin, additional rewards
+should be added according to the skill of the workman, or the dangerous
+nature of his employment, or the number of his children. The wages also
+should be paid promptly, without delay.</p>
+
+<p>But it may sometimes happen that the labour which a man can contribute
+is not of such a kind as will enable him to receive the fair
+remuneration that should suffice for his bodily comfort. The saint is
+thinking of boy-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span>labour, and the case of those too enfeebled by age or
+illness to work adequately, or perhaps at all. What is to be done for
+them? Let the State look to it, is his reply. The community must, by the
+law of its own existence, support all its members, and out of its
+superfluous wealth must provide for its weaker citizens. Those,
+therefore, who can labour harder than they need, or who already possess
+more riches than suffice for them, are obliged by the natural law of
+charity to give to those less favourably circumstanced than themselves.</p>
+
+<p>St. Antonino does not, therefore, pretend to advocate any system of
+rigid equality among men. There is bound to be, in his opinion, variety
+among them, and from this variety comes indeed the harmony of the
+universe. For some are born to rule, and others, by the feebleness of
+their understanding or of their will, are fitted only to obey. The
+workman and servant must faithfully discharge the duties of their trade
+or service, be quick to receive a command, and reverent in their
+obedience. And the masters, in their turn, must be forbearing in their
+language, generous in their remuneration, and temperate in their
+commands. It is their business to study the powers of each of those whom
+they employ, and to measure out the work to each one according to the
+capacity which is discoverable in him. When a faithful labourer has
+become ill, the employer must himself tend and care for him, and be in
+no hurry to send him to a hospital.</p>
+
+<p>About the hospitals themselves he has his own ideas, or at least he has
+picked out the sanest that he can find in the books and conversation of
+people whom he has come across. He insists strongly that women should,
+as matrons and nurses, manage those institutions which are solely for
+the benefit of women; and even in those<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> where men also are received, he
+can see no incompatibility in their being administered by these same
+capable directors. He much commends the custom of chemists in Florence
+on Sundays, feast-days, and holidays of opening their dispensaries in
+turn. So that even should all the other shops be closed, there would
+always be one place open where medicines and drugs could be obtained in
+an emergency.</p>
+
+<p>The education of the citizens, too, is another work which the State must
+consider. It is not something merely optional which is to be left to the
+judgment of the parent. The Archbishop holds that its proper
+organisation is the duty of the prince. Education, in his eyes, means
+that the children must be taught the knowledge of God, of letters, and
+of the arts and crafts they are to pursue in after life.</p>
+
+<p>Again, he has thought out the theory of taxation. He admits its
+necessity. The State is obliged to perform certain duties for the
+community. It is obliged, for example, to make its roads fit for
+travelling, and so render them passable for the transfer of merchandise.
+It is bound to clear away all brigandage, highway robbery, and the like,
+for were this not done, no merchant would venture out through that
+State's territory, and its people would accordingly suffer.</p>
+
+<p>Hence, again, he deduces the need for some sort of army, so that the
+goods of the citizens may be secured against the invader, for without
+this security there would be no stimulus to trade. Bridges must be
+built, and fords kept in repair. Since, therefore, the State is obliged
+to incur expenses in order to attain these objects, the State has the
+right, and indeed the duty, to order it so that the community shall pay
+for the benefits which it is to receive. Hence follows taxation.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>But he sees at once that this power of demanding forced contributions
+from wealthy members of society needs safeguarding against abuse. Thus
+he is careful to insist that taxation can be valid only when it is
+levied by public authority, else it becomes sheer brigandage. No less is
+it to be reprobated when ordered indeed by public authority, but not
+used for public benefit. Thus, should it happen that a prince or other
+ruler of a State extorted money from his subjects on pretence of keeping
+the roads in good order, or similar works for the advantage of the
+community, and yet neglected to put the contributions of his people to
+this use, he would be defrauding the public, and guilty of treason
+against his country. So, too, to lay heavier burdens on his subjects
+than they could bear, or to graduate the scale in such a fashion as to
+weigh more heavily on one class than another, would be, in the ruler, an
+aggravated form of theft. Taxation must therefore be decreed by public
+authority, and be arranged according to some reasonable measure, and
+rest on the motive of benefiting the social organisation.</p>
+
+<p>The citizens therefore who are elected to settle the incidence of
+taxation must be careful to take account of the income of each man, and
+so manage that on no one should the burden be too oppressive. He
+suggests himself the percentage of one pound per hundred. Nor, again,
+must there be any deliberate attempt to penalise political opponents, or
+to make use of taxation in order to avenge class-oppression. Were this
+to be done, the citizens so acting would be bound to make restitution to
+the persons whom they had thus injured.</p>
+
+<p>Then St. Antonino takes the case of those who make a false declaration
+of their income. These, too, he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> convicts of injustice, and requires of
+them that they also should make restitution, but to the State. An
+exception to this, however, he allows. For if it happens to be the
+custom for each to make a declaration of income which is obviously below
+the real amount, then simply because all do it and all are known to do
+it, there is no obligation for the individual to act differently from
+his neighbours. It is not injustice, for the law evidently recognises
+the practice. And were he, on the other hand, to announce his full
+yearly wage of earnings, he would allow himself to be taxed beyond the
+proper measure of value. But to refuse to pay, or to elude by some
+subterfuge the just contribution which a man owes of his wealth to the
+easing of the public burdens, is in the eyes of the Archbishop a crime
+against the State. It would be an act of injustice, of theft, all the
+more heinous in that, as he declares with a flash of the energy of
+Rousseau, the "common good is something almost divine."</p>
+
+<p>We have dwelt rather at length on the schemes of this one economist, and
+may seem, therefore, to have overlooked the writings of others equally
+full of interest. But the reason has been because this Florentine
+moralist does stand so perfectly for a whole school. He has read
+omnivorously, and has but selected most of his thoughts. He compares
+himself, indeed, in one passage of these volumes, to the laborious ant,
+"that tiny insect which wanders here and there, and gathers together
+what it thinks to be of use to its community." He represents a whole
+school, and represents it at its best, for there is no extreme dogmatism
+in him, no arguing from grounds that are purely arbitrary, or from <i>a
+priori</i> principles. It is his knowledge of the people among whom he had
+laboured so long which fits him to speak<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> of the real sufferings of the
+poor. But experience requires for its being effectually put to the best
+advantage, that it should be wielded by one whose judgment is sober and
+careful. Now, St. Antonino was known in his own day as Antonino the
+Counsellor; and his justly-balanced decision, his delicately-poised
+advice, the straightness of his insight, are noticeable in the masterly
+way in which he sums up all the best that earlier and contemporary
+writers had devised in the domain of social economics.</p>
+
+<p>There is, just at the close of the period with which this book deals, a
+rising school of reformers who can be grouped round More's <i>Utopia</i>.
+Some foreshadowed him, and others continued his speculations. Men like
+Harrington in his <i>Oceana</i>, and Milton in his <i>Areopagitica</i>, really
+belong to the same band; but life for them had changed very greatly, and
+already become something far more complex than the earlier writers had
+had to consider. There seemed no possibility of reforming it by the
+simple justice which St. Antonino and his fellows judged to be
+sufficient to set things back again as they had been in the Golden Age.
+The new writers are rather political than social. For them, as for the
+Greeks, it is the constitution which must be repaired. Whereas the
+mediaeval socialists thought, as St. Thomas indeed never wearied of
+repeating, that unrest and discontent would continue under any form of
+government whatever. The more each city changed its constitution, the
+more it remained the same. Florence, whether under a republic or a
+despotism, was equally happy and equally sad. For it was the spirit of
+government alone which, in the eyes of the scholastic social writers,
+made the State what it happened to be.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span>In this the modern sociologist of to-day finds himself more akin with
+the mediaeval thinkers than with the idealists of the parliamentary era
+in England, or of the Revolution in France. These fixed their hopes on
+definite organisations of government, and on the exact balance of
+executive and legislative powers. But for Scotus, and Wycliff, and St.
+Antonino, the cause of the evil is far deeper and more personal. Not in
+any form of the constitution, nor in any division of ruling authority,
+nor in its union under a firm despot, nor in the divine right of kings,
+or nobles, or people, was security to be found, or the well-ordering of
+the nation. But peace and rest from faction could be achieved with
+certainty only on the conditions of strict justice between man and man,
+on the observance of God's commandments.</p>
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2>
+
+<h3>THE THEORY OF ALMSGIVING</h3>
+
+<p>Any description of mediaeval socialistic ideals which contained no
+reference to mediaeval notions of almsgiving would not be complete.
+Almsgiving was for them a necessary corollary to their theories of
+private possession. In the passage already quoted from St. Thomas
+Aquinas (p. 45), wherein he sets forth the theological aspect of
+property, he makes use of a broad distinction between what he calls "the
+power of procuring and dispensing" exterior things and "the use of
+them." We have already at some length tried to show what economists then
+meant by this first "power." Now we must establish the significance of
+what they intended by the second. And to do this the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> more clearly it
+will be as well to repeat the words in which St. Thomas briefly notes
+it: "The other office which is man's concerning exterior things is the
+use of them; and with regard to this a man ought not to hold exterior
+things as his own, but as common to all, that he may portion them out
+readily to others in time of need."</p>
+
+<p>In this sentence is summed up the whole mediaeval concept of the law of
+almsdeeds. Private property is allowed&mdash;is, in fact, necessary for human
+life&mdash;but on certain conditions. These imply that the possession of
+property belongs to the individual, but also that the use of it is not
+limited to him. The property is private, the use should be common.
+Indeed, it is only this common enjoyment which at all justifies private
+possession. It was as obvious then as now that there were inequalities
+in life, that one man was born to ease or wealth, or a great name,
+whereas another came into existence without any of these advantages,
+perhaps even hampered by positive disadvantages. Henry of Langenstein
+(1325-1397) in his famous <i>Tractatus de Contractibus</i> (published among
+the works of Gerson at Cologne, 1484, tom. iv. fol. 188), draws out this
+variety of fortune and misfortune in a very detailed fashion, and puts
+before his reader example after example of what they were then likely to
+have seen. But all the while he has his reason for so doing. He
+acknowledges the fact, and proceeds from it to build up his own
+explanation of it. The world is filled with all these men in their
+differing circumstances. Now, to make life possible for them, he asserts
+that private property is necessary. He is very energetic in his
+insistence upon that point. Without private property he thinks that
+there will be continual strife in which might, and not right, will have
+the greater probability of success. But<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> simultaneously, and as a
+corrective to the evils which private property of itself would cause
+there should be added to it the condition of common use. That is to say,
+that although I own what is mine, yet I should put no obstacle in the
+way of its reasonable use by others. This is, of course, really the
+ideal of Aristotle in his book of <i>Politics</i>, when he makes his reply to
+Plato's communism. In Plato's judgment, the republic should be governed
+in the reverse way, <i>Common property and private use</i>; he would really
+make this, which is a feature of monastic life, compulsory on all. But
+Aristotle, looking out on the world, an observer of human nature, a
+student of the human heart, sets up as more feasible, more practical,
+the phrase which the Middle Ages repeat, <i>Private property and common
+use</i>. The economics of a religious house are hardly of such a kind,
+thought the mediaevalists, as to suit the ways and fancies of this
+workaday world.</p>
+
+<p>But the Middle Ages do not simply repeat, they Christianise Aristotle.
+They are dominated by his categories of thought, but they perfect them
+in the light of the New Dispensation. Faith is added to politics, love
+of the brotherhood is made to extend the mere brutality of the
+economists' teaching. In "common use" they find the philosophic name for
+"almsdeeds." "A man ought not to hold exterior things as his own, but as
+common to all, that he may portion them out readily to others in time of
+need." This sentence, an almost literal translation from the <i>Book of
+Politics</i>, takes on a fuller meaning and is softened by the
+unselfishness of Christ when it is found in the <i>Summa Theologica</i> of
+Aquinas.</p>
+
+<p>Let us take boldly the passage from St. Thomas in which he lays down the
+law of almsgiving.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span>(2<i>a</i>, 2<i>ae</i>, 32, 5.) "Since love of one's neighbour is commanded us, it
+follows that everything without which that love cannot be preserved, is
+also commanded us. But it is essential to the love of one's neighbour,
+not merely to wish him well, but to act well towards him; as says St.
+John (1 Ep. 3), 'Let us not love in word nor in tongue, but in deed and
+in truth.' But to wish and to act well towards anyone implies that we
+should succour him when he is in need, and this is done by almsgiving.
+Hence almsgiving is a matter of precept. But because precepts are given
+in things that concern virtuous living, the almsgiving here referred to
+must be of such a kind as shall promote virtuous living. That is to say,
+it must be consonant with right reason; and this in turn implies a
+twofold consideration, namely, from the point of view of the giver, and
+from that of the receiver. As regards the giver, it must be noted that
+what is given should not be necessary to him, as says St. Luke 'That
+which is superfluous, give in alms.' And by 'not necessary' I mean not
+only to himself (<i>i.e.</i> what is over and above his individual needs),
+but to those who depend on him. For a man must first provide for himself
+and those of whom he has the care, and can then succour such of the rest
+as are necessitous&mdash;that is, such as are without what their personal
+needs entail. For so, too, nature provides that nutrition should be
+communicated first to the body, and only secondly to that which is to be
+begotten of it. As regards the receiver, it is required that he should
+really be in need, else there is no reason for alms being given him. But
+since it is impossible for one man to succour all who are in need, he is
+only under obligation to help such as cannot otherwise be provided for.
+For in this case the words of Ambrose become<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> applicable: 'Feed them
+that are dying of starvation, else shall you be held their murderer.'
+Hence it is a matter of precept to give alms to whosoever is in extreme
+necessity. But in other cases (namely, where the necessity is not
+extreme) almsgiving is simply a counsel, and not a command."</p>
+
+<p>(<i>Ad</i> 2<i>m.</i>) "Temporal goods which are given a man by God are his as
+regards their possession, but as regards their use, if they should be
+superfluous to him, they belong also to others who may be provided for
+out of them. Hence St. Basil says: 'If you admit that God gave these
+temporal goods to you, is God unjust in thus unequally distributing His
+favours? Why should you abound, and another be forced to beg, unless it
+is intended thereby that you should merit by your generosity, and he by
+his patience? For it is the bread of the starving that you cling to; it
+is the clothes of the naked that hang locked in your wardrobe; it is the
+shoes of the barefooted that are ranged in your room; it is the silver
+of the needy that you hoard. For you are injuring whoever is in want.'
+And Ambrose repeats the same thing."</p>
+
+<p>Here it will be noticed that we find the real meaning of those words
+about a man's duty of portioning out readily to another's use what
+belongs to himself. It is the correlative to the right to private
+property.</p>
+
+<p>But a second quotation must be made from another passage closely
+following on the preceding:</p>
+
+<p>"There is a time when to withhold alms is to commit mortal sin. Namely,
+when on the part of the receiver there is evident and urgent necessity,
+and he does not seem likely to be provided for otherwise, and when on
+the part of the giver he has superfluities of which he has not any
+probable immediate need. Nor should the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> future be in question, for this
+would be looking to the morrow, which the Master has forbidden (Matt.
+6)."</p>
+
+<p>(<i>Ibid.</i>, 32, 6.) "But 'superfluous' and 'necessity' are to be
+interpreted according to their most probable and generally accepted
+meaning. 'Necessary' has two meanings. First, it implies something
+without which a thing cannot exist. Interpreted in this sense, a man has
+no business to give alms out of what is necessary to him; for example,
+if a man has only enough wherewith to feed himself and his sons or
+others dependent on him. For to give alms out of this would be to
+deprive himself and his of very life, unless it were indeed for the sake
+of prolonging the life of someone of extreme importance to Church and
+State. In that case it might be praiseworthy to expose his life and the
+lives of others to grave risk, for the common good is to be preferred to
+our own private interests. Secondly, 'necessary' may mean that without
+which a person cannot be considered to uphold becomingly his proper
+station, and that of those dependent on him. The exact measure of this
+necessity cannot be very precisely determined, as to how far things
+added may be beyond the necessity of his station, or things taken away
+be below it. To give alms, therefore, out of these is a matter not of
+precept, but of counsel. For it would not be right to give alms out of
+these, so as to help others, and thereby be rendered unable to fulfil
+the obligations of his state of life. For no one should live
+unbecomingly. Three exceptions, however, should be made. First, when a
+man wishes to change his state of life. Thus it would be an act of
+perfect virtue if a man, for the purpose of entering a religious order,
+distributed to the poor for Christ's sake all that he possessed.
+Secondly, when a man gives alms out of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> what is necessary for his state
+of life, and yet does so knowing that they can very easily be supplied
+to him again without much personal inconvenience. Thirdly, when some
+private person, still more when the State itself, is in the gravest
+need. In these cases it would be most praiseworthy for a man to give
+what seemingly was required for the upkeep of his station in life in
+order to provide against some far greater need."</p>
+
+<p>From these passages it will be possible to construct the theory in vogue
+during the whole of the Middle Ages. The landholder was considered to
+possess his property on a system of feudal tenure, and to be obliged
+thereby to certain acts of suit and service to his immediate lord, or
+eventually to the King. But besides these burdens which the
+responsibility of possession entailed, there were others incumbent on
+him, because of his brotherhood with all Christian folk. He owed a debt,
+not merely to his superiors, but also to his equals. Such was the
+interpretation of Christ's commandment which the mediaeval theologians
+adopted. With one voice they declare that to give away to the needy what
+is superfluous is no act of charity, but of justice. St. Jerome's words
+were often quoted: "If thou hast more than is necessary for thy food and
+clothing, give that away, and consider that in thus acting thou art but
+paying a debt" (Epist. 50 ad Edilia q. i.); and those others of St.
+Augustine, "When superfluities are retained, it is the property of
+others which is retained" (in Psalm 147). These and like sayings of the
+Fathers constitute the texts on which the moral economic doctrine of
+what is called the Scholastic School is based. Albertus Magnus (vol. iv.
+in Sent. 4, 14, p. 277, Lyons, 1651) puts to himself the question
+whether to give alms is a matter of justice or of charity, and the
+answer which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> he makes is compressed finally into this sentence: "For a
+man to give out of his superfluities is a mere act of justice, because
+he is rather the steward of them for the poor than the owner." St.
+Thomas Aquinas is equally explicit, as another short sentence shall show
+(2<i>a</i>, 2<i>ae</i>, 66, 2, <i>ad</i> 3<i>m</i>): "When Ambrose says 'Let no one call his
+own that which is common property,' he is referring to the use of
+property. Hence he adds: 'Whatever a man possesses above what is
+necessary for his sufficient comfort, he holds by violence.'" And the
+same view could be backed by quotations from Henry of Ghent, Duns
+Scotus, St. Bonaventure, the sermons of Wycliff, and almost every writer
+of any consequence in that age.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps to us this decided tone may appear remarkable, and even
+ill-considered. But it is evident that the whole trouble lies in the
+precise meaning to be attached to the expressions "superfluous" and
+"needy." And here, where we feel most of all the need of guidance, it
+must be confessed that few authors venture to speak with much
+definiteness. The instance, indeed, of a man placed in extreme
+necessity, all quote and explain in nearly identical language. Should
+anyone be reduced to these last circumstances, so as to be without means
+of subsistence or sufficient wealth to acquire them, he may, in fact
+must, take from anywhere whatever suffices for his immediate
+requirements. If he begs for the necessities of life, they cannot be
+withheld from him. Nor is the expression "necessities of life" to be
+interpreted too nicely. Says Albertus Magnus: "I mean by necessary not
+that without which he cannot live, but that also without which he cannot
+maintain his household, or exercise the duties proper to his condition"
+(<i>loc. cit.</i>, art. 16, p. 280). This is a very generous<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> interpretation
+of the phrase, but it is the one pretty generally given by all the chief
+writers of that period. Of course they saw at once that there were
+practical difficulties in the way of such a manner of acting. How was it
+possible to determine whether such a one was in real need or not? And
+the only answer given was that, if it was evident that a man was so
+placed, there could be no option about giving; almsdeeds then became of
+precept. But that, if there were no convincing signs of absolute need,
+then the obligation ceased, and almsgiving, from a command, became a
+counsel.</p>
+
+<p>In an instance of this extreme nature it is not difficult to decide, but
+the matter becomes perilously complicated when an attempt is made to
+gauge the relative importance of "need" and "superfluity" in concrete
+cases. How much "need" must first be endured before a man has a just
+claim on another's superfluity? By what standard are "superfluities"
+themselves to be judged? For it is obvious that when the need among a
+whole population is general, things possessed by the richer classes,
+which in normal circumstances might not have been considered luxuries,
+instantly become such. However then the words are taken, however
+strictly or laxly interpreted, it must always be remembered that the
+terms used by the Scholastics do not really solve the problem. They
+suggest standards, but do not define them, give names, but cannot tell
+us their precise meaning.</p>
+
+<p>Should we say, then, that in this way they had failed? It is not in
+place in a book of this kind to sit in judgment on the various theories
+quoted, and test them to see how far they hold good, or to what extent
+they should be disregarded, for it is the bare recital of mere historic
+views which can be here considered. The object has<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> been simply to tell
+what systems were thought out and held, without attempting to apprize
+them or measure their value, or point out how far they are applicable to
+modern times. But in this affair of almsdeeds it is perhaps well to note
+that the Scholastics could make this much defence of their vagueness. In
+cases of this kind, they might say, we are face to face with human
+nature, not as an abstract thing, but in its concrete personal
+existence. The circumstances must therefore differ in each single
+instance. General laws can be laid down, but only on the distinct
+understanding that they are mere principles of direction&mdash;in other
+words, that they are nothing more than general laws. The Scholastics,
+the mediaeval writers of every school, except a few of that Manichean
+brood of sects, admitted the necessity of almsgiving. They looked on it
+from a moral point of view as a high virtue, and from an economic
+standpoint as a correlative to their individualistic ideas on private
+property. The one without the other would be unjust. Alone, they would
+be unworkable; together, mutually independent, they would make the State
+a fair and perfect thing.</p>
+
+<p>But to fix the exact proportion between the two terms, they held to be
+the duty of the individual in each case that came to his notice. To give
+out of a man's superfluities to the needy was, they held, undoubtedly a
+bounden duty. But they could make no attempt to apprize in definite
+language what in the receiver was meant by need, and in the giver by
+superfluity. They made no pretence to do this, and thereby showed their
+wisdom, for obviously the thing cannot be done. Yet we must note, last
+of all, that they drew up a list of principles which shall here be set
+down, because they sum up in a few sentences the wit of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> mediaeval
+economists, their spirit of orderly arrangement, and their unanimous
+opinion on man's moral obligations.</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>(I) A man is obliged to help another in his extreme need, even at
+the risk of grave inconvenience to himself.</p>
+
+<p>(II) A man is obliged to help another who, though not in extreme
+need, is yet in considerable distress, but not at the risk of grave
+inconvenience to himself.</p>
+
+<p>(III) A man is not obliged to help another whose necessity is
+slight, even though the risk to himself should be quite trifling.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>In other words, the need of his fellow must be adjusted against the
+inconvenience to himself. Where the need of the one is great, the
+inconvenience to the other must at least be as great, if it is to excuse
+him from the just debt of his alms. His possession of superfluities does
+not compel him to part with them unless there is some real want which
+they can be expected to supply. In fine, the mediaevalists would contend
+that almsgiving, to be necessary, implies two conditions, both
+concomitant:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>(<i>a</i>) That the giver should possess superfluities.</p>
+
+<p>(<i>b</i>) That the receiver should be in need.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Where both these suppositions are fulfilled, the duty of almsgiving
+becomes a matter not of charity, but of justice.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="BIBLIOGRAPHY" id="BIBLIOGRAPHY"></a>BIBLIOGRAPHY</h2>
+
+<p>Among the original works by mediaeval writers on economic subjects,
+which can be found in most of the greater libraries in England, we would
+place the following:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p><i>De Recuperatione Terre Sancte</i>, by Pierre du Bois. Edited by C. V.
+Langlois in Paris. 1891.</p>
+
+<p><i>Commentarium in Politicos Aristotelis</i>, by Albertus Magnus. Vol.
+iv. Lyons. 1651.</p>
+
+<p><i>Summa Theologica</i>, of St. Thomas Aquinas. This is being translated
+by the English Dominicans, published by Washborne. London. 1911.
+But the parts that deal with Aquinas' theories of property, &amp;c.,
+have not yet been published.</p>
+
+<p><i>De Regimine Principio</i>, probably by Ptolomeo de Lucca. It will be
+found printed among the works of St. Thomas Aquinas, who wrote the
+first chapters. The portion here to be consulted is in book iv.</p>
+
+<p><i>Tractatus de Civili Dominio</i>, by Wycliff, published in four vols.
+in London. 1885-1904.</p>
+
+<p><i>Unprinted Works of John Wycliff</i>, edited at Oxford in three vols.
+1869-1871.</p>
+
+<p><i>Fasciculus Zizaniorum</i> and the <i>Chronicon Angliae</i>, both edited in
+the Roll Series, help in elucidating the exact meaning of Wycliff,
+and his relation to the insurgents of 1381.</p>
+
+<p><i>Monarchia</i>, edited by Goldast of Hanover in 1611, gives a
+collection of fifteenth-century writers, including Ockham, Cesena,
+Roselli, &amp;c.</p>
+
+<p><i>Summa Moralis</i>, by St. Antonino of Florence, contains a great deal
+of economic moralising. But the whole four volumes (Verona, 1740)
+must be searched for it.</p></blockquote><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Among modern books which can be consulted with profit are:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote><p><i>Illustrations of the Mediaeval Thought</i>, by Reginald Lane Poole.
+1884. London.</p>
+
+<p><i>Political Theories of the Middle Ages</i>, by F. W. Maitland. 1900.
+Cambridge.</p>
+
+<p><i>History of Mediaeval Political Thought</i>, by A. J. Carlyle. 1903.
+&amp;c. Oxford (unfinished).</p>
+
+<p><i>History of English Law</i>, by Pollock and Maitland. 1898. Cambridge.</p>
+
+<p><i>Introduction to English Economic History</i>, by W. J. Ashley. 1892.
+London.</p>
+
+<p><i>Economie Politique au Moyen Age</i>, by V. Brandts. 1895. Louvain.</p>
+
+<p><i>La Propri&eacute;t&eacute; apr&egrave;s St. Thomas</i>, by Mgr. Deploige, Revue
+Neo-Scholastique. 1895, 1896. Louvain.</p>
+
+<p><i>History of Socialism</i>, by Thomas Kirkup. 1909. London.</p>
+
+<p><i>Great Revolt of 1381</i>, by C. W. C. Oman. 1906. Oxford.</p>
+
+<p><i>Lollardy and the Reformation</i>, by Gairdner. 1908-1911 (three
+vols.) London.</p>
+
+<p><i>England in the Age of Wycliff</i>, by G. M. Trevelyan. 1909. London.</p>
+
+<p><i>Leaders of the People</i>, by J. Clayton. 1910. London. A sympathetic
+account of Ball, Cade, &amp;c.</p>
+
+<p><i>Social Organisation</i>, by G. Unwin. 1906. Oxford.</p>
+
+<p><i>Outlines of Economic History of England</i>, by H. O. Meredith. 1908.
+London.</p>
+
+<p><i>Mutual Aid in a Mediaeval City</i>, by Prince Kropotkin (Nineteenth
+Century Review. Vol. xxxvi. p. 198).</p></blockquote>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="INDEX" id="INDEX"></a>INDEX</h2>
+
+<div class='index'>
+<ul>
+	<li>
+	<ul>
+		<li>Albertus Magnus,
+		<ul>
+			<li><a href="#Page_51">51</a>,</li>
+			<li><a href="#Page_86">86</a>,</li>
+			<li><a href="#Page_87">87</a></li>
+		</ul>
+		</li>
+	</ul>
+	<ul>
+		<li>Albigensians,
+		<ul>
+			<li><a href="#Page_29">29</a></li>
+		</ul>
+		</li>
+	</ul>
+	<ul>
+		<li>Almsgiving,
+		<ul>
+			<li><a href="#Page_80">80</a></li>
+		</ul>
+		</li>
+	</ul>
+	<ul>
+		<li>Ambrose, St.,
+		<ul>
+			<li><a href="#Page_10">10</a>,</li>
+			<li><a href="#Page_87">87</a></li>
+		</ul>
+		</li>
+	</ul>
+	<ul>
+		<li>Antonino, St.,
+		<ul>
+			<li><a href="#Page_50">50</a>,</li>
+			<li><a href="#Page_52">52</a>,</li>
+			<li><a href="#Page_71">71</a>,</li>
+			<li><a href="#Page_80">80</a></li>
+		</ul>
+		</li>
+	</ul>
+	<ul>
+		<li>Aquinas, St. Thomas,
+		<ul>
+			<li><a href="#Page_30">30</a>,</li>
+			<li><a href="#Page_42">42</a>,</li>
+			<li><a href="#Page_51">51</a>,</li>
+			<li><a href="#Page_60">60</a>,</li>
+			<li><a href="#Page_79">79</a>,</li>
+			<li><a href="#Page_80">80</a>,</li>
+			<li><a href="#Page_83">83</a></li>
+		</ul>
+		</li>
+	</ul>
+	<ul>
+		<li>Aristotle
+		<ul>
+			<li><a href="#Page_35">35</a>,</li>
+			<li><a href="#Page_42">42</a>,</li>
+			<li><a href="#Page_51">51</a>,</li>
+			<li><a href="#Page_64">64</a>,</li>
+			<li><a href="#Page_82">82</a></li>
+		</ul>
+		</li>
+	</ul>
+	<ul>
+		<li>Augustine, St.,
+		<ul>
+			<li><a href="#Page_10">10</a>,</li>
+			<li><a href="#Page_86">86</a></li>
+		</ul>
+		</li>
+	</ul>
+	<ul>
+		<li>Authority,
+		<ul>
+			<li><a href="#Page_8">8</a>,</li>
+			<li><a href="#Page_10">10</a></li>
+		</ul>
+		</li>
+	</ul>
+	</li>
+	<li>
+	<ul>
+		<li>Ball, John,
+		<ul>
+			<li><a href="#Page_32">32</a>,</li>
+			<li><a href="#Page_38">38</a></li>
+		</ul>
+		</li>
+	</ul>
+	<ul>
+		<li>Bavaria, Louis of,
+		<ul>
+			<li><a href="#Page_32">32</a>,</li>
+			<li><a href="#Page_63">63</a></li>
+		</ul>
+		</li>
+	</ul>
+	<ul>
+		<li>Beghards,
+		<ul>
+			<li><a href="#Page_32">32</a></li>
+		</ul>
+		</li>
+	</ul>
+	<ul>
+		<li>Beguins,
+		<ul>
+			<li><a href="#Page_32">32</a></li>
+		</ul>
+		</li>
+	</ul>
+	<ul>
+		<li>Benedict, St.,
+		<ul>
+			<li><a href="#Page_13">13</a></li>
+		</ul>
+		</li>
+	</ul>
+	<ul>
+		<li>Black Death,
+		<ul>
+			<li><a href="#Page_22">22</a></li>
+		</ul>
+		</li>
+	</ul>
+	<ul>
+		<li>Bois, Pierre du,
+		<ul>
+			<li><a href="#Page_62">62</a>,</li>
+			<li><a href="#Page_69">69</a></li>
+		</ul>
+		</li>
+	</ul>
+	<ul>
+		<li>Bonaventure, St.,
+		<ul>
+			<li><a href="#Page_87">87</a></li>
+		</ul>
+		</li>
+	</ul>
+	<ul>
+		<li>Bourbon, Etienne de,
+		<ul>
+			<li><a href="#Page_29">29</a></li>
+		</ul>
+		</li>
+	</ul>
+	<ul>
+		<li>Bracton,
+		<ul>
+			<li><a href="#Page_59">59</a></li>
+		</ul>
+		</li>
+	</ul>
+	</li>
+	<li>
+	<ul>
+		<li>Cabochiens,
+		<ul>
+			<li><a href="#Page_71">71</a></li>
+		</ul>
+		</li>
+	</ul>
+	<ul>
+		<li>Cesena, Michael de,
+		<ul>
+			<li><a href="#Page_32">32</a></li>
+		</ul>
+		</li>
+	</ul>
+	<ul>
+		<li>Ciompi,
+		<ul>
+			<li><a href="#Page_25">25</a>,</li>
+			<li><a href="#Page_71">71</a></li>
+		</ul>
+		</li>
+	</ul>
+	<ul>
+		<li>Communism,
+		<ul>
+			<li><a href="#Page_29">29</a></li>
+		</ul>
+		</li>
+	</ul>
+	</li>
+	<li>
+	<ul>
+		<li>Destitution,
+		<ul>
+			<li><a href="#Page_71">71</a></li>
+		</ul>
+		</li>
+	</ul>
+	<ul>
+		<li>Dominicans,
+		<ul>
+			<li><a href="#Page_30">30</a>,</li>
+			<li><a href="#Page_39">39</a>,</li>
+			<li><a href="#Page_47">47</a></li>
+		</ul>
+		</li>
+	</ul>
+	</li>
+	<li>
+	<ul>
+		<li>Education,
+		<ul>
+			<li><a href="#Page_76">76</a></li>
+		</ul>
+		</li>
+	</ul>
+	</li>
+	<li>
+	<ul>
+		<li>Fall,
+		<ul>
+			<li><a href="#Page_9">9</a></li>
+		</ul>
+		</li>
+	</ul>
+	<ul>
+		<li>Fathers of Church,
+		<ul>
+			<li><a href="#Page_8">8</a></li>
+		</ul>
+		</li>
+	</ul>
+	<ul>
+		<li>Feudalism,
+		<ul>
+			<li><a href="#Page_15">15</a>,</li>
+			<li><a href="#Page_56">56</a></li>
+		</ul>
+		</li>
+	</ul>
+	<ul>
+		<li>Francis, St.,
+		<ul>
+			<li><a href="#Page_31">31</a></li>
+		</ul>
+		</li>
+	</ul>
+	<ul>
+		<li>Franciscans,
+		<ul>
+			<li><a href="#Page_30">30</a>,</li>
+			<li><a href="#Page_31">31</a>,</li>
+			<li><a href="#Page_39">39</a></li>
+		</ul>
+		</li>
+	</ul>
+	<ul>
+		<li>Friars,
+		<ul>
+			<li><a href="#Page_39">39</a></li>
+		</ul>
+		</li>
+	</ul>
+	<ul>
+		<li>Froissart,
+		<ul>
+			<li><a href="#Page_33">33</a></li>
+		</ul>
+		</li>
+	</ul>
+	</li>
+	<li>
+	<ul>
+		<li>Ghent, Henry of,
+		<ul>
+			<li><a href="#Page_87">87</a></li>
+		</ul>
+		</li>
+	</ul>
+	</li>
+	<li>
+	<ul>
+		<li>Harrington,
+		<ul>
+			<li><a href="#Page_79">79</a></li>
+		</ul>
+		</li>
+	</ul>
+	<ul>
+		<li>Hildebrand,
+		<ul>
+			<li><a href="#Page_10">10</a></li>
+		</ul>
+		</li>
+	</ul>
+	<ul>
+		<li>Hospitals,
+		<ul>
+			<li><a href="#Page_75">75</a></li>
+		</ul>
+		</li>
+	</ul>
+	</li>
+	<li>
+	<ul>
+		<li>Innocent IV,
+		<ul>
+			<li><a href="#Page_64">64</a></li>
+		</ul>
+		</li>
+	</ul>
+	</li>
+	<li>
+	<ul>
+		<li>Jacquerie,
+		<ul>
+			<li><a href="#Page_25">25</a>,</li>
+			<li><a href="#Page_71">71</a></li>
+		</ul>
+		</li>
+	</ul>
+	<ul>
+		<li>Jerome, St.,
+		<ul>
+			<li><a href="#Page_86">86</a></li>
+		</ul>
+		</li>
+	</ul>
+	<ul>
+		<li>John XXII,
+		<ul>
+			<li><a href="#Page_32">32</a>,</li>
+			<li><a href="#Page_63">63</a></li>
+		</ul>
+		</li>
+	</ul>
+	</li>
+	<li>
+	<ul>
+		<li>King,
+		<ul>
+			<li><a href="#Page_15">15</a>,</li>
+			<li><a href="#Page_56">56</a></li>
+		</ul>
+		</li>
+	</ul>
+	</li>
+	<li>
+	<ul>
+		<li>Labourers, landless,
+		<ul>
+			<li><a href="#Page_19">19</a>,</li>
+			<li><a href="#Page_27">27</a></li>
+		</ul>
+		</li>
+	</ul>
+	<ul>
+		<li>Langenstein, Henry of,
+		<ul>
+			<li><a href="#Page_81">81</a></li>
+		</ul>
+		</li>
+	</ul>
+	<ul>
+		<li>Langland,
+		<ul>
+			<li><a href="#Page_27">27</a>,</li>
+			<li><a href="#Page_39">39</a></li>
+		</ul>
+		</li>
+	</ul>
+	<ul>
+		<li>Law of Nations,
+		<ul>
+			<li><a href="#Page_11">11</a></li>
+		</ul>
+		</li>
+	</ul>
+	<ul>
+		<li>Law of Nature,
+		<ul>
+			<li><a href="#Page_11">11</a></li>
+		</ul>
+		</li>
+	</ul>
+	<ul>
+		<li>Lawyers,
+		<ul>
+			<li><a href="#Page_55">55</a></li>
+		</ul>
+		</li>
+	</ul>
+	<ul>
+		<li>Legalists,
+		<ul>
+			<li><a href="#Page_11">11</a></li>
+		</ul>
+		</li>
+	</ul>
+	<ul>
+		<li>Lucca, Ptolomeo de,
+		<ul>
+			<li><a href="#Page_51">51</a></li>
+		</ul>
+		</li>
+	</ul>
+	</li>
+	<li>
+	<ul>
+		<li>Maillotins,
+		<ul>
+			<li><a href="#Page_71">71</a></li>
+		</ul>
+		</li>
+	</ul>
+	<ul>
+		<li>Manicheans,
+		<ul>
+			<li><a href="#Page_29">29</a></li>
+		</ul>
+		</li>
+	</ul>
+	<ul>
+		<li>Manor,
+		<ul>
+			<li><a href="#Page_71">71</a></li>
+		</ul>
+		</li>
+	</ul>
+	<ul>
+		<li>Marcel, Etienne,
+		<ul>
+			<li><a href="#Page_71">71</a></li>
+		</ul>
+		</li>
+	</ul>
+	<ul>
+		<li>Meziers, Philip de,
+		<ul>
+			<li><a href="#Page_64">64</a></li>
+		</ul>
+		</li>
+	</ul>
+	<ul>
+		<li>Milton,
+		<ul>
+			<li><a href="#Page_79">79</a></li>
+		</ul>
+		</li>
+	</ul>
+	<ul>
+		<li>Moerbeke,
+		<ul>
+			<li><a href="#Page_42">42</a></li>
+		</ul>
+		</li>
+	</ul>
+	<ul>
+		<li>Monasticism,
+		<ul>
+			<li><a href="#Page_13">13</a></li>
+		</ul>
+		</li>
+	</ul>
+	<ul>
+		<li>More, Sir Thomas,
+		<ul>
+			<li><a href="#Page_79">79</a></li>
+		</ul>
+		</li>
+	</ul>
+	</li>
+	<li>
+	<ul>
+		<li>Necessities,
+		<ul>
+			<li><a href="#Page_83">83</a></li>
+		</ul>
+		</li>
+	</ul>
+	</li>
+	<li>
+	<ul>
+		<li>Ockham,
+		<ul>
+			<li><a href="#Page_32">32</a>,</li>
+			<li><a href="#Page_49">49</a>,</li>
+			<li><a href="#Page_63">63</a></li>
+		</ul>
+		</li>
+	</ul>
+	<ul>
+		<li>Oresme, Nichole,
+		<ul>
+			<li><a href="#Page_64">64</a></li>
+		</ul>
+		</li>
+	</ul>
+	</li>
+	<li>
+	<ul>
+		<li>Parliament,
+		<ul>
+			<li><a href="#Page_43">43</a></li>
+		</ul>
+		</li>
+	</ul>
+	<ul>
+		<li>Peasant Revolt,
+		<ul>
+			<li><a href="#Page_25">25</a>,</li>
+			<li><a href="#Page_32">32</a>,</li>
+			<li><a href="#Page_71">71</a></li>
+		</ul>
+		</li>
+	</ul>
+	<ul>
+		<li>Plato,
+		<ul>
+			<li><a href="#Page_35">35</a>,</li>
+			<li><a href="#Page_52">52</a>,</li>
+			<li><a href="#Page_82">82</a></li>
+		</ul>
+		</li>
+	</ul>
+	<ul>
+		<li><i>Praetor Peregrinus</i>,
+		<ul>
+			<li><a href="#Page_11">11</a></li>
+		</ul>
+		</li>
+	</ul>
+	<ul>
+		<li><i>Praetor Urbanus</i>,
+		<ul>
+			<li><a href="#Page_11">11</a></li>
+		</ul>
+		</li>
+	</ul>
+	<ul>
+		<li>Property,
+		<ul>
+			<li><a href="#Page_10">10</a>,</li>
+			<li><a href="#Page_12">12</a>,</li>
+			<li><a href="#Page_29">29</a>,</li>
+			<li><a href="#Page_41">41</a>,</li>
+			<li><a href="#Page_80">80</a></li>
+		</ul>
+		</li>
+	</ul>
+	</li>
+	<li>
+	<ul>
+		<li>Rienzi,
+		<ul>
+			<li><a href="#Page_71">71</a></li>
+		</ul>
+		</li>
+	</ul>
+	<ul>
+		<li>Ripa, John de,
+		<ul>
+			<li><a href="#Page_50">50</a></li>
+		</ul>
+		</li>
+	</ul>
+	<ul>
+		<li>Roselli, Antonio,
+		<ul>
+			<li><a href="#Page_65">65</a></li>
+		</ul>
+		</li>
+	</ul>
+	</li>
+	<li>
+	<ul>
+		<li>Schoolmen,
+		<ul>
+			<li><a href="#Page_41">41</a>,</li>
+			<li><a href="#Page_88">88</a></li>
+		</ul>
+		</li>
+	</ul>
+	<ul>
+		<li>Scotus, Duns,
+		<ul>
+			<li><a href="#Page_49">49</a>,</li>
+			<li><a href="#Page_80">80</a>,</li>
+			<li><a href="#Page_87">87</a></li>
+		</ul>
+		</li>
+	</ul>
+	<ul>
+		<li>Slavery,
+		<ul>
+			<li><a href="#Page_10">10</a></li>
+		</ul>
+		</li>
+	</ul>
+	<ul>
+		<li>Socialism,
+		<ul>
+			<li><a href="#Page_6">6</a>,</li>
+			<li><a href="#Page_16">16</a>,</li>
+			<li><a href="#Page_60">60</a></li>
+		</ul>
+		</li>
+	</ul>
+	<ul>
+		<li>Straw, Jack,
+		<ul>
+			<li><a href="#Page_34">34</a>,</li>
+			<li><a href="#Page_39">39</a></li>
+		</ul>
+		</li>
+	</ul>
+	<ul>
+		<li>Superfluities,
+		<ul>
+			<li><a href="#Page_83">83</a></li>
+		</ul>
+		</li>
+	</ul>
+	</li>
+	<li>
+	<ul>
+		<li>Taborites,
+		<ul>
+			<li><a href="#Page_71">71</a></li>
+		</ul>
+		</li>
+	</ul>
+	<ul>
+		<li>Taxation,
+		<ul>
+			<li><a href="#Page_76">76</a></li>
+		</ul>
+		</li>
+	</ul>
+	<ul>
+		<li>Tyler, Wat,
+		<ul>
+			<li><a href="#Page_34">34</a></li>
+		</ul>
+		</li>
+	</ul>
+	</li>
+	<li>
+	<ul>
+		<li>Vaudois,
+		<ul>
+			<li><a href="#Page_29">29</a></li>
+		</ul>
+		</li>
+	</ul>
+	</li>
+	<li>
+	<ul>
+		<li>Wages,
+		<ul>
+			<li><a href="#Page_23">23</a>,</li>
+			<li><a href="#Page_25">25</a>,</li>
+			<li><a href="#Page_74">74</a></li>
+		</ul>
+		</li>
+	</ul>
+	<ul>
+		<li>Women,
+		<ul>
+			<li><a href="#Page_70">70</a>,</li>
+			<li><a href="#Page_73">73</a></li>
+		</ul>
+		</li>
+	</ul>
+	<ul>
+		<li>Wycliff,
+		<ul>
+			<li><a href="#Page_35">35</a>,</li>
+			<li><a href="#Page_49">49</a>,</li>
+			<li><a href="#Page_60">60</a>,</li>
+			<li><a href="#Page_62">62</a>,</li>
+			<li><a href="#Page_80">80</a>,</li>
+			<li><a href="#Page_87">87</a></li>
+		</ul>
+		</li>
+	</ul>
+	</li>
+</ul>
+</div>
+
+<p class='tbrk'>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p class='center'>Printed by <span class="smcap">Ballantyne, Hanson &amp; Co.</span><br />Edinburgh &amp; London</p>
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="ADVERTISEMENTS" id="ADVERTISEMENTS"></a>ADVERTISEMENTS</h2>
+
+<hr class='smler' />
+<h2>THE PEOPLE'S BOOKS</h2>
+
+<h3>THE FIRST HUNDRED VOLUMES</h3>
+
+<p class='center'>The volumes issued (Spring 1913) are marked with an asterisk</p>
+
+<h4>SCIENCE</h4>
+
+<table border='0' cellspacing='0' cellpadding='5' summary='science books'>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; &nbsp; *1. The Foundations of Science</td>
+    <td>By W. C. D. Whetham, F.R.S.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; &nbsp; *2. Embryology&mdash;The Beginnings of Life</td>
+    <td>By Prof. Gerald Leighton, M.D.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; 3. Biology&mdash;The Science of Life</td>
+    <td>By Prof. W. D. Henderson, M.A.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; &nbsp; *4. Zoology: The Study of Animal Life</td>
+    <td>By Prof. E. W. MacBride, F.R.S.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; &nbsp; *5. Botany; The Modern Study of Plants</td>
+    <td>By M. C. Stopes, D.Sc., Ph.D.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; 6. Bacteriology</td>
+    <td>By W. E. Carnegie Dickson, M.D.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; &nbsp; *7. The Structure of the Earth</td>
+    <td>By the Rev. T. G. Bonney, F.R.S.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; &nbsp; *8. Evolution</td>
+    <td>By E. S. Goodrich, M.A., F.R.S.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; 9. Darwin</td>
+    <td>By Prof. W. Garstang, M.A., D.Sc.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; *10. Heredity</td>
+    <td>By J. A. S. Watson, B.Sc.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; *11. Inorganic Chemistry</td>
+    <td>By Prof. E. C. C. Baly, F.R.S.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; *12. Organic Chemistry</td>
+    <td>By Prof. J. B. Cohen, B.Sc., F.R.S.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; *13. The Principles of Electricity</td>
+    <td>By Norman R. Campbell, M.A.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; *14. Radiation</td>
+    <td>By P. Phillips, D.Sc.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; *15. The Science of the Stars</td>
+    <td>By E. W. Maunder, F.R.A.S.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; *16. The Science of Light</td>
+    <td>By P. Phillips, D.Sc.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; *17. Weather-Science</td>
+    <td>By R. G. K. Lempfert, M.A.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; *18. Hypnotism</td>
+    <td>By Alice Hutchison, M.D.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; *19. The Baby: A Mother's Book</td>
+    <td>By a University Woman.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; *20. Youth and Sex&mdash;Dangers and Safeguards for Boys and Girls</td>
+    <td>By Mary Scharlieb, M.D., M. S., and G. E. C. Pritchard, M.A., M.D.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; *21. Motherhood&mdash;A Wife's Handbook</td>
+    <td>By H. S. Davidson, F.R.C.S.E.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; *22. Lord Kelvin</td>
+    <td>By A. Russell, M.A., D.Sc.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; *23. Huxley</td>
+    <td>By Professor G. Leighton, M.D.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; &nbsp;24. Sir W. Huggins and Spectroscopic Astronomy</td>
+    <td>By E. W. Maunder, F.R.A.S., of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; *62. Practical Astronomy</td>
+    <td>By H. Macpherson, Jr., F.R.A.S.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; *63. Aviation</td>
+    <td>By Sydney F. Walker, R.N., M.I.E.E.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; *64. Navigation</td>
+    <td>By W. Hall, R.N., B.A.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; *65. Pond Life</td>
+    <td>By E. C. Ash, M.R.A.C.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; *66. Dietetics</td>
+    <td>By Alex. Bryce, M.D., D.P.H.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; *94. The Nature of Mathematics</td>
+    <td>By P. G. B. Jourdain, M.A.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; &nbsp;95. Applications of Electricity</td>
+    <td>By Alex. Ogilvie, B.Sc.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; *96. Gardening</td>
+    <td>By A. Cecil Bartlett.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; &nbsp;97. The Care of the Teeth</td>
+    <td>By J. A. Young, L.D.S.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; *98. Atlas of the World</td>
+    <td>By J. Bartholomew, F.R.G.S.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>*110. British Birds</td>
+    <td>By F. B. Kirkman, B.A.</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<h4>PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION</h4>
+
+<table border='0' cellspacing='0' cellpadding='5' summary='philosophy and religion books'>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; &nbsp;25. The Meaning of Philosophy</td>
+    <td>By T. Loveday, M.A.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; *26. Henri Bergson</td>
+    <td>By H. Wildon Carr.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; *27. Psychology</td>
+    <td>By H. J. Watt, M.A., Ph.D.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; *28. Ethics</td>
+    <td>By Canon Rashdall, D. Litt., F.B.A.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; &nbsp;29. Kant's Philosophy</td>
+    <td>By A. D. Lindsay, M.A.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; &nbsp;30. The Teaching of Plato</td>
+    <td>By A. D. Lindsay, M.A.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; *67. Aristotle</td>
+    <td>By Prof. A. E. Taylor, M.A., F.B.A.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; *68. Nietzsche</td>
+    <td>By M. A. M&uuml;gge, Ph.D.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; *69. Eucken</td>
+    <td>By A. J. Jones, M.A., B.Sc., Ph.D.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; &nbsp;70. The Experimental Psychology of Beauty</td>
+    <td>By C. W. Valentine, B.A.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; *71. The Problem of Truth</td>
+    <td>By H. Wildon Carr.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; &nbsp;99. George Berkeley: the Philosophy of Idealism &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; </td>
+    <td>By G. Dawes Hicks, Litt.D.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; &nbsp;31. Buddhism</td>
+    <td>By Prof. T. W. Rhys Davids, F.B.A.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; *32. Roman Catholicism</td>
+    <td>By H. B. Coxon.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; *33. The Oxford Movement</td>
+    <td>By Wilfrid P. Ward.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; *34. The Bible in the Light of the Higher Criticism</td>
+    <td>By Rev. W. F. Adeney, M.A., and Rev. Prof. W. H. Bennett, Litt.D.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; &nbsp;35. Cardinal Newman</td>
+    <td>By Wilfrid Meynell.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; *72. The Church of England</td>
+    <td>By Rev. Canon Masterman.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; &nbsp;73. Anglo-Catholicism</td>
+    <td>By A. E. Manning Foster.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; *74. The Free Churches</td>
+    <td>By Rev. Edward Shillito, M.A.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; *75. Judaism</td>
+    <td>By Ephraim Levine, B.A.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; *76. Theosophy</td>
+    <td>By Annie Besant.</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<h4>HISTORY</h4>
+
+<table border='0' cellspacing='0' cellpadding='5' summary='history books'>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; *36. The Growth of Freedom</td>
+    <td>By H. W. Nevinson.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; &nbsp;37. Bismarck</td>
+    <td>By Prof. F. M. Powicke, M.A.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; *38. Oliver Cromwell</td>
+    <td>By Hilda Johnstone, M.A.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; *39. Mary Queen of Scots</td>
+    <td>By E. O'Neill, M.A.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; *40. Cecil Rhodes</td>
+    <td>By Ian Colvin.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; *41. Julius C&aelig;sar</td>
+    <td>By Hilary Hardinge.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; History of England&mdash;</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; &nbsp;42. England in the Making</td>
+    <td>By Prof. F. J. C. Hearnshaw, LL.D.&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;  &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; </td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; *43. England in the Middle Ages</td>
+    <td>By E. O'Neill, M.A.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; &nbsp;44. The Monarchy and the People</td>
+    <td>By W. T. Waugh, M.A.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; &nbsp;45. The Industrial Revolution</td>
+    <td>By A. Jones, M.A.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; &nbsp;46. Empire and Democracy</td>
+    <td>By G. S. Veitch, M.A.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; *61. Home Rule</td>
+    <td>By L. G. Redmond Howard.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; &nbsp;77. Nelson</td>
+    <td>By H. W. Wilson.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; *78. Wellington and Waterloo</td>
+    <td>By Major G. W. Redway.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;100. A History of Greece</td>
+    <td>By E. Fearenside, B.A.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;101. Luther and the Reformation</td>
+    <td>By L. D. Agate, M.A.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;102. The Discovery of the New World</td>
+    <td>By F. B. Kirkman, B.A.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>*103. Turkey and the Eastern Question&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; </td>
+    <td>By John Macdonald.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;104. A History of Architecture</td>
+    <td>By Mrs. Arthur Bell.</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<h4>SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC</h4>
+
+<table border='0' cellspacing='0' cellpadding='5' summary='social and economic books'>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; *47. Women's Suffrage</td>
+    <td>By M. G. Fawcett, LL.D.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; &nbsp;48. The Working of the British System of Government to-day</td>
+    <td>By Prof. Ramsay Muir, M.A.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; &nbsp;49. An Introduction to Economic Science</td>
+    <td>By Prof. H. O. Meredith, M.A.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; &nbsp;50. Socialism</td>
+    <td>By F. B. Kirkman, B.A.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; *79. Mediaeval Socialism</td>
+    <td>By Rev. B. Jarrett, O.P., M.A.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; *80. Syndicalism</td>
+    <td>By J. H. Harley, M.A.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; &nbsp;81. Labour and Wages</td>
+    <td> By H. M. Hallsworth, M.A., B.Sc. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; *82. Co-operation</td>
+    <td>By Joseph Clayton.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; *83. Insurance as Investment</td>
+    <td>By W. A. Robertson, F.F.A.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; *92. The Training of the Child</td>
+    <td>By G. Spiller.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>*105. Trade Unions</td>
+    <td>By Joseph Clayton.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>*106. Everyday Law</td>
+    <td>By J. J. Adams.</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<h4>LETTERS</h4>
+
+<table border='0' cellspacing='0' cellpadding='5' summary='letters books'>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; *51. Shakespeare</td>
+    <td>By Prof. C. H. Herford, Litt.D.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; *52. Wordsworth</td>
+    <td>By Rosaline Masson.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; *53. Pure Gold&mdash;A Choice of Lyrics and Sonnets&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; </td>
+    <td>By H. C. O'Neill.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; *54. Francis Bacon</td>
+    <td>By Prof. A. R. Skemp, M.A.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; *55. The Bront&euml;s</td>
+    <td>By Flora Masson.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; *56. Carlyle</td>
+    <td>By the Rev. L. MacLean Watt. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; </td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; *57. Dante</td>
+    <td>By A. G. Ferrers Howell.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; &nbsp;58. Ruskin</td>
+    <td>By A. Blyth Webster, M.A.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; &nbsp;59. Common Faults in Writing English</td>
+    <td>By Prof. A. R. Skemp, M.A.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; *60. A Dictionary of Synonyms</td>
+    <td>By Austin K. Gray, B.A.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; &nbsp;84. Classical Dictionary</td>
+    <td>By A. E. Stirling.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; *85. History of English Literature</td>
+    <td>By A. Compton-Rickett.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; &nbsp;86. Browning</td>
+    <td>By Prof. A. R. Skemp, M.A.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; *87. Charles Lamb</td>
+    <td>By Flora Masson.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; &nbsp;88. Goethe</td>
+    <td>By Prof. C. H. Herford, Litt.D.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; &nbsp;89. Balzac</td>
+    <td>By Frank Harris.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; &nbsp;90. Rousseau</td>
+    <td>By H. Sacher.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; &nbsp;91. Ibsen</td>
+    <td>By Hilary Hardinge.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp; *93. Tennyson</td>
+    <td>By Aaron Watson.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;107. R. L. Stevenson</td>
+    <td>By Rosaline Masson.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>*108. Shelley</td>
+    <td>By Sydney Waterlow, M.A.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;109. William Morris</td>
+    <td>By A. Blyth Webster, M.A.</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Mediaeval Socialism, by Bede Jarrett
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Mediaeval Socialism
+
+
+Author: Bede Jarrett
+
+
+
+Release Date: October 4, 2006  [eBook #19468]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MEDIAEVAL SOCIALISM***
+
+
+E-text prepared by David Clarke, Martin Pettit, and the Project Gutenberg
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net/) from page
+images generously made available by Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries
+(http://www.archive.org/details/toronto)
+
+
+
+Note: Images of the original pages are available through
+      Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries. See
+      http://www.archive.org/details/mediaevalsocial00jarruoft
+
+
+
+
+
+MEDIAEVAL SOCIALISM
+
+by
+
+BEDE JARRETT, O.P., M.A.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Logo]
+
+
+
+London: T. C. & E. C. Jack
+67 Long Acre, W.C., and Edinburgh
+New York: Dodge Publishing Co.
+
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+CHAP.                               PAGE
+
+  I. INTRODUCTION                      5
+
+ II. SOCIAL CONDITIONS                17
+
+III. THE COMMUNISTS                   29
+
+ IV. THE SCHOOLMEN                    41
+
+  V. THE LAWYERS                      55
+
+ VI. THE SOCIAL REFORMERS             68
+
+VII. THE THEORY OF ALMS-GIVING        80
+
+     BIBLIOGRAPHY                     91
+
+     INDEX                            93
+
+
+MEDIAEVAL SOCIALISM
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+
+The title of this book may not unnaturally provoke suspicion. After all,
+howsoever we define it, socialism is a modern thing, and dependent
+almost wholly on modern conditions. It is an economic theory which has
+been evolved under pressure of circumstances which are admittedly of no
+very long standing. How then, it may be asked, is it possible to find
+any real correspondence between theories of old time and those which
+have grown out of present-day conditions of life? Surely whatever
+analogy may be drawn between them must be based on likenesses which
+cannot be more than superficial.
+
+The point of view implied in this question is being increasingly adopted
+by all scientific students of social and political opinions, and is most
+certainly correct. Speculation that is purely philosophic may indeed
+turn round upon itself. The views of Grecian metaphysicians may continue
+for ever to find enthusiastic adherents; though even here, in the realm
+of purely abstract reasoning, the progressive development of science, of
+psychology, and kindred branches of knowledge cannot fail by its
+influence to modify the form and arrangement of thought. But in those
+purely positive sciences (if indeed sciences they can properly be
+called) which deal with the life of man and its organisation, the very
+principles and postulates will be found to need continual readjustment.
+For with man's life, social, political, economic, we are in contact with
+forces which are of necessity always in a state of flux. For example,
+the predominance of agriculture, or of manufacture, or of commerce in
+the life of the social group must materially alter the attitude of the
+statesman who is responsible for its fortunes; and the progress of the
+nation from one to another stage of her development often entails (by
+altering from one class to another the dominant position of power) the
+complete reversal of her traditional maxims of government. Human life is
+not static, but dynamic. Hence the theories weaved round it must
+themselves be subject to the law of continuous development.
+
+It is obvious that this argument cannot be gainsaid; and yet at the same
+time we may not be in any way illogical in venturing on an inquiry as to
+whether, in centuries not wholly dissimilar from our own, the mind of
+man worked itself out along lines parallel in some degree to
+contemporary systems of thought. Man's life differs, yet are the
+categories which mould his ideas eternally the same.
+
+But before we go on to consider some early aspects of socialism, we must
+first ascertain what socialism itself essentially implies. Already
+within the lifetime of the present generation the word has greatly
+enlarged the scope of its significance. Many who ten years ago would
+have objected to it as a name of ill-omen see in it now nothing which
+may not be harmonised with the most ordinary of political and social
+doctrines. It is hardly any longer the badge of a school. Yet it does
+retain at any rate the bias of a tendency. It suggests chiefly the
+transference of ownership in land and capital from private hands into
+their possession in some form or other by the society. The means of this
+transference, and the manner in which this social possession is to be
+maintained, are very widely debated, and need not here be determined; it
+is sufficient for the matter of this book to have it granted that in
+this lies the germ of the socialistic theory of the State.
+
+Once more it must be admitted that the meaning of "private ownership"
+and "social possession" will vary exceedingly in each age. When private
+dominion has become exceedingly individual and practically absolute, the
+opposition between the two terms will necessarily be very sharp. But in
+those earlier stages of national and social evolution, when the
+community was still regarded as composed, not of persons, but of groups,
+the antagonism might be, in point of theory, extremely limited; and in
+concrete cases it might possibly be difficult to determine where one
+ended and the other began. Yet it is undeniable that socialism in itself
+need mean no more than the central principle of State-ownership of
+capital and land. Such a conception is consistent with much private
+property in other forms than land and capital, and will be worked out in
+detail differently by different minds. But it is the principle, the
+essence of it, which justifies any claims made to the use of the name.
+We may therefore fairly call those theories socialistic which are
+covered by this central doctrine, and disregard, as irrelevant to the
+nature of the term, all added peculiarities contributed by individuals
+who have joined their forces to the movement.
+
+By socialistic theories of the Middle Ages, therefore, we mean no more
+than those theories which from time to time came to the surface of
+political and social speculation in the form of communism, or of some
+other way of bringing about the transference which we have just
+indicated. But before plunging into the tanglement of these rather
+complicated problems, it will make for clearness if we consider quite
+briefly the philosophic heritage of social teaching to which the Middle
+Ages succeeded.
+
+The Fathers of the Church had found themselves confronted with
+difficulties of no mean subtlety. On the one hand, the teaching of the
+Scriptures forced upon them the religious truth of the essential
+equality of all human nature. Christianity was a standing protest
+against the exclusiveness of the Jewish faith, and demanded through the
+attendance at one altar the recognition of an absolute oneness of all
+its members. The Epistles of St. Paul, which were the most scientific
+defence of Christian doctrine, were continually insisting on the fact
+that for the new faith there was no real division between Greek or
+barbarian, bond or free. Yet, on the other hand, there were equally
+unequivocal expressions concerning the reverence and respect due to
+authority and governance. St. Peter had taught that honour should be
+paid to Caesar, when Caesar was no other than Nero. St. Paul had as
+clearly preached subjection to the higher powers. Yet at the same time
+we know that the Christian truth of the essential equality of the whole
+human race was by some so construed as to be incompatible with the
+notion of civil authority. How, then, was this paradox to be explained?
+If all were equal, what justification would there be for civil
+authority? If civil authority was to be upheld, wherein lay the meaning
+of St. Paul's many boasts of the new levelling spirit of the Christian
+religion? The paradox was further complicated by two other problems. The
+question of the authority of the Imperial Government was found to be
+cognate with the questions of the institution of slavery and of private
+property. Here were three concrete facts on which the Empire seemed to
+be based. What was to be the Christian attitude towards them?
+
+After many attempted explanations, which were largely personal, and,
+therefore, may be neglected here, a general agreement was come to by the
+leading Christian teachers of East and West. This was based on a
+theological distinction between human nature as it existed on its first
+creation, and then as it became in the state to which it was reduced
+after the fall of Adam. Created in original justice, as the phrase ran,
+the powers of man's soul were in perfect harmony. His sensitive nature,
+_i.e._ his passions, were in subjection to his will, his will to his
+reason, his reason to God. Had man continued in this state of innocence,
+government, slavery, and private property would never have been
+required. But Adam fell, and in his fall, said these Christian doctors,
+the whole conditions of his being were disturbed. The passions broke
+loose, and by their violence not unfrequently subjected the will to
+their dictatorship; together with the will they obscured and prejudiced
+the reason, which under their compulsion was no longer content to follow
+the Divine Reason or the Eternal Law of God. In a word, where order had
+previously reigned, a state of lawlessness now set in. Greed, lust for
+power, the spirit of insubordination, weakness of will, feebleness of
+mind, ignorance, all swarmed into the soul of man, and disturbed not
+merely the internal economy of his being, but his relations also to his
+fellows. The sin of Cain is the social result of this personal upheaval.
+
+Society then felt the evils which attended this new condition of things,
+and it was driven, according to this patristic idea, to search about for
+remedies in order to restrain the anarchy which threatened to overwhelm
+the very existence of the race. Hence was introduced first of all the
+notion of a civil authority. It was found that without it, to use a
+phrase which Hobbes indeed has immortalised, but which can be easily
+paralleled from the writings of St. Ambrose or St. Augustine, "life was
+nasty, brutish, and short." To this idea of authority, there was quickly
+added the kindred ideas of private property and slavery. These two were
+found equally necessary for the well-being of human society. For the
+family became a determined group in which the patriarch wielded absolute
+power; his authority could be effective only when it could be employed
+not only over his own household, but also against other households, and
+thus in defence of his own. Hence the family must have the exclusive
+right to certain things. If others objected, the sole arbitrament was an
+appeal to force, and then the vanquished not only relinquished their
+claims to the objects in dispute, but became the slaves of those to whom
+they had previously stood in the position of equality and rivalry.
+
+Thus do the Fathers of the Church justify these three institutions. They
+are all the result of the Fall, and result from sin. Incidentally it may
+be added that much of the language in which Hildebrand and others spoke
+of the civil power as "from the devil" is traceable to this theological
+concept of the history of its origin, and much of their hard language
+means no more than this. Private property, therefore, is due to the
+Fall, and becomes a necessity because of the presence of sin in the
+world.
+
+But it is not only from the Fathers of the Church that the mediaeval
+tradition drew its force. For parallel with this patristic explanation
+came another, which was inherited from the imperial legalists. It was
+based upon a curious fact in the evolution of Roman law, which must now
+be shortly described.
+
+For the administration of justice in Rome two officials were chosen, who
+between them disposed of all the cases in dispute. One, the _Praetor
+Urbanus_, concerned himself in all litigation between Roman citizens;
+the other, the _Praetor Peregrinus_, had his power limited to those
+matters only in which foreigners were involved; for the growth of the
+Roman _Imperium_ had meant the inclusion of many under its suzerainty
+who could not boast technical citizenship. The _Praetor Urbanus_ was
+guided in his decisions by the codified law of Rome; but the _Praetor
+Peregrinus_ was in a very different position. He was left almost
+entirely to his own resources. Hence it was customary for him, on his
+assumption of office, to publish a list of the principles by which he
+intended to settle all the disputes between foreigners that were brought
+to his court. But on what foundation could his declaratory act be based?
+He was supposed to have previously consulted the particular laws of as
+many foreign nations as was possible, and to have selected from among
+them those which were found to be held in common by a number of tribes.
+The fact of this consensus to certain laws on the part of different
+races was supposed to imply that these were fragments of some larger
+whole, which came eventually to be called indifferently the Law of
+Nature, or the Law of Nations. For at almost the very date when this
+Law of Nations was beginning thus to be built up, the Greek notion of
+one supreme law, which governed the whole race and dated from the lost
+Golden Age, came to the knowledge of the lawyers of Rome. They proceeded
+to identify the two really different concepts, and evolved for
+themselves the final notion of a fundamental rule, essential to all
+moral action. In time, therefore, this supposed Natural Law, from its
+venerable antiquity and universal acceptance, acquired an added sanction
+and actually began to be held in greater respect than even the declared
+law of Rome. The very name of Nature seemed to bring with it greater
+dignity. But at the same time it was carefully explained that this _Lex
+Naturae_ was not absolutely inviolable, for its more accurate
+description was _Lex_ or _Jus Gentium_. That is to say, it was not to be
+considered as a primitive law which lay embedded like first principles
+in human nature; but that it was what the nations had derived from
+primitive principles, not by any force of logic, but by the simple
+evolution of life. The human race had found by experience that the
+observance of the natural law entailed as a direct consequence the
+establishment of certain institutions. The authority, therefore, which
+these could boast was due to nothing more than the simple struggle for
+existence. Among these institutions were those same three (civil
+authority, slavery, private property), which the Fathers had come to
+justify by so different a method of argument. Thus, by the late Roman
+lawyers private property was upheld on the grounds that it had been
+found necessary by the human race in its advance along the road of life.
+To our modern ways of thinking it seems as though they had almost
+stumbled upon the theory of evolution, the gradual unfolding of social
+and moral perfection due to the constant pressure of circumstances, and
+the ultimate survival of what was most fit to survive. It was almost by
+a principle of natural selection that mankind was supposed to have
+determined the necessity of civil authority, slavery, private property,
+and the rest. The pragmatic test of life had been applied and had proved
+their need.
+
+A third powerful influence in the development of Christian social
+teaching must be added to the others in order the better to grasp the
+mental attitude of the mediaeval thinkers. This was the rise and growth
+of monasticism. Its early history has been obscured by much legendary
+detail; but there is sufficient evidence to trace it back far into the
+beginnings of Christianity. Later there had come the stampede into the
+Thebaid, where both hermit life and the gathering together of many into
+a community seem to have been equally allowed as methods of asceticism.
+But by the fifth century, in the East and the West the movement had been
+effectively organised. First there was the canonical theory of life,
+introduced by St. Augustine. Then St. Basil and St. Benedict composed
+their Rules of Life, though St. Benedict disclaimed any idea of being
+original or of having begun something new. Yet, as a matter of fact, he,
+even more efficiently than St. Basil, had really introduced a new force
+into Christendom, and thereby became the undoubted father of Western
+monasticism.
+
+Now this monasticism had for its primary intention the contemplation of
+God. In order to attain this object more perfectly, certain subsidiary
+observances were considered necessary. Their declared purpose was only
+to make contemplation easier; and they were never looked upon as
+essential to the monastic profession, but only as helps to its better
+working. Among these safeguards of monastic peace was included the
+removal of all anxieties concerning material well-being. Personal
+poverty--that is, the surrender of all personal claim to things the care
+of which might break in upon the fixed contemplation of God--was
+regarded as equally important for this purpose as obedience, chastity,
+and the continued residence in a certain spot. It had indeed been
+preached as a counsel of perfection by Christ Himself in His advice to
+the rich young man, and its significance was now very powerfully set
+forth by the Benedictine and other monastic establishments.
+
+It is obvious that the existence of institutions of this kind was bound
+to exercise an influence upon Christian thought. It could not but be
+noticed that certain individual characters, many of whom claimed the
+respect of their generation, treated material possessions as hindrances
+to spiritual perfection. Through their example private property was
+forsworn, and community of possession became prominently put forward as
+being more in accordance with the spirit of Christ, who had lived with
+His Apostles, it was declared, out of the proceeds of a common purse.
+The result, from the point of view of the social theorists of the day,
+was to confirm the impression that private property was not a thing of
+much sanctity. Already, as we have seen, the Fathers had been brought to
+look at it as something sinful in its origin, in that the need of it was
+due entirely to the fall of our first parents. Then the legalists of
+Rome had brought to this the further consideration that mere expedience,
+universal indeed, but of no moral sanction, had dictated its institution
+as the only way to avoid continual strife among neighbours. And now the
+whole force of the religious ideals of the time was thrown in the same
+balance. Eastern and Western monasticism seemed to teach the same
+lesson, that private property was not in any sense a sacred thing.
+Rather it seemed to be an obstacle to the perfect devotion of man's
+being to God; and community of possession and life began to boast itself
+to be the more excellent following of Christ.
+
+Finally it may be asserted that the social concept of feudalism lent
+itself to the teaching of the same lesson. For by it society was
+organised upon a system of land tenure whereby each held what was his of
+one higher than he, and was himself responsible for those beneath him in
+the social scale. Landowners, therefore, in the modern sense of the
+term, had no existence--there were only landholders. The idea of
+absolute dominion without condition and without definite duties could
+have occurred to none. Each lord held his estate in feud, and with a
+definite arrangement for participating in the administration of justice,
+in the deliberative assembly, and in the war bands of his chief, who in
+turn owed the same duties to the lord above him. Even the king, who
+stood at the apex of this pyramid, was supposed to be merely holding his
+power and his territorial domain as representing the nation. At his
+coronation he bound himself to observe certain duties as the condition
+of his royalty, and he had to proclaim his own acceptance of these
+conditions before he could be anointed and crowned as king. Did he break
+through his coronation-oath, then the pledge of loyalty made by the
+people was considered to be in consequence without any binding force,
+and his subjects were released from their obedience. In this way, then,
+also private property was not likely to be deemed equivalent to absolute
+possession. It was held conditionally, and was not unfrequently
+forfeited for offences against the feudal code. It carried with it
+burdens which made its holding irksome, especially for all those who
+stood at the bottom of the scale, and found that the terms of their
+possession were rigorously enforced against them. The death of the
+tenant and the inheriting of his effects by his eldest son was made the
+occasion for exactions by the superior lord; for to him belonged certain
+of the dead man's military accoutrements as pledges, open and manifest,
+of the continued supremacy to be exercised over the successor.
+
+Thus the extremely individual ideas as regards the holding of land which
+are to-day so prevalent would then have been hardly understood. Every
+external authority, the whole trend of public opinion, the teaching of
+the Christian Fathers, the example of religious bodies, the inherited
+views that had come down to the later legalists from the digests of the
+imperial era, the basis of social order, all deflected the scale against
+the predominance of any view of land tenure or holding which made it an
+absolute and unrestricted possession. Yet at the same time, and for the
+same cause, the modern revolt against all individual possession would
+have been for the mediaeval theorists equally hard to understand.
+Absolute communism, or the idea of a State which under the magic of that
+abstract title could interfere with the whole social order, was too
+utterly foreign to their ways of thinking to have found a defender. The
+king they knew, and the people, and the Church; but the State (which the
+modern socialist invokes) would have been an unimaginable thing.
+
+In that age, therefore, we must not expect to find any fully-fledged
+Socialism. We must be content to notice theories which are socialistic
+rather than socialist.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+SOCIAL CONDITIONS
+
+
+So long as a man is in perfect health, the movements of his life-organs
+are hardly perceptible to him. He becomes conscious of their existence
+only when something has happened to obstruct their free play. So, again,
+is it with the body politic, for just so long as things move easily and
+without friction, hardly are anyone's thoughts stimulated in the
+direction of social reform. But directly distress or disturbance begin
+to be felt, public attention is awakened, and directed to the
+consideration of actual conditions. Schemes are suggested, new ideas
+broached. Hence, that there were at all in the Middle Ages men with
+remedies to be applied to "the open sores of the world," makes us
+realise that there must have been in mediaeval life much matter for
+discontent. Perhaps not altogether unfortunately, the seeds of unrest
+never need much care in sowing, for the human heart would else advance
+but little towards "the perfect day." The rebels of history have been as
+necessary as the theorists and the statesmen; indeed, but for the
+rebels, the statesmen would probably have remained mere politicians.
+
+Upon the ruins of the late Empire the Germanic races built up their
+State. Out of the fragments of the older _villa_ they erected the
+_manor_. No doubt this new social unit contained the strata of many
+civilisations; but it will suffice here to recognise that, while it is
+perhaps impossible to apportion out to each its own particular
+contribution to the whole result, the manor must have been affected
+quite considerably by Roman, Celt, and Teuton. The chief difference
+which we notice between this older system and the conditions of modern
+agricultural life--for the manor was pre-eminently a rural
+organism--lies in the enormous part then played in the organisation of
+society by the idea of Tenure. For, through all Western civilisation,
+from the seventh century to the fourteenth, the personal equation was
+largely merged in the territorial. One and all, master and man, lord and
+tenant, were "tied to the soil." Within the manor there was first the
+land held in demesne, the "in-land"--this was the perquisite of the lord
+himself; it was farmed by him directly. Only when modern methods began
+to push out the old feudal concepts do we find this portion of the
+estate regularly let out to tenants, though there are evidences of its
+occasionally having been done even in the twelfth century. But besides
+what belonged thus exclusively to the lord of the manor, there was a
+great deal more that was legally described as held in villeinage. That
+is to say, it was in the hands of others, who had conditional use of it.
+In England these tenants were chiefly of three kinds--the villeins, the
+cottiers, the serfs. The first held a house and yard in the village
+street, and had in the great arable fields that surrounded them strips
+of land amounting sometimes to thirty acres. To their lord they owed
+work for three days each week; they also provided oxen for the plough.
+But more than half of their time could be devoted to the farming of
+their property. Then next in order came the cottiers, whose holding
+probably ran to not more than five acres. They had no plough-work, and
+did more of the manual labour of the farm, such as hedging,
+nut-collecting, &c. A much greater portion of their time than was the
+case with the villeins was at the disposal of their master, nor indeed,
+owing to the lesser extent of their property, did they need so much
+opportunity for working their own land. Lowest in the scale of all
+(according to the Domesday Book of William I, the first great land-value
+survey of all England, they numbered not more than sixteen per cent. of
+the whole population) came the slaves or serfs. These had almost
+exclusively the live stock to look after, being engaged as foresters,
+shepherds, swineherds, and servants of the household. They either lived
+under the lord's own roof, or might even have their cottage in the
+village with its strip of land about it, sufficient, with the provisions
+and cloth provided them, to eke out a scanty livelihood. Distinct from
+these three classes and their officials (bailiffs, seneschals, reeves,
+&c.) were the free tenants, who did no regular work for the manor, but
+could not leave or part with their land. Their services were
+requisitioned at certain periods like harvest-time, when there came a
+demand for more than the ordinary number of hands. This sort of labour
+was known as boon-work.
+
+It is clear at once that, theoretically at least, there was no room in
+such a community for the modern landless labourer. Where all the workers
+were paid by their tenancy of land, where, in other words, fixity and
+stability of possession were the very basis of social life, the fluidity
+of labour was impossible. Men could not wander from place to place
+offering to employers the hire of their toil. Yet we feel sure that, in
+actual fact, wherever the population increased, there must have grown up
+in the process of time a number of persons who could find neither work
+nor maintenance on their father's property. Younger sons, or more remote
+descendants, must gradually have found that there was no scope for them,
+unless, like an artisan class, they worked for wages. Exactly at what
+date began the rise of this agricultural and industrial class of fee
+labourers we cannot very clearly tell. But in England--and probably the
+same holds good elsewhere--between 1200 and 1350 there are traces of its
+great development. There is evidence, which each year becomes more ample
+and more definite, that during that period there was an increasingly
+large number of people pressing on the means of subsistence. Though the
+land itself might be capable of supporting a far greater number of
+inhabitants, the part under cultivation could only just have been enough
+to keep the actually existing population from the margin of destitution.
+The statutes in English law which protest against a wholesale occupation
+of the common-land by individuals were not directed merely against the
+practices of a landlord class, for the makers of the law were themselves
+landlords. It is far more likely that this invasion of village rights
+was due to the action of these "landless men," who could not otherwise
+be accommodated. The superfluous population was endeavouring to find for
+itself local maintenance.
+
+Precisely at this time, too, in England--where the steps in the
+evolution from mediaeval to modern conditions have been more clearly
+worked out than elsewhere--increase of trade helped to further the same
+development. Money, species, in greater abundance was coming into
+circulation. The traders were beginning to take their place in the
+national life. The Guilds were springing into power, and endeavouring to
+capture the machinery of municipal government. As a result of all this
+commercial activity money payments became more frequent. The villein was
+able to pay his lord instead of working for him, and by the sale of the
+produce from his own yard-land was put in a position to hire helpers for
+himself, and to develop his own agricultural resources. Nor was it the
+tenant alone who stood to gain by this arrangement. The lord, too, was
+glad of being possessed of money. He, too, needed it as a substitute for
+his duty of military service to the king, for scutage (the payment of a
+tax graduated according to the number of knights, which each baron had
+to lead personally in time of war as a condition of holding land at all)
+had taken the place of the old feudal levy. Moreover, he was probably
+glad to obtain hired labour in exchange for the forced labour which the
+system of tenure made general; just as later the abolition of slavery
+was due largely to the fact that, in the long run, it did not pay to
+have the plantations worked by men whose every advantage it was to shirk
+as much toil as possible.
+
+But in most cases, as far as can be judged now, the lord was methodical
+in releasing services due to him. The week-work was first and freely
+commuted, for regular hired labour was easy to obtain; but the
+boon-work--the work, that is, which was required for unusual
+circumstances of a purely temporary character (such as harvesting,
+&c.)--was, owing to the obvious difficulty of its being otherwise
+supplied, only arranged for in the last resort. Thus, by one of the many
+paradoxes of history, the freest of all tenants were the last to achieve
+freedom. When the serfs had been set at liberty by manumission, the
+socage-tenants or free-tenants, as they were called, were still bound by
+their fixed agreements of tenure. It is evident, however, that such
+emancipation as did take place was conditioned by the supply of free
+labour, primarily, that is, by the rising surplus of population. Not
+until he was certain of being able to hire other labourers would a
+landholder let his own tenants slip off the burdens of their service.
+
+But this process, by which labour was rendered less stationary, was
+immeasurably hastened by the advent of a terrible catastrophe. In 1347
+the Black Death arrived from the East. Across Europe it moved, striking
+fear by the inevitableness of its coming. It travelled at a steady rate,
+so that its arrival could be easily foretold. Then, too, the
+unmistakable nature of its symptoms and the suddenness of the death it
+caused also added to the horror of its approach.
+
+On August 15, 1349, it got to Bristol, and by Michaelmas had reached
+London. For a year or more it ravaged the countryside, so that whole
+villages were left without inhabitants. Seeing England so stunned by the
+blow, the Scots prepared to attack, thinking the moment propitious for
+paying off old scores; but their army, too, was smitten by the
+pestilence, and their forces broke up. Into every glen of Wales it
+worked its havoc; in Ireland only the English were affected--the "wild
+Irish" were immune. But in 1357 even these began to suffer. Curiously
+enough, Geoffrey Baker in his Chronicle (which, written in his own hand,
+after six hundred years yet remains in the Bodleian at Oxford) tells us
+that none fell till they were afraid of it. Still more curiously,
+Chaucer, Langland, and Wycliff, who all witnessed it, hardly mention it
+at all. There could not be any more eloquent tribute to the nameless
+horror that it caused than this hushed silence on the part of three of
+England's greatest writers.
+
+Henry Knighton of Leicester Abbey, canon and chronicler, tells us some
+of the consequences following on the plague, and shows us very clearly
+the social upheaval it effected. The population had now so much
+diminished that prices of live stock went down, an ox costing 4_s._, a
+cow 12_d._, and a sheep 3_d._ But for the same reason wages went up, for
+labour had suddenly grown scarce. For want of hands to bring in the
+harvest, whole crops rotted in the fields. Many a manor had lost a third
+of its inhabitants, and it was difficult, under the fixed services of
+land tenure, to see what remedy could be applied. In despair the feudal
+system was set aside, and lord competed with lord to obtain landless
+labourers, or to entice within their jurisdiction those whose own
+masters ill-treated them in any way. The villeins themselves sought to
+procure enfranchisement, and the right to hire themselves out to their
+lords, or to any master they might choose. Commutation was not
+particularly in evidence as the legal method of redress; though it too
+was no doubt here and there arranged for. But for the most part the
+villein took the law into his own hands, left his manor, and openly sold
+his labour to the highest bidder.
+
+But at once the governing class took fright. In their eyes it seemed as
+though their tenants were taking an unfair advantage of the
+disorganisation of the national life. Even before Parliament could meet,
+in 1349 an ordnance was issued by the King (Edward III), which compelled
+all servants, whether bond or free, to take up again the customary
+services, and forced work on all who had no income in land, or were not
+otherwise engaged. The lord on whose manor the tenant had heretofore
+dwelt had preferential claim to his labour, and could threaten with
+imprisonment every refractory villein. Within two years a statute had
+been enacted by Parliament which was far more detailed in its operation,
+fixing wages at the rate they had been in the twentieth year of the
+King's reign (_i.e._ at a period before the plague, when labour was
+plentiful), and also with all appearance of justice determining the
+prices of agricultural produce. It was the first of a very long series
+of Acts of Parliament that, with every right intention, but with a
+really obvious futility, endeavoured to reduce everything to what it had
+been in the past, to put back the hands of the clock, and keep them
+back. But one strange fact is noticeable.
+
+Whether unconsciously or not, the framers of these statutes were
+themselves striking the hardest blow at the old system of tenure. From
+1351 the masters' preferential claim to the villeins of their own manor
+disappears, or is greatly limited. Henceforth the labourers are to
+appear in the market place with their tools, and (reminiscent of
+scriptural conditions) wait till some man hired them. The State, not the
+lord, is now regulating labour. Labour itself has passed from being
+"tied to the soil," and has become fluid. It is no longer a personal
+obligation, but a commodity.
+
+Even Parliament recognised that in many respects at least the old order
+had passed away. The statute of 1351 allows "men of the counties of
+Stafford, Lancaster, Derby, the borders of Wales and Scotland, &c., to
+come in August time to labour in other counties, and to return in
+safety, as they were heretofore wont to do." It is the legalisation of
+what had been looked at, up till then, askance. The long, silent
+revolution had become conscious. But the lords were, as we have said,
+not altogether sorry for the turn things had taken. Groaning under
+pressure from the King's heavy war taxation, and under the demands which
+the advance of new standards of comfort (especially between 1370 and
+1400) entailed, they let off on lease even the demesne land, and became
+to a very great extent mere rent-collectors. Commutation proceeded
+steadily, with much haggling so as to obtain the highest price from the
+eager tenant. Wages rose slowly, it is true, but rose all the same; and
+rent, though still high, was becoming, on the whole, less intolerable.
+
+But the drain of the French war, and the peculation in public funds
+brought about the final upheaval which completed what the Black Death
+had begun. The capricious and unfairly graduated poll-tax of 1381 came
+as a climax, and roused the Great Revolt of that year, a revolt
+carefully engineered and cleverly organised, which yet for the demands
+it made is a striking testimony to the moderation, the good sense, and
+also the oppressed state of the English peasant.
+
+The fourfold petition presented to the King by the rebels was:
+
+
+     (1) The abolition of serfdom.
+
+     (2) The reduction of rent to 4_d._ per acre.
+
+     (3) The liberty to buy and sell in market.
+
+     (4) A free pardon.
+
+
+Compare the studiously restrained tone of these articles with the
+terrible atrocities and vengeance wreaked by the Jacquerie in France,
+and the no less awful mob violence perpetrated in Florence by the
+Ciompi. While it shows no doubt in a kindly light the more equitable
+rule of the English landholder, it remains a monument, also, of the
+fair-mindedness of the English worker.
+
+In the towns much the same sort of struggle had been going on; for the
+towns themselves, more often than not, sprang up on the demesne of some
+lord, whether king, Church, or baron. But here the difficulties were
+complicated still further by the interference of the Guilds, which in
+the various trades regulated the hours of labour, the quality of the
+work, and the rate of remuneration. Yet, on the other hand, it is
+undoubted that, once the squalor of the earlier stages of urban life had
+been removed or at least improved, the social condition of the poor,
+from the fourteenth century onwards, was immeasurably superior in the
+towns to what it was in the country districts.
+
+The quickening influence of trade was making itself felt everywhere. In
+1331 the cloth trade was introduced at Bristol, and settled down then
+definitely in the west of England. In the north we notice the beginnings
+of the coal trade. Licence was given to the burgesses of Newcastle to
+dig for coal in 1351; and in 1368 two merchants of the same city had
+applied for and obtained royal permission to send that precious
+commodity "to any part of the kingdom, either by land or water." Even
+vast speculations were opening up for English commercial enterprise,
+when, by cornering the wool and bribing the King, a ring of merchants
+were able to break the Italian banking houses, and disorganise the
+European money market, for on the Continent all this energy in trade was
+already old. The house of Anjou, for example, had made the kingdom of
+Naples a great trading centre. Its corn and cattle were famous the world
+over. But in Naples it was the sovereigns (like Edward III and Edward IV
+in England) who patronised the commercial instincts of their people. By
+the indefatigable genius of the royal house, industry was stimulated,
+and private enterprise encouraged. By wise legislation the interests of
+the merchants were safeguarded; and by the personal supervision of
+Government, fiscal duties were moderated, the currency kept pure and
+stable, weights and measures reduced to uniformity, the ease and
+security of communications secured.
+
+No doubt trade not seldom, even in that age, led to much evil.
+Parliament in England raised its voice against the trickery and deceit
+practised by the greater merchants towards the small shopkeepers, and
+complained bitterly of the growing custom of the King to farm out to the
+wealthier among them the subsidies and port-duties of the kingdom. For
+the whole force of the break-up of feudal conditions was to turn the
+direction of power into the hands of a small, but moneyed class. Under
+Edward III there is a distinct appearance of a set of _nouveaux riches_,
+who rise to great prominence and take their places beside the old landed
+nobility. De la Pole, the man who did most to establish the prosperity
+of Hull, is an excellent example of what is often thought to be a
+decidedly modern type. He introduced bricks from the Low Countries, and
+apparently by this means and some curious banking speculations of very
+doubtful honesty achieved a great fortune. The King paid a visit to his
+country house, and made him Chief Baron of the Exchequer, in which
+office he was strongly suspected of not always passing to the right
+quarter some of the royal moneys. His son became Earl of Suffolk and
+Lord Chancellor; and a marriage with royalty made descendants of the
+family on more than one occasion heirs-at-law of the Crown.
+
+Even the peasant was beginning to feel the amelioration of his lot,
+found life easy, and work something to be shirked. In his food, he was
+starting to be delicate. Says Langland in his "Vision of Piers Plowman":
+
+
+     "Then labourers landless that lived by their hands,
+     Would deign not to dine upon worts a day old.
+     No penny-ale pleased them, no piece of good bacon,
+     Only fresh flesh or fish, well-fried or well-baked,
+     Ever hot and still hotter to heat well their maw."
+
+
+And he speaks elsewhere of their laziness:
+
+
+     "Bewailing his lot as a workman to live,
+     He grumbles against God and grieves without reason,
+     And curses the king and his council after
+     Who licence the laws that the labourers grieve."
+
+
+That the poor could thus become fastidious was a good sign of the rising
+standard of comfort.
+
+But for all that life was hard, and much at the mercy of the weather,
+and of the assaults of man's own fellows. The houses of the better folk
+were of brick and stone, and glass windows were just becoming known,
+whereas the substitute of oiled paper had been neither cheerful nor of
+very much protection. But the huts of the poor were of plastered mud;
+and even the walls of a quite respectable man's abode, we know from one
+court summons to have been pierced by arrows shot at him by a pugnacious
+neighbour. The plaintiff offered to take judge and jury then and there
+and show them these "horrid weapons" still sticking to the exterior. In
+the larger houses the hall had branched off, by the fourteenth century,
+into withdrawing-rooms, and parlours, and bedrooms, such as the Paston
+Letters describe with much curious wealth of detail. Lady Milicent
+Falstolf, we are told, was the only one in her father's household who
+had a ewer and washing-basin.
+
+Yet with all the lack of the modern necessities of life, human nature
+was still much the same. The antagonism between rich and poor, which the
+collapse of feudal relations had strained to breaking-point, was not
+perhaps normally so intense as it is to-day; yet there was certainly
+much oppression and unnecessary hardships to be suffered by the weak,
+even in that age. The Ancren Riwle, that quaint form of life for
+ankeresses drawn up by a Dominican in the thirteenth century, shows
+that even then, despite the distance of years and the passing of so many
+generations, the manners and ways and mental attitudes of people
+depended very much as to whether they were among those who had, or who
+had not; the pious author in one passage of homely wit compares certain
+of the sisters to "those artful children of rich parents who purposely
+tear their clothes that they may have new ones."
+
+There have always been wanton waste and destitution side by side; and on
+the prophecy of the One to whom all things were revealed, we know that
+the poor shall be always with us. Yet we must honour those who, like
+their Master, strive to smooth away the anxious wrinkles of the world.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+THE COMMUNISTS
+
+
+There have always been religious teachers for whom all material creation
+was a thing of evil. Through the whole of the Middle Ages, under the
+various names of Manicheans, Albigensians, Vaudois, &c., they became
+exceedingly vigorous, though their importance was only fitful. For them
+property was essentially unclean, something to be avoided as carrying
+with it the in-dwelling of the spirit of evil. Etienne de Bourbon, a
+Dominican preacher of the thirteenth century, who got into communication
+with one of these strange religionists, has left us a record,
+exceedingly unprejudiced, of their beliefs. And amongst their other
+tenets, he mentions this, that they condemned all who held landed
+property. It will be here noticed that as regards these Vaudois (or Poor
+Men of Lyons, as he informs us they were called), there could have been
+no question of communism at all, for a common holding of property would
+have been as objectionable as private property. To hold material things
+either in community or severalty was in either case to bind oneself to
+the evil principle. Yet Etienne tells us that there was a sect among
+them which did sanction communism; they were called, in fact, the
+_Communati_ (_Tractatus de Diversis Materiis Predicabilibus_, Paris,
+1877, p. 281). How they were able to reconcile this social state with
+their beliefs it is quite impossible to say; but the presumption is that
+the example of the early Christians was cited as of sufficient authority
+by some of these teachers. Certain it is that a sect still lingered on
+into the thirteenth century, called the _Apostolici_, who clung to the
+system which had been in vogue among the Apostles. St. Thomas Aquinas
+(_Summa Theologica_, 2_a_, 2_ae_, 66, 2) mentions them, and quotes St.
+Augustine as one who had already refuted them. But these were seemingly
+a Christian body, whereas the Albigensians could hardly make any such
+claim, since they repudiated any belief in Christ's humanity, for it
+conflicted with their most central dogma.
+
+Still it is clear that there were in existence certain obscure bodies
+which clung to communism. The published records of the Inquisition refer
+incessantly to preachers of this kind who denied private property,
+asserted that no rich man could get to heaven, and attacked the practice
+of almsgiving as something utterly immoral.
+
+The relation between these teachers and the Orders of friars has never
+been adequately investigated. We know that the Dominicans and
+Franciscans were from their earliest institution sent against them, and
+must therefore have been well acquainted with their errors. And, as a
+fact, we find rising among the friars a party which seemed no little
+infected with the "spiritual" tendency of these very Vaudois. The
+Franciscan reverence for poverty, which the Poor Man of Assisi had so
+strenuously advocated, had in fact become almost a superstition. Instead
+of being, as the saint had intended it to be, merely a means to an end,
+it had in process of time become looked upon as the essential of
+religion. When, therefore, the excessive adoption of it made religious
+life an almost impossible thing, an influential party among the
+Franciscans endeavoured to have certain modifications made which should
+limit it within reasonable bounds. But opposed to them was a determined,
+resolute minority, which vigorously refused to have any part in such
+"relaxations." The dispute between these two branches of the Order
+became at last so tempestuous that it was carried to the Pope, who
+appointed a commission of cardinals and theologians to adjudicate on the
+rival theories. Their award was naturally in favour of those who, by
+their reasonable interpretation of the meaning of poverty, were fighting
+for the efficiency of their Order. But this drove the extreme party into
+still further extremes. They rejected at once all papal right to
+interfere with the constitutions of the friars, and declared that only
+St. Francis could undo what St. Francis himself had bound up. Nor was
+this all, for in the pursuance of their zeal for poverty they passed
+quickly from denunciations of the Pope and the wealthy clergy (in which
+their rhetoric found very effective matter for argument) into abstract
+reasoning on the whole question of the private possession of property.
+The treatises which they have left in crabbed Latin and involved methods
+of argument make wearisome and irritating reading. Most are exceedingly
+prolix. After pages of profound disquisitions, the conclusions reached
+seem to have advanced the problem no further. Yet the gist of the whole
+is certainly an attempt to deny to any Christian the right to temporal
+possessions. Michael of Cesena, the most logical and most effective of
+the whole group, who eventually became the Minister-General of this
+portion of the Order, does not hesitate to affirm the incompatibility of
+Christianity and private property. From being a question as to the
+teaching of St. Francis, the matter had grown to one as to the teaching
+of Christ; and in order to prove satisfactorily that the practice of
+poverty as inculcated by St. Francis was absolute and inviolable, it was
+found necessary to hold that it was equally the declared doctrine of
+Christ.
+
+Even Ockham, a brilliant Oxford Franciscan, who, together with Michael,
+defended the Emperor, Louis of Bavaria, in his struggle against Pope
+John XXII, let fall in the heat of controversy some sayings which must
+have puzzled his august patron; for Louis would have been the very last
+person for whom communism had any charms. Closely allied in spirit with
+these "Spiritual Franciscans," as they were called, or Fraticelli, were
+those curious mediaeval bodies of Beguins and Beghards. Hopelessly
+pantheistic in their notion of the Divine Being, and following most
+peculiar methods of reaching on earth the Beatific Vision, they took up
+with the same doctrine of the religious duty of the communistic life.
+They declared the practice of holding private property to be contrary to
+the Divine Law.
+
+Another preacher of communism, and one whose name is well known for the
+active propaganda of his opinions, and for his share in the English
+Peasant Revolt of 1381, was John Ball, known to history as "The Mad
+Priest of Kent." There is some difficulty in finding out what his real
+theories were, for his chroniclers were his enemies, who took no very
+elaborate steps to ascertain the exact truth about him. Of course there
+is the famous couplet which is said to have been the text of all his
+sermons:
+
+
+     "Whaune Adam dalf and Eve span,
+     Who was thane a gentilman?"[1]
+
+
+at least, so it is reported of him in the _Chronicon Angliae_, the work
+of an unknown monk of St. Albans (Roll Series, 1874, London, p. 321).
+Froissart, that picturesque journalist, who naturally, as a friend of
+the Court, detested the levelling doctrines of this political rebel,
+gives what he calls one of John Ball's customary sermons. He is
+evidently not attempting to report any actual sermon, but rather to give
+a general summary of what was supposed to be Ball's opinions. As such,
+it is worth quoting in full.
+
+"My good friends, things cannot go on well in England, nor ever will
+until everything shall be in common; when there shall be neither vassal
+nor lord, and all distinctions levelled; when lords shall be no more
+masters than ourselves. How ill have they used us! and for what reason
+do they thus hold us in bondage? Are we not all descended from the same
+parents--Adam and Eve? And what can they show, and what reason give, why
+they should be more the masters than ourselves? Except, perhaps, in
+making us labour and work for them to spend." Froissart goes on to say
+that for speeches of this nature the Archbishop of Canterbury put Ball
+in prison, and adds that for himself he considers that "it would have
+been better if he had been confined there all his life, or had been put
+to death." However, the Archbishop "set him at liberty, for he could not
+for conscience sake have put him to death" (Froissart's _Chronicle_,
+1848, London, book ii. cap. 73, pp. 652-653).
+
+From this extract all that can be gathered with certainty is the popular
+idea of the opinions John Ball held; and it is instructive to find that
+in the Primate's eyes there was nothing in the doctrine to warrant the
+extreme penalty of the law. But in reality we have no certainty as to
+what Ball actually taught, for in another account we find that,
+preaching on Corpus Christi Day, June 13, 1381, during the last days of
+the revolt, far fiercer words are ascribed to him. He is made to appeal
+to the people to destroy the evil lords and unjust judges, who lurked
+like tares among the wheat. "For when the great ones have been rooted up
+and cast away, all will enjoy equal freedom--all will have common
+nobility, rank, and power." Of course it may be that the war-fever of
+the revolt had affected his language; but the sudden change of tone
+imputed in the later speeches makes the reader somewhat suspicious of
+the authenticity.
+
+The same difficulty which is experienced in discovering the real mind of
+Ball is encountered when dealing with Wat Tyler and Jack Straw, who
+were, with him, the leaders of the revolt. The confession of Jack Straw
+quoted in the _Chronicon Angliae_, like nearly all mediaeval
+"confessions," cannot be taken seriously. His accusers and judges
+readily supplied what they considered he should have himself admitted.
+Without any better evidence we cannot with safety say along what lines
+he pushed his theories, or whether, indeed, he had any theories at all.
+Again, Wat Tyler is reported to have spoken threateningly to the King on
+the morning of his murder by Lord Mayor Walworth; but the evidence is
+once more entirely one-sided, contributed by those who were only too
+anxious to produce information which should blacken the rebels in the
+minds of the educated classes. As a matter of fact, the purely official
+documents, in which we can probably put much more reliance (such as the
+petitions that poured in from all parts of the country on behalf of the
+peasants, and the proclamations issued by Richard II, in which all their
+demands were granted on condition of their immediate withdrawal from the
+capital), do not leave the impression that the people really advocated
+any communistic doctrines; oppression is complained of, the lawyers
+execrated, the labour laws are denounced, and that is practically all.
+
+It may be, indeed, that the traditional view of Ball and his followers,
+which makes them one with the contemporaneous revolts of the Jacquerie
+in France, the Ciompi in Florence, &c., has some basis in fact. But at
+present we have no means of gauging the precise amount of truth it
+contains.
+
+But even better known than John Ball is one who is commonly connected
+with the Peasant Revolt, and whose social opinions are often grouped
+under the same heading as that of the "Mad Priest of Kent,"--John
+Wycliff, Master of Balliol, and parson of Lutterworth. This Oxford
+professor has left us a number of works from which to quarry materials
+to build up afresh the edifice he intended to erect. His chief
+contribution is contained in his _De Civili Dominio_, but its
+composition extended over a long period of years, during which time his
+views were evidently changing; so that the precise meaning of his famous
+theory on the Dominion of Grace is therefore difficult to ascertain.
+
+But in the opening of his treatise he lays down the two main "truths"
+upon which his whole system rests:
+
+
+     I. No one in mortal sin has any right to the gifts of God;
+
+     II. Whoever is in a state of grace has a right, not indeed to
+     possess the good things of God, but to use them.
+
+
+He seems to look upon the whole question from a feudal point of view.
+Sin is treason, involving therefore the forfeiture of all that is held
+of God. Grace, on the other hand, makes us the liegemen of God, and
+gives us the only possible right to all His good gifts. But, he would
+seem to argue, it is incontestable that property and power are from God,
+for so Scripture plainly assures us. Therefore, he concludes, by grace,
+and grace alone, are we put in dominion over all things; once we are in
+loyal subjection to God, we own all things, and hold them by the only
+sure title. "Dominion by grace" is thus made to lead direct to
+communism. His conclusion is quite clear: _Omnia debent esse communia_.
+
+In one of his sermons (Oxford, 1869, vol. i. p. 260), when he has proved
+this point with much complacent argumentation, he poses himself with the
+obvious difficulty that in point of fact this is not true; for many who
+are apparently in mortal sin do possess property and have dominion.
+What, then, is to be done, for "they be commonly mighty, and no man dare
+take from them"? His answer is not very cheerful, for he has to console
+his questioner with the barren scholastic comfort that "nevertheless, he
+hath them not, but occupieth things that be not his." Emboldened by the
+virtue of this dry logic, he breaks out into his gospel of plain
+assertion that "the saints have now all things that they would have."
+His whole argument, accordingly, does not get very far, for he is still
+speaking really (though he does not at times very clearly distinguish
+between the two) much more about the right to a thing than its actual
+possession. He does not really defend the despoiling of the evil rich at
+all--in his own graphic phrase, "God must serve the Devil"; and all that
+the blameless poor can do is to say to themselves that though the rich
+"possess" or "occupy," the poor "have." It seems a strange sort of
+"having"; but he is careful to note that, "as philosophers say, 'having
+is in many manners.'"
+
+Wycliff himself, perhaps, had not definitely made up his mind as to the
+real significance of his teaching; for the system which he sketches does
+not seem to have been clearly thought out. His words certainly appear to
+bear a communistic sense; but it is quite plain that this was not the
+intention of the writer. He defends Plato at some length against the
+criticism of Aristotle, but only on the ground that the disciple
+misunderstood the master: "for I do not think Socrates to have so
+intended, but only to have had the true catholic idea that each should
+have the use of what belongs to his brother" (_De Civili Dominio_,
+London, 1884-1904, vol. i. p. 99). And just a few lines farther on he
+adds, "But whether Socrates understood this or not, I shall not further
+question. This only I know, that by the law of charity every Christian
+ought to have the just use of what belongs to his neighbour." What else
+is this really but the teaching of Aristotle that there should be
+"private property and common use"? It is, in fact, the very antithesis
+of communism.
+
+Some have thought that he was fettered in his language by his academic
+position; but no Oxford don has ever said such hard things about his
+Alma Mater as did this master of Balliol. "Universities," says he,
+"houses of study, colleges, as well as degrees and masterships in them,
+are vanities introduced by the heathen, and profit the Church as little
+and as much as does Satan himself." Surely it were impossible to accuse
+such a man of economy of language, and of being cowed by any University
+fetish.
+
+His words, we have noted above, certainly can bear the interpretation of
+a very levelling philosophy. Even in his own generation he was accused
+through his followers of having had a hand in instigating the revolt.
+His reply was an angry expostulation (Trevelyan's _England in the Age of
+Wycliff_, 1909, London, p. 201). Indeed, considering that John of Gaunt
+was his best friend and protector, it would be foolish to connect
+Wycliff with the Peasant Rising. The insurgents, in their hatred of
+Gaunt, whom they looked upon as the cause of their oppression, made all
+whom they met swear to have no king named John (_Chronicon Angliae_, p.
+286). And John Ball, whom the author of the _Fasciculi Zizaniorum_ (p.
+273, Roll Series, 1856, London) calls the "darling follower" of Wycliff,
+can only be considered as such in his doctrinal teaching on the dogma of
+the Real Presence. It must be remembered that to contemporary England
+Wycliff's fame came from two of his opinions, viz. his denial of a real
+objective Presence in the Mass (for Christ was there only by "ghostly
+wit"), and his advice to King and Parliament to confiscate Church lands.
+But whenever Ball or anyone else is accused of being a follower of
+Wycliff, nothing else is probably referred to than the professor's
+well-known opinion on the sacrament of the Eucharist. Hence it is that
+the _Chronicon Angliae_ speaks of John Ball as having been imprisoned
+earlier in life for his Wycliffite errors, which it calls simply
+_perversa dogmata_. The "Morning Star of the Reformation" being
+therefore declared innocent of complicity with the Peasant Revolt, it
+is interesting to note to whom it is that he ascribes the whole force of
+the rebellion. For him the head and front of all offending was the hated
+friars.
+
+Against this imputation the four Orders of friars (the Dominicans,
+Franciscans, Augustinians, and Carmelites) issued a protest. Fortunately
+in their spirited reply they give the reasons on account of which they
+are supposed to have shared in the rising. These were principally
+negative. Thus it was stated that their influence with the people was so
+great that had they ventured to oppose the spirit of revolt their words
+would have been listened to (_Fasciculi Zizaniorum_, p. 293). The
+chronicler of St. Albans is equally convinced of their weakness in not
+preventing it, and declares that the flattery which they used alike on
+rich and poor had also no mean share in producing the social unrest
+(_Chronicon Angliae_, p. 312). Langland also, in his "Vision of Piers
+Plowman," goes out of his way to denounce them for their levelling
+doctrines:
+
+
+     "Envy heard this and bade friars go to school,
+     And learn logic and law and eke contemplation,
+     And preach men of Plato and prove it by Seneca
+     That all things under Heaven ought to be in common,
+     And yet he lieth, as I live, and to the lewd so preacheth
+     For God made to men a law and Moses it taught--
+
+            _Non concupisces rem proximi tui_"
+       (Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's goods).
+
+
+Here then it is distinctly asserted that the spread of communistic
+doctrines was due to the friars. Moreover, the same popular opinion is
+reflected in the fabricated confession of Jack Straw, for he is made to
+declare that had the rebels been successful, all the monastic orders, as
+well as the secular clergy, would have been put to death, and only the
+friars would have been allowed to continue. Their numbers would have
+sufficed for the spiritual needs of the whole kingdom (_Chronicon
+Angliae_, p. 309). Moreover, it has been noticed that not a few of them
+actually took part in the revolt, heading some of the bands of
+countrymen who marched on London.
+
+It will have been seen, therefore, that Communism was a favourite
+rallying-cry throughout the Middle Ages for all those on whom the
+oppression of the feudal yoke bore heavily. It was partly also a
+religious ideal for some of the strange gnostic sects which flourished
+at that era. Moreover, it was an efficient weapon when used as an
+accusation, for Wycliff and the friars alike both dreaded its
+imputation. Perhaps of all that period, John Ball alone held it
+consistently and without shame. Eloquent in the way of popular appeal,
+he manifestly endeavoured to force it as a social reform on the
+peasantry, who were suffering under the intolerable grievance of the
+Statutes of Labourers. But though he roused the countryside to his
+following, and made the people for the first time a thing of dread to
+nobles and King, it does not appear that his ideas spread much beyond
+his immediate lieutenants. Just as in their petitions the rebels made no
+doctrinal statements against Church teaching, nor any capital out of
+heretical attacks (except, singularly enough, to accuse the Primate,
+whom they subsequently put to death, of overmuch leniency to Lollards),
+so, too, they made no reference to the central idea of Ball's social
+theories. In fact, little abstract matter could well have appealed to
+them. Concrete oppression was all they knew, and were this done away
+with, it is evident that they would have been well content.
+
+The case of the friars is curious. For though their superiors made many
+attempts to prove their hostility to the rebels, it is evident that
+their actual teaching was suspected by those in high places. It is the
+exact reversal of the case of Wycliff. His views, which sounded so
+favourable to communism, are found on examination to be really nothing
+but a plea to leave things alone, "for the saints have now all they
+would have"; while on the other hand the theories of the friars, in
+themselves so logical and consistent, and in appearance obviously
+conservative to the fullest extent, turn out to contain the germ of
+revolution.
+
+Said Lord Acton with his sober wit: "Not the devil, but St. Thomas
+Aquinas, was the first Whig."
+
+FOOTNOTE:
+
+[1] This rhyme is of course much older than John Ball; _cf._ Richard
+Rolle (1300-1349), i. 73, London, 1895.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE SCHOOLMEN
+
+
+The schoolmen in their adventurous quest after a complete harmony of all
+philosophic learning could not neglect the great outstanding problems of
+social and economic life. They flourished at the very period of European
+history when commerce and manufacture were coming back to the West, and
+their rise synchronises with the origin of the great houses of the
+Italian and Jewish bankers. Yet there was very little in the past
+learning of Christian teachers to guide them in these matters, for the
+patristic theories, which we have already described, and a few isolated
+passages cited in the Decretals of Gratian, formed as yet almost the
+only contribution to the study of these sciences. However, this absence
+of any organised body of knowledge was for them but one more stimulus
+towards the elaboration of a thorough synthesis of the moral aspect of
+wealth. A few of the earlier masters made reference, detached and
+personal, to the subject of dispute, but it was rather in the form of a
+disorderly comment than the definite statement of a theory.
+
+Then came the translation of Aristotle's _Politics_, with the keen
+criticism they contain of the views Plato had advocated. Here at once
+the intellect of Europe found an exact exposition of principles, and
+began immediately to debate their excellence and their defect. St.
+Thomas Aquinas set to work on a literal commentary, and at his express
+desire an accurate translation was made direct from the Greek by his
+fellow-Dominican, William of Moerbeke. Later on, when all this had had
+time to settle and find its place, St. Thomas worked out his own theory
+of private property in two short articles in his famous _Summa
+Theologica_. In his treatise on Justice, which occupies a large
+proportion of the _Secund Secundae_ of the _Summa_, he found himself
+forced to discuss the moral evil of theft; and to do this adequately he
+had first to explain what he meant by private possessions. Without
+these, of course, there could be no theft at all.
+
+He began, therefore, by a preliminary article on the actual state of
+created things--that is, the material, so to say, out of which private
+property is evolved. Here he notes that the nature of things, their
+constituent essence, is in the hands of God, not man. The worker can
+change the form, and, in consequence, the value of a thing, but the
+substance which lies beneath all the outward show is too subtle for him
+to affect it in any way. To the Supreme Being alone can belong the power
+of creation, annihilation, and absolute mutation. But besides this
+tremendous force which God holds incommunicably, there is another which
+He has given to man, namely, the use of created things. For when man was
+made, he was endowed with the lordship of the earth. This lordship is
+obviously one without which he could not live. The air, and the forces
+of nature, the beasts of the field, the birds and fishes, the vegetation
+in fruit and root, and the stretches of corn are necessary for man's
+continued existence on the earth. Over them, therefore, he has this
+limited dominion.
+
+Moreover, St. Thomas goes on, man has not merely the present moment to
+consider. He is a being possessed of intelligence and will, powers which
+demand and necessitate their own constant activity. Instinct, the gift
+of brute creation, ensures the preservation of life by its blind
+preparation for the morrow. Man has no such ready-made and spontaneous
+faculty. His powers depend for their effectiveness on their deliberative
+and strenuous exertions. And because life is a sacred thing, a lamp of
+which the once extinguished light cannot be here re-enkindled, it
+carries with it, when it is intelligent and volitional, the duty of
+self-preservation. Accordingly the human animal is bound by the law of
+his own being to provide against the necessities of the future. He has,
+therefore, the right to acquire not merely what will suffice for the
+instant, but to look forward and arrange against the time when his power
+of work shall have lessened, or the objects which suffice for his
+personal needs become scarcer or more difficult of attainment. Property,
+therefore, of some kind or other, says Aquinas, is required by the very
+nature of man. Individual possessions are not a mere adventitious luxury
+which time has accustomed him to imagine as something he can hardly do
+without, nor are they the result of civilised culture, which by the law
+of its own development creates fresh needs for each fresh demand
+supplied; but in some form or other they are an absolute and dire
+necessity, without which life could not be lived at all. Not simply for
+his "well-being," but for his very existence, man finds them to be a
+sacred need. Thus as they follow directly from the nature of creation,
+we can term them "natural."
+
+St. Thomas then proceeds in his second article to enter into the
+question of the rights of private property. The logical result of his
+previous argument is only to affirm the need man has of some property;
+the practice of actually dividing goods among individuals requires
+further elaboration if it is to be reasonably defended. Man must have
+the use of the fruits of the earth, but why these rather than those
+should belong to him is an entirely different problem. It is the problem
+of Socialism. For every socialist must demand for each member of the
+human race the right to some possessions, food and other such
+necessities. But why he should have this particular thing, and why that
+other thing should belong to someone else, is the question which lies at
+the basis of all attempts to preserve or destroy the present fabric of
+society. Now, the argument which we have so far cited from St. Thomas is
+simply based on the indefeasible right of the individual to the
+maintenance of his life. Personality implies the right of the individual
+to whatever is needful to him in achieving his earthly purpose, but does
+not in itself justify the right to private property.
+
+"Two offices pertain to man with regard to exterior things" (thus he
+continues). "The first is the power of procuring and dispensing, and in
+respect to this, it is lawful for man to hold things as his own." Here
+it is well to note that St. Thomas in this single sentence teaches that
+private property, or the individual occupation of actual land or capital
+or instruments of wealth, is not contrary to the moral law. Consequently
+he would repudiate the famous epigram, "_La Propriete c'est le vol_."
+Man may hold and dispose of what belongs to him, may have private
+property, and in no way offend against the principles of justice,
+whether natural or divine.
+
+But in the rest of the article St. Thomas goes farther still. Not merely
+does he hold the moral proposition that private property is lawful, but
+he adds to it the social proposition that private property is necessary.
+"It is even necessary," says he, "for human life, and that for three
+reasons. Firstly, because everyone is more solicitous about procuring
+what belongs to himself alone than that which is common to all or many,
+since each shunning labour leaves to another what is the common burden
+of all, as happens with a multitude of servants. Secondly, because human
+affairs are conducted in a more orderly fashion if each has his own duty
+of procuring a certain thing, while there would be confusion if each
+should procure things haphazard. Thirdly, because in this way the peace
+of men is better preserved, for each is content with his own. Whence we
+see that strife more frequently arises among those who hold a thing in
+common and individually. The other office which is man's concerning
+exterior things, is the use of them; and with regard to this a man ought
+not to hold exterior things as his own, but as common to all, that he
+may portion them out to others readily in time of need." (The
+translation is taken from _New Things and Old_, by H. C. O'Neill, 1909,
+London, pp. 253-4.) The wording and argument of this will bear, and is
+well worth, careful analysis. For St. Thomas was a man, as Huxley
+witnesses, of unique intellectual power, and, moreover, his theories on
+private property were immediately accepted by all the schoolmen. Each
+succeeding writer did little else than make more clear and defined the
+outlines of the reasoning here elaborated. We shall, therefore, make no
+further apology for an attempt to set out the lines of thought sketched
+by Aquinas.
+
+It will be noticed at once that the principles on which private property
+are here based are of an entirely different nature from those by which
+the need of property itself was defended. For the latter we were led
+back to the very nature of man himself and confronted with his right and
+duty to preserve his own life. From this necessity of procuring supply
+against the needs of the morrow, and the needs of the actual hour, was
+deduced immediately the conclusion that property of some kind (_i.e._
+the possession of some material things) was demanded by the law of man's
+nature. It was intended as an absolute justification of a sacred right.
+But in this second article a completely different process is observed.
+We are no longer considering man's essential nature in the abstract, but
+are becoming involved in arguments of concrete experience. The first was
+declared to be a sacred right, as it followed from a law of nature; the
+second is merely conditioned by the reasons brought forward to support
+it. To repeat the whole problem as it is put in the _Summa_, we can
+epitomise the reasoning of St. Thomas in this easier way. The question
+of property implies two main propositions: (_a_) the right to property,
+_i.e._ to the use of material creation; (_b_) the right to private
+property, _i.e._ to the actual division of material things among the
+determined individuals of a social group. The former is a sacred,
+inalienable right, which can never be destroyed, for it springs from the
+roots of man's nature. If man exists, and is responsible for his
+existence, then he must necessarily have the right to the means without
+which his existence is made impossible. But the second proposition must
+be determined quite differently. The kind of property here spoken of is
+simply a matter not of right, but of experienced necessity, and is to be
+argued for on the distinct grounds that without it worse things would
+follow: "it is even necessary for human life, and that for three
+reasons." This is a purely conditional necessity, and depends entirely
+on the practical effect of the three reasons cited. Were a state of
+society to exist in which the three reasons could no longer be urged
+seriously, then the necessity which they occasioned would also cease to
+hold. In point of fact, St. Thomas was perfectly familiar with a social
+group in which these conditions did not exist, and the law of individual
+possession did not therefore hold, namely, the religious orders. As a
+Dominican, he had defended his own Order against the attacks of those
+who would have suppressed it altogether; and in his reply to William of
+St. Amour he had been driven to uphold the right to common life, and
+consequently to deny that private property was inalienable.
+
+Of course it was perfectly obvious that for St. Thomas himself the idea
+of the Commune or the State owning all the land and capital, and
+allowing to the individual citizens simply the use of these common
+commodities, was no doubt impracticable; and the three reasons which he
+gives are his sincere justification of the need of individual ownership.
+Without this division of property, he considered that national life
+would become even more full of contention than it was already.
+Accordingly, it was for its effectiveness in preventing a great number
+of quarrels that he defended the individual ownership of property.
+
+Besides this article, there are many other expressions and broken
+phrases in which Aquinas uses the same phrase, asserting that the actual
+division of property was due to human nature. "Each field considered in
+itself cannot be looked upon as naturally belonging to one rather than
+to another" (2, 2, 57, 3); "distinction of property is not inculcated by
+nature" (1_a_, 2_ae_, 94, 5); but again he is equally clear in insisting
+on the other proposition, that there is no moral law which forbids the
+possession of land in severalty. "The common claim upon things is
+traceable to the natural law, not because the natural law dictates that
+all things should be held in common, and nothing as belonging to any
+individual person, but because according to the natural law there is no
+distinction of possessions which comes by human convention" (2_a_,
+2_ae_, 66, 2_ad_ 1_m_.).
+
+To apprehend the full significance of this last remark, reference must
+be made to the theories of the Roman legal writers, which have been
+already explained. The law of nature was looked upon as some primitive
+determination of universal acceptance, and of venerable sanction, which
+sprang from the roots of man's being. This in its absolute form could
+never be altered or changed; but there was besides another law which had
+no such compelling power, but which rested simply on the experience of
+the human race. This was reversible, for it depended on specific
+conditions and stages of development. Thus nature dictated no division
+of property, though it implied the necessity of some property; the need
+of the division was only discovered when men set to work to live in
+social intercourse. Then it was found that unless divisions were made,
+existence was intolerable; and so by human convention, as St. Thomas
+sometimes says, or by the law of nature, as he elsewhere expresses it,
+the division into private property was agreed upon and took place.
+
+This elaborate statement of St. Thomas was widely accepted through all
+the Middle Ages. Wycliff alone, and a few like him, ventured to oppose
+it; but otherwise this extremely logical and moderate defence of
+existing institutions received general adhesion. Even Scotus, like
+Ockham, a brilliant Oxford scholar whose hidden tomb at Cologne finds
+such few pilgrims kneeling in its shade, so hardy in his thought and so
+eager to find a flaw in the arguments of Aquinas, has no alternative to
+offer. Franciscan though he was, and therefore, perhaps, more likely to
+favour communistic teaching, his own theory is but a repetition of what
+his rival had already propounded. Thus, for example, he writes in a
+typical passage: "Even supposing it as a principle of positive law that
+'life must be lived peaceably in a state of polity,' it does not
+straightway follow 'Therefore everyone must have separate possessions.'
+For peace could be observed even if all things were in common. Nor even
+if we presuppose the wickedness of those who live together is it a
+necessary consequence. Still a distinction of property is decidedly in
+accord with a peaceful social life. For the wicked rather take care of
+their private possessions, and rather seek to appropriate to themselves
+than to the community common goods. Whence come strife and contention.
+Hence we find it (division of property) admitted in almost every
+positive law. And although there is a fundamental principle from which
+all other laws and rights spring, still from that fundamental principle
+positive human laws do not follow absolutely or immediately. Rather it
+is as declarations or explanations in detail of that general principle
+that they come into being, and must be considered as evidently in accord
+with the universal law of nature." (_Super Sententias Quaestiones_, Bk.
+4, Dist. 15, q. 2. Venice, 1580.)
+
+Here again, then, are the same salient points we have already noticed in
+the _Summa_. There is the idea clearly insisted on that the division of
+property is not a first principle nor an immediate deduction from a
+first principle, that in itself it is not dictated by the natural law
+which leaves all things in common, that it is, however, not contrary to
+natural law, but evidently in accord with it, that its necessity and its
+introduction were due entirely to the actual experience of the race.
+
+Again, to follow the theory chronologically still farther forward, St.
+Antonino, whose charitable institutions in Florence have stamped deeply
+with his personality that scene of his life's labours, does little more
+than repeat the words of St. Thomas, though the actual phrase in which
+he here compresses many pages of argument is reproduced from a work by
+the famous Franciscan moralist John de Ripa. "It is by no means right
+that here upon earth fallen humanity should have all things in common,
+for the world would be turned into a desert, the way to fraud and all
+manner of evils would be opened, and the good would have always the
+worse, and the bad always the better, and the most effective means of
+destroying all peace would be established" (_Summa Moralis_, 3, 3, 2,
+1). Hence he concludes that "such a community of goods never could
+benefit the State." These are none other arguments than those already
+advanced by St. Thomas. His articles, already quoted, are indeed the
+_Locus Classicus_ for all mediaeval theorists, and, though references
+in every mediaeval work on social and economic questions are freely made
+to Aristotle's _Politics_, it is evident that it is really Aquinas who
+is intended.
+
+Distinction of property, therefore, though declared so necessary for
+peaceable social life, does not, for these thinkers, rest on natural
+law, nor a divine law, but on positive human law under the guidance of
+prudence and authority. Communism is not something evil, but rather an
+ideal too lofty to be ever here realised. It implied so much generosity,
+and such a vigour of public spirit, as to be utterly beyond the reach of
+fallen nature. The Apostles alone could venture to live so high a life,
+"for their state transcended that of every other mode of living"
+(Ptolomeo of Lucca, _De Regimine Principio_, book iv., cap. 4, Parma,
+1864, p. 273). However, that form of communism which entailed an
+absolutely even division of all wealth among all members of the group,
+though it had come to them on the authority of Phileas and Lycurgus, was
+indeed to be reprobated, for it contradicted the prime feature of all
+creation. God made all things in their proper number, weight, and
+measure. Yet in spite of all this it must be insisted on at the risk of
+repetition that the socialist theory of State ownership is never
+considered unjust, never in itself contrary to the moral law. Albertus
+Magnus, the master of Aquinas, and the leader in commenting on
+Aristotle's _Politics_, freely asserts that community of goods "is not
+impossible, especially among those who are well disciplined by the
+virtue of philanthropy--that is, the common love of all; for love, of
+its own nature, is generous." But to arrange it, the power of the State
+must be called into play; it cannot rest on any private authority. "This
+is the proper task of the legislator, for it is the duty of the
+legislator to arrange everything for the best advantage of the
+citizens" (_In Politicis_, ii. 2, p. 70, Lyons, 1651). Such, too, is the
+teaching of St. Antonino, who even goes so far as to assert that "just
+as the division of property at the beginning of historic time was made
+by the authority of the State, it is evident that the same authority is
+equally competent to reverse its decision and return to its earlier
+social organisation" (_Summa Moralis_, ii. 3, 2, Verona, 1740, p. 182).
+He lays down, indeed, a principle so broad that it is difficult to
+understand where it could well end: "That can be justly determined by
+the prince which is necessary for the peaceful intercourse of the
+citizens." And in defence he points triumphantly to the fact that the
+prince can set aside a just claim to property, and transfer it to
+another who happens to hold it by prescription, on the ground of the
+numerous disputes which might otherwise be occasioned. That is to say,
+that the law of his time already admitted that in certain circumstances
+the State could take what belonged to one and give it to another,
+without there being any fault on the part of the previous owner to
+justify its forfeiture; and he defends this proceeding on the axiom just
+cited (_ibid._, pp. 182-3), namely, its necessity "for the peaceful
+intercourse of the citizens."
+
+The Schoolmen can therefore be regarded as a consistent and logical
+school. They had an extreme dislike to any broad generalisation, and
+preferred rather, whenever the occasion could be discovered, to
+distinguish rather than to concede or deny. Hence, confronted by the
+communistic theory of State ownership which had been advanced by Plato,
+and by a curious group of strange, heterodox teachers, and which had,
+moreover, the actual support of many patristic sayings, and the strong
+bias of monastic life, they set out joyfully to resolve it into the
+simplest and most unassailable series of propositions. They began,
+therefore, by admitting that nature made no division of property, and in
+that sense held all things in common; that in the early stages of human
+history, when man, as yet unfallen, was conceived as living in the
+Garden of Eden in perfect innocency, common property amply satisfied his
+sinless and unselfish moral character; that by the Fall lust and greed
+overthrew this idyllic state, and led to a continued condition of
+internecine strife, and the supremacy of might; that experience
+gradually brought men to realise that their only hope towards peaceful
+intercourse lay in the actual division of property, and the
+establishment of a system of private ownership; that this could only be
+set aside by men who were themselves perfect, or had vowed themselves to
+pursue perfection, namely, Our Lord, His Apostles, and the members of
+religious orders. To this list of what they held to be historic events
+they added another which contained the moral deductions to be made from
+these facts. This began by the assertion that private property in itself
+was not in any sense contrary to the virtue of justice; that it was
+entirely lawful; that it was even necessary on account of certain evil
+conditions which otherwise would prevail; that the State, however, had
+the right in extreme cases and for a just cause to transfer private
+property from one to another; that it could, when the needs of its
+citizens so demanded, reverse its primitive decision, and re-establish
+its earlier form of common ownership; that this last system, however
+possible, and however much it might be regretted as a vanished and lost
+ideal, was decidedly now a violent and impracticable proceeding.
+
+These theories, it is evident, though they furnish the only arguments
+which are still in use among us to support the present social
+organisation, are also patent of an interpretation which might equally
+lead to the very opposite conclusion. In his fear of any general
+contradiction to communism which should be open to dispute, and in his
+ever-constant memory of his own religious life as a Dominican friar,
+Aquinas had to mark with precision to what extent and in what sense
+private property could be justified. But at the same time he was forced
+by the honesty of his logical training to concede what he could in
+favour of the other side. He took up in this question, as in every
+other, a middle course, in which neither extreme was admitted, but both
+declared to contain an element of truth. It is clear, too, that his
+scholastic followers, even to our own date, in their elaborate
+commentaries can find no escape from the relentless logic of his
+conclusions. Down the channel that he dug flowed the whole torrent of
+mediaeval and modern scholasticism.[2] But for those whose minds were
+practical rather than abstract, one or other proposition he advanced,
+isolated from the context of his thought, could be quoted as of moment,
+and backed by the greatness of his name. His assertion of the absolute
+impracticable nature of socialistic organisation, as he knew it in his
+own age, was too good a weapon to be neglected by those who sought about
+for means of defence for their own individualistic theories; whereas
+others, like the friars of whom Wycliff and Langland spoke, and who
+headed bands of luckless peasants in the revolt of 1381 against the
+oppression of an over-legalised feudalism, were blind to this remarkable
+expression of Aquinas' opinion, and quoted him only when he declared
+that "by nature all things were in common," and when he protested that
+the socialist theory of itself contained nothing contrary to the
+teaching of the gospel or the doctrines of the Church.
+
+Truth is blinding in its brilliance. Half-truths are easy to see, and
+still easier to explain. Hence the full and detailed theory elaborated
+by the Schoolmen has been tortured to fit first one and then another
+scheme of political reform. Yet all the while its perfect adjustment of
+every step in the argument remains a wonderful monument of the
+intellectual delicacy and hardihood of the Schoolmen.
+
+FOOTNOTE:
+
+[2] _Cf._ Coutenson, _Theologia Mentis et Cordis_, iii. 388-389, Paris,
+1875; and Billnart, _De Justitia_, i. 123-124, Liege, 1746.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE LAWYERS
+
+
+Besides the Schoolmen, by whom the problems of life were viewed in the
+refracted light of theology and philosophy, there was another important
+class in mediaeval times which exercised itself over the same social
+questions, but visaged them from an entirely different angle. This was
+the great brotherhood of the law, which, whether as civil or canonical,
+had its own theories of the rights of private ownership. It must be
+remembered, too, that just as the theologians supported their views by
+an appeal to what were considered historic facts in the origin of
+property, so, too, the legalists depended for the material of their
+judgment on circumstances which the common opinion of the time admitted
+as authentic.
+
+When the West drifted out from the clouds of barbaric invasion, and had
+come into calm waters, society was found to be organised on a basis of
+what has been called feudalism. That is to say, the natural and
+universal result of an era of conquest by a wandering people is that the
+new settlers hold their possessions from the conqueror on terms
+essentially contractual. The actual agreements have varied constantly in
+detail, but the main principle has always been one of reciprocal rights
+and duties. So at the early dawn of the Middle Ages, after the period
+picturesquely styled the Wanderings of the Nations, we find the
+subjugating races have encamped in Europe, and hold it by a series of
+fiefs. The action, for example, of William the Norman, as plainly shown
+in Domesday Book, is typical of what had for some three or four
+centuries been happening here and on the Continent. Large tracts of land
+were parcelled out among the invading host, and handed over to
+individual barons to hold from the King on definite terms of furnishing
+him with men in times of war, of administering justice within their
+domains, and of assisting at his Council Board when he should stand in
+need of their advice. The barons, to suit their own convenience, divided
+up these territories among their own retainers on terms similar to those
+by which they held their own. And thus the whole organisation of the
+country was graduated from the King through the greater barons to
+tenants who held their possessions, whether a castle, or a farm, or a
+single hut, from another to whom they owed suit and service.
+
+This roughly (constantly varying, and never actually quite so absolutely
+carried out) is the leading principle of feudalism. It is clearly based
+upon a contract between each man and his immediate lord; but, and this
+is of importance in the consideration of the feudal theory of private
+property, whatever rights and duties held good were not public, but
+private. There was not at the first, and in the days of what we may
+call "pure feudalism," any concept of a national law or natural right,
+but only a bundle of individual rights. Appeal from injustice was not
+made at a supreme law-court, but only to the courts of the barons to
+whom both litigants owed allegiance. The action of the King was quite
+naturally always directed towards breaking open this enclosed sphere of
+influence, and endeavouring to multiply the occasions on which his
+officials might interfere in the courts of his subjects. Thus the idea
+gradually grew up (and its growth is perhaps the most important matter
+of remark in mediaeval history), by which the King's law and the King's
+rights were looked upon as dominating those of individuals or groups.
+The courts baron and customary, and the sokes of privileged townships
+were steadily emptied of their more serious cases, and shorn of their
+primitive powers. This, too, was undoubtedly the reason for the royal
+interference in the courts Christian (the feudal name for the clerical
+criminal court). The King looked on the Church, as he looked on his
+barons and his exempted townships, as outside his royal supremacy, and,
+in consequence, quarrelled over investiture and criminous clerks, and
+every other point in which he had not as yet secured that his writs and
+judgments should prevail. There was a whole series of courts of law
+which were absolutely independent of his officers and his decision. His
+restless energy throughout this period had, therefore, no other aim than
+to bring all these into a line with his own, and either to capture them
+for himself, or to reduce them to sheer impotence. But at the beginning
+there was little notion of a royal judge who should have power to
+determine cases in which barons not immediately holding their fiefs of
+the King were implicated. The concern of each was only with the lord
+next above him. And the whole conception of legal rights was, therefore,
+considered simply as private rights.
+
+The growth of royal power consequently acted most curiously on
+contemporary thinkers. It meant centralisation, the setting up of a
+definite force which should control the whole kingdom. It resulted in
+absolutism increasing, with an ever-widening sphere of royal control. It
+culminated in the Reformation, which added religion to the other
+departments of State in which royal interference held predominance. Till
+then the Papacy, as in some sort "a foreign power," world-wide and
+many-weaponed, could treat on more than equal terms with any European
+monarch, and secure independence for the clergy. With the lopping off of
+the national churches from the parent stem, this energising force from a
+distant centre of life ceased. Each separate clerical organisation could
+now depend only on its own intrinsic efficiency. For most this meant
+absolute surrender.
+
+The civil law therefore which supplanted feudalism entailed two
+seemingly contradicting principles which are of importance in
+considering the ownership of land. On the one hand, the supremacy of the
+King was assured. The people became more and more heavily taxed, their
+lands were subjected to closer inspection, their criminal actions were
+viewed less as offences against individuals than as against the peace of
+the King. It is an era in which, therefore, as we have already stated,
+the power of the individual sinks gradually more and more into
+insignificance in comparison with the rising force of the King's
+dominion. Private rights are superseded by public rights.
+
+Yet, on the other hand, and by the development of identically the same
+principles, the individual gains. His tenure of land becomes far less a
+matter of contract. He himself escapes from his feudal chief, and his
+inferior tenants slip also from his control. He is no longer one in a
+pyramid of grouped social organisation, but stands now as an individual
+answerable only to the head of the State. He has duties still; but no
+longer a personal relationship to his lord. It is the King and that
+vague abstraction called the State which now claim him as a subject; and
+by so doing are obliged to recognise his individual status. This new and
+startling prominence of the individual disturbed the whole concept of
+ownership. Originally under the influence of that pure feudalism which
+nowhere existed in its absolute form, the two great forces in the life
+of each member of the social group were his own and that of his
+immediate lord. These fitted together into an almost indissoluble union;
+and therefore absolute ownership of the soil was theoretically
+impossible. Now, however, the individual was emancipated from his lord.
+He was still, it is true, subject to the King, whose power might be a
+great deal more oppressive than the barons' had been. But the King was
+far off, whereas the baron had been near, and nearly always in full
+evidence. Hence the result was the emphasis of the individual's absolute
+dominion. Not, indeed, as though it excluded the dominion of the King,
+but precisely because the royal predominance could only be recognised by
+the effective shutting out of the interference of the lord. To exclude
+the "middle-man," the King was driven to recognise the absolute dominion
+of the individual over his own possessions.
+
+This is brought out in English law by Bracton and his school. Favourers
+as they were of the royal prerogative, they were driven to take up the
+paradoxical ground that the King was not the sole owner of property. To
+defend the King they were obliged to dispossess him. To put his control
+on its most effective basis, they had no other alternative left them
+than to admit the fullest rights of the individual against the King. For
+only if the individual had complete ownership, could there be no
+interference on the part of the lord; only if the possessions of the
+tenants were his own, were they prevented from falling under the
+baronial jurisdiction. Therefore by apparently denying the royal
+prerogative the civil lawyers were in effect, as they perfectly well
+recognised, really extending it and enabling it to find its way into
+cases and courts where it could not else well have entered.
+
+Seemingly, therefore, all idea of socialism or nationalisation of land
+(at that date the great means of production) was now excluded. The
+individualistic theory of property had suddenly appeared; and
+simultaneously the old group forms, which implied collectivism in some
+shape or other, ceased any longer to be recognised as systems of tenure.
+Yet, at the same time, by a paradox as evident as that by which the
+civilians exalted the royal prerogative apparently at its own expense,
+or as that by which Wycliff's communism is found to be in reality a
+justification of the policy of leaving things as they are, while St.
+Thomas's theory of property is discovered as far less oppressive and
+more adaptable to progressive developments of national wealth, it is
+noticed that, from the point of view of the socialist, monarchical
+absolutism is the most favourable form of a State's constitution. For
+wherever a very strictly centralised system of government exists, it is
+clear that a machinery, which needs little to turn it to the advantage
+of the absolute rule of a rebellious minority, has been already
+constructed. In a country where, on the other hand, local government has
+been enormously encouraged, it is obviously far more difficult for
+socialism to force an entrance into each little group. There are all
+sorts of local conditions to be squared, vagaries of law and
+administration to be reduced to order, connecting bridges to be thrown
+from one portion of the nation to the next, so as to form of it one
+single whole. Were the socialists of to-day to seize on the machinery of
+government in Germany and Russia, they could attain their purposes
+easily and smoothly, and little difference in constitutional forms would
+be observed in these countries, for already the theory of State
+ownership and State interference actually obtains. They would only have
+to substitute a _bloc_ for a man. But in France and England, where the
+centralisation is far less complete, the success of the socialistic
+party and its achievement of supreme power would mean an almost entire
+subversal of all established methods of administration, for all the
+threads would have first to be gathered into a single hand.
+
+Consequently feudalism, which turned the landowners into petty
+sovereigns and insisted on local courts, &c., though seemingly
+communistic or socialistic, was really, from its intense local
+colouring, far less easy of capture by those who favoured State
+interference. It was individualistic, based on private rights. But the
+new royal prerogative led the way to the consideration of the evident
+ease by which, once the machine was possessed, the rest of the system
+could without difficulty be brought into harmony with the new theories.
+To make use of comparison, it was Cardinal Wolsey's assumption of full
+legatine power by permission of the Pope which first suggested to Henry
+VIII that he could dispense with His Holiness altogether. He saw that
+the Cardinal wielded both spiritual and temporal jurisdiction. He
+coveted his minister's position, and eventually achieved it by ousting
+both Clement and Wolsey, who had unwittingly shown him in which way more
+power lay.
+
+So, similarly, the royal despotism itself, by centralising all power
+into the hands of a single prince, accustomed men to the idea of the
+absolute supremacy of national law, drove out of the field every
+defender of the rights of minorities, and thus paved the way for the
+substitution of the people for itself. The French Revolution was the
+logical conclusion to be drawn from the theories of Louis XIV. It needed
+only the fire of Rousseau to burn out the adventitious ornamentation
+which in the shape of that monarch's personal glorification still
+prevented the naked structure from being seen in all its clearness.
+_L'Etat c'est moi_ can be as aptly the watchword of a despotic
+oligarchy, or a levelling socialism, as of a kingly tyranny, according
+as it passes from the lips of the one to the few or the many. It is true
+that the last phase was not completed till long after the Middle Ages
+had closed, but the tendency towards it is evident in the teachings of
+the civil lawyers.
+
+
+Thus, for example, State absolutism is visible in the various
+suggestions made by men like Pierre du Bois and Wycliff (who, in the
+expression of their thoughts, are both rather lawyers than schoolmen) to
+dispossess the clergy of their temporalities. The principles urged, for
+instance, by these two in justification of this spoliation could be
+applied equally well to the estates of laymen. For the same principles
+put into the King's hand the undetermined power of doing what was
+necessary for the well-being of the State. It is true that Pierre du
+Bois (_De Recuperatione Terre Sancte_, pp. 39-41, 115-8) asserted that
+the royal authority was limited to deal in this way with Church lands,
+and could not touch what belonged to others. But this proviso was
+obviously inserted so arbitrarily that its logical force could not have
+had any effect. Political necessity alone prevented it from being used
+against the nobility and gentry.
+
+Ockham, however, the clever Oxford Franciscan, who formed one of the
+group of pamphleteers that defended Louis of Bavaria against Pope John
+XXII, quite clearly enlarged the grounds for Church disendowment so as
+to include the taking over by the State of all individual property. He
+was a thinker whose theories were strangely compounded of absolutism and
+democracy. The Emperor was to be supported because his autocracy came
+from the people. Hence, when Ockham is arguing about ecclesiastical
+wealth, and the way in which it could be quite fairly confiscated by the
+Government, he enters into a discussion about the origin of the imperial
+dignity. This, he declares, was deliberately handed over by the people
+to the Emperor. To escape making the Pope the original donor of the
+imperial title, Ockham concedes that privilege to the people. It was
+they, the people, who had handed over to the Caesars of the Holy Roman
+Empire all their own rights and powers. Hence Louis was a monarch whose
+absolutism rested on a popular basis. Then he proceeds in his argument
+to say that the human positive law by which private property was
+introduced was made by the people themselves, and that the right or
+power by which this was done was transferred by them to the Emperor
+along with the imperial dignity.
+
+Louis, therefore, had the same right to undo what they had done, for in
+him all their powers now resided. This, of course, formed an excellent
+principle from which to argue to his right to dispossess the Church of
+its superfluous wealth--indeed of all its wealth. But it could prove
+equally effectual against the holding by the individual of any property
+whatever. It made, in effect, private ownership rest on the will of the
+prince.
+
+Curiously, too, in quite another direction the same form of argument had
+been already worked out by Nicole Oresme, a famous Bishop of Lisieux,
+who first translated into French the _Politics_ of Aristotle, and who
+helped so largely in the reforms of Charles V of France. His great work
+was in connection with the revision of the coinage, on which he composed
+a celebrated treatise. He held that the change of the value of money,
+either by its deliberate depreciation, or by its being brought back to
+its earlier standard of face value, carried such widespread consequences
+that the people should most certainly be consulted on it. It was not
+fair to them to take such a step without their willing co-operation. Yet
+he admits fully that, though this is the wiser and juster way of acting,
+there was no absolute need for so doing, since all possession and all
+property sprang from the King. And this last conclusion was advocated by
+his rival, Philip de Meziers, whose advice Charles ultimately followed.
+Philip taught that the king was sole judge of whatever was for public
+use.
+
+But there was a further point in the same question which afforded matter
+for an interesting discussion among the lawyers. Pope Innocent IV, who
+had first been famous as a canonist, and retained as Pontiff his old
+love for disputations of this kind, developed a theory of his own on the
+relation between the right of the individual to possess and the right
+of the State over that possession. He distinguished carefully between
+two entirely different concepts, namely, the right and its exercise. The
+first he admitted to be sacred and inviolable, because it sprang from
+the very nature of man. It could not be disturbed or in any way
+molested; the State had therefore no power to interfere with the right.
+But he suggested that the exercise of that right, or, to use his actual
+phrase, the "actions in accord with that right," rested on the basis of
+civil, positive law, and could therefore be controlled by legal
+decisions. The right was sacred, its exercise was purely conventional.
+Thus every man has a right to property; he can never by any possible
+means divest himself of it, for it is rooted in the depths of his being,
+and supported by his human nature. But this right appears especially to
+be something internal, intrinsic. For him to exercise it--that is to
+say, to hold this land or that, or indeed any land at all--the State's
+intervention must be secured. At least the State can control his action
+in buying, selling, or otherwise obtaining it. His right cannot be
+denied, but for reasons of social importance its exercise well may be.
+Nor did this then appear as a merely unmeaning distinction; he would not
+admit that a right which could not be exercised was hardly worth
+consideration. And, in point of fact, the Pope's private theory found
+very many supporters.
+
+There were others, however, who judged it altogether too fantastical.
+The most interesting of his opponents was a certain Antonio Roselli, a
+very judiciously-minded civil lawyer, who goes very thoroughly into the
+point at issue. He gives Innocent's views, and quotes what authority he
+can find for them in the Digest and Decretals. But for himself he would
+prefer to admit that the right to private property is not at all sacred
+or natural in the sense of being inviolable. He willingly concedes to
+the State the right to judge all claims of possession. This is the more
+startling since ordinarily his views are extremely moderate, and
+throughout the controversy between Pope and Emperor he succeeded in
+steering a very careful, delicate course. To him, however, all rights to
+property were purely civil and arguable only on principles of positive
+law. There was no need, therefore, to discriminate between the right and
+its exercise, for both equally could be controlled by the State. There
+are evidences to show that he admitted the right of each man to the
+support of his own life, and, therefore, to private property in the form
+of actual food, &c., necessary for the immediate moment; but he
+distinctly asserts as his own personal idea that "the prince could take
+away my right to a thing, and any exercise of that right," adding only
+that for this there must be some cause. The prince cannot arbitrarily
+confiscate property; he must have some reasonable motive of sufficient
+gravity to outweigh the social inconveniences which confiscation would
+necessarily produce. Not every cause is a sufficient one, but those only
+which concern "public liberty or utility." Hence he decides that the
+Pope cannot alienate Church lands without some justifying reason, nor
+hand them over to the prince unless there happens to be an urgent need,
+springing from national circumstances. It does not follow, however, that
+he wishes to make over to the State absolute right to individual
+property under normal conditions. The individual has the sole dominion
+over his own possessions; that dominion reverts to the State only in
+some extreme instance. His treatise, therefore (Goldast, _De Monarchia_,
+1611-1614, Hanover, p. 462, &c.), may be looked upon as summing up the
+controversy as it then stood. The legal distinction suggested by
+Innocent IV had been given up by the lawyers as insufficient. The
+theories of Du Bois, Wycliff, Ockham, and the others had ceased to have
+much significance, because they gave the royal power far too absolute a
+jurisdiction over the possessions of its subjects. The feudal
+contractual system, which these suggested reforms had intended to drive
+out, had failed for entirely different reasons, and could evidently be
+brought back only at the price of a complete and probably unsuccessful
+disturbance of the social and economic organisation. The centralisation
+which had risen on the ruins of the older local sovereignties and
+immunities, had brought with it an emphasised recognition of the public
+rights and duties of all subjects, and had at the same time confirmed
+the individual in the ownership of his little property, and given him at
+the last not a conditional, but an absolute possession. To safeguard
+this, and to prevent it from becoming a block in public life, a factor
+of discontent, the lawyers were engaged in framing an additional clause
+which should give to the State an ultimate jurisdiction, and would
+enable it to overrule any objections on the part of the individual to a
+national policy or law. The suggested distinction that the word "right"
+should be emptied of its deeper meaning, by refusing it the further
+significance of "exercise," was too subtle and too legal to obtain much
+public support. So that the lawyers were driven to admit that for a just
+cause the very right itself could be set aside, and every private
+possession (when public utility and liberty demanded it) confiscated or
+transferred to another.
+
+Even the right to compensation for such confiscation was with equal
+cleverness explained away. For it was held that, when an individual had
+lost his property through State action, and without his having done
+anything to deserve it as a punishment, compensation could be claimed.
+But whenever a whole people or nation was dispossessed by the State,
+there was no such right at all to any indemnity.
+
+Thus was the wholesale adoption of land-nationalism to be justified.
+Thus could the State capture all private possessions without any fear of
+being guilty of robbery. It was considered that it was only the
+oppression of the individual and class spoliation which really
+contravened the moral law.
+
+The legal theories, therefore, which supplanted the old feudal concepts
+were based on the extension of royal authority, and the establishment of
+public rights. Individualistic possession was emphasised; yet the
+simultaneous setting up of the absolute monarchies of the sixteenth
+century really made their ultimate capture by the Socialist party more
+possible.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE SOCIAL REFORMERS
+
+
+It may seem strange to class social reforms under the wider heading of
+Socialistic Theories, and the only justification for doing so is that
+which we have already put forward in defence of the whole book; namely,
+that the term "socialistic" has come to bear so broad an interpretation
+as to include a great deal that does not strictly belong to it. And it
+is only on the ground of their advocating State interference in the
+furtherance of their reforms that the reformers here mentioned can be
+spoken of as socialistic.
+
+Of course there have been reformers in every age who came to bring to
+society their own personal measures of relief. But in the Middle Ages
+hardly a writer took pen in hand who did not note in the body politic
+some illness, and suggest some remedy. Howsoever abstruse might be the
+subject of the volume, there was almost sure to be a reference to
+economic or social life. It was not an epoch of specialists such as is
+ours. Each author composed treatises in almost every branch of learning.
+The same professor, according to mediaeval notions, might lecture to-day
+on Scripture, to-morrow on theology or philosophy, and the day after on
+natural science. For them a university was a place where each student
+learnt, and each professor taught, universal knowledge. Still from time
+to time men came to the front with some definite social message to be
+delivered to their own generation. Some were poets like Langland, some
+strike-leaders like John Ball, some religious enthusiasts like John
+Wycliff, some royal officials like Pierre du Bois.
+
+This latter in his famous work addressed to King Edward I of England
+(_De Recuperatione Sancte Terre_), has several most interesting and
+refreshing chapters on the education of women. His bias is always
+against religious orders, and, consequently, he favours the suppression
+of almost every conventual establishment. Still, as these were at his
+own date the only places where education could be considered to exist at
+all, he had to elaborate for himself a plan for the proper instruction
+of girls. First, of course, the nunneries must be confiscated by
+Government. For him this was no act of injustice, since he regarded the
+possessions of the whole clerical body as something outside the ordinary
+laws of property. But having in this way cleared the ground of all
+rivals, and captured some magnificent buildings, he can now go forward
+in his scheme of education. He insists on having only lay-mistresses,
+and prescribes the course of study which these are to teach. There
+should be, he held, many lectures on literature, and music, and poetry,
+and the arts and crafts of home life. Embroidery and home-management are
+necessities for the woman's work in after years, so they must be
+acquired in these schools. But education cannot limit itself to these
+branches of useful knowledge. It must take the woman's intelligence and
+develop that as skilfully as it does the man's. She is not inferior to
+him in power of reason, but only in her want of its right cultivation.
+Hence the new schools are to train her to equal man in all the arts of
+peace. Such is the main point in his programme, which even now sounds
+too progressive for the majority of our educational critics. He appeals
+for State interference that the colleges may be endowed out of the
+revenues of the religious houses, and that they may be supported in such
+a fashion as would always keep them abreast of the growing science of
+the times. And when, after a schooling of such a kind as this, the girls
+go out into their life-work as wives and mothers, he would wish them a
+more complete equality with their men-folk than custom then allowed. The
+spirit of freedom which is felt working through all his papers makes him
+the apostle of what would now be called the "new woman."
+
+After him, there comes a lull in reforming ideas. But half a century
+later occurs a very curious and sudden outburst of rebellion all over
+Europe. From about the middle of the fourteenth century to the early
+fifteenth there seemed to be an epidemic of severe social unrest. There
+were at Paris, which has always been the nursery of revolutions, four
+separate risings. Etienne Marcel, who, however, was rather a tribune of
+the people than a revolutionary leader, came into prominence in 1355;
+he was followed by the Jacquerie in 1358, by the Maillotins in 1382, and
+the Cabochiens in 1411. In Rome we know of Rienzi in 1347, who
+eventually became hardly more than a popular demagogue; in Florence
+there was the outbreak of Ciompi in 1378; in Bohemia the excesses of
+Taborites in 1409; in England the Peasant Revolt of 1381.
+
+It is perfectly obvious that a series of social disturbances of this
+nature could not leave the economic literature of the succeeding period
+quite as placid as it had found it. We notice now that, putting away
+questions of mere academic character, the thinkers and writers concern
+themselves with the actual state of the people. Parliament has its
+answer to the problem in a long list of statutes intended to muzzle the
+turbulent and restless revolutionaries. But this could not satisfy men
+who set their thought to study the lives and circumstances of their
+fellow-citizens. Consequently, as a result, we can notice the rise of a
+school of writers who interest themselves above all things in the
+economic conditions of labour. Of this school the easiest exponent to
+describe is Antonino of Florence, Archbishop and canonised saint. His
+four great volumes on the exposition of the moral law are fascinating as
+much for the quotations of other moralists which they contain, as for
+the actual theories of the saint himself. For the Archbishop cites on
+almost every page contemporary after contemporary who had had his say on
+the same problems. He openly asserts that he has read widely, taken
+notes of all his reading, has deliberately formed his opinions on the
+judgments, reasoned or merely expressed, of his authors. To read his
+books, then, is to realise that Antonino is summing up the whole
+experience of his generation. Indeed he was particularly well placed for
+one who wished for information. Florence, then at the height of its
+renown under the brilliant despotism of Cosimo dei Medici, was the scene
+where the great events of the life of Antonino took place. There he had
+seen within the city walls, three Popes, a Patriarch of Constantinople,
+the Emperors of East and West, and the most eminent men of both
+civilisations. He had taken part in a General Council of the Church, and
+knew thinkers as widely divergent as Giovanni Dominici and AEneas Sylvius
+Piccolomini. He was, therefore, more likely than most to have heard
+whatever theories were proposed by the various great political statesmen
+of Europe, whether they were churchmen or lawyers. Consequently, his
+schemes, as we might well expect, are startlingly advanced.
+
+He begins by attacking the growing spirit of usury, and the resulting
+idleness. Men were finding out that under the new conditions which
+governed the money market it was possible to make a fortune without
+having done a day's work. The sons of the aristocracy of Florence, which
+was built up of merchant princes, and which had amassed its own fortunes
+in honest trading, had been tempted by the bankers to put their wealth
+out to interest, and to live on the surplus profit. The ease and
+security with which this could be done made it a popular investment,
+especially among the young men of fashion who came in, simply by
+inheritance, for large sums of money. As a consequence Florence found
+itself, for the first time in its history, beginning to possess a
+wealthy class of men who had never themselves engaged in any profession.
+The old reverence, therefore, which had always existed in the city for
+the man who laboured in his art or guild, began to slacken. No longer
+was there the same eagerness noticeable which used to boast openly that
+its rewards consisted in the consciousness of work well done. Instead,
+idleness became the badge of gentility, and trade a slur upon a man's
+reputation. No city can long survive so listless and languid an ideal.
+The Archbishop, therefore, denounced this new method of usurious
+traffic, and hinted further that to it was due the fierce rebellion
+which had for a while plunged Florence into the horrors of the
+Jacquerie. Wealth, he taught, should not of itself breed wealth, but
+only through the toil of honest labour, and that labour should be the
+labour of oneself, not of another.
+
+Then he proceeded to argue that as upon the husband lies the labour of
+trade, the greater portion of his day must necessarily be passed outside
+the circle of family life. The breadwinner can attend neither to works
+of piety nor of charity in the way he should, and, consequently, to his
+wife it must be left to supply for his defects. She must take his place
+in the church, and amid the slums of the poor; she must for him and his
+lift her hands in prayer, and dispense his superfluous wealth in
+succouring the poverty-stricken. For the Archbishop will have none of
+the soothing doctrine which the millionaire preaches to the mob. He
+asserts that poverty is not a good thing; in itself it is an evil, and
+can be considered to lead only accidentally to any good. When,
+therefore, it assumes the form of destitution, every effort must be made
+to banish it from the State. For if it were to become at all prevalent
+in a nation, then would that people be on the pathway to its ruin. The
+politicians should therefore make it the end of their endeavours--though
+this, it may be, is an ideal which can never be fully brought to
+realisation--to leave each man in a state of sufficiency. No one, for
+whatever reason, should be allowed to become destitute. Even should it
+be by his own fault that he were brought low, he must be provided for by
+the State, which has, however, in these circumstances, at the same time,
+the duty of punishing him.
+
+But he remarks that the cause of poverty is more often the unjust rate
+of wages. The competition even of those days made men beat each other
+down in clamouring for work to be given them, and afforded to the
+employers an opportunity of taking workers who willingly accepted an
+inadequate scale of remuneration. This state of things he considered to
+be unjustifiable and unjust. No one had any right to make profit out of
+the wretchedness of the poor. Each human being had the duty of
+supporting his own life, and this he could not do except by the hiring
+of his own labour to another. That other, therefore, by the immutable
+laws of justice, when he used the powers of his fellow-man, was obliged
+in conscience to see that those powers could be fittingly sustained by
+the commodity which he exchanged for them. That is, the employer was
+bound to take note that his employees received such return for their
+labour as should compensate them for his use of it. The payment promised
+and given should be, in other words, what we would now speak of as a
+"living wage." But further, above this mere margin, additional rewards
+should be added according to the skill of the workman, or the dangerous
+nature of his employment, or the number of his children. The wages also
+should be paid promptly, without delay.
+
+But it may sometimes happen that the labour which a man can contribute
+is not of such a kind as will enable him to receive the fair
+remuneration that should suffice for his bodily comfort. The saint is
+thinking of boy-labour, and the case of those too enfeebled by age or
+illness to work adequately, or perhaps at all. What is to be done for
+them? Let the State look to it, is his reply. The community must, by the
+law of its own existence, support all its members, and out of its
+superfluous wealth must provide for its weaker citizens. Those,
+therefore, who can labour harder than they need, or who already possess
+more riches than suffice for them, are obliged by the natural law of
+charity to give to those less favourably circumstanced than themselves.
+
+St. Antonino does not, therefore, pretend to advocate any system of
+rigid equality among men. There is bound to be, in his opinion, variety
+among them, and from this variety comes indeed the harmony of the
+universe. For some are born to rule, and others, by the feebleness of
+their understanding or of their will, are fitted only to obey. The
+workman and servant must faithfully discharge the duties of their trade
+or service, be quick to receive a command, and reverent in their
+obedience. And the masters, in their turn, must be forbearing in their
+language, generous in their remuneration, and temperate in their
+commands. It is their business to study the powers of each of those whom
+they employ, and to measure out the work to each one according to the
+capacity which is discoverable in him. When a faithful labourer has
+become ill, the employer must himself tend and care for him, and be in
+no hurry to send him to a hospital.
+
+About the hospitals themselves he has his own ideas, or at least he has
+picked out the sanest that he can find in the books and conversation of
+people whom he has come across. He insists strongly that women should,
+as matrons and nurses, manage those institutions which are solely for
+the benefit of women; and even in those where men also are received, he
+can see no incompatibility in their being administered by these same
+capable directors. He much commends the custom of chemists in Florence
+on Sundays, feast-days, and holidays of opening their dispensaries in
+turn. So that even should all the other shops be closed, there would
+always be one place open where medicines and drugs could be obtained in
+an emergency.
+
+The education of the citizens, too, is another work which the State must
+consider. It is not something merely optional which is to be left to the
+judgment of the parent. The Archbishop holds that its proper
+organisation is the duty of the prince. Education, in his eyes, means
+that the children must be taught the knowledge of God, of letters, and
+of the arts and crafts they are to pursue in after life.
+
+Again, he has thought out the theory of taxation. He admits its
+necessity. The State is obliged to perform certain duties for the
+community. It is obliged, for example, to make its roads fit for
+travelling, and so render them passable for the transfer of merchandise.
+It is bound to clear away all brigandage, highway robbery, and the like,
+for were this not done, no merchant would venture out through that
+State's territory, and its people would accordingly suffer.
+
+Hence, again, he deduces the need for some sort of army, so that the
+goods of the citizens may be secured against the invader, for without
+this security there would be no stimulus to trade. Bridges must be
+built, and fords kept in repair. Since, therefore, the State is obliged
+to incur expenses in order to attain these objects, the State has the
+right, and indeed the duty, to order it so that the community shall pay
+for the benefits which it is to receive. Hence follows taxation.
+
+But he sees at once that this power of demanding forced contributions
+from wealthy members of society needs safeguarding against abuse. Thus
+he is careful to insist that taxation can be valid only when it is
+levied by public authority, else it becomes sheer brigandage. No less is
+it to be reprobated when ordered indeed by public authority, but not
+used for public benefit. Thus, should it happen that a prince or other
+ruler of a State extorted money from his subjects on pretence of keeping
+the roads in good order, or similar works for the advantage of the
+community, and yet neglected to put the contributions of his people to
+this use, he would be defrauding the public, and guilty of treason
+against his country. So, too, to lay heavier burdens on his subjects
+than they could bear, or to graduate the scale in such a fashion as to
+weigh more heavily on one class than another, would be, in the ruler, an
+aggravated form of theft. Taxation must therefore be decreed by public
+authority, and be arranged according to some reasonable measure, and
+rest on the motive of benefiting the social organisation.
+
+The citizens therefore who are elected to settle the incidence of
+taxation must be careful to take account of the income of each man, and
+so manage that on no one should the burden be too oppressive. He
+suggests himself the percentage of one pound per hundred. Nor, again,
+must there be any deliberate attempt to penalise political opponents, or
+to make use of taxation in order to avenge class-oppression. Were this
+to be done, the citizens so acting would be bound to make restitution to
+the persons whom they had thus injured.
+
+Then St. Antonino takes the case of those who make a false declaration
+of their income. These, too, he convicts of injustice, and requires of
+them that they also should make restitution, but to the State. An
+exception to this, however, he allows. For if it happens to be the
+custom for each to make a declaration of income which is obviously below
+the real amount, then simply because all do it and all are known to do
+it, there is no obligation for the individual to act differently from
+his neighbours. It is not injustice, for the law evidently recognises
+the practice. And were he, on the other hand, to announce his full
+yearly wage of earnings, he would allow himself to be taxed beyond the
+proper measure of value. But to refuse to pay, or to elude by some
+subterfuge the just contribution which a man owes of his wealth to the
+easing of the public burdens, is in the eyes of the Archbishop a crime
+against the State. It would be an act of injustice, of theft, all the
+more heinous in that, as he declares with a flash of the energy of
+Rousseau, the "common good is something almost divine."
+
+We have dwelt rather at length on the schemes of this one economist, and
+may seem, therefore, to have overlooked the writings of others equally
+full of interest. But the reason has been because this Florentine
+moralist does stand so perfectly for a whole school. He has read
+omnivorously, and has but selected most of his thoughts. He compares
+himself, indeed, in one passage of these volumes, to the laborious ant,
+"that tiny insect which wanders here and there, and gathers together
+what it thinks to be of use to its community." He represents a whole
+school, and represents it at its best, for there is no extreme dogmatism
+in him, no arguing from grounds that are purely arbitrary, or from _a
+priori_ principles. It is his knowledge of the people among whom he had
+laboured so long which fits him to speak of the real sufferings of the
+poor. But experience requires for its being effectually put to the best
+advantage, that it should be wielded by one whose judgment is sober and
+careful. Now, St. Antonino was known in his own day as Antonino the
+Counsellor; and his justly-balanced decision, his delicately-poised
+advice, the straightness of his insight, are noticeable in the masterly
+way in which he sums up all the best that earlier and contemporary
+writers had devised in the domain of social economics.
+
+There is, just at the close of the period with which this book deals, a
+rising school of reformers who can be grouped round More's _Utopia_.
+Some foreshadowed him, and others continued his speculations. Men like
+Harrington in his _Oceana_, and Milton in his _Areopagitica_, really
+belong to the same band; but life for them had changed very greatly, and
+already become something far more complex than the earlier writers had
+had to consider. There seemed no possibility of reforming it by the
+simple justice which St. Antonino and his fellows judged to be
+sufficient to set things back again as they had been in the Golden Age.
+The new writers are rather political than social. For them, as for the
+Greeks, it is the constitution which must be repaired. Whereas the
+mediaeval socialists thought, as St. Thomas indeed never wearied of
+repeating, that unrest and discontent would continue under any form of
+government whatever. The more each city changed its constitution, the
+more it remained the same. Florence, whether under a republic or a
+despotism, was equally happy and equally sad. For it was the spirit of
+government alone which, in the eyes of the scholastic social writers,
+made the State what it happened to be.
+
+In this the modern sociologist of to-day finds himself more akin with
+the mediaeval thinkers than with the idealists of the parliamentary era
+in England, or of the Revolution in France. These fixed their hopes on
+definite organisations of government, and on the exact balance of
+executive and legislative powers. But for Scotus, and Wycliff, and St.
+Antonino, the cause of the evil is far deeper and more personal. Not in
+any form of the constitution, nor in any division of ruling authority,
+nor in its union under a firm despot, nor in the divine right of kings,
+or nobles, or people, was security to be found, or the well-ordering of
+the nation. But peace and rest from faction could be achieved with
+certainty only on the conditions of strict justice between man and man,
+on the observance of God's commandments.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE THEORY OF ALMSGIVING
+
+
+Any description of mediaeval socialistic ideals which contained no
+reference to mediaeval notions of almsgiving would not be complete.
+Almsgiving was for them a necessary corollary to their theories of
+private possession. In the passage already quoted from St. Thomas
+Aquinas (p. 45), wherein he sets forth the theological aspect of
+property, he makes use of a broad distinction between what he calls "the
+power of procuring and dispensing" exterior things and "the use of
+them." We have already at some length tried to show what economists then
+meant by this first "power." Now we must establish the significance of
+what they intended by the second. And to do this the more clearly it
+will be as well to repeat the words in which St. Thomas briefly notes
+it: "The other office which is man's concerning exterior things is the
+use of them; and with regard to this a man ought not to hold exterior
+things as his own, but as common to all, that he may portion them out
+readily to others in time of need."
+
+In this sentence is summed up the whole mediaeval concept of the law of
+almsdeeds. Private property is allowed--is, in fact, necessary for human
+life--but on certain conditions. These imply that the possession of
+property belongs to the individual, but also that the use of it is not
+limited to him. The property is private, the use should be common.
+Indeed, it is only this common enjoyment which at all justifies private
+possession. It was as obvious then as now that there were inequalities
+in life, that one man was born to ease or wealth, or a great name,
+whereas another came into existence without any of these advantages,
+perhaps even hampered by positive disadvantages. Henry of Langenstein
+(1325-1397) in his famous _Tractatus de Contractibus_ (published among
+the works of Gerson at Cologne, 1484, tom. iv. fol. 188), draws out this
+variety of fortune and misfortune in a very detailed fashion, and puts
+before his reader example after example of what they were then likely to
+have seen. But all the while he has his reason for so doing. He
+acknowledges the fact, and proceeds from it to build up his own
+explanation of it. The world is filled with all these men in their
+differing circumstances. Now, to make life possible for them, he asserts
+that private property is necessary. He is very energetic in his
+insistence upon that point. Without private property he thinks that
+there will be continual strife in which might, and not right, will have
+the greater probability of success. But simultaneously, and as a
+corrective to the evils which private property of itself would cause
+there should be added to it the condition of common use. That is to say,
+that although I own what is mine, yet I should put no obstacle in the
+way of its reasonable use by others. This is, of course, really the
+ideal of Aristotle in his book of _Politics_, when he makes his reply to
+Plato's communism. In Plato's judgment, the republic should be governed
+in the reverse way, _Common property and private use_; he would really
+make this, which is a feature of monastic life, compulsory on all. But
+Aristotle, looking out on the world, an observer of human nature, a
+student of the human heart, sets up as more feasible, more practical,
+the phrase which the Middle Ages repeat, _Private property and common
+use_. The economics of a religious house are hardly of such a kind,
+thought the mediaevalists, as to suit the ways and fancies of this
+workaday world.
+
+But the Middle Ages do not simply repeat, they Christianise Aristotle.
+They are dominated by his categories of thought, but they perfect them
+in the light of the New Dispensation. Faith is added to politics, love
+of the brotherhood is made to extend the mere brutality of the
+economists' teaching. In "common use" they find the philosophic name for
+"almsdeeds." "A man ought not to hold exterior things as his own, but as
+common to all, that he may portion them out readily to others in time of
+need." This sentence, an almost literal translation from the _Book of
+Politics_, takes on a fuller meaning and is softened by the
+unselfishness of Christ when it is found in the _Summa Theologica_ of
+Aquinas.
+
+Let us take boldly the passage from St. Thomas in which he lays down the
+law of almsgiving.
+
+(2_a_, 2_ae_, 32, 5.) "Since love of one's neighbour is commanded us, it
+follows that everything without which that love cannot be preserved, is
+also commanded us. But it is essential to the love of one's neighbour,
+not merely to wish him well, but to act well towards him; as says St.
+John (1 Ep. 3), 'Let us not love in word nor in tongue, but in deed and
+in truth.' But to wish and to act well towards anyone implies that we
+should succour him when he is in need, and this is done by almsgiving.
+Hence almsgiving is a matter of precept. But because precepts are given
+in things that concern virtuous living, the almsgiving here referred to
+must be of such a kind as shall promote virtuous living. That is to say,
+it must be consonant with right reason; and this in turn implies a
+twofold consideration, namely, from the point of view of the giver, and
+from that of the receiver. As regards the giver, it must be noted that
+what is given should not be necessary to him, as says St. Luke 'That
+which is superfluous, give in alms.' And by 'not necessary' I mean not
+only to himself (_i.e._ what is over and above his individual needs),
+but to those who depend on him. For a man must first provide for himself
+and those of whom he has the care, and can then succour such of the rest
+as are necessitous--that is, such as are without what their personal
+needs entail. For so, too, nature provides that nutrition should be
+communicated first to the body, and only secondly to that which is to be
+begotten of it. As regards the receiver, it is required that he should
+really be in need, else there is no reason for alms being given him. But
+since it is impossible for one man to succour all who are in need, he is
+only under obligation to help such as cannot otherwise be provided for.
+For in this case the words of Ambrose become applicable: 'Feed them
+that are dying of starvation, else shall you be held their murderer.'
+Hence it is a matter of precept to give alms to whosoever is in extreme
+necessity. But in other cases (namely, where the necessity is not
+extreme) almsgiving is simply a counsel, and not a command."
+
+(_Ad_ 2_m._) "Temporal goods which are given a man by God are his as
+regards their possession, but as regards their use, if they should be
+superfluous to him, they belong also to others who may be provided for
+out of them. Hence St. Basil says: 'If you admit that God gave these
+temporal goods to you, is God unjust in thus unequally distributing His
+favours? Why should you abound, and another be forced to beg, unless it
+is intended thereby that you should merit by your generosity, and he by
+his patience? For it is the bread of the starving that you cling to; it
+is the clothes of the naked that hang locked in your wardrobe; it is the
+shoes of the barefooted that are ranged in your room; it is the silver
+of the needy that you hoard. For you are injuring whoever is in want.'
+And Ambrose repeats the same thing."
+
+Here it will be noticed that we find the real meaning of those words
+about a man's duty of portioning out readily to another's use what
+belongs to himself. It is the correlative to the right to private
+property.
+
+But a second quotation must be made from another passage closely
+following on the preceding:
+
+"There is a time when to withhold alms is to commit mortal sin. Namely,
+when on the part of the receiver there is evident and urgent necessity,
+and he does not seem likely to be provided for otherwise, and when on
+the part of the giver he has superfluities of which he has not any
+probable immediate need. Nor should the future be in question, for this
+would be looking to the morrow, which the Master has forbidden (Matt.
+6)."
+
+(_Ibid._, 32, 6.) "But 'superfluous' and 'necessity' are to be
+interpreted according to their most probable and generally accepted
+meaning. 'Necessary' has two meanings. First, it implies something
+without which a thing cannot exist. Interpreted in this sense, a man has
+no business to give alms out of what is necessary to him; for example,
+if a man has only enough wherewith to feed himself and his sons or
+others dependent on him. For to give alms out of this would be to
+deprive himself and his of very life, unless it were indeed for the sake
+of prolonging the life of someone of extreme importance to Church and
+State. In that case it might be praiseworthy to expose his life and the
+lives of others to grave risk, for the common good is to be preferred to
+our own private interests. Secondly, 'necessary' may mean that without
+which a person cannot be considered to uphold becomingly his proper
+station, and that of those dependent on him. The exact measure of this
+necessity cannot be very precisely determined, as to how far things
+added may be beyond the necessity of his station, or things taken away
+be below it. To give alms, therefore, out of these is a matter not of
+precept, but of counsel. For it would not be right to give alms out of
+these, so as to help others, and thereby be rendered unable to fulfil
+the obligations of his state of life. For no one should live
+unbecomingly. Three exceptions, however, should be made. First, when a
+man wishes to change his state of life. Thus it would be an act of
+perfect virtue if a man, for the purpose of entering a religious order,
+distributed to the poor for Christ's sake all that he possessed.
+Secondly, when a man gives alms out of what is necessary for his state
+of life, and yet does so knowing that they can very easily be supplied
+to him again without much personal inconvenience. Thirdly, when some
+private person, still more when the State itself, is in the gravest
+need. In these cases it would be most praiseworthy for a man to give
+what seemingly was required for the upkeep of his station in life in
+order to provide against some far greater need."
+
+From these passages it will be possible to construct the theory in vogue
+during the whole of the Middle Ages. The landholder was considered to
+possess his property on a system of feudal tenure, and to be obliged
+thereby to certain acts of suit and service to his immediate lord, or
+eventually to the King. But besides these burdens which the
+responsibility of possession entailed, there were others incumbent on
+him, because of his brotherhood with all Christian folk. He owed a debt,
+not merely to his superiors, but also to his equals. Such was the
+interpretation of Christ's commandment which the mediaeval theologians
+adopted. With one voice they declare that to give away to the needy what
+is superfluous is no act of charity, but of justice. St. Jerome's words
+were often quoted: "If thou hast more than is necessary for thy food and
+clothing, give that away, and consider that in thus acting thou art but
+paying a debt" (Epist. 50 ad Edilia q. i.); and those others of St.
+Augustine, "When superfluities are retained, it is the property of
+others which is retained" (in Psalm 147). These and like sayings of the
+Fathers constitute the texts on which the moral economic doctrine of
+what is called the Scholastic School is based. Albertus Magnus (vol. iv.
+in Sent. 4, 14, p. 277, Lyons, 1651) puts to himself the question
+whether to give alms is a matter of justice or of charity, and the
+answer which he makes is compressed finally into this sentence: "For a
+man to give out of his superfluities is a mere act of justice, because
+he is rather the steward of them for the poor than the owner." St.
+Thomas Aquinas is equally explicit, as another short sentence shall show
+(2_a_, 2_ae_, 66, 2, _ad_ 3_m_): "When Ambrose says 'Let no one call his
+own that which is common property,' he is referring to the use of
+property. Hence he adds: 'Whatever a man possesses above what is
+necessary for his sufficient comfort, he holds by violence.'" And the
+same view could be backed by quotations from Henry of Ghent, Duns
+Scotus, St. Bonaventure, the sermons of Wycliff, and almost every writer
+of any consequence in that age.
+
+Perhaps to us this decided tone may appear remarkable, and even
+ill-considered. But it is evident that the whole trouble lies in the
+precise meaning to be attached to the expressions "superfluous" and
+"needy." And here, where we feel most of all the need of guidance, it
+must be confessed that few authors venture to speak with much
+definiteness. The instance, indeed, of a man placed in extreme
+necessity, all quote and explain in nearly identical language. Should
+anyone be reduced to these last circumstances, so as to be without means
+of subsistence or sufficient wealth to acquire them, he may, in fact
+must, take from anywhere whatever suffices for his immediate
+requirements. If he begs for the necessities of life, they cannot be
+withheld from him. Nor is the expression "necessities of life" to be
+interpreted too nicely. Says Albertus Magnus: "I mean by necessary not
+that without which he cannot live, but that also without which he cannot
+maintain his household, or exercise the duties proper to his condition"
+(_loc. cit._, art. 16, p. 280). This is a very generous interpretation
+of the phrase, but it is the one pretty generally given by all the chief
+writers of that period. Of course they saw at once that there were
+practical difficulties in the way of such a manner of acting. How was it
+possible to determine whether such a one was in real need or not? And
+the only answer given was that, if it was evident that a man was so
+placed, there could be no option about giving; almsdeeds then became of
+precept. But that, if there were no convincing signs of absolute need,
+then the obligation ceased, and almsgiving, from a command, became a
+counsel.
+
+In an instance of this extreme nature it is not difficult to decide, but
+the matter becomes perilously complicated when an attempt is made to
+gauge the relative importance of "need" and "superfluity" in concrete
+cases. How much "need" must first be endured before a man has a just
+claim on another's superfluity? By what standard are "superfluities"
+themselves to be judged? For it is obvious that when the need among a
+whole population is general, things possessed by the richer classes,
+which in normal circumstances might not have been considered luxuries,
+instantly become such. However then the words are taken, however
+strictly or laxly interpreted, it must always be remembered that the
+terms used by the Scholastics do not really solve the problem. They
+suggest standards, but do not define them, give names, but cannot tell
+us their precise meaning.
+
+Should we say, then, that in this way they had failed? It is not in
+place in a book of this kind to sit in judgment on the various theories
+quoted, and test them to see how far they hold good, or to what extent
+they should be disregarded, for it is the bare recital of mere historic
+views which can be here considered. The object has been simply to tell
+what systems were thought out and held, without attempting to apprize
+them or measure their value, or point out how far they are applicable to
+modern times. But in this affair of almsdeeds it is perhaps well to note
+that the Scholastics could make this much defence of their vagueness. In
+cases of this kind, they might say, we are face to face with human
+nature, not as an abstract thing, but in its concrete personal
+existence. The circumstances must therefore differ in each single
+instance. General laws can be laid down, but only on the distinct
+understanding that they are mere principles of direction--in other
+words, that they are nothing more than general laws. The Scholastics,
+the mediaeval writers of every school, except a few of that Manichean
+brood of sects, admitted the necessity of almsgiving. They looked on it
+from a moral point of view as a high virtue, and from an economic
+standpoint as a correlative to their individualistic ideas on private
+property. The one without the other would be unjust. Alone, they would
+be unworkable; together, mutually independent, they would make the State
+a fair and perfect thing.
+
+But to fix the exact proportion between the two terms, they held to be
+the duty of the individual in each case that came to his notice. To give
+out of a man's superfluities to the needy was, they held, undoubtedly a
+bounden duty. But they could make no attempt to apprize in definite
+language what in the receiver was meant by need, and in the giver by
+superfluity. They made no pretence to do this, and thereby showed their
+wisdom, for obviously the thing cannot be done. Yet we must note, last
+of all, that they drew up a list of principles which shall here be set
+down, because they sum up in a few sentences the wit of mediaeval
+economists, their spirit of orderly arrangement, and their unanimous
+opinion on man's moral obligations.
+
+
+     (I) A man is obliged to help another in his extreme need, even at
+     the risk of grave inconvenience to himself.
+
+     (II) A man is obliged to help another who, though not in extreme
+     need, is yet in considerable distress, but not at the risk of grave
+     inconvenience to himself.
+
+     (III) A man is not obliged to help another whose necessity is
+     slight, even though the risk to himself should be quite trifling.
+
+
+In other words, the need of his fellow must be adjusted against the
+inconvenience to himself. Where the need of the one is great, the
+inconvenience to the other must at least be as great, if it is to excuse
+him from the just debt of his alms. His possession of superfluities does
+not compel him to part with them unless there is some real want which
+they can be expected to supply. In fine, the mediaevalists would contend
+that almsgiving, to be necessary, implies two conditions, both
+concomitant:--
+
+
+     (_a_) That the giver should possess superfluities.
+
+     (_b_) That the receiver should be in need.
+
+
+Where both these suppositions are fulfilled, the duty of almsgiving
+becomes a matter not of charity, but of justice.
+
+
+
+
+BIBLIOGRAPHY
+
+
+Among the original works by mediaeval writers on economic subjects,
+which can be found in most of the greater libraries in England, we would
+place the following:
+
+
+     _De Recuperatione Terre Sancte_, by Pierre du Bois. Edited by C. V.
+     Langlois in Paris. 1891.
+
+     _Commentarium in Politicos Aristotelis_, by Albertus Magnus. Vol.
+     iv. Lyons. 1651.
+
+     _Summa Theologica_, of St. Thomas Aquinas. This is being translated
+     by the English Dominicans, published by Washborne. London. 1911.
+     But the parts that deal with Aquinas' theories of property, &c.,
+     have not yet been published.
+
+     _De Regimine Principio_, probably by Ptolomeo de Lucca. It will be
+     found printed among the works of St. Thomas Aquinas, who wrote the
+     first chapters. The portion here to be consulted is in book iv.
+
+     _Tractatus de Civili Dominio_, by Wycliff, published in four vols.
+     in London. 1885-1904.
+
+     _Unprinted Works of John Wycliff_, edited at Oxford in three vols.
+     1869-1871.
+
+     _Fasciculus Zizaniorum_ and the _Chronicon Angliae_, both edited in
+     the Roll Series, help in elucidating the exact meaning of Wycliff,
+     and his relation to the insurgents of 1381.
+
+     _Monarchia_, edited by Goldast of Hanover in 1611, gives a
+     collection of fifteenth-century writers, including Ockham, Cesena,
+     Roselli, &c.
+
+     _Summa Moralis_, by St. Antonino of Florence, contains a great deal
+     of economic moralising. But the whole four volumes (Verona, 1740)
+     must be searched for it.
+
+
+Among modern books which can be consulted with profit are:--
+
+
+     _Illustrations of the Mediaeval Thought_, by Reginald Lane Poole.
+     1884. London.
+
+     _Political Theories of the Middle Ages_, by F. W. Maitland. 1900.
+     Cambridge.
+
+     _History of Mediaeval Political Thought_, by A. J. Carlyle. 1903.
+     &c. Oxford (unfinished).
+
+     _History of English Law_, by Pollock and Maitland. 1898. Cambridge.
+
+     _Introduction to English Economic History_, by W. J. Ashley. 1892.
+     London.
+
+     _Economie Politique au Moyen Age_, by V. Brandts. 1895. Louvain.
+
+     _La Propriete apres St. Thomas_, by Mgr. Deploige, Revue
+     Neo-Scholastique. 1895, 1896. Louvain.
+
+     _History of Socialism_, by Thomas Kirkup. 1909. London.
+
+     _Great Revolt of 1381_, by C. W. C. Oman. 1906. Oxford.
+
+     _Lollardy and the Reformation_, by Gairdner. 1908-1911 (three
+     vols.) London.
+
+     _England in the Age of Wycliff_, by G. M. Trevelyan. 1909. London.
+
+     _Leaders of the People_, by J. Clayton. 1910. London. A sympathetic
+     account of Ball, Cade, &c.
+
+     _Social Organisation_, by G. Unwin. 1906. Oxford.
+
+     _Outlines of Economic History of England_, by H. O. Meredith. 1908.
+     London.
+
+     _Mutual Aid in a Mediaeval City_, by Prince Kropotkin (Nineteenth
+     Century Review. Vol. xxxvi. p. 198).
+
+
+
+
+
+INDEX
+
+
+Albertus Magnus, 51, 86, 87
+Albigensians, 29
+Almsgiving, 80
+Ambrose, St., 10, 87
+Antonino, St., 50, 52, 71, 80
+Aquinas, St. Thomas, 30, 42, 51, 60, 79, 80, 83
+Aristotle, 35, 42, 51, 64, 82
+Augustine, St., 10, 86
+Authority, 8, 10
+
+
+Ball, John, 32, 38
+Bavaria, Louis of, 32, 63
+Beghards, 32
+Beguins, 32
+Benedict, St., 13
+Black Death, 22
+Bois, Pierre du, 62, 69
+Bonaventure, St., 87
+Bourbon, Etienne de, 29
+Bracton, 59
+
+
+Cabochiens, 71
+Cesena, Michael de, 32
+Ciompi, 25, 71
+Communism, 29
+
+
+Destitution, 71
+Dominicans, 30, 39, 47
+
+
+Education, 76
+
+
+Fall, 9
+Fathers of Church, 8
+Feudalism, 15, 56
+Francis, St., 31
+Franciscans, 30, 31, 39
+Friars, 39
+Froissart, 33
+
+
+Ghent, Henry of, 87
+
+
+Harrington, 79
+Hildebrand, 10
+Hospitals, 75
+
+
+Innocent IV, 64
+
+
+Jacquerie, 25, 71
+Jerome, St., 86
+John XXII, 32, 63
+
+
+King, 15, 56
+
+
+Labourers, landless, 19, 27
+Langenstein, Henry of, 81
+Langland, 27, 39
+Law of Nations, 11
+Law of Nature, 11
+Lawyers, 55
+Legalists, 11
+Lucca, Ptolomeo de, 51
+
+
+Maillotins, 71
+Manicheans, 29
+Manor, 71
+Marcel, Etienne, 71
+Meziers, Philip de, 64
+Milton, 79
+Moerbeke, 42
+Monasticism, 13
+More, Sir Thomas, 79
+
+
+Necessities, 83
+
+
+Ockham, 32, 49, 63
+Oresme, Nichole, 64
+
+
+Parliament, 43
+Peasant Revolt, 25, 32, 71
+Plato, 35, 52, 82
+_Praetor Peregrinus_, 11
+_Praetor Urbanus_, 11
+Property, 10, 12, 29, 41, 80
+
+
+Rienzi, 71
+Ripa, John de, 50
+Roselli, Antonio, 65
+
+
+Schoolmen, 41, 88
+Scotus, Duns, 49, 80, 87
+Slavery, 10
+Socialism, 6, 16, 60
+Straw, Jack, 34, 39
+Superfluities, 83
+
+
+Taborites, 71
+Taxation, 76
+Tyler, Wat, 34
+
+
+Vaudois, 29
+
+
+Wages, 23, 25, 74
+Women, 70, 73
+Wycliff, 35, 49, 60, 62, 80, 87
+
+
+Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO.
+Edinburgh & London
+
+
+
+
+ADVERTISEMENTS
+
+
+THE PEOPLE'S BOOKS
+
+THE FIRST HUNDRED VOLUMES
+
+The volumes issued (Spring 1913) are marked with an asterisk
+
+
+SCIENCE
+
+
+  *1. The Foundations of Science     By W. C. D. Whetham, F.R.S.
+  *2. Embryology--The Beginnings     By Prof. Gerald Leighton, M.D.
+        of Life
+   3. Biology--The Science of Life   By Prof. W. D. Henderson, M.A.
+  *4. Zoology: The Study of Animal   By Prof. E. W. MacBride, F.R.S.
+        Life
+  *5. Botany; The Modern Study of    By M. C. Stopes, D.Sc., Ph.D.
+        Plants
+   6. Bacteriology                   By W. E. Carnegie Dickson, M.D.
+  *7. The Structure of the Earth     By the Rev. T. G. Bonney, F.R.S.
+  *8. Evolution                      By E. S. Goodrich, M.A., F.R.S.
+   9. Darwin                         By Prof. W. Garstang, M.A., D.Sc.
+ *10. Heredity                       By J. A. S. Watson, B.Sc.
+ *11. Inorganic Chemistry            By Prof. E. C. C. Baly, F.R.S.
+ *12. Organic Chemistry              By Prof. J. B. Cohen, B.Sc., F.R.S.
+ *13. The Principles of Electricity  By Norman R. Campbell, M.A.
+ *14. Radiation                      By P. Phillips, D.Sc.
+ *15. The Science of the Stars       By E. W. Maunder, F.R.A.S.
+ *16. The Science of Light           By P. Phillips, D.Sc.
+ *17. Weather-Science                By R. G. K. Lempfert, M.A.
+ *18. Hypnotism                      By Alice Hutchison, M.D.
+ *19. The Baby: A Mother's Book      By a University Woman.
+ *20. Youth and Sex--Dangers and    {By Mary Scharlieb, M.D., M.S.,
+      Safeguards for Boys and Girls {and G. E. C. Pritchard, M.A., M.D.
+ *21. Motherhood--A Wife's Handbook  By H. S. Davidson, F.R.C.S.E.
+ *22. Lord Kelvin                    By A. Russell, M.A., D.Sc.
+ *23. Huxley                         By Professor G. Leighton, M.D.
+  24. Sir W. Huggins and            {By E. W. Maunder, F.R.A.S., of the
+        Spectroscopic Astronomy     {Royal Observatory, Greenwich.
+ *62. Practical Astronomy            By H. Macpherson, Jr., F.R.A.S.
+ *63. Aviation                       By Sydney F. Walker, R.N., M.I.E.E.
+ *64. Navigation                     By W. Hall, R.N., B.A.
+ *65. Pond Life                      By E. C. Ash, M.R.A.C.
+ *66. Dietetics                      By Alex. Bryce, M.D., D.P.H.
+ *94. The Nature of Mathematics      By P. G. B. Jourdain, M.A.
+  95. Applications of Electricity    By Alex. Ogilvie, B.Sc.
+ *96. Gardening                      By A. Cecil Bartlett.
+  97. The Care of the Teeth          By J. A. Young, L.D.S.
+ *98. Atlas of the World             By J. Bartholomew, F.R.G.S.
+*110. British Birds                  By F. B. Kirkman, B.A.
+
+
+PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION
+
+
+ 25. The Meaning of Philosophy      By T. Loveday, M.A.
+*26. Henri Bergson                  By H. Wildon Carr.
+*27. Psychology                     By H. J. Watt, M.A., Ph.D.
+*28. Ethics                         By Canon Rashdall, D. Litt., F.B.A.
+ 29. Kant's Philosophy              By A. D. Lindsay, M.A.
+ 30. The Teaching of Plato          By A. D. Lindsay, M.A.
+*67. Aristotle                      By Prof. A. E. Taylor, M.A., F.B.A.
+*68. Nietzsche                      By M. A. Muegge, Ph.D.
+*69. Eucken                         By A. J. Jones, M.A., B.Sc., Ph.D.
+ 70. The Experimental Psychology    By C. W. Valentine, B.A.
+       of Beauty
+*71. The Problem of Truth           By H. Wildon Carr.
+ 99. George Berkeley: the           By G. Dawes Hicks, Litt.D.
+       Philosophy of Idealism
+ 31. Buddhism                       By Prof. T. W. Rhys Davids, F.B.A.
+*32. Roman Catholicism              By H. B. Coxon.
+*33. The Oxford Movement            By Wilfrid P. Ward.
+*34. The Bible in the Light of the {By Rev. W. F. Adeney, M.A., and
+       Higher Criticism            {Rev. Prof. W. H. Bennett, Litt.D.
+ 35. Cardinal Newman                By Wilfrid Meynell.
+*72. The Church of England          By Rev. Canon Masterman.
+ 73. Anglo-Catholicism              By A. E. Manning Foster.
+*74. The Free Churches              By Rev. Edward Shillito, M.A.
+*75. Judaism                        By Ephraim Levine, B.A.
+*76. Theosophy                      By Annie Besant.
+
+
+HISTORY
+
+
+ *36. The Growth of Freedom         By H. W. Nevinson.
+  37. Bismarck                      By Prof. F. M. Powicke, M.A.
+ *38. Oliver Cromwell               By Hilda Johnstone, M.A.
+ *39. Mary Queen of Scots           By E. O'Neill, M.A.
+ *40. Cecil Rhodes                  By Ian Colvin.
+ *41. Julius Caesar                  By Hilary Hardinge.
+
+        History of England--
+
+  42. England in the Making         By Prof. F. J. C. Hearnshaw, LL.D.
+ *43. England in the Middle Ages    By E. O'Neill, M.A.
+  44. The Monarchy and the People   By W. T. Waugh, M.A.
+  45. The Industrial Revolution     By A. Jones, M.A.
+  46. Empire and Democracy          By G. S. Veitch, M.A.
+ *61. Home Rule                     By L. G. Redmond Howard.
+  77. Nelson                        By H. W. Wilson.
+ *78. Wellington and Waterloo       By Major G. W. Redway.
+ 100. A History of Greece           By E. Fearenside, B.A.
+ 101. Luther and the Reformation    By L. D. Agate, M.A.
+ 102. The Discovery of the          By F. B. Kirkman, B.A.
+        New World
+*103. Turkey and the Eastern        By John Macdonald.
+        Question
+ 104. A History of Architecture     By Mrs. Arthur Bell.
+
+
+SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC
+
+
+ *47. Women's Suffrage              By M. G. Fawcett, LL.D.
+  48. The Working of the British    By Prof. Ramsay Muir, M.A.
+        System of Government to-day
+  49. An Introduction to Economic   By Prof. H. O. Meredith, M.A.
+        Science
+  50. Socialism                     By F. B. Kirkman, B.A.
+ *79. Mediaeval Socialism           By Rev. B. Jarrett, O.P., M.A.
+ *80. Syndicalism                   By J. H. Harley, M.A.
+  81. Labour and Wages              By H. M. Hallsworth, M.A., B.Sc.
+ *82. Co-operation                  By Joseph Clayton.
+ *83. Insurance as Investment       By W. A. Robertson, F.F.A.
+ *92. The Training of the Child     By G. Spiller.
+*105. Trade Unions                  By Joseph Clayton.
+*106. Everyday Law                  By J. J. Adams.
+
+
+LETTERS
+
+
+ *51. Shakespeare                   By Prof. C. H. Herford, Litt.D.
+ *52. Wordsworth                    By Rosaline Masson.
+ *53. Pure Gold--A Choice of        By H. C. O'Neill.
+        Lyrics and Sonnets
+ *54. Francis Bacon                 By Prof. A. R. Skemp, M.A.
+ *55. The Brontes                   By Flora Masson.
+ *56. Carlyle                       By the Rev. L. MacLean Watt.
+ *57. Dante                         By A. G. Ferrers Howell.
+  58. Ruskin                        By A. Blyth Webster, M.A.
+  59. Common Faults in Writing      By Prof. A. R. Skemp, M.A.
+        English
+ *60. A Dictionary of Synonyms.     By Austin K. Gray, B.A.
+  84. Classical Dictionary          By A. E. Stirling.
+ *85. History of English            By A. Compton-Rickett.
+        Literature
+  86. Browning                      By Prof. A. R. Skemp, M.A.
+ *87. Charles Lamb                  By Flora Masson.
+  88. Goethe                        By Prof. C. H. Herford, Litt.D.
+  89. Balzac                        By Frank Harris.
+  90. Rousseau                      By H. Sacher.
+  91. Ibsen                         By Hilary Hardinge.
+ *93. Tennyson                      By Aaron Watson.
+ 107. R. L. Stevenson               By Rosaline Masson.
+*108. Shelley                       By Sydney Waterlow, M.A.
+ 109. William Morris                By A. Blyth Webster, M.A.
+
+
+London and Edinburgh: T. C. & E. C. Jack
+
+New York: Dodge Publishing Co.
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MEDIAEVAL SOCIALISM***
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+jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize
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+status under the laws that apply to them.
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #19468 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/19468)