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MEDIAEVAL SOCIALISM

By BEDE JARRETT, O.P., M.A.

LONDON: T. C. & E. C. JACK
67 LONG ACRE, W.C., AND EDINBURGH
NEW YORK: DODGE PUBLISHING CO.

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CONTENTS

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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 dependentalmost wholly on modern conditions. It is an economic theory which hasbeen evolved under pressure of circumstances which are admittedly of novery long standing. How then, it may be asked, is it possible to findany real correspondence between theories of old time and those whichhave grown out of present-day conditions of life? Surely whateveranalogy may be drawn between them must be based on likenesses whichcannot be more than superficial.

The point of view implied in this question is being increasingly adoptedby all scientific students of social and political opinions, and is mostcertainly correct. Speculation that is purely philosophic may indeedturn round upon itself. The views of Grecian metaphysicians may continuefor ever to find enthusiastic adherents; though even here, in the realmof purely abstract reasoning, the progressive development of science, ofpsychology, and kindred branches of knowledge cannot[Pg 6] fail by itsinfluence to modify the form and arrangement of thought. But in thosepurely positive sciences (if indeed sciences they can properly becalled) which deal with the life of man and its organisation, the veryprinciples and postulates will be found to need continual readjustment.For with man's life, social, political, economic, we are in contact withforces which are of necessity always in a state of flux. For example,the predominance of agriculture, or of manufacture, or of commerce inthe life of the social group must materially alter the attitude of thestatesman who is responsible for its fortunes; and the progress of thenation from one to another stage of her development often entails (byaltering from one class to another the dominant position of power) thecomplete reversal of her traditional maxims of government. Human life isnot static, but dynamic. Hence the theories weaved round it mustthemselves be subject to the law of continuous development.

It is obvious that this argument cannot be gainsaid; and yet at the sametime we may not be in any way illogical in venturing on an inquiry as towhether, in centuries not wholly dissimilar from our own, the mind ofman worked itself out along lines parallel in some degree tocontemporary systems of thought. Man's life differs, yet are thecategories which mould his ideas eternally the same.

But before we go on to consider some early aspects of socialism, we mustfirst ascertain what socialism itself essentially implies. Alreadywithin the lifetime of the present generation the word has greatlyenlarged the scope of its significance. Many who ten years ago wouldhave objected to it as a name of ill-omen see in it now nothing whichmay not be harmonised with the[Pg 7] most ordinary of political and socialdoctrines. It is hardly any longer the badge of a school. Yet it doesretain at any rate the bias of a tendency. It suggests chiefly thetransference of ownership in land and capital from private hands intotheir possession in some form or other by the society. The means of thistransference, and the manner in which this social possession is to bemaintained, are very widely debated, and need not here be determined; it