Democratic industry;

Class _ i

Book l_

Copyright N?

CCKOilCIlT DEPOSffi

DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

DEMOCRATIC
INDUSTRY

A Practical Study in Social History

BY

JOSEPH HUSSLEIN, S.J., Ph.D.

ASSOCIATE EDITOR OF "AMERICA," LECTURER
FORDHAM UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF SOCI-
OLOGY, AUTHOR OF " THE WORLD
PROBLEM," ETC., ETC.

NEW YORK

P. J- KENEDY & SONS
1919

HJHW
MX

Jmprimi ©otesat:

JOSEPHUS H. ROCKWELL, SJ.

Propositus Prov. Marylandice Neo-Eboracensis

f^if)il £Db*tat:

ARTHURUS T. SCANLAN, S.T.D.

Censor Librorum

Imprimatur :

*PATRICIUS J. HAYES, D.D.

Archiepiscopus Neo-Eboracensis

Neo-Eboraci

die 14, Oclobris, 1919

CEC I I 1919

COPYRIGHT* I 91 9
BY P • J ' KENEDY & SONS

PRINTED IN U • S • A

IA536925

CONTENTS'

CHAPTER PAGE

Preface vii

I. Egyptian Labor Unions .... i

II. Greek and Roman Trade Unions io

III. Politics and Violence .... 18

IV. State Paternalism and Slavery . 26
V. From Servitude to Freedom . . 37

VI. Recasting the World .... 47

VII. Serfdom and the Church ... 56

VIII. The Feudal and Manorial Systems 68

IX. Peace Gilds 79

X. Labor under Charlemagne and

After 89

XL Origin of Medieval Gilds . . . 102

XII. Merchant Gilds 110

XIII. A Scotch Merchant Gild . . . 125

XIV. Economics, Religion and Charity 135
XV. A Fifteenth Century Gild . . 146

XVI. First Christian Trade Unions . 157
XVII. The World's Greatest Labor

Movement 165

XVIII. True Industrial Democracy . . 175

XIX. Live and Let Live 185

XX. The Golden Rule Applied . . . 195

XXI. Learning a Trade 206

XXII. The First Modern Labor Class 220

XXIII. Revaluation of the Middle Ages 237

V

VI CONTENTS

XXIV. Civic Pageants and Plays . . . 248
XXV. The Church and the People . . 260
XXVI. Catholics and Political Democracy 270
XXVII. Modern Catholic Gild Program 285
XXVIII. The Great Catastrophe 294
XXIX. Triumph of Workingmen's Co-
operatives 311

XXX. Modern Industrial Democracy 322

A Catholic Social Platform . . 345

PREFACE

BASED upon historic facts, the present vol-
ume is purely constructive in its nature-
It applies the acid test of experience to
the great social issues and closes with a definite
program of practical social action.

Thoughtful men are daily realizing more fully
that the only economic bulwark to safeguard the
domestic peace of the nations is the establishment
of a true democracy in our industrial life. The
task of the writer has been to show how signally
the ancient pagan civilizations failed in this re-
gard at the very height of their artistic achieve-
ments and national prosperity. With the aid of
the Church, labor rose from slavery to serfdom,
and from serfdom to democratic industry. These
developments are carefully traced and the causes
which interrupted this progress explained by the
author. Abundant documentary evidence is of-
fered, together with frequent citations gathered
from the most impartial and reliable sources.

The last few centuries immediately preceding
the World War, viewed from the standpoint of
democratic industry, may rightly be called the
Dark Ages, in an economic and social sense. This

vii

Vlll PREFACE

statement, which might once have been received
with incredulous astonishment, is a truism in our
day. Within them took place the full growth and
unhampered evolution of that unrestricted concen-
tration of wealth which contained, as all can now
readily perceive, the seeds of social anarchy. It
was not necessary, then, to delay upon these other-
wise than to show the nature and reason of their
failure.

The aim of society must be to promote the pub-
lic good, and not a mere deceptive national pros-
perity absorbed by a privileged few. The au-
thor's main purpose, therefore, was to point out
the ideal to be followed in a true conception of
democratic industry.

From another point of view the argument for
the present volume was thus stated years ago by
a writer in the London Month:

11 Whilst a certain amount of negative criticism
of Socialism and other theories cannot be dis-
pensed with, most of our attention must be given
to the expounding of positive doctrine. Work-
ingmen are much more likely to be impressed by
knowing what the Church advocates than by know-
ing what she condemns. They will grasp all this
the more readily and thoroughly if it is placed
in its historic setting, if they learn something of
what the Church lias clone in the past for society
in general and the working class in particular." x

1 H. Somerrille, Jan., 1913.

PREFACE IX

The book, it is hoped, will serve as a text in so-
cial history as well as a volume for popular cir-
culation. False history has been made the basis
of false social philosophy. We must first cor-
rect these distorted views before we can hope to
lead the masses aright towards the attainment
of the ideals which all true men will gladly follow.

Of particular importance is the extensive chap-
ter on Modern Industrial Democracy, with its
many examples showing the nature and growth
of the new democratic movement in industry, and
pointing out its rightful development.

DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

DEMOCRATIC
INDUSTRY

CHAPTER I

EGYPTIAN LABOR UNIONS

WE can well imagine the existence of labor
organizations centuries before the
building of the pyramids. The nat-
ural longing after fellowship and the advantages
of association between members of the same class
or craft was almost certain to have exercised its
influence, under one form or another, unless hin-
dered by positive restrictions. The first historic
references to trade unionism are, however, very
vague and shadowy. As a legalized institution
it is believed to have taken its origin almost
simultaneously in Egypt, Greece and Italy, some
six or seven centuries before Christ. The three
great leaders mentioned, respectively, as its found-
ers in these different countries are the Egyptian
ruler Amasis, the Greek law-giver Solon, and
the second legendary king of Rome, Numa
Pompilius.

Communities of craftsmen are mentioned in the
Old Testament. Such were " the families of them

2 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

that wrought fine linen in the House of oaths,"
such, too, were the potters of King David, or
one of his successors, who settled in Netaim and
Gedera.1 But no special reference is made to
any developed trade organization. Yet owing to
religious influences labor was held in far higher
respect among the Jews of the Old Dispensation
than among any of the other great Eastern nations
of antiquity, whose stupendous monuments were
erected at the cost of untold human misery, of
blood and stripes and grinding oppression.

In Egypt King Amasis, it is stated, considered
the formation of legalized trade unions a necessity
for obtaining an accurate knowledge of the number
of his subjects and of their means of support.
However this may be, we find that in course of
time a systematic division of craftsmen into State
corporations was established with a thoroughness
unsurpassed in the imperial days of Prussia.
Each trade had its own appointed chief or its
head-men, whose duty it was to maintain the in-
terests of the craft and to represent it before the
public authorities. Laborers employed in the
same crafts were quartered in the same sections
of the city, or at least worked in shops located
together along the same streets.

The paternal interest of the Government in
the trade of its citizens was in great part to be
accounted for by the fact that besides a poll tax

1 I Paralip. iv: 14, 21, 23.

EGYPTIAN LABOR UNIONS 3

and a house tax, the laborer was also obliged
to pay a trade tax. These levies, it was under-
stood, could be obtained from him only after a
vigorous application of the collector's rod. His
organization would therefore prove an invaluable
aid in directing the Government in its work of
wringing from the laborer the hard-earned product
of his toil. Doubtless it likewise had its eco-
nomic advantages for the worker, but they could
hardly have been more than to save him at times
from bonds, stripes or starvation. The stelae
of the little town of Abydos still record for us to-
day the names of the labor representatives of all
the various trades that flourished along its busy
streets millenniums ago, from the head-mason,
Didiu, to the master-shoemaker, Kahikhonti.

We are particularly fortunate also in possessing
a detailed description of labor conditions in ancient
Egypt from the hand of one of its own con-
temporary poets. A translation of his verses was
made into French by the famous Egyptologist G.
Maspero,2 whose researches are applied in the
present article. Though depicting in striking and
realistic language the misery of labor, the poet's
attitude is one of cynicism rather than of profound
human sympathy. Like all Egyptians of his class,
from the haughty ruler to the snobbish scribe, he
had been brought up to despise the manual worker.
Yet the different types of artisans are made to

2 " History of Egypt," II, pp. 98-102.

4 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

stand out before us in his verse more vividly and
with more minute realism of detail than even in
the sculptures and paintings of this remarkable
race. We behold there the metal worker, his fin-
gers " rugged as the crocodile "; the stonecutter,
who knows no rest until his arms drop from
weariness, but who is cruelly bound in a cramped,
unnatural position should he chance to " remain
sitting at sunrise"; the barber who runs from
street to street seeking custom, " and when he falls
to and eats, it is without sitting down"; the ar-
tisan, with his chisel, who labors at timber or
metal all the day and " at night works at home by
the lamp "; or the mason dragging huge blocks of
stone, " ten cubits by six," who is " much and
dreadfully exhausted," and when the work is fin-
ished returns home, " if he has bread," only to
find that his children have been beaten mercilessly
in his absence.

With barely the scantiest covering for their
poor, wasted bodies, the workers shiver in the
wind or swelter in the broiling sun. But their
comrades, confined in the workshops, enjoy no
better fate. In verses out-moderning the mod-
erns the old Egyptian bard continues his picture
of hopeless toil, implying in a mere allusion the
whole hidden history of the bitter lot of woman
beneath this galling yoke of paganism:

The weaver within doors is worse off than a
woman; squatting, his knees against his chest,

EGYPTIAN LABOR UNIONS 5

he does not breathe.

If during the day he slackens weaving,

he is bound fast as the lotuses of the lake;

and it is by giving bread to the door-keeper,

that the latter permits him to see the light.

The dyer, his fingers reeking —
and their smell is that of fish-spawn —
toils, his two eyes oppressed with fatigue,
his hand does not stop,

and as he speeds his time in cutting out cloth,
he has a hatred of garments.

The shoemaker is very unfortunate;
he moans ceaselessly,

his health is the health of the spawning fish,
and he gnaws the leather.

The baker makes dough,
subjects the loaves to the fire;
while his head is inside the oven,
his son holds him by the legs;
if he slips from the hands of his son,
he falls there into the flames.

In vain shall we look for any understanding of
democracy among the pagan Oriental nations.
Least of all may we hope to find it in their con-
ception and treatment of labor.

Yet trade organizations were never more com-
prehensively developed than under this govern-
ment absolutism. On the testimony of the
Greeks, even professional robbers had their own
trade corporations, with duly accredited repre-
sentatives at police headquarters. Their task was
to " discuss the somewhat delicate questions to

6 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

which the practice of their trade gave rise/' and
to fix the ransom to be paid for any stolen article,
which then was invariably returned to its owner:
an institution equally convenient for police and
citizens and the honest and honorable order of
Egyptian highwaymen.3

We may here advert in passing to similar gilds
of even the most disreputable occupations, that ex-
isted among the Turks in Bagdad under the early
Sultans. Pocket thieves and others of their kith
paid a stipulated sum to the police for the un-
hampered exercise of their trade on certain oc-
casions; but wo to them if they were neverthe-
less caught in the act ! A double penalty was then
exacted of them. It is of further interest to know
that they belonged to the same general gild as the
police officials.4 While this appeals to our sense
of the ludicrous, it may be well to look nearer
home. The legalizing of modern profiteering in-
terests, we might gently hint, for instance, is an
even worse recognition of organized robbery car-
ried on upon a far larger scale.

Labor organizations have just one lesson to
learn from the Egyptian labor gilds or trade
unions. It is the danger of undue State intru-
sion which in modern as in ancient life is bound

3 Ibid., p. 97.

4 Kosta Nikoloff, " Das Handiverk und Zunftivesen in Bul-
garien wahrend der tiirkischen Herrschaft, etc.," pp. 53, 54.

EGYPTIAN LABOR UNIONS 7

always to end in tyranny. It is very simple for
labor to hand over to the State, whether capi-
talistic or communistic, its hard-gained liberties.
But this once accomplished — aside from a pass-
ing crisis where liberties are surrendered for a
time in the interest of patriotism — it will there-
after be difficult, if not impossible, to regain them.
Given the little finger, the State will lay hold on
the entire body. There is a reasonable State con-
trol and a reasonable State ownership within
proper limits. These may be extended as far as
the common good requires, but no further. To
transfer to the State the entire means of produc-
tion is for labor to place its head in the lion's
mouth. Gracious as the lion may appear, com-
pared with the Egyptian crocodile, the laborer is
wise in not entrusting his head to either, but in
securing and maintaining his own liberty. Capi-
talism, enforced communism and general State So-
cialism alike exclude him from a reasonable per-
sonal ownership.

11 Away from the servile State I " must be his
cry. Whether the means of production, on which
his livelihood and liberty depend, are in the hands
of a capitalistic regime or a communistic bureau-
cracy will matter little in the end. There is but
one way towards freedom, popular prosperity and
democratic industry, and that, as was pointed out
at the very conclusion of the World War by the

8 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

Catholic Episcopacy in America, lies in bringing
about a social reconstruction in which the major-
ity shall attain to a personal ownership and con-
trol, wholly or in part, of the means of production.
This must be our ultimate aim.

11 The majority must somehow become owners,
or at least in part, of the instruments of produc-
tion,'' was the final word of the Bishops of the
United States speaking through the Administrative
Committee of their National War Council.5 The
education suggested as necessary to reach this stage
was the establishment and management by labor
of cooperative productive societies and copartner-
ship arrangements. In the former the workers
will themselves own and manage the industries,
in the latter they are to have a substantial share
in the corporate stock and a reasonable share in
the management. " However slow the attain-
ment of these ends, they will have to be reached
before we can have a thoroughly efficient system
of production." Here, therefore, is the moun-
tain of vision the American Bishops pointed out,
where alone industrial peace and social justice can
be attained and where popular prosperity shall
flourish for all, provided that the code of Sinai
is not forgotten nor the charity of Christ. Labor
must yield up its desire of a maximum wage for a
minimum service and capital must remember that:
11 The laborer's right to a decent livelihood is the

5 " Social Reconstruction," Reconstruction Pamphlet No. i,
Jan., 1919.

EGYPTIAN LABOR UNIO.NS 9

first moral charge upon industry," preceding all
rights of the employer to profits, aside from the
latter's own reasonable living. And neither may
neglect the interests of the consumer.

CHAPTER II

GREEK AND ROMAN TRADE UNIONS

MORE interesting than strictly historical
is the description Plutarch has left us of
the origin of the Roman labor gilds,
which he attributes to Numa Pompilius.1 To
blend together by common interests the racial fac-
tions in the newly founded city of Rome, and so
to end the deadly party strifes between the Sa-
bines and the Romans within the same walls, the
politic ruler is said to have devised a plan of di-
viding the citizens into groups according to their
arts and crafts.

The distinct craft gilds mentioned by this his-
torian as founded during the reign of Numa are
eight in number. A ninth was added into which
were gathered all the remaining trades. Depart-
ing somewhat from the customary interpretation
of the Greek text, we may classify the eight Ro-
man craft gilds as follows: I. flute players, 2.
goldsmiths, 3. builders, 4. dyers, 5. tailors, 6.
tanners, 7. coppersmiths, 8. potters. That all
these trades existed in a specialized form at this
early period, about the seventh century before our
era, is seriously to be questioned. Other employ-

1 Plutarch, "Numa," 17.

10

GREEK AND ROMAN TRADE UNIO.NS II

ments, moreover, which probably were then of
greater importance, are not at all mentioned.

One thing alone is historically certain: that a
century before Christ trade unions existed at
Rome which in the popular mind dated back to
time immemorial. These ancient unions were re-
garded with special respect by the Romans so
that they outlived the laws which proved fatal to
other organizations. According to a method suf-
ficiently common at a period when historic criti-
cism was not too exacting, the origin of the labor
gilds was naturally ascribed to the rather mythi-
cal Numa Pompilius to whom Rome was said to
be indebted for other important public institutions.
For similar reasons, doubtless, the Roman labor
organizations were attributed by Florus to Ser-
vius Tullius, the sixth legendary King of Rome.2

Of the eight craft gilds enumerated by Plutarch
three only are spoken of by various Roman his-
torians as incorporated in the Constitution of Ser-
vius Tullius: the builders, the coppersmiths, and
the flute-players or horn-blowers. Whatever
prominence may for a time have been given to
these labor gilds, some centuries before the Chris-
tian era, was due to their eminent usefulness to
the Romans as a military nation.3 The members
of the remaining gilds not mentioned in connec-

2 Florus, I, 6, 3.

3 Etienne Martin Saint-Leon, " Histoire des Corporations de
Metiers!* pp. 3-5.

12 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

tion with these laws were evidently classed accord-
ing to the wealth which they individually pos-
sessed, or more probably did not possess. Such
was the sole criterion of this Constitution. They
soon found their place in the lowest stratum of the
social layers and were without political significance.
As artisans they were held in utter contempt by
the classic pagan world. Such we find is the atti-
tude assumed towards the craftsman throughout
the entire range of Roman literature. " The la-
borers are all engaged in a base occupation/' says
Cicero, " nor can there be anything honorable to
a freeman in a workshop." 4

Shortly after the period to which tradition as-
cribed the beginning of the gild system in Rome,
Solon (born in 638 B. c.) introduced his sweep-
ing reforms in Greece. They completely changed
the conditions of capital and labor at Athens.
The poor had there been ground down to such
utter destitution and misery that they sold their
very sons and daughters, and lastly, even their
own bodies into slavery to the masters of bread,
in whose hands were the keys of wealth. In this
stress of popular despair, which threatened to
culminate in a bloody revolution, rich and poor
alike chose Solon for their archon. Unlimited
power was conferred on him to introduce what-
ever economic and constitutional reforms might be
needed. As a consequence the law which re-

* Cicero, " De Officiis," I, 42, 150.

GREEK AND ROMAN TRADE UNIO.NS 1 3

duced the laborer to slavery in lieu of the payment
of his debt was abrogated. He was given the
right to vote, although he could not himself be
elected to office, and was ranked in the fourth
class of citizens. Slight as such benefits may seem
to us, they were regarded as a great boon in their
day. A Greek fourth estate had thus been
created.

To Solon likewise is ascribed by Gaius the Ath-
enian law, considered as the charter of subsequent
trade unions, which permitted the organization of
societies, provided they were not hostile to the
State. The Roman law engraved upon the
Twelve Tables, which granted this same privilege,
is regarded by Gaius as only a translation of the
Solonic legislation. Sed haec lex videtur ex lege
Solonis translata esse.5

The gilds were in Rome commonly called col-
legia, in Greece eranoi and thiasoi. Other names
were likewise in use, but all these appellations, like
the English equivalent, " gild," were applied to
societies of almost every variety. While little
is known of the statutes of the Greek labor organ-
izations in particular, the constitutions and cus-
toms of the gilds in general are perfectly familiar
to us. We reproduce a description from a mono-
graph study by H. Tompkins which comprises the
salient characteristics of the Greek association.

5 Gaius, Fourth Book on the Laws of the Twelve Tables.
Digest XLVII, Tit., 22, " De Collegiis et Corporibus."

14 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

It is not, of course, to be presumed that each of
the details here given was to be found in every
instance.

Let us now consider what these companies were which are
called by the name of eranoi and thiasoi, and of which the in-
scriptions have revealed the number and importance. They
were formed of members who met together to sacrifice to
certain divinities and to celebrate their festivals in common ;
besides this they assisted those members who fell into neces-
sitous circumstances, and provided for their funerals. They
were at once religious associations and friendly societies.
Sometimes they daringly partook of a political and commercial
character. These private corporations, recognized by the State,
had their presiding and other officers, their priests, their funds
supplied by the contributions of members and the liberality
of benefactors. They assembled in their sanctuaries and made
decrees. They were found in great numbers in the important
cities, and especially in the maritime ones. At Rhodes, for
example, they were the Companions of the Sun, the Sons of
Bacchus, of Minerva Lindienne, of Jupiter Atagyrius, of
Jupiter Soter.6

Although the reality was not always as idyllic
as this picture represents it, and a statue of a god
was usually sufficient to constitute the sanctuary,
if we may so call their locals, yet the idea of a
perfect Greek gild is here sufficiently expressed.
Greater stress might, however, be placed upon
the convivial nature of the banquets, which in the
latter state of Greek and Roman society may al-
most have been the principal reason for the exis-
tence of such associations, and probably consisted
in wild debauches and orgies. Political intrigues,

6 H. Tompkins, " Friendly Societies of Antiquity."

GREEK AND ROMAN TRADE UNIO.NS 1 5

as we shall see, were frequently a prime motive.
How closely the trade gilds approximated to the
description here given it is difficult to say, yet
they were doubtlessly conformed, as far as pos-
sible, to the general gild ideal of their time.

It is to Rome, however, that we must turn for a
complete and systematic development of craft and
merchant gilds. The inscriptions dealing with
them are countless in number and amazing in
their variety. Almost every division of trade
seemed to possess its union. Tarruntenus Pa-
ternus, who was Prefect of the Imperial Guard in
179, enumerates thirty crafts which were espe-
cially privileged by the Government. Yet he men-
tions such trades only as were connected with mili-
tary works. It is commonly accepted that each
of the occupations enumerated, mensores, medici,
etc., was represented by a union.7 Constantine in
337 extended special privileges to thirty-five trade
corporations.

It is interesting to note that a grouping similar
to that of the Middle Ages was likewise observed
at Rome, as in Egypt and elsewhere. The potters
occupied the Esquiline, the silk-workers and per-
fumers were settled in Tuscan Street, the oil-deal-
ers and cheese-mongers had their booths in Vala-
brum, and the silversmiths and tanners were
located beyond the Tiber.

7 Tarruntenus Patcrnus, " Liber Primus Militarium" Dig.
L., 6, 7. Liebenam, " Zur Geschichte und Organisation des
Rbmischen Vereinswesen" p. 48.

1 6 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

As in the Middle Ages, so here also streets
or sections of the city were often named after the
tradesmen and merchants who displayed their
wares in them. Thus we have Perfumers' Street,
Harness-makers' Street, Corn-venders' Row, and
Sandal Street. In the latter Apollo Sandaliarius,
or Apollo of the Sandal-makers, had his shrine.

The ancient Roman gilds were, according to
general custom, placed under the special guard-
ianship of some divinity. While merchants nat-
urally turned to Mercury, the craftsmen most fre-
quently dedicated their gilds to Minerva, the god-
dess of the arts. Ovid in particular tells of the
many various classes of workingmen and women
who assisted in great throngs at the celebration of
her feast.8 The gilds, as we have seen, at times
made the temples of a god their meeting places.
Thus the merchant gild described by Livy, which
met in the temple of Mercury, took for its feast
the anniversary of the temple's dedication. The
same author writes of a gild of flute-players, who
went upon a strike because the censors forbade
them to hold their banquets in the temple of Jupi-
ter at Rome, as had been their custom from the
earliest times. In great indignation they left the
capitol in a body and betook themselves to another
city, where they were well received. But when
they had celebrated their feast, and were deep
under the influence of Bacchus, oblivicus of their

s Ovid, "Fast.," Ill, 308 ff., 819-832.

GREEK AND ROMAN TRADE UNIONS 1 7

cares and grievances, the citizens cast them to-
gether into a cart and so returned them to Rome.
There a reconciliation took place.9 Liebenam re-
fers to other classic authors who have different
versions of the same story, but it serves at all
events to illustrate existing conditions.

Roman labor gilds were not to mark any final
progress towards a more democratic conception
whether of industry or politics. The reasons for
their absolute and pitiable failure will be made
plain in the following chapters.

• Livy, IX, 30-

CHAPTER III

POLITICS AND VIOLENCE

NEITHER during the Republic nor dur-
ing the Empire was it ever the intention
of the Roman law to interfere with pure
labor unions. But unfortunately the economic
purpose of these institutions was too frequently
forgotten by the gildsmen themselves and their
political influence or physical mob-power was sold
to the most unworthy demagogues or venal
politicians, in return for immediate bribes, profits
or assurances. The proper use of the vote on the
part of the laborer to effect some social measures
is not here called into question. It is not merely
a right, but a duty. It was the false political
character which Roman trade unions often as-
sumed, the excesses to which they led and the dan-
gers which they were thought to threaten to the
State that brought about their dissolution from
time to time. Yet even then the intention of the
law was manifested by the fact that the steady an-
cient craft gilds, which had continued for cen-
turies, were not molested. Thus the historian
Suetonius writes of Caesar that M He destroyed all
the gilds except those which had been founded in

18

POLITICS A.ND VIOLENCE 1 9

ancient times."1 Again of Augustus he says:
11 He dissolved the gilds, except such as were of
long standing and legalized." 2

During the disturbed times and amid the hideous
immorality of the last days of the Republic, pic-
tured so graphically by Sallust, the gilds mingled
largely in the intrigues of political life. Their
services were courted, with bribes and promises
we may presume, by every politician at election
times. Ambitious men used them for their own
dark purposes, and even Cicero, with all his dis-
dain of the lower classes and the laborers, is said
to have availed himself of their assistance. We
can, therefore, understand the reason for such se-
vere measures as the Lex Gabinia, which forbade
all secret gatherings of the people, under penalty
of death. Such laws were directed not against the
gilds, but against political agitators and revolu-
tionists, who cared for them only as stepping-
stones to the acquisition of personal power. As
W. Warde Fowler writes :

It is curious to notice, that by the time these old gilds emerge
into light again as clubs that could be used for political pur-
poses, a new source of gain, and one that was really sordid,
had been placed within the reach of the Roman plebs urbana;
it was possible to make money by your vote in the election
of the magistrate. In that degenerate age, when the vast ac-
cumulation of wealth made it possible for a man to purchase
his way to power, in spite of repeated attempts to check the

1 Suetonius, " Caes." 42.

2 Suetonius, " Octav." 32.

20 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

evil by legislation, the old principle of honorable association
was used to help the small man to make a living by choosing
the unprincipled and often the incompetent to undertake the
government of the empire.3

Most interesting is the discovery at Pompeii
of the electioneering posters of the trade gilds.
The wealthy and luxurious city was throbbing with
political life on the eve of the great catastrophe,
and the labor unions were active in every section
to secure the election of their favorite candidates.
Signs like the following were prominently dis-
played near popular taverns and public places, so-
liciting the votes of the bewildered citizens:

The Fishermen Vote for Pompidius Rufus as Edile.

The United Goldsmiths Want Cuspius Pansa for

Edile.

The latter, as other similar notices indicated, was
the choice of gilds as varied in their interests as
the trade unions of the jewelers, the muleteers, the
carpenters and the worshipers of Isis.

Casellius Marcellus is put forward for the same
office in a notice which would appear rather amus-
ing in our day:

His neighbors favor Casellius Marcellus.

That the influence, however, of this politicinn ex-
tended beyond the circle of his immediate friends
is evident from advertisements showing that he

3 " Social Life at Rome in the Age of Cicero," pp. 46, 47.

POLITICS A.ND VIOLENCE 21

had the support of the wagoners, farmers and
other unions. Even Venus, the protecting god-
dess of Pompeii, is made to declare herself in favor
of his election :

Venus Wants Casellius for Edile !

Neither did the gilds fail to put forth the usual
electioneering promises. Thus in the year 73 the
Bakers' Union of Pompeii canvassed for C. Julius
Polybius, because " he brings good bread."
Probably he had promised them to secure a reduc-
tion in the price of grain, or other similar favors.
Particular oddities are the announcements of such
gilds as the " Night Drinkers " and the " Sleepy-
heads," indicating in the former case, we may pre-
sume, the propensity of the members to carouse
until the morning. Certain women, likewise, as
the placards show, were carrying on a vigorous
campaign for their political favorites. There is
nothing new beneath the sun, as all these discov-
eries show! A list of the various political pos-
ters was drawn up at Paris by P. Willems in 1887.4

It was not, as would appear, such canvassing
that the Roman statesmen dreaded, but rather the
secret gatherings in which the gilds were made a
cloak for ulterior and dangerous designs. They
were the anarchist and I. W. W. tactics that not
seldom led to the disruption of Roman trade

*"Les Elections Municipales a Pompei."

2 2 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

unions and prevented the attainment of economic
ends.

In the provinces especially, the Emperors exer-
cised the greatest watchfulness. A classical illus-
tration is that which occurs in the famous corre-
spondence between Pliny and Trajan. The for-
mer, writing from Nicomedia, desires to obtain
permission for the organization of a gild of crafts-
men to serve as a fire department for the city. He
recommends the project favorably, and argues
that, since only about 150 members are to be ad-
mitted, all of them craftsmen, he will be able to
see to it that no unlawful purposes are pursued.5
The Emperor, however, is not convinced. In his
reply he states that all previous societies formed
in that province, under whatever pretense, have
invariably degenerated into political clubs. " Let
us bear in mind," he says, " that this province,
and in particular this city, have been disturbed
by factions of just this kind." 6 Yet Trajan was
not opposed to gilds as such, and conferred spe-
cial privileges upon a bakers' union in Rome; nor
were the gilds as uncommon in the provinces as a
passage from Gaius might suggest.

This tolerance however does not imply any
respect shown for labor. Interest in the laborer
for his own sake, or for the love of God whose
image he bears, was unthinkable to the pagan

5 Plin. Ep. ad TraL, 33.
8 Trai. ad Plin., 34.

POLITICS A.ND VIOLENCE 23

mind. Paganism was never concerned about the
life and condition of the poor. Mr. Fowler
rightly states the situation when he says :

The statesman, if he troubled himself about them at all,
looked on them as a dangerous element of society, to be con-
sidered as human beings only at election times; at all other
times merely as animals that had to be fed in order to keep
them from becoming an active peril. The philosopher, even
the Stoic, whose creed was by far the most ennobling in that
age, seems to have left the dregs of the people quite out of
account. Though his philosophy nominally took the whole of
mankind into its cognizance, it believed the masses to be de-
graded and vicious and made no effort to redeem them.7

There was indeed little hope for labor under
paganism. But even that glimmer of a brighter
future was relentlessly extinguished when he
turned from sound labor principles to espouse the
cause of mere political demagogues.

A cartoonist in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer
significantly presents the labor issue. A marble
monument, firmly based, majestically planned and
executed with consummate skill, is pictured a9
partly pried loose from its pedestal. At its foot
stands a Bolshevist laborer, trying to shatter its
base beneath the vandal blows of his huge ham-
mer. The symbol wrought in stone is emble-
matic of a true, constructive labor unionism. It
represents the figure of a strong woman, nobly
conceived by the artist, dignified, intelligent, alert,
with a child standing at her knee. Her head is

7 " Social Life at Rome."

24 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

lifted upward in serious thought and earnest pur-
pose, while her eyes are earnestly questing the
heavens for guidance. Her right hand upholds a
flaming torch, not the symbol of anarchy and de-
struction but of popular enlightenment; her left
holds, in strong and graceful poise, the massive
oval of her protecting shield on which are re-
corded the immediate demands, made by her for
the safeguarding of the worker's home. Such is
the true gild concept.

11 Erected through years of constructive effort
on the part of the workers and dedicated to fur-
ther their just interests," is the legend inscribed
on the pedestal. " After years of patient toil a
constructive monument of the achievements of or-
ganized labor was built, and each year finds more
and valuable additions made to our masterpiece,"
says the Carpenter in reproducing this drawing.
It is true that the ideal of labor unionism that it
symbolizes is not fully realized, particularly on its
religious side, yet in part at least it has been
achieved. And is all this to be destroyed, ideal
and achievement alike? " And for what?"
Such was the question asked by the organ of the
United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of
America.

Standing by with idle hands, as the artist pic-
tures the background of his scene, is a crowd of
worker:, men and women, whom starvation and
despair may at any moment drive to deeds of vio-

POLITICS AND VIOLENCE 25

lence. But this is neither more nor less than
part of the cunningly devised plan of unscrupulous
labor leaders who themselves incur no losses. In
the distance loom the black scaffoldings of incom-
pleted structures against the dark skies. " Throw
away your constitution and strike with your
class! " is the cry sent up to the labor unionist by
a blatant press, often supported out of the money
of the anarchist rich, while the same demand comes
in a rising treble from the red revolutionists.

It is not through anarchy that the laborer can
achieve his end, but by a sane progressive sys-
tem of trade unionism that will not disregard the
dictates of religion; by a rightful use of the ballot
which shall assure him the legislative measures
that can safely and surely help to bring about a
true democracy in industry as in politics; and
finally by a gradual education in cooperative en-
terprises that will enable him to take an intelli-
gent part in the ownership and management of
the means of production on which his livelihood
depends. So alone may we hope for peace, con-
tentment and popular prosperity.

CHAPTER IV

STATE PATERNALISM AND SLAVERY

THE special privileges which from time to
time were conferred upon the gilds by
successive Emperors became in turn the
occasion of abuses. Men often joined gilds with
which they had no trade relations, purely for the
sake of the proffered advantages, and even be-
came members of many gilds at the same time.
Hence stringent regulations followed, which led
the way to State interference to such a degree that
life in the gilds became almost intolerable. The
lesson of the Egyptian labor corporations was now
to be enforced by the misery of the Roman trade
unionists.

Once assumed, the paternalistic attitude of the
State was never to lessen, but constantly to in-
crease. The complete degeneration of the la-
borer was to be the inevitable result. In return
for privileges and immunities, the gilds were put
into the service of the State. They had prac-
tically become a State institution in not a few in-
stances and were given special legal defenders at
court and special judges, during the reign of Alex-

26

STATE PATERNALISM AND SLAVERY 27

ander Severus. Membership in many of them
finally became compulsory by law.

Freedom of choice no longer existed in these
11 socialized " gilds, for men were born into them.
They had become hereditary and there was no
more hope of escape from them than from a Ro-
man prison cell. Duties of every kind were im-
posed upon the members. They were henceforth
impressed more than ever into the service of the
State. Most unpopular, however, were the sor-
dida munera, or menial duties they were obliged
to render to the public, duties which had no rela-
tion whatever with the trades of the respective
unions. They were to do chores of every kind
for the State. The most oppressive imposition
laid upon a great number of the gilds was the ob-
ligation of providing free grain or bread for the
plebeian population of the capital. Upon the
gilds which were free from such service the State
imposed high taxes in lieu of this obligation.

The principal unions at the service of the pub-
lic were the gilds of the shipmasters, the bakers,
the swine-dealers and the lime-burners. The
members drew their salaries from the State, were
not subjected to torture when accused, and were
later even freed from military service, as well as
from other public and municipal duties. Strict
property and inheritance regulations were im-
posed in particular upon the shipmen, who were
most necessary for victualling the Roman capital.

2 8 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

When a shipman's family became extinct another
was designated in its place by the prefect.1

Duties which in earlier days had been rendered
by free compact had now become entirely compul-
sory. The statute books are full of penalties for
men who dared to shirk their portion of the work.
Fugitives from the unions, who sought to emi-
grate into the provinces in order to escape from
this oppressive paternalism of the State, were re-
turned like fugitive slaves by the provincial gov-
ernors.

So strict was the hereditary obligation of re-
maining in the gild to which a citizen belonged that
even a cleric, when found to have escaped from his
corporation, was under a degenerate system of leg-
islation obliged to return to it, if he had obtained
a rank no higher than that of deacon. The spe-
cial law to this effect was passed in the
year 445. 2 This makes plain how the Church
herself was shackled by the State, and how diffi-
cult it was for her in such a decadent civilization
to fight her brave struggle for humanity and broth-
erhood, and to save what might still be saved.

Most deplorable everywhere was the condition
of the bakers' unions. The hardships which
membership in them implied made it most desir-
able to escape their thraldom. To render them
less abhorrent special privileges were frequently

1 Cod. Theod. XIII, ///., 5.

2 Nov. Val. 15; also Cod. Theod. XIV, 3, 11.

STATE PATERNALISM AND SLAVERY 29

granted, such as the exemption from the sordida
munera. The fact, however, that men were ju-
dicially condemned to such a gild tells its own sad
story. Moreover, according to a regulation of
Constantius, made in the year 355, any one who
married a baker's daughter was compelled to
enter the gild; and a law of Honorius, in 403, for-
bade any baker to marry a woman not belonging to
the corporation. The penalty in the latter case
was no less than confiscation of property and de-
portation.

The conditions under this form of State pa-
ternalism may give some indication of what, in
another way, must be expected if an entire nation
is enslaved under a servile State. This must of
necessity come into existence if all the means of
production are transferred from the capitalist to
the State, in place of that happy readjustment
which shall make of the majority of the work-
ers, personally, part-owners at least in industry.
The government bureaucracy, or in other words
the successful politicians and clever demagogues,
would practically possess complete control over
the persons of the citizens. Those who would find
least favor with them would be confronted with
the most intolerable conditions until they too sub-
mitted to the new servitude.

What has been said of the development of the
system of labor gilds in pagan times, even in its
palmiest days, must not be permitted to leave the

30 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

impression, as we have already stated, that labor
was ever honored save under the Christian dis-
pensation, where the influence of the Church
could be duly exercised; or under the ancient
Covenant, in as far as the spirit of Jehovah was
with the chosen people. A greater simplicity, it is
true, prevailed in the earlier days of Greek and
Roman paganism, before slavery had appeared in
the vast proportions it was to assume in later cen-
turies. This was particularly true of farm labor.
Yet we recall the struggles which from almost
the earliest times took place between the patri-
cians and plebeians. 'The latter were not even
admitted to the ancient Roman cults, until grad-
ually, by dint of their numbers, they created trib-
unes and, in 367 B. C, gained admission even to
the consulship. But they were still excluded from
the priestly colleges of pontifices and augures.
Certain such functions remained to the last an
exclusive privilege of the patrician class. This
incidentally illustrates the vast difference between
paganism and Christianity. So too the spirit of
conquest excluded all democracy, since not the
goods only, but the persons themselves of the con-
quered were left at the merciless disposition of
the victors. The knights, or equites, were later
to become the real capitalists, from about the mid-
dle of the second century before our era. They
abused their political power at home to promote

STATE PATERNALISM AND SLAVERY 3 1

their own interests, while in Asia we are to find
them carrying on the most usurious transactions.

So, again, the speculators who enriched them-
selves in the provinces bought up, in turn, the
rich Italian lands and cultivated them with unfree
labor. Thus the excessive accumulation of farm
capital in the hands of a few became the curse of
Rome. This was known as the latifundia sys-
tem. In spite of the ancient legislation which per-
mitted no one to possess more than 500 jugera of
the Roman public land, modeled after the ancient
Greek laws, the small farmers were gradually
bought out. In opposition to this ruinous form
of land-capitalism a land-reform movement was
begun by Tiberius Gracchus, and carried on after
him by his brother Gaius Sempronius Gracchus.
Both in turn met their death in the agitation they
aroused.

As the last scene of this sad tragedy, we find
the descendants of the farmers who had once cul-
tivated the fertile neighboring lands, now reap-
pearing as the proletariat of Rome, who must be
kept from revolution by doles of bread and gladi-
atorial shows. The debased rabble thus created
were indulged to their heart's content with pag-
eants of brutal bloodshed and the groans of dying
men. The munificence of wealthy citizens, and
particularly of the emperors themselves, provided
them with the splendor of public buildings and an

32 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

excess of civic magnificence.3 Underneath all this
display was rottenness and untold misery, particu-
larly on the part of the vast slave population, who
were left without any shadow of human rights.

The system of slavery was a fearful clog upon
the labor movement. Slaves were the living ma-
chinery of Greek and Roman capitalism. Thou-
sands of human beings were often the possession
of one man of fortune. They were the great
body of the producers, whose labor, if the master
so desired, was limited by their physical endurance
only. Their strength and talent belonged to him
entirely. They could, above all, be replaced at
little cost. To wear out a slave in a few years
was a policy often practised as more profitable
than properly to provide and care for him. With
this system the poverty-stricken freemen and freed-
men were compelled to compete.

The slave population of Rome in the early
days of the Empire is estimated at about 1,000,-
ooo, as against only 10,000 of the upper classes,
who formed the Roman plutocracy and alone en-
joyed the fruit of the enslavement of the entire
world. There was no middle class, since the free
laborers were all sunk into abject poverty.
There was comparatively little work for them in
the mansions of the rich that were filled with an
army of slaves, but there were calls for their serv-

* GuglielflBO Ferrero, " Ancient Rome and Modern America, "
pp. 24-29.

STATE PATERNALISM AND SLAVERY 33

ices from those who themselves were not able to
purchase slave labor or were not provided with
requisite craftsmen.

Though the free worker did not, therefore, dis-
appear entirely, as some imagine, yet his life was
one of untold misery and degradation. No won-
der then if he finally relinquished the struggle and
degenerated into the class of " clients " who hung
about the doors of the rich to maintain the pomp
of the mansion, performed any menial labor and
were treated little better than dogs, feeding on
the bones that were thrown to them. No wonder
if he fell still lower and descended to the level of
the great mass of the people, the bulk of the pro-
letariat, who lived in complete idleness and were
supported by the State with doles of free grain,
and later of bread and of oil. At times even
vast sums of money were divided among them.
Yet all this was not for any love of the people,
such as moved the heart of Christ to multiply the
loaves and fishes for the multitudes that had fol-
lowed after Him, but to avert the persistent dan-
ger of mob uprisings. They must be fed or they
might grow restless and uneasy, and end by tear-
ing to pieces the handful of idle rich who were rot-
ting amid their fabulous wealth and indescribable
luxuries, the spoil of a world laid prostrate at
their feet. Hence the " bread and circuses," for
the equally idle masses, the public baths where
they might loll about, the sensuous theaters, the

34 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

combats of gladiators and the human holocausts
to satisfy their lust for blood. The demoraliza-
tion which such a life produced can readily be un-
derstood and its fearful reaction upon all classes
of labor.

But there are still other facts to be taken into
account if we would fully comprehend the condi-
tion of the free citizen who sought in some man-
ner to retain his own self-respect by honest and
useful labor. We must remember that the large
capitalistic enterprises of the day were carried on
by slaves. These, at the height of Rome's glory,
could be purchased by the tens of thousands.
They could be bought at the lowest prices, could
be supported on the coarsest food, and were, ac-
cording to Cato's rule, only to sleep and to work,
while the lash was mercilessly plied to keep them
from failing beneath the strain.

Supplied with thousands of these wretched be-
ings, who poured in wide streams through the por-
tals of Rome with each new conquest, the wealth-
iest of the Senators did not disdain to carry on
great industrial enterprises of their own. u Im-
poverished as industry in Rome ever had been
and ever remained," writes Joseph Schings, " the
poorer citizens nevertheless gradually succeeded
in establishing various trades. As soon however
as these promised to become remunerative the
rich with their capital and slaves entered into
competition, and mercilessly depressed the labor

STATE PATERNALISM AND SLAVERY 35

of the poor citizen workers." 4 The position of
the latter was made the more unbearable by the
fact that the slaves themselves were a part of
the capital with which free labor was forced into
competition. The Roman law, moreover, main-
tained against the laborer all the injustice of mod-
ern individualism and confirmed in every way the
absolute power of wealth. Worst of all there
remained for the laborer the possibility of sinking
into slavery himself, a fate too terrible for
thought.

Hence, too, the utter disdain with which the
free laborer was regarded by the haughty Roman.
11 All gains made by hired laborers," was Cicero's
dispassionate judgment, " are dishonorable and
base, for what we buy of them is their labor and
not their artistic skill. With them the very gain
itself does but increase the slavishness of their
work." 5 Such was the judgment of Rome and
Greece. Such was the judgment of all the pagan
world. It is not the purpose to enter into this
subject in the present volume. A single quotation
from the Father of History, Herodotus, will suf-
fice:

I cannot say if the Greeks have copied the Egyptians in their
disdain for work, because I find the same contempt spread
among the Scythians, Persians and Lydians; in a word, be-
cause among the barbarians (i. e., all who were not Greeks)

4" Socialpolitische Abhandlungen" Nos. IV and V, p. 44.
*"Di Officiis," I, 42, 150.

$6 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

those who learn trades and even their children are regarded
as the lowest of citizens. . . . All Greeks, especially the Lace-
demonians, are educated in these principles.6

We are told that in Athens a law was actually
proposed to reduce all artisans to slavery,7

6 Herodotus, II, 167.

7 Smithsonian Report for 1912, p. 599.

CHAPTER V

FROM SERVITUDE TO FREEDOM

LABOR was a badge of disgrace in the eyes
of paganism. The laborers themselves
were considered as nothing more than
proletarii, " child-bearers," a term which should
be applied only as a mark of honor under the
Christian dispensation, but upon which the pagan
mind impressed the meaning still implied in it to-
day. The masses were meant only to toil and
slave that a few might live in ease and opulence.
Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Xenophon and all the
greatest moralists and thinkers of pagan antiquity
could not rise above this standard.

Even the merchant was not ordinarily held in
good repute. His position indeed was far more
favorable. He might himself probably be a slave-
holder possessed of no inconsiderable wealth.
Yet it is none the less true that he too was des-
pised by the Roman patrician unless he had
amassed a fortune. Rome, like America, knew
how to worship success. It has been shown by
Nitzsch that until the war with Hannibal Roman
senators themselves carried on trade; but always
on an extensive scale. The reason for despising
the small merchant, according to Cicero's view,

37

38 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

was that he could not ply his profession without
practising deceit.1 The rich bankers' gilds, on the
other hand, whether in Rome or in the provinces,
were always held in great esteem because of the
wealth they possessed and were thus a powerful
and influential factor in Roman life.

Labor however could boast of no such position.
Its organizations evidently accomplished little to-
wards the economic amelioration of the lot of
the free workers. It is true that the very exist-
ence of the labor gilds through all the centuries
of Roman history from time immemorial is a suf-
ficient indication that the solidarity thus produced
could not have been void of all results. Indi-
vidualism, however, was supreme, as it again came
to be under the Liberalism that followed the Re-
formation. The common good was but little re-
garded and the individual was exposed to the
heathen law of the survival, not indeed of the fit-
test, but of the strongest. The protection of the
weak was no part of pagan ethics. Usury and
extortion could be freely practised upon him.

The conception of democracy was not even to
enter into the workman's dream, much less into
his life. Industrial democracy was a star that
never swung into his ken.

But if paganism prevented the full efficiency of
the gild system, yet the convivial element was
never wanting in these societies. It was permitted

1 Cicero, " De Officiis" I, 42, 150, 151.

FROM SERVITUDE TO FREEDOM 39

their members to drown their miseries in acid
wine. Even slave gilds had their banquets, carou-
sels and orgies. Fellowship moreover was every-
where fostered by the gilds. Members of the
sodalicia, or fraternities, could not even appear
against each other in court.2 Similar customs
must have also prevailed in the labor unions.

Most important was the practice which dedi-
cated every gild to some divinity whose feast was
celebrated with great pomp and merry-making.
Even when this religious instinct had been lost
to a great extent, the statues of the god or god-
dess must still have held their station in the meet-
ing places. Pagan religion unfortunately could
do little to restrain the passions of men. With
its strong appeal to man's inferior nature it often
served rather to degrade still further rather than
to uplift its votaries. Yet such faint glimmerings
of truth as it retained may still at times have
thrown a ray of hope into the dreary life of the
laboring classes.

At the period with which we close our review
the elements of dissolution were at work within
the State. It is an absurd contention, put forth
by the historian Edward Gibbon, and other atheist
authors, that the decline of the Roman Empire
was due to the introduction of Christianity. Only
the preconceived purpose, that they must write to
disprove the divinity of the Christian religion,

2 Mommsen, " De Collegiis et Sodaliciis Romanorum"

40 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

could lead to such extravagant misrepresentations.
As Hilaire Belloc rightly says :

The material decline of the Empire is not correlative with
nor parallel to the growth of the Catholic Church, it is the
counterpart of that growth, and, as one of the greatest of
modern scholars has well said, the Faith is that which Rome
accepted in her maturity; nor is the Faith the heir of her de-
cline, but rather the conservator of all that could be conserved.

Already under the pagan emperors a class of
country slaves, coloni, existed who were ascribed
to the soil, adscriptitii. They could be sold only
with the ground to which they belonged. Such
was the effect of purely economic conditions that
made such methods less expensive as the supply of
slaves decreased and their price rose. Under the
influence of Christianity this at once suggested
the possibility of a more humane legislation by
which the slaves upon all the landed estates at last
found a home and were assured inviolable fam-
ily ties. In the cities likewise they came to be re-
garded, even by the civil law, as human beings.3
Thus a gradual emancipation was slowly being
effected whose main humanitarian features must
be ascribed to the Church alone.

As Paul Allard shows,4 the great improvement
in the condition of the slaves which we find had
taken place before the end of the fifth century can

3 H. Pesch, S. J., " Liberalismus, Socialismus und christliche
Gesellschaftsordnung," p. 646.

4 " Les Esclaves Chretiens."

FROM SERVITUDE TO FREEDOM 4 1

not be accounted for by any theory of evolution.
Similarly the beautiful teachings of some of the
pagan philosophers were confined to mere words
and never reduced to practice, except to a very
limited degree, It was mainly Christianity which
without violence gradually transformed the con-
dition of the slave. Slavery itself wras so com-
pletely embodied in the social institutions of the
time that any attempt to sweep it away at once
would only have ended in a bloody and futile
revolution. The task of Christianity therefore
was to begin by ameliorating the hard lot of the
slave. In the fourth century great and saintly men
like St. Gregory Nazianzen, St. John Chrisostom,
St. Gregory of Nyssa, Lactantius and others arose
to protest against the unnatural inequality thus in-
troduced into human conditions. Under pagan-
ism no marriage between slaves was acknowledged
by the Roman laws. These laws on the other
hand were constantly improved by the successive
Christian Emperors so as to ameliorate the con-
dition of slavery. The apostate Julian was the
single exception in this regard during the fourth
century. Before the Church slave and master
were equal in the sight of God. Slaves not only
could receive sacred orders but were actually ele-
vated to the episcopacy itself. A slave was lifted
up to the very Chair of Peter, holding the highest
office that the Church could bestow.5 Thus by

5 Pope Callixtus, A. D. 221.

42 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

the influence of the Church was labor restored to
its true dignity in the minds of men. Two hun-
dred years after the reign of the first Christian
Emperor the Church had practically eliminated the
evil of slavery, which the new wave of barbarian
paganism was again to bring back until the Church
could overcome it a second time.

The gradual, prudent and effective action of
the Church in favor of the most oppressed class
of labor and, so likewise, for the betterment of the
conditions of the free worker and the closer ap-
proach of that democratic ideal which was to seek
its expression in a true Christian democracy, is
thus outlined by Abbot Snow, O. S. B. :

At her suggestion the Christian emperors mitigated the
harsh dominion, took away from the masters the power of
life and death, gave the slave redress at law and legalized
his marriage. The Church dignified the process of manumis-
sion by obtaining that it should take place in the Church be-
fore the altar. This gave facility and sacredness to the act,
and the Church assumed the protection of the men thus freed,
to shield them against further molestation. Council after Coun-
cil in different countries made provision in favor of slaves.
The churches were declared to be places of refuge for ill-
treated slaves, securing thereby a fair investigation of their
grievances. •

The Church constantly urged the liberation of
slaves as a pious work. St. Melania alone, as
the writer states, gave freedom to 8,000. Slaves
belonging to any of the churches were never to

6 " The Church and Labor," p. 9.

FROM SERVITUDE TO FREEDOM 43

pass to other masters but to freedom only.
Meantime they were carefully protected by strict
ecclesiastical canons, and there was little anxiety
on their part to exchange the state of safety and
comfort, thus assured to them and their families,
for the uncertain struggle that would face them
with their freedom.7

That the economic condition of the free worker
was still so precarious is to be attributed solely
to the fact that the conquest of the Gospel over
the souls of men was far from complete. The
plutocracy of Rome had been sunk too deep in
luxury and hardened into unfeeling selfishness by
centuries of merciless cruelty. It could not be en-
tirely transformed. Yet the Church of Christ
never failed to produce her saints and apostles
who were a rebuke to their age, to its riches, its
lust and its oppression. In his review of antiquity
Huber thus briefly describes the effect of Chris-
tianity:

A new element of life, which at once seized upon the hearts
of the people with wonderful strength, was given by the new
religion to humanity, sick well-nigh unto death. A more strik-
ing contrast cannot be imagined than that between the dom-
inant spirit of pagan times and the principles and ideas of the
new religion, which therefore must be looked upon as a
stranger come to us from a higher world. At the period of
the enormous moral decline manifested in the fall of antiquity,
for which science knew no cure or remedy, the needed help
was afforded mankind by a contact of the human with the
Divine.

7 Ibid., pp. 9 and 10.

44 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

The new religion declared that all alike, the mighty lord
and the despised slave, were children of God, equal in the
realm of grace. Mankind was to be only a single family
under one Heavenly Father. On this unity was to be founded
the Kingdom of God, the moral dominion of a world-wide
community of Love. With what joy the oppressed and suf-
fering must have hailed this message, as their new Gospel!
Mankind was to be morally transformed. The world's servi-
tude in the thraldom of pleasure was to be exchanged for the
dignity of a moral freedom of the will; self-seeking and op-
pressive domination, for love and mutual helpfulness; relent-
less and heartless exploitation, for mercy and kindness; slavery
and degradation of human beings, for respect towards all man-
kind; unbridled sexual lust, for chastity and abnegation; the
disgrace of labor for its honor.8

This transformation was not indeed to be ac-
complished in a moment, nor yet in a century,
throughout the entire world. It was never to be
perfectly accomplished anywhere except where
the teachings of Christ were accepted and prac-
tised in their perfection. The human will was
always to retain its freedom to choose evil in
preference to good. Yet a new era in history
had begun, a new human society had been created
in which selfishness was to give place to love, in
which the family and the individual were hence-
forth to be held sacred and in which the goods
of creation should be shared by all. " No power
upon earth was able to stay the triumphant march
of these ideas through the history of the world."
It is only in proportion as the world returns to

8 Ibid., Huber, " Der Socialismus. Riickblick auf das Alter-
thum," 70, 71.

FROM SERVITUDE TO FREEDOM 45

the truth and charity of Christ that it can ever
hope to solve the economic and social problems,
which under different aspect and in different de-
grees of intensity, are ever the same. Only a
change of heart and a change of view, such as true
Christianity alone can effect, will ever save the
world economically and socially, no less than in a
spiritual sense.

From the very beginning the Church worked
among the laborers and the slaves of the great
pagan empire. It was the slave population that
crowded most numerously into her Fold, the poor
and the disinherited, though the rich who spent
themselves for Christ, the patrician and the cen-
turion, were not wanting. As she grew in
strength, she still sought, as her divinely entrusted
mission, to impress upon poor and rich alike the
maxims of the Gospel with their great twofold
precepts of the love of God and the love of our
neighbor. Her task was to lessen by every means
in her power the evils which she could not prevent,
and to save for a new civilization whatever was
good and noble in the old. Her mission, then as
now, was to strike at error wherever she saw it
affecting the faith or the morality of mankind,
wherever she beheld endangered the supreme
ideal of the brotherhood of man and the Father-
hood of God.

The seed of democracy had been sown by her
upon the earth, the new seed of a system of gov-

46 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

ernment, whatever its outward form, that should
recognize the dignity of every human being as
made to the image and likeness of God; the seed,
too, of a system of economics, whatever its spe-
cial aspects, that should demand an ownership not
limited to a few nor absorbed by a communistic
State, but personal to the workers themselves.
The attainment of it should depend upon justice,
thrift and ability, aided and guarded by Christian
laws.

Thus, by the Catholic Church, at its very be-
ginning, were laid the foundations of Democratic
Industry on which the world must build again to-
day if its structure is ever to be sound and lasting.

CHAPTER VI

RECASTING THE WORLD

IMPERIAL Rome, like every worldly power
before her, like Babylonia and Assyria, like
Egypt, Persia and Tyre, rose to the height
of her culture and glory only to pass through a
slow decline to a hopeless fall. Black and men-
acing, the waves of the barbarian deluge had long
threatened to engulf her, until at last they broke
their bounds. Nothing remained of all her for-
mer pride and power save a waste of desolation
and the solitary ruins where the night owl nested
and the lean wolf preyed. Stately mansions and
ancient palaces were of no interest to the savage
races that had applied the torch to their walls and
dragged away their last surviving victims into slav-
ery. Forest and field were the home of the new
conquerors who cared not for the marble baths
of Rome and her luxurious theaters.

Of all the glorious institutions of the past the
Church alone remained, firm and unshaken. She,
whose words had been but feebly heeded by a sen-
suous and decadent Roman civilization, and who
alone might still have saved the ancient world
from its impending ruin, now began again through
slow centuries to educate and Christianize the

47

48 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

savage conquerors of the earth. Everywhere we
behold her sending forth her fearless missionaries
and erecting the monasteries of her monks. They
stood in the lone wilderness as the outposts of a
renascent Christian civilization. Except for her,
Europe might still to-day be plunged in a savagery
such as existed on the continent of America before
the Cross was planted there by the hand of Colum-
bus. With the fall of Constantinople, the last
isle of ancient learning would then have been
swallowed up in the barbarian deluge. All the
culture of Rome and Greece would not merely
have been buried amid the ruins of the ancient
world, unknelled, uncoffined and unsung, but even
unchronicled and unremembered forevermore.
History itself would have ceased to be with the
passing of the world's literature, its art and archi-
tecture. As Professor Thomas Nixon Carver of
Harvard University rightly says of the great work,
economic, social and religious, of her pioneer
monks :

One must not be unmindful of the splendid service per-
formed by the monks of an earlier day in preserving the
learning of the ancient world and handing it down to the
newer civilization of modern Europe and America. Their
part in the civilizing of the rude barbarians of northern Eu-
rope entitles them to the respect of all mankind. The labor-
ing monks especially call for our admiration. The clearing
of the land, the draining of the swamps, the preservation of
the arts of horticulture and agriculture, and the further de-
velopment of both, was constructive work of the very highest
order. Moreover, it was performed at a time when construe-

RECASTING THE WORLD 49

tive industry was all but submerged by the general brutality
and violence which prevailed over the whole of Europe.1

Thus in that new civilization labor was human-
ized, sanctified, dignified. The concept of Chris-
tian democracy sprang up anew with the Catholic
Church, a democracy of labor and industry so far
as the world was then prepared to receive it.
Greatest of all civilizers in this early age were
the Benedictine missionaries. Almost every prov-
ince invaded by the barbarians was in turn in-
vaded and conquered for Christianity and civiliza-
tion by these heroic munks, in whom we behold
personified the highest ideal of both labor and
learning. More eloquent than many volumes is
the mere mention of the great Benedictine civi-
lizers of the modern world:

Augustine in England; Boniface in Germany; Anschar and
Aubert in Scandinavia; Suitbert and Willibrod in Holland;
Amandus, Remaclus and Ursmar in Belgium; Ruppert, Em-
meran and Virgilius in Bavaria and Austria; Adalbert and
Anastasius in Bohemia; Pilgrim and Wolfgang in Hungary;
Gall and Pirmin in Switzerland; Leander and Isidor in Spain;
Bruno in Prussia and Benno among the Slavs, and finally Law-
rence Kalffon and Rudolph in Iceland are all names of great
Benedictines who must be regarded as the first to lead the
nations from the darkness of paganism to the light of the
Christian faith and to the blessings of a civilized life. It is
estimated that in France alone about three-eighths of the towns
owe their existence to the work of the Benedictine monks.2

1 " The Foundations of National Prosperity," by Richard T.
Ely, Ralph H. Hess, Charles K. Leith and Thomas Nixon Car-
ver, p. 306.

2 Dom Maternus Spitz, O. S. B., " The Order of St. Benedict
and the Foreign Missions," Catholic Missions, Dec, 1917.

50 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

If therefore we behold the earth emerging again
from its deluge of barbarism it is due to these
men of God and their fellows in the Faith. At
the first view of the resurgent world we see man-
kind groping about once more in the most primi-
tive stages of material development. Slavery had
naturally again been introduced by the barbarian.
For a second time the Church became a mighty
factor in bringing about its gradual disappear-
ance. Her first act indeed was to stay the bloody
hand of savage violence. As Agnes Wergeland,
former Professor of History at the University of
Wyoming, writes, her ministers preferred " see-
ing the prisoner of war, the unredeemed hostage,
the exiled culprit, enslaved rather than killed." 3
While there was life, there was hope for the un-
fortunates and the possibility of still aiding them.
She next successfully bettered their lot and loos-
ened their bonds. And finally, in large measure
through the very force of her teaching, slavery
gave way to serfdom.

We must remember that in the barbaric as in
the classical pagan society the slave could not be
married, he had no personal rights which the
master was bound to respect and no place in so-
ciety. Both in Germanic and Roman law he was
" on the level of cattle and other mobilia." Need
we wonder, then, to behold him brutalized and

3 Agnes Mathilde Wergeland, " Slavery in Germanic Society
during the Middle Ages," p. 16.

RECASTING THE WORLD 5 I

degraded under the new paganism as under the
old? Marked by the collar about his neck, his
closely cropped and bristly hair, his often de-
formed and mutilated body, and his branded and
scarred skin, the slave was indeed an object of
pity under paganism.4 The mightiest influence
to come to his relief was that of the Church,
though she could not at once transform the spirit
of the barbarian conquerors. As the author last
quoted says :

Another stronghold of hope for the slave was the power of
the Roman Catholic Church. What the king represented within
the political sphere the bishop represented within the moral.
There is no doubt that, but for the constant good offices of the
Church through her ministers, the improvement in the condi-
tion of the slave would have been of far slower growth. The
bishop, of course, could, as little as the king, interfere with
actual ownership or abolish slavery; but he tried to exercise
a religious as well as a practical pressure upon the slave-
holder. On the one side, mild treatment of the slave was al-
ways spoken of as one of the important evidences of a Chris-
tian spirit; on the other side, the churches and monasteries
were recognized places of refuge for the fugitive or abused
slave, the priest or abbot before giving the slave over exact-
ing an oath or promise from the slave-owner not to do their
refugee further harm.5

Many quotations from different Councils can
be given to this effect. Yet various churches and
ecclesiastics, as we know, were large slaveholders.
This is not surprising. " In this respect, as in

4 Ibid., p. 23.

5 Ibid., pp. 60, 61.

52 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

many others, the Church [by which word the writer
refers to the individual churches, with their ma-
terial needs] had to conform to the economic con-
ditions of the time." Yet it everywhere remained
true that: u In holding slaves as cultivators of her
enormous estates the Church made servitude as
comfortable an existence as it could ever be-
come. " 6 To this there was no exception. If
monastery lands were used for selfish purposes, it
could be done only in opposition to the teachings
and the spirit of the Church herself. " Their
ideal was not wealth, but welfare," says Father
Bernard Vaughan, referring to these monks.
14 They themselves being workers on the land
knew how to sympathize with fellow toilers."
This remained true to the end.

Thus always the doctrines and principles of the
Catholic Church were the very foundation of the
new spirit of liberty that was to humanize the
slave, safeguard his human rights and finally con-
tribute so mightily to the destruction of slavery
itself, and to bringing the world daily nearer to
the true ideals of Christian democratic industry.
It was from her monasteries that learning and art
went forth over all the earth together with agri-
culture and the crafts. They were everywhere
the great centers of civilization not only from a
religious, literary and social point of view, but
also in a purely economic and industrial way.

6 Ibid., p. 63.

RECASTING THE WORLD 53

11 As the monasteries," says the great German his-
torian, Johannes Janssen, " had been for centuries
the schools of agriculture and horticulture, so too
they were the actual nurseries of all industrial and
artistic progress. It was in these institutions that
handicrafts first developed into art." 7 To the
same effect Huber-Liebenau writes: " Immedi-
ately upon the spread of Christianity churches and
monasteries arose, and the latter were, until the
fourteenth century, the nurseries of German
industry and German art." 8 The same was true
of every other land. Thus, to quote but a single
instance where a volume might be filled with elo-
quent testimonies, the historian of Belgium writes :

If the conversion to the Catholic Faith was mainly the task
of the missionaries, the introduction of civilization was mainly
the task of monasteries. There the Benedictine monks played a
very large part, both as civilizers and colonizers. Their monas-
teries were, from the sixth century on, centers of economic and
intellectual life. Whilst some of their monks attacked the thick
forests of southern and central Belgium with axes, others en-
gaged in literary labors in the monasteries* libraries, transcrib-
ing the ancient Greek and Latin manuscripts, composing hymns
and lives of saints, and opening schools for the education of the
people. They planted in the very hearts of the people the roots
of that strong religious spirit, which has steadily developed and
which has become one of the characteristics of the national
spirit of Belgium.

Each monastery became a kind of model farm, where the
population of the neighborhood could learn the best agricultural
methods. In the monastery, too, they could find physicians who

7 " History of the German People," II, p. 2.

8 "Das Deutsche Zunftwesen im Mittelalter" p. 16.

54 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

knew how to take care of the sick. The monastery, being pro-
tected by the respect that was inspired by the saint to whom it
was dedicated, was also a place of safety in time of danger.
Consequently, dwellings became more and more numerous
around the monasteries, and villages developed under their in-
fluence and protection.9

More than this, while in many places the newly
formed towns were forced to struggle for their
liberties, or obtained them only after long de-
lays, those founded by bishops and abbots, says
Carlton J. H. Hayes, " received charters at the
very outset." 10 So everywhere liberty went
forth from the sanctuary close and the monastery
walls in the meet company of learning and of la-
bor.

11 The movement for democracy in England was
started by a monk," was the statement made in
the Bible Room of Plymouth Church, Brooklyn,
by so " advanced " a Protestant minister as the
Rev. Dr. Newell Dwight Hillis. " They (the
monks) carried civilization and Christianity in
their arms, right during the Middle Ages and
down to our times. " 1X The light of historic truth
is gradually breaking through the darkness that
had so long overclouded the post-Reformation
mind. With the passing of old prejudices the
facts of the past are emerging in the dawn of a
clearer day. When the walls of Rheims Cathe-

9 Leon Van Der Essen, "History of Belgium."

10 " A Political and Social History of Europe," I, p. 37.
J1 Brooklyn Daily Eagle, April 5, 1919.

RECASTING THE WORLD 55

dral trembled to the shock of the exploding shells
the world with one voice acknowledged that it
could not equal or reproduce the glory of those
monuments of art the Middle Ages had be-
queathed to us.

CHAPTER VII

SERFDOM AND THE CHURCH

THE slavery described in the preceding
chapter was already shading off imper-
ceptibly into a state of serfdom. Eco-
nomic and religious reasons often combined to
bring about the passing away of slavery. Where
economic conditions had already prepared the way,
as in the Roman days when the masters of landed
estates often found it more conducive to their in-
terests permanently to settle certain slaves upon
the land and transform them into serfs, the
Church utilized her opportunities in still further
promoting the human rights of the unfree laborer.
So too, after the days of the barbarian conquest,
it was through the influence of the Church that
the personality of the slave came to be more re-
ligiously respected and his family rights were
rendered inviolate. A legal status was gradually
assured him. He was granted property and even
land.

The serf of the Middle Ages could no longer
be sold, although the soil to which he was insep-
arably attached might be transferred with him to
another lord. For his own benefit and for the
support of his family he tilled the plot of

56

SERFDOM AND THE CHURCH 57

land set aside for him. On this too his perma-
nent home was built. Though certain levies
might be made on him for the lord's table, his
main obligation was to offer a more or less
definite proportion of his labor-time to the service
of his master. Such was the essence of serfdom,
at least in its latter stages.

While in the early days serfdom was but a
mitigation of slavery, and often very similar to
it, we find it developing anew at a later time as
a consequence of military necessity among pre-
viously free populations. In fact, this entire pe-
riod seems to be largely covered with a haze of
uncertainty. Free owners of land may in many
instances have voluntarily assumed a condition of
dependence which preserved them from the vio-
lence of pirates and freebooters and thus assured
them the yield of their harvest, not to mention the
personal safety accorded by this means to them-
selves and to their families. Their land itself
would naturally pass into the ownership of the
lord. How far this accounts for the widespread
condition of serfdom is difficult to say. But of all
this the following chapter shall treat more fully.

As in the case of slavery, so in that of serfdom
the Church was often instrumental in again lib-
erating the serfs and everywhere successful in bet-
tering their condition. She provided for their
moral and religious welfare and for the enforce-
ment of laws protecting them. Economically

58 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

their lot was not necessarily bitter or hard. Their
person and property were to be their own. Even
their service to the feudal lord was more and
more limited and was definitely restricted to cer-
tain days, aside from special season and duties.

To render the serf secure in his tenure of the
soil the Church in Germany imposed a penance of
three years' duration upon the master who arro-
gated to himself the right of selling his serf. She
made no distinction between the killing of a serf
and a freeman. In England likewise special pen-
ances were imposed for the manslaughter of a
serf by a master. The Synod of Worms renewed
in 868 a regulation which protected the serf even
when guilty of capital punishment. " If any one
has put to death, without judicial sentence, a serf
guilty of a crime that is punishable by death, he is
to atone for the shedding of blood by a penance
of two years. " The more the rights of the serf
were imperiled, the more the Church came for-
ward in his defense. Not only did she protect
him against the abuse of power, but in his day of
need she took him to her bosom, clothed, fed and
sheltered him.

As a practical illustration of the success
achieved by the Church in the liberation of the serf
as well as of the slave we need but turn to the
Anglo-Saxon documents of England which have
survived the wars and vicissitudes of more than a
thousand years.

SERFDOM AND THE CHURCH 59

Slavery was still the universal custom of the
land when Catholicity achieved its triumph.
When slavery had been abolished the condition of
the early serf, attached to the soil, differed as yet
but little from that of the slave, since both still
remained completely at the mercy of their mas-
ters. The Church alone was interested in the
fate of one as of the other. But to abolish serf-
dom by a stroke of the pen was no more possible
than it had been to abolish slavery. In each case
churchmen and monks accommodated themselves
to the economic conditions of the times where these
were not considered morally wrong in themselves.
But as in apostolic days, so now the Church insisted
upon the essential equality of all men before God,
upon the precept of charity and the doctrine of
universal brotherhood, and in particular upon the
reward of mercy to be accorded to him who freed
a brother from his bonds. Clerics themselves set
the example, at times in a most signal manner.
How quickly their lesson bore fruit is evident from
the constant emancipation of slaves and serfs,
often in great numbers, which instantly followed.

That such actions were prompted by the faith
which the Church had preached is clear from the
purely spiritual reasons assigned in the ancient
documents of manumission. " Geatflaed freed
for God! s sake and for her soul's need, Ecceard
the smith and Aelfstan and his wife, and all their
offspring born and unborn; and Arcil and Cole,

60 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

and Ecgferd Eadhun's daughter, etc., etc.," reads
a characteristic document.1

In like manner Aelfred manumitted all his un-
freed dependents u in the name of God and of His
Saints," and prayed that they might not be op-
pressed by any of his heirs or kinsmen. " But for
God's love and my own soul's need will I that they
shall enjoy their freedom and their choice; and I
command in the name of the living God that no
one disquiet them, either by demand of money or
in any other way." 2

Often dreadful curses are pronounced upon any
one who would dare to set aside such dispositions,
especially when made in a last will: " Christ
blind him that setteth this aside." And again:
11 Whoso undoeth this may he have the wrath of
Almighty God and Saint Cuthbert." Such testa-
tors had often during life been very kind to their
serfs, so that doubtless in many cases it had been
preferable to remain under their care and protec-
tion. It is sufficiently common to find that such
masters at their death not only freed their serfs
but provided for them as a father would for his
children. So Durcytel for his soul's benefit be-
queathed a great part of his landed possessions to
the church of St. Edmund, and part likewise to the
bishop, u and let all my serfs be free, and let each

i" Codex Diplomaticus," No. 925.

2 " Cod. Dipl.t" Vid. Thorpe, Kemble, " The Saxons in Eng-
land," I, p. 504.

SERFDOM AND THE CHURCH 6 1

have his toft, and his meatcow and his meat-
corn. " 3

The spiritual benefits asked were both for this
life and for the next, and often for the soul of
relative or friend: " This book witnesseth that
Aelfwold freed Hwatu at St. Petroc's for his soul
both during life and after life." 4 " x^nd I
(Leofgyfu) will that all my serfs be free, both in
manor and farm, for my sake and the sake of
them that begot me (the souls of his parents)." 5

It was moreover in the church and in the pres-
ence of the priest that manumission took place.
11 Here witnesseth on this book of Gospel/' we
read in the record of the monastery of Bath,
" that Aelfric the Scot and Aethelric the Scot are
made free for the soul of Abbot Aelfsige, that
they may be free forever. This is done by wit-
ness of all the monastery." 6 So we read of
Bishop Wulfsige freeing a number of serfs, " for
Eadgar the King and for his own soul, at St.
Petroc's altar." 7 The register of this church is
preserved for us, and similar books of manumis-
sion were evidently kept in every church, like the
registers of baptisms and marriages.

What was true in Saxon England was no less
true of other countries. S. Sugenheim, in his his-

3 " Cod. DipL/$ No. 959.

4 Register, St. Petroc's Church. Kemble.
*" Cod. Dipl.r No. 931.

*"Cod. Dipl.r No. 1351.
7 " Cod. Dipl.r No. 981.

6l DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

tory of the termination of serfdom in Europe, re-
peatedly makes the same confession in spite of
inveterate prejudices against the Church. He
shows how in France the influence of the clergy
was not seldom used to free the serf, or at least
considerably to ease his burden. The frequent
testamentary emancipations of serfs, often in
great numbers, were, he tells us, " in almost every
instance the work of pious and humane confessors
or other priests. " Like all historians, he admits
the truth of the proverbial saying that in every
land it was well to dwell under episcopal rule.
Thus in Germany dependent church laborers were
employed in their duties only three days of the
week. The remaining time could be devoted
freely to their own interests. So too in other
countries the Church led the way.

In France the emancipation of serfs and hereditary tenants
took place earliest in the ecclesiastical dominions, where,
indeed, the condition of the dependent classes was always the
most favorable.8

The efforts of the Church to ameliorate the lot
of the serf or to free him entirely were, he be-
lieves, perhaps nowhere more glorious than in
Scandinavia. The resolution taken by Saint Cnut
to abolish serfdom entirely throughout his do-
minion he ascribes solely to the priesthood. " Of
course, " he adds, " the last portion of the eleventh

H Sugenheim, * Grschichtc der Aufhebung der Leibeigenschaft
und Horigkeit in Euro pa," p. 90.

SERFDOM AND THE CHURCH 63

century was not yet ripe for this. The clergy
nevertheless worked with indescribable zeal to
hasten the time for it." 9 The institution of serf-
dom, therefore, in spite of the frequency of eman-
cipation by ecclesiastics or through their example
and exhortation, could not at once be abolished.
Particularly fortunate, however, were the laborers
connected with religious houses. " Wherever
monasteries arose," says Friederich Hurter,
11 progress began, the condition of the people was
improved and friendly relations with dependents
existed." Oppression, in ecclesiastical dominions,
he adds, was an exception and freedom could be
obtained more readily.10 Even Socialist authors,
therefore, when prepared to make independent
and unbiased investigation must come to the same
conclusion. " The Christian Church," writes
Thomas Kirkup, " did much to soften and to abol-
ish slavery and serfdom." u

Not only did bishops and priests, by their word
and example, everywhere bring about a kindlier
treatment and even the emancipation of the serfs,
persistently influence legislation in their favor,
throw about their person the protecting power of
the Church, inspire men with sentiments of justice
and affection in their regard as for true children

9 Ibid., p. 501.

10 Cf.t H. Pesch, S. J., " Liberalismus, Socialismus und christ-
liche Geselschaftsordnung" pp. 664-685.

11 " History of Socialism," 6th ed., p. 450.

64 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

of God and brothers in Christ, but they freely
admitted them to the sacred office of the priest-
hood. Indeed there was no dignity within the
power of the Church to bestow which might not
be attained by the humblest serf. The Protestant
Historian Kemble thus writes of the Catholic
clergy in Anglo-Saxon days:

Whatever their class interests may from time to time have
led them to do, let it be remembered that they existed as a
permanent mediating authority between the rich and the poor,
the strong and the weak, and that, to their eternal honor, they
fully comprehended and performed the duties of this noble
position. To none but them would it have been permitted to
stay the strong hand of power, to mitigate the just severity
of the law, to hold out a glimmer of hope to the serf, to find a
place in this world and a provision for the destitute, whose ex-
istence the State did not even recognize.12

From what has already been said we are not
surprised to find the statement made by this most
thorough student of the period in question that the
lot of the serf " was not necessarily or generally
one of great hardship. It seems doubtful whether
the labor exacted was practically more severe, or
his remuneration much less than that of an agri-
cultural laborer in this country (England) at this
day (A. D. 1876)." 13 The Rev. J. Malet Lam-
bert expresses a similar opinion of conditions of
servitude at a later date. The spiritual and even
the temporal provisions made for the serf, at-

12 "The Saxons in England," II, pp. 374, 375.

13 Ibid., I, pp. 213, 214.

SERFDOM AND THE CHURCH 65

tached, according to the custom of the day, to the
land of some conscientious Catholic master, might
well be envied by countless laborers in our modern
civilization.

44 In his hard life the serf of the Middle
Ages," says von Berthold Missiaen, O. M. Cap.,
44 experienced a sense of true internal happiness,
more lightsome than any known to the modern
world of labor. He was filled with a living, re-
ligious faith, and felt himself possessed of a strong,
serious moral power." Religion had spiritually
liberated him and made him a freeman of God,
the peer of knight and earl before the King of
kings.

Faith, indeed, was living and active in Anglo-
Saxon days. We behold the spectacle of kings at
the height of their glory renouncing all their tem-
poral possessions and laying aside their crowns
to devote themselves entirely to lives of self-re-
nunciation; of noble ladies and princesses retiring
from the world to live for God alone in the se-
clusion of the cloister; of men of influence and
power, with all the temptations of the world be-
fore them, thirsting only to suffer and die for
Christ. Such a spirit of necessity reflected upon
the economic conditions of the age. Though the
time had not yet come for the universal emancipa-
tion of the serf, he was not unfrequently freed
from bondage, as we have seen, and always
treated with far greater consideration than could

66 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

have been shown him otherwise. An undeniable
hardness which still remained in certain customs of
the day must be explained by the difficulty of at
once obliterating every trace of pagan spirit and
tradition, and by the life of constant warfare and
danger to which men were then exposed. To
quote once more from the pages of Kemble :

It was especially the honor and glory of Christianity that,
while it broke the spiritual bonds of sin, it ever actively la-
bored to relieve the heavy burden of social servitude. We are
distinctly told that Bishop Wilfrid, on receiving the grant of
Selsey from Caedwealha, of Wessex, immediately manumitted
two hundred and fifty unfortunates whom he found there at-
tached to the soil, that those whom by Baptism he had res-
cued from servitude to devils might by the grant of liberty
be rescued from servitude to man. In this spirit of charity the
clergy obtained respite from labor for the serf on the Sab-
bath, on certain high festivals and on the days which pre-
ceded or followed them. The lord who compelled his serf
to labor between the sunset on Saturday and the sunset on
Sunday forfeited him altogether; probably first to the king or
the geref a ; but in the time of Cnut, the serf thus forfeited was
to become folkfree. To their merciful intervention it must
also be ascribed that the will of a Saxon proprietor, laic as
well as clerical, so constantly directed the manumission of a
number of serfs for the soul's health of the testator.14

The first duty of the Church, it must be borne in
mind, was not to free the slave or serf, but to save
his soul. Her chief effort, which was to be car-
ried out in the face of all resistance, was to pro-
cure for him conditions under which ample leisure
and opportunity might be afforded him to serve

14 Ibid., II, pp. 211, 212.

SERFDOM AND THE CHURCH 67

God becomingly and even perfectly. Equally
with lord and king, he was declared by her to be in
all truth her own spiritual child, sanctified in Holy
Baptism, strengthened by the reception of her Sac-
raments, made partaker of the same eucharistic
Christ in the sacrifice of the Mass, destined to an
eternal fellowship with angels and saints, and al-
ready emancipated by the grace of God from the
one slavery which alone is supremely terrible, the
bondage of sin and Satan.

Here then was that potent seed of Christian
liberty already striking root. Within it were con-
tained all the elements of a perfect social order.
Bourgeoning forth centuries later, in a soil pre-
pared by ages of Catholic culture, it was to blossom
at length into the world's most ideal democracy,
a true brotherhood in commerce and industry,
made perfect in the unity of that one faith which
Christ had founded.

CHAPTER VIII

THE FEUDAL AND MANORIAL SYSTEMS

DURING the early ages of modern civiliza-
tion trade gilds among our first Christian
freemen were long to remain impossible
for the simple reason that specialized trades were
not sufficiently developed among them. The ear-
liest gilds of the Middle Ages were therefore re-
ligious and social in their nature. Often they
were mainly devoted to the preservation of order
and peace at a time when marauding and violence
were common, when governments, as we have
seen, were not yet centralized, and when the great
cities of the future were only in their first process
of formation or development.

Civilization from the eighth to the eleventh
century was indeed as remote from our own in
kind as in time. The method of production which
then prevailed is known to-day as the Family Sys-
tem. Its essential feature consisted in the fact
that each household produced all that was needed
for its own consumption without the aid of ex-
ternal agents. It was to be followed in the course
of economic development by the gild system, the
domestic system, and lastly by the stage of pro-
duction, technically known as the factory system,

68

THE FEUDAL AND MANORIAL SYSTEMS 69

which continued unbroken to the World War.

Life, in its economic aspect, was almost entirely
agricultural. Near the little village were the
fields where each family cultivated the strips of
land assigned to it or owned by it. There were
meadowlands wrhere the cattle were pastured in
common, and forests where each villager might
gather or cut the wood that was needed. Under
the most fully developed system in England, each
family owned a number of narrow strips of land,
not adjoining each other, but scattered over en-
tirely different sections of the fields reserved for
cultivation. No one could thus receive only the
most fertile or only the poorest soil. Every one
might have a fair proportion of both.

At the period when this system had reached its
complete development each strip was sown suc-
cessively with a fall crop the first year and a spring
crop the next, while the third year it was permitted
to lie fallow. The result was an abundance of
all the necessaries of life, if no disaster occurred
to ruin the crops. Each family produced inde-
pendently all that was needed for existence, for
clothing, food and shelter. The Church provided
in her turn for every spiritual want. The system
was not ideal, neither, however, was it deplorable
as conditions often existing in more modern times.
The evils of the city slums were then unknown.
The poet Goldsmith thus pictures it in his " De-
serted Village " :

70 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

A time there was ere England's griefs began,
When every rood of ground maintained its man:
For him light labor spread her wholesome store,
Just gave what life required but gave no more:
His best companions, innocence and health;
And his best riches, ignorance of wealth.

How far or how long this developed form of
organization, in which cooperation and private
ownership were combined, existed under the dem-
ocratic control of free farmers will doubtless be
difficult to say. In the period when we find this
system of cultivation widely employed throughout
England, Germany, France, Hungary and other
countries, the land is usually in the possession of
a lord, whose residence is known as the manor.
It may be merely a substantial dwelling or else
a lordly castle overlooking the humble thatched
roofs of the villagers beneath. The estate of a
single nobleman might at times consist not merely
of a single manor, with its group of farms that
formed a primitive village, but of many such man-
ors extending over a great tract of land or an en-
tire district. Hence the name under which this
phase of feudalism is commonly known, the Man-
orial System.1

While there were still independent farmers and
tenant farmers, the majority of the population in
the Norman days of England came to be known

1 Carlton J. H. Hayes, " A Political and Social History of
Europe," I, pp. 28-36. — Thomas Nixon Carver, "Principles of
Rural Economics," pp. 37-44. — James E. Thorold Rogers.

THE FEUDAL AND MANORIAL SYSTEMS 7 1

as u villeins," a name significantly derived from
14 villagers." They were not slaves, since they
could neither be sold nor deprived of their right
to cultivate for themselves the strips of land which
they tilled for their exclusive benefit. Neither
were they tenant farmers, since they paid no rent
for the land which they used and handed on to
their children to be tilled by them in turn for their
own benefit, as an inalienable right. Neither how-
ever were they free, since they were " attached to
the soil " on which they were bound to stay.
They were serfs, therefore, yet their status, ap-
parently, was superior to that of this class among
the early Anglo-Saxons.

In lieu of rent, since money was not then in
circulation, they rendered personal service to their
lord. A portion of arable land, reserved for the
latter, was known as the " demesne." Here two
or three days of the week the villein worked for
his master, besides performing other duties as
emergency might suggest, known as corvee. So
too he afforded assistance to his lord at harvest
time in what were then called the "boon-days," be-
sides supplying him with certain provisions. Such
therefore was the institution of villeinage, the
more modern form of serfdom. At times, how-
ever, the villein preferred to render up his personal
lands, and to labor exclusively for the lord on his
own farm or in his home, retaining possibly a small
plot of ground and a garden for himself and his

72 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

family. Special classes of small tenants were the
bordars, crofters and cotters. In the beginning a
class of slaves still existed, but these soon disap-
peared.

In Germany, as also in France, there gradually
developed the Great Mdierhofe, with their num-
bers of unfree laborers, the Horige cultivating the
farms of the lords, and the Diensthorige attend-
ing to housework and craftsmanship. Even from
the earliest times, according to Walther Miiller,
the latter might labor for their own profits when
the domestic needs of their lords were satisfied.
The manorial system in Germany will be dealt
with more in detail in Chapter X of the present
volume, " Labor under Charlemagne and After."

The origin of the great power given to the
lord has already been accounted for. The early
settlements of the newly emerging civilization
found themselves exposed to attacks from all sides.
There were not only the marauding bands of rob-
bers infesting the forests and ready at all times
for pillage and plunder, but the pirate crews that
everywhere sailed the high seas and, like the
Homeric heroes of old, swooped down on the de-
fenseless villages as their lawful prize, to rob,
massacre or enslave the unfortunate inhabitants.
Such was a gentleman's profession among the
pagan Vikings. It was necessary therefore for
men to group about a powerful leader and to se-
cure the protection which in times of raid could

THE FEUDAL AND MANORIAL SYSTEMS 73

be offered by the lordly manor and the unscale-
able walls of a medieval castle. Its master was
fighter and captain by profession. There too
were the trained men of arms and the weapons
ever ready at hand. It was therefore the neces-
sary center of organization and defense, and the
villagers gladly offered, in return for the protec-
tion accorded them, the service of their toil on
stated days and in certain seasons.

Governments were not as yet evolved and cen-
tralized, so that men would look in vain for as-
sistance to the King. Their own lord was their
natural and willing defender, while he himself
rendered fealty to a still greater lord, on whose
help he might be forced to call at any moment of
extreme peril and in whom he could find a new
center of a wider and far more powerful organiza-
tion. Thus every man gave obedience and hom-
age to one above him to secure the measure of co-
operation required for self-defense.

This therefore is the much-maligned feudal
system which was a real blessing and necessity in
its origin, and like every other system proved a
burden and a just cause of discontent when its
usefulness had ceased and its very reason for ex-
istence had passed away. This time arrived when
the King himself was able to defend his realm
and preserve law and order. The nobility, which
had steadily grown in power and wealth, now
merely lived upon the toil of the peasantry with-

74 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

out rendering any adequate service in return.
Hence the peasants often sought their freedom by
fleeing to the newly founded cities, when these
gradually developed, or at times rose in arms
against their lords. Such was the bloody Peas-
ants' War which practically ended for the time the
growth of the Reformation. In defense of his
own princes Luther threw the weight of his per-
sonal power against the German serfs who had
arisen against their lords and so crushed their
hopes of freedom for generations to come. This
they neither forgot nor forgave. Catholic as
well as Protestant princes had misused their power
and driven their serfs to desperation.

In many cases the serfs purchased their own
liberty. Personal service rendered by them to the
lord was gradually replaced to a great extent by
money payment or they became hired laborers.
In France the great majority of the serfs had al-
ready purchased their freedom by the fourteenth
century, although in some few districts serfdom
survived until the French Revolution. In Eng-
land it had practically disappeared by the six-
teenth century. In various other countries it was
retained until the nineteenth century, and in Rus-
sia even until the latter half of that century.

The institutions here described naturally be-
came more and more tyrannical and oppressive as
they outlived their usefulness. Yet even in their
decline during the later period of the Middle

THE FEUDAL AND MANORIAL SYSTEMS 75

Ages they were preferable to conditions existing
in modern cities during the " progressive M nine-
teenth century. " Feudalism/' admits Percy
Stickney Grant, " gave the serf food, shelter and
clothing in exchange for his labor and his military
service. The serf had his stated place. He was
a small partner in the concern and shared its
profits."

He then compares it with the wage system to
the disadvantage of the latter : " In time of war
the State can take over the worker's industrial or
military service, but in time of peace it does not
insure him subsistence." 2

The general method of production during the
early Middle Ages was everywhere the same, in
so far at least that each household, as we have
seen, produced for itself whatever it needed to
satisfy its own wants, without recourse to external
manufactures. A few simple luxuries might at
intervals be purchased by the lord of the manor
or might later also find their way to the home of
the peasant, but for the rest each family, or fam-
ily group, such as manor or monastery, was pro-
ducer and consumer alike. It felled the trees to
build its dwellings. It spun the wool to make its
garments. It planted and ground the corn to
bake its own bread. With meadow and forest
open to it, with its cattle, though not of registered
breed, and its hives of bees, such as Virgil sang,

2 " Fair Play for the Worker," p. 22.

76 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

it might feast on the Scriptural butter and honey,
and live contentedly and happily in its state of the
" simple life." Such was the bright side of this
early life which had likewise its shadows and
gloom. And yet, as Carlton J. H. Hayes says:

On the other hand we must not forget that the tenement
houses of our great cities have been crowded in the nine-
teenth century with people more miserable than ever was
serf of the Middle Ages. The serf, at any rate, had the open
air instead of a factory in which to work. When times were
good he had grain and meat in plenty, and possibly wine or
cider, and he hardly envied the tapestried chambers, the be-
jeweled clothes, and the spiced foods of the nobility, for he
looked upon them as belonging to a different world.

In one place noblemen and peasant met on a common foot-
ing— in the village church. There, on Sundays and feast-
days, they came together as Christians to hear Mass ; and after-
wards, perhaps, holiday games and dancing on the green, be-
nignantly patronized by the lord's family, helped the common
folk to forget their labors. The village priest, himself often
of humble birth, though the most learned man on the manor,
was at once the friend and benefactor of the poor and the
spiritual doctor of the lord. Occasionally a visit of the bishop
to administer confirmation to the children afforded an oppor-
tunity for gaiety and universal festivity.3

Not a few of the English manors, like similar
establishments upon the continent, were in the
possession of monasteries or of ecclesiastics. In
the former case they may have been left to com-
munities of religious by the wills of the Faithful
or were bestowed upon them by the liberality of

3 " A Political and Social History of Europe," Vol. I, pp. 35,

36.

THE FEUDAL AND MANORIAL SYSTEMS 77

kings or nobles. Churchmen and religious in
such instances simply conformed to the universal
custom of their day. Whatever greed or ambi-
tion existed on the part of certain powerful pre-
lates or abbots, it was the individual alone that
was at fault. The monks themselves were, as a
class, loved by the people. Of this we have abund-
ant historical evidence. They were truly the
stewards of the poor and their doors were ever
open to the houseless wanderer. Referring to the
Religious Orders of the twelfth and thirteenth
centuries, an Anglican historian, the Very Rev. W.
R. W. Stephens, formerly Dean of Winchester,
writes :

They were large landowners, and this was in many ways a
benefit to the people. The monks were continually resident,
whereas the bishops and many of the lay proprietors were fre-
quently called away from their estates on public affairs, and
so hindered from looking closely after the welfare of their
tenants. In districts where the towns were rare and small,
the monastic houses must have been inestimable boons, not
only to the traveler, who could obtain food and shelter there,
but to the resident poor in the neighborhood. The condition
of the people in many a secluded village or hamlet would
have been wretched and barbarous in the extreme but for
some monastic houses which had the means of remunerating
labor and relieving distress.4

The mistake of modern writers in dealing with
this period too frequently consists in merely re-
peating the inveterate prejudices of past centuries
without any profound research into a subject so

4 " A History of the English Church," Vol. II, p. 272.

78 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

little understood. A twentieth century point of
view moreover prevents them from ever realizing
the vast difference in social, political and economic
conditions and needs that separates those times
from our own, and the equally vast difference of
mental attitude towards the most vital questions
under consideration. They will therefore no
doubt be startled to know that so important an
authority upon the economics of the Middle Ages
as Damaschke assures us that a degree of general
social welfare and true popular happiness was
reached under the feudal system which surpasses
our very conception. Even at its worst the feudal
system was a vast progress over the best condi-
tions of labor that had ever existed in the pagan
world of classical antiquity.5

As for more modern times, what was the end
of all the vaunted civilization of the smug, self-
satisfied nineteenth century except boundless dis-
satisfaction, unhappiness and not seldom abject
misery such as the Middle Ages never knew? A
clarification of our social vision is sadly needed,
and this we trust our study of those same ages at
their height of development will give to us in the
picture of that Christian democracy of industry
that was at length to be reached as the economic
realization of their Catholic ideals.

5 J. E. T. Rogers constantly refers to medieval labor condi-
tions as relatively preferable to those of his day. "A History
of Agriculture and Prices," etc.

CHAPTER IX

PEACE GILDS

WE have studied the position of the un-
free or partially freed laborer. Go-
ing back again to the first centuries of
the Middle Ages we can now in turn view the con-
dition of the freemen of that early period as we
behold them leagued together in the frith (peace)
gilds of Europe, more than a thousand years ago.
In the laws of King Xne, about the year 690, we
first meet with the word gegyldan. We find it
again in the laws of King Alfred enacted two
centuries later. The meaning of that word seems
now to be fairly clear.

The gegyldan were comrades mutually responsi-
ble for each other before the lawT, and leagued to-
gether for self-protection as well as for the preser-
vation of peace and order. The name Frith
(Frieden in modern German) or " peace " gilds,
is therefore often given to these institutions.
They were gilds only in the wide sense of the
word since they were not voluntary organizations.
The freemen of the early Saxon towns were di-
vided into groups of ten, known as tithings. Ten
such groups in turn formed a hundred. The

79

80 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

statutes regulating them were made the law of the
land, and in the time of Athelstan we find them
drawn up by the ecclesiastical and civil authorities.

11 This is the ordinance," begins the official doc-
ument, " which the bishops and reeves of London
have ordained and confirmed among our frith
gilds, both of thanes and of churls. ... Be it re-
solved that we count every ten men together, and
the chief one to direct the nine in each of those
duties which we have all ordained; and afterwards
the hundreds (hyndens) of them together, and
one hundred-man (hynden-man, centurion) who
shall admonish the ten for the common benefit." l
The eleven officers were to hold and disburse the
money, gild or geld, from which it is argued by
some that the gild was named. We can readily,
therefore, reconcile the two translations of gegyl-
dan as gild-brethren 2 or pay-brethren.3

Although the question of labor does not enter
here, except very indirectly, the frith gilds are of
great interest from a civic and economic point of
view, no less than in their cultural and historic
aspect.

The earliest Saxon gild legislation which we pos-
sess in the laws of Ine and Alfred is concerned
with the payment of the wergild, or blood money,
which was to be paid in those primitive times when

1 Judicia Civitatis Lundon'ict, Athelstan V. Thorpe, I, p. 230.

2 Dr. Stuubs.

3 Schmid, " Gesetze," p. 589.

PEACE GILDS 8 I

one man had killed another. Such laws were
common among all the Germanic tribes. We find
them among the Saxons, the Bavarians, the Ala-
manni, the Frisians, the Visigoths, the Salian
Franks and others. A definite price was set upon
every head, from king to freedman. Among the
Saxons, it is thought that the wergild to be paid
for a noble who had been killed was 1,440 shill-
ings; for a freeman, 240; and for a freedman who
had once been in bondage, 120. Money values,
of course, cannot even remotely be compared with
those of the present day. A slave, according to
the London statutes, was to be compensated for
at the maximum rate of half a pound, or less, " ac-
cording to his value."

Since in many cases the man who had committed
the deed could not pay his penalty, the relatives
and the gildsmen were held responsible for a share.
Thus, according to King Alfred's laws, if the man
was without paternal relatives, but had relatives
on his mother's side, the latter were to pay one-
third of the blood money; his gegyldan, one-third
and he himself the remaining portion. If he was
without any relatives, the payment was to be made
in equal shares by the gegyldan and himself.
Without entering into the intricacies of this law,
it is evident at once that the gild implied a soli-
darity almost as close as a family bond. This
conclusion is important since it gives a true insight
into the nature of gild life.

82 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

In studying these conditions, we realize at the
same time the difficulties encountered by the
Church throughout the European world in u tam-
ing and humanizing the countless petty chieftains
and evolving Christian chivalry out of violence and
brutality." The first mention of the gegyldan, it
should be noted, is coincident with the victory of
Catholicity over paganism. The earliest gilds,
though far from perfect, were already in many
ways a great power for good. Kemble says :

If a crime were committed, the gyld were to hold the crim-
inal to his answer; to clear him, if they could conscientiously
do so, by making oath in his favor, to aid him in paying his
fine if found guilty. If flying from justice he admitted his
crime, they were to purge themselves on oath from all guilty
knowledge of the act, and all participation in his flight, failing
which they were themselves to suffer mulct in proportion to his
offense. On the other hand they were to receive at least a
portion of the compensation for his death, or of such other
sums as passed from hand to hand during the process of an
Anglo-Saxon suit.4

The object, therefore, of these gilds or tith-
ings was to maintain the public peace; to preserve
11 the life, honor and property M of individuals; to
bring the guilty to justice and provide defenders
for the injured and the innocent, at a time when
the power of the government was insufficient for
these purposes. The power possessed by the
gilds was legally delegated, and their retributive
actions did not therefore correspond to the mod-

* John Mitchell Kemble, " The Saxons of England " I, p. 252.

PEACE GILDS 83

ern lynch law, which presumes to take justice into
its own hands without any legal sanction.

Private warfare, however, had been considered
an inalienable right of the Germanic freeman in
his pagan state. With his conversation every at-
tempt was made to set legal limits to its continu-
ance until it could be entirely abolished. Only
where the existence of the family seemed to re-
quire it did the laws of Alfred tolerate such war-
fare, or where the offender made peaceful settle-
ment impossible, in which case the injured party
would have the support of the State. So again
Edmund, towards the middle of the tenth cen-
tury, deliberated with the counsel of his Witan:
" First, how I might best promote Christianity.
Then seemed it to" us first most needful that we
should most firmly preserve peace and harmony
among ourselves, throughout all my dominion.
Both I and all of us hold in horror the unright-
eous and manifold fightings that exist among our-
selves." 5

It must not, however, be supposed that the pay-
ment of the wergild necessarily implied that hu-
man life had been taken. It included every
peaceful settlement of feuds by means of money
and all the fines that might be exacted for any
injury, personal or domestic, or even for the as-
persion of a man's good name.

5 Ibid., I, pp. 251, 274. Eadm. Sec. Leg., Section 1. Thorpe,
I, p. 246.

84 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

The complete statutes, however, of the frith
gilds under Athelstan, from which we have al-
ready quoted, open for us a much wider view.
We there come upon institutions of great eco-
nomic, as well as legal, importance. They were
not only the police departments of their day, free
from all suspicion of graft, but the insurance com-
panies, mutual benefit associations, purgatorial so-
cieties, and even to a certain degree the courts of
justice — all in one — for the happy gildsman.
Though imposed from without, they already con-
tain much of the spirit of the free gilds which
were now soon to arise.

One of their chief purposes was the recovery of
stolen property. Where this was not possible
compensation was made to the loser from the gild
funds, or by a pro rata tax upon the brethren. A
limit, however, was clearly set for the maximum
amount to be paid for the unrecovered article.
The pursuit of the thief was undertaken in com-
mon. If caught, summary justice was executed
upon him. A reward of twelve shillings, in fact,
was set upon the open killing of a thief by any of
the brethren. The utterly unprotected condition
of the citizens, which laid them open to pillage and
robbery, led to such severity. The property that
could be stolen consisted mainly in live stock and
slaves. If the latter " stole themselves," i. e.,
ran away, they met the fate of a thief when caught.
To compensate the owner each gildsman who pos-

PEACE GILDS 85

sessed a slave contributed id. or half a penny.
In particular legislations we can see the efforts
made by the Church to shield offenders, especially
if young and amenable to correction, while the in-
stitution of slavery, as well as the savage right of
feud, was fast disappearing under her influence.
She was doing what lay in her power to protect the
unfortunate and promote Christian charity, ad-
vancing the great work of Christian Democracy.

The patience required to change certain im-
memorial customs and traditions, originally con-
ceived in the spirit of a religion that had wor-
shiped in the name of Thor and Wodan and to
substitute in their place the practices of a faith
which meekly bowed the neck of the fierce war-
rior beneath the sweet yoke of Christ, is often but
little understood by the historian and critic.

The frith gilds in the ninth, tenth and eleventh
centuries were as far removed from paganism as
the dawn from the darkness, but the full day had
not yet broken. Religion, charity and brother-
hood were already strong and dominant principles
in their statutes. And yet we cannot be surprised
that something of a pagan hardness should still
remain over from a time which was not as yet so
far removed. Governments, moreover, while un-
able to protect the individual, believed themselves
forced to countenance stringent measures and regu-
lations that the country might not fall a prey to
marauding bands of robbers.

86 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

Referring to the material aspect of the London
ordinances, H. F. Coote writes :

The regulations and provisions of this gild command our
unqualified respect. They are irrefutable evidence of a high
state of civilization. We have in them a scheme of mutual
assurance, with all the appliances of carrying it out, combined
with thorough comprehension of the true principle upon which
such schemes are founded, and can alone be supported. For
the gild not only satisfies itself that the claim is honest, but
repudiates payment of it whenever the claimant has shown
himself to have been contributory by his negligence to the
loss of which he affects to complain. And, lastly, the gild, to
secure the society against claims of unlimited and overwhelm-
ing amount, establishes a maximum rate of compensation.®

The religious element, however, was not for-
gotten. " And we have also ordained, " wrote the
drafters of the London statutes, " respecting every
man who gives his pledge in our gildship, that
should he die, each gild-brother (gegylda) shall
give a gesuj el-loaf for his soul (a loaf of bread
offered to the poor in alms for the repose of the
departed soul) and sing fifty (psalms) or cause
the same to be sung within thirty days." 7 The
offering of Masses for this purpose was of course,
most common, as we find in the statutes of the true
voluntary gilds which were now to come into ex-
istence. It may be noted that in one instance the
singing of the Psalter or the offering of a Mass is
left to the choice of the gildsman.

6 Henry Charles Coote, F. S. A. "Transactions of the Lon-
don and Middlesex Archeological Society," IV, p. 12.
* Ibid.

PEACE GILDS 87

Charity, too, although it began at home, did not
remain there. The poor and afflicted were the
objects of special consideration, and pilgrims were
helped upon their way to accomplish their pious
vows or to satisfy their devotion by kneeling at the
tomb of our Lord or praying at the sites of His
sacred passion and death in distant Palestine. It
was evident that under these Christian influences
the remnants of pagan harshness were soon to
melt away like the last drifts of winter's snow be-
neath the genial sun of the new springtime of
Catholic charity.

From the earliest origin indeed of the medieval
gilds, a Catholic spirit was already breathing
through them. Even in their most primitive days
it was felt like a waft of Spring through the misty
forests, awakening the newly organized institu-
tions to a newness of freedom and a fulness of
life and beauty which paganism could never know.
If something of the chill and gloom of earlier tra-
ditions doubtless still clung to them, it was gradu-
ally yielding to the warmth of Christian charity
and the light of Christian truth. The world was
slowly being prepared for its first concept of the
full scope of Christian Democracy.

Frith gilds in fine were not limited to the Saxons
in England, but were common likewise upon the
continent. The same conditions called forth the
same remedy. In France they were organized by
the bishops. " Each diocese," writes Unwin,

88 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

11 became the center of a large association which
embraced all classes, peasant and noble, cleric and
lay, town and country." They were known as La
Paix, or La Commune de la Paix, a name identical
in meaning with the Saxon frith gilds which we
have here described.

CHAPTER X

LABOR UNDER CHARLEMAGNE AND
AFTER

THE world gild itself, geldonia in Carlo-
vingian Latin, occurs for the first time in
the year 779. It is found in a law is-
sued by Charlemagne, decreeing that no one should
thenceforth presume " to bind himself by mutual
oaths in a gild." From the mistakes made by the
earliest copyists in transcribing this term we may
reasonably conclude that it was not yet in common
use.

In 821 the lords of Flanders were cautioned,
under penalty of heavy fines, to prevent their serfs
from forming associations binding under oath.
Similar injunctions were again issued in a capi-
tulary of the year 884. The clergy as well as
public officials were to instruct the serfs " not to
enter into the combination commonly called a gild
(quam vulgo geldam vocant) 9 against those who
may have stolen anything." x The serfs, in other
words, were not to take the law into their own
hands, but to leave its execution to the proper au-
thorities. Such associations would doubtless have
helped to protect them in those unsettled times,

1 Cap. A. 884. Pertz, I, 553.

89

90 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

but a serious menace was seen in them for the
State.

Modern authors in general vie with each other
in their denunciations of Charlemagne for his at-
tempted suppression of the gilds, confounding
them with the craft gilds of later years. Centur-
ies were still to elapse before economic and social,
as well as political conditions, could make these
organizations possible. Moreover, it was not
against the gilds, but against the oaths, which he
believed might lead to conspiracies and national
danger, that the legislation was directed. Politi-
cal and civic conditions were in a ferment. The
centralization of power was real only in so far as
it depended upon the personal influence of Charle-
magne himself. Disruption in fact followed the
very instant that the grasp of his own strong hand
was relaxed in death.

But another reason also existed for the suppres-
sion of some of these early gilds. Their secret
conclaves, it is believed, were in some cases merely
a cloak for continuing the idolatrous practices
which had survived from heathen times. That
pagan organizations, somewhat similar in purpose
to the gilds of the Frankish serfs and the Anglo-
Saxon freemen, had existed among the ancient
Teutons is sufficiently established. The old Ger-
man warriors met and mingled their blood and
drank it as a mutual pledge that they would defend
and avenge each other. M Dost thou recall,

LABOR UNDER CHARLEMAGNE AND AFTER 9 1

Odin," says Loki in the Lokasenna, " how when
our pledge began, we mingled blood together? "

It is not surprising therefore that the Church
should at times have been obliged publicly to for-
bid such organizations, even as duty compels her
to do in our day. Thus a canon of the Council
of Nantes forbids " collectae vel confratriae, quas
consortia vocant" It is unreasonable to inveigh
against such regulations. Mistakes may undoubt-
edly have been made, and even personally selfish
motives may have swayed individual ecclesiastics;
but the Church herself has from the first been the
champion of all reasonable freedom of organiza-
tion. Even the oath itself, which at every period
was regarded an essential condition for admission
to the gilds, was never in principle forbidden, and
virtually never opposed by her in practice during
the entire course of the Middle Ages.

But the Church was no passive spectator of the
progress of the gilds. Her fostering care was
one of the mightiest factors in their development.
As George Unwin says in relation to the earliest
Frankish gilds :

Apart from the reference to the mutual oath, nothing is
said of the religious character of these associations; but in
that age the cooperation, official or unofficial, of the clergy
was an almost indispensable element of any 'popular organiza-
tion. We also know that by the middle of the ninth cen-
tury the clergy of the diocese of Rheims were allowed to
superintend the formation of religious gilds bearing essen-
tially the same character as those which, throughout the

92 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

Middle Ages, underlay every form of social and economic
organization.2

These religious gilds indeed are of the highest
importance in the history of labor, since from
them in many cases the labor gilds were later to
arise, directly or indirectly. Such was especially
the case where the establishment of such unions,
whether of tradesmen or of journeymen, was re-
garded with suspicion, while the Church harbored
and fostered them.

In the time of Charlemagne many of the trades
already existed; but the tradesmen themselves
were largely of servile condition. They were
often perfectly organized; but never by their own
initiative. The serfs and other unfree laborers
— among whom must be numbered not only me-
chanics, but even small dealers and professional
artists — were at times grouped according to oc-
cupations by the lord to whose manor they were
attached. Servants, hunters and shepherds were
similarly organized. The entire institution was
known as the Frohnhof or manor. The laborers
thus employed were known as Horige or serfs.
Each division was under its master, who had the
power of exercising judgment and correction, un-
less a misdemeanor occurred which was to be re-
ferred to a higher official. The last court of ap-
peal was the lord of the manor himself, whose
power was limited, however, by the law of the

2 "The Gilds and Companies of London," p. 17.

LABOR UNDER CHARLEMAGNE AND AFTER 93

land.3 It is evident that these organizations could
in no sense be spoken of as gilds.

The unfree craftsmen did not, however, work
exclusively for their lord. Their duties were
variously limited, and the remaining time was
given to labor for their own profit. They might
either dwell in the manor itself or in the vicinity.
Many would probably take up their home in the
lord's manor during the time devoted to his serv-
ice. Charlemagne himself was liberally supplied
at his various manors with skilled craftsmen and
even expert artists: " workers in gold and silver,
blacksmiths, shoemakers, turners, wagon-makers,
carpenters, armorers, lace-makers, soap-boilers,
brewers and bakers." Many interesting details
regarding the system employed by him are to be
found in the Capitulare de Villis of the years 809
and 812.4

In the Lex Burgundionum it is definitely stated
that the unfree craftsmen were not exclusively en-
gaged by their masters, but were permitted pub-
licly to practise their various trades.5 Such, in the
opinion of Miiller, was the custom during the en-
tire period of serfdom.6 They might sell their
wares or their labor. In the " Vita Gebehardi" 7

3 Dr. Otto Gierke, " Das deutsche Genossenschaftsrecht," pp.
176-178.

4 Pertz, I and III.

5 " Liber Constitutionum."

•Walther Miiller, " Zur Frage des Ursprungs der Mittelalter-
lichen Ziinfte," pp. 47, ff. 7 Cap. 19.

94 . DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

we read how the Bishop organized his craftsmen
in the city of Constance according to their differ-
ent trades, with a master set over each single craft.
They were to spend certain days at the Mon-
astery of Peterhausen, near the city, where they
received their meals and performed the neces-
sary work. They would then return to their
shops and their homes in Constance. This gives
us an excellent picture of the times and shows how
bishops and abbots, here as elsewhere, conformed
to the economic systems of their period, while all
concede that under the abbot's jurisdiction were
ever to be found the most ideal conditions of the
day.

The system here described was indeed far re-
moved from the supreme ideals of Christian
democracy applied to industry. Yet it was an im-
measurable progress over the position of the
laborer in the classic days of Rome and Greece,
while it afforded the humble toiler a surer sub-
sistence and a more quiet and contented life than
he was to enjoy at a much later period under mod-
ern capitalism. Pauperism and starvation were
alike unknown. The lowliest worker and his fam-
ily were always provided for and the supplies of
the monasteries were everywhere at his command,
should he stand in need of them. So, too, the
beneficed clergyman was bound by canon law
to spend on the Church or on the poor all that

LABOR UNDER CHARLEMAGNE AND AFTER 95

remained to him after his own proper sustentation.
It was not the fault of the Church if he abused his
opportunities. Even in Wolsey's favor, who
lived at a far later period and represented the ex-
treme of ecclesiastical ambition, Joseph Rickaby,
S. J., writes: " It may be allowed that he spent his
wealth nobly. And so did other great ecclesiastics
of the age, which the plunderers of the next gen-
eration did not. What is known at Oxford as
4 the House ' is forever sacred to the memory of
the Cardinal of Yorke."

Not all German laborers were serfs in the
early centuries here described. The number of
free craftsmen wras constantly increasing. There
was also a considerable class of free farmers who
owned the soil they tilled, as well as a number of
free mark and village communities. Yet ordi-
narily even these stood under the protection of
some great lord. It must, in fact, be remembered
here that the entire civilization of that period was
built upon the one idea of service. The lord him-
self was only less dependent than his serfs. It was
the duty and the glory of each man, whether free
or bond, high or low, to be faithful to the master
who was over him. " I serve," could be the
motto of the proudest lord.

A greater freedom gradually prevailed among
the serfs. Their service was reduced to a more
limited number of days. It even passed from the

96 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

individual to the trade group, which could assign
definite members to perform in turn the custom-
ary duties, thus always leaving a number free to
follow their own occupations. A tax was finally
paid in place of personal service, and so serfdom
itself passed out of existence.

During the course of these developments the
groups of workmen had formed their own organiz-
ations under the care of the Church. Every Ger-
man gild, as Gierke remarks, was religious, social
and moral in its purpose, besides following its own
specific aims. Even before their emancipation
the serfs had obtained distinct rights which their
lords were bound to respect. With their full free-
dom achieved they naturally betook themselves in
ever increasing numbers into the cities, which thus
received a great labor population. Free gilds
sprang into existence everywhere, each with its
own chaplain, its own altar or chapel, and its ob-
lations of candles, its offerings for Masses, and
its benefactions to the poor.

It must not, however, be concluded that we must
therefore seek the origin of the gilds in the unfree
labor groups, organized by the Frankish lords
upon their manors. This was but one of many
factors which all combined to further the same
Christian ideal. The essence of the gild was
brotherhood, religion, mutual helpfulness and
social fellowship among equals. Everywhere the
same forces were at work. Everywhere the

LABOR UNDER CHARLEMAGNE AND AFTER 97

Church stood by, protecting, directing, leading up-
ward to a larger freedom and a more perfect char-
ity.

Outside the Church violence and barbarity, sword and con-
quest, the untamed powers of nature reigned unchecked, both
before the time of Pepin and Charlemagne, and after them
under their more feeble successors, and indeed long after the
complete extinction of their race. In spite of the contempt for
learning and culture, there existed still a deep reverence for
religion and its ministers; in spite of strong passions, faith was
living. Monasteries were held in high honor as abodes of
purer life, and persons high in rank took pleasure in visiting
them, and frequently chose them as places of retreat for the
remainder of their lives. Discipline and sound principles could
come from the Church alone; enlightened legislation could be
her work alone; and under her influence alone could the con-
ditions of society be improved. To her was due the mitigation
and repression of slavery, the first organized care of the poor,
the institution of the Truce of God, the establishment of places
of education, and every true form of progress.

Princes and people were eager to confide the weightiest
interests to the clergy and to increase their external means of
power and influence; for their learning and virtue they merited
trust, and by their character and authority they were the most
sure support of public order. The Church on her side did her
utmost to obtain safeguards against the many attacks and acts
of aggression of princes and nobles, who sometimes from desire
of vengeance, oftener from mere covetousness, imprisoned
bishops and priests, robbed them, misused them and thrust others
into their places.8

It was this constant interference of the State
with the Church, beginning with the reign of Con-

8 Dr. Joseph Hergenrother, " Catholic Church and Christian
State," I, pp. 256, 257. See: Ratzinger, " Geschichte der Kirch-
lichen Armenpflege" pp. 141, ff.

98 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

stantine, the first imperial champion of Christi-
anity, and continuing down to our time, that has
ever hampered her power for good, thrusting un-
worthy prelates in high places or preventing the
great unselfish works of zeal and piety undertaken
by others. Yet in spite of every difficulty from
within or from without she has steadily carried
down the ages the torch of Christian truth that
lights the way to all true liberty.

And here a little digression may be of interest
to complete the picture of this early civilization.
No later than the year 858 we find mention made
of gilds of priests as well as of the laity in the ca-
pitularies of Archbishop Hincmar of Rheims.9
No restriction of any kind is placed upon them, ex-
cept that they must not transgress the bounds of
11 authority, usefulness and right reason. " Here
therefore we have the attitude of the Church
clearly defined at the very beginning of gild his-
tory. When the limits thus described are fla-
grantly transgressed, it is not only her right, but
her duty to interfere. The salvation of souls is
then imperiled. The social institution thus cen-
sured has become a menace to society and religion.

Since frequent mention is made of these gilds of
priests that sprang up at the beginning of the Mid-
dle Ages, and much misunderstanding exists upon
this point, a word of explanation may well be of-
fered. They were known by the name of Gilds of

9 Labbei Concilia, ed. Colcti, t. x., cap. 16, p. 4.

LABOR UNDER CHARLEMAGNE AND AFTER 99

the Kalends, because they met on the first day of
the Roman month, the calendae. Their purpose
was the discussion of pastoral interests. Thus
the clergy of certain sections would meet for divine
service, common deliberations and the usual feast
which was one of the essentials of every medieval
gild. Special objects, such as the maintenance
of schools, the preservation of documents and
archives, were likewise kept in view. The mem-
bers are occasionally reminded in their statutes
that their gilds exist " not merely that they may
derive from them present advantages and tem-
poral gains, but rather that they may obtain
heavenly and eternal benefits." They are admon-
ished to take their meal becomingly and with the
fear of God. Pious reading and singing of hymns
are suggested. A limited number of laymen were
admitted into these gilds at a later period; but
their wives, in spite of frequent requests on the
part of their husbands were excluded, until in
1422, after many centuries, slight concessions
were made upon this point. They were such, how-
ever, as hardly to modify the strictness of the or-
iginal regulations. The main feature was that the
wives of the lay members took their turns in offer-
ing hospitality and services to the gild.

That in the very earliest and semi-barbarous
times abuses occasionally occurred at the meetings
of these gilds is evident in particular from the
capitulary of Archbishop Hincmar (852). It is

IOO DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

entirely unwarranted, however, to draw the con-
clusion, as has commonly been done in a very un-
historical way, that such happenings were the rule
and not the exception. During the many centuries
of the existence of these gilds only a very few ref-
erences to excesses can be found, and these oc-
curred at the very beginning of gild history.
They simply serve to illustrate in a striking man-
ner the watchfulness of the Church over her chil-
dren and her care to correct without delay what-
ever is evil. It is from prompt ecclesiastical repri-
mands that we have our knowledge of these mat-
ters. The capitularies of Archbishop Hincmar
(852) and of Bishop Walter of Orleans (858)
are the sources of our information. The very
documents in question, with their sound moral les-
sons, afford the best evidence of the high ideals
maintained by the Church at every epoch of his-
tory. The facts we have alluded to prove nothing
more than that the vices and passions of the pagan
orgies of earlier times were still a danger to the
recently converted Catholics, and that instances oc-
curred in which even the clergy were not free from
blame. With the more complete infusion of the
Catholic spirit these abuses disappeared. The in-
cidents therefore are only another splendid wit-
ness to the power for good which the Church has
ever exercised in the world.

14 The power of religious sentiment," Emerson
says, in describing that Christianity which " like a

LABOR UNDER CHARLEMAGNE AND AFTER 1 01

chemistry of fire " drew a firm line between bar-
barism and culture — " The power of religious
sentiment put an end to human sacrifices, checked
appetite, inspired the Crusades, inspired resistance
to tyrants, inspired self-respect, set bounds to serf-
dom and slavery, founded liberty, created the re-
ligious architecture: Yorke, Newstead, Westmin-
ster, etc. — works to which the key is lost with the
sentiment which created them." With a reunion
of the world in that one same Faith, as living
to-day as in the day of the Apostles or of the
builders of Oxford and of Chartres cathedral, can
that golden key be found again.

CHAPTER XI

ORIGIN OF MEDIEVAL GILDS

THERE is great divergence of opinion
about the origin of the free medieval
gilds which are next to engage our at-
tention and wherein we shall find exemplified the
highest conceptions of the dignity of labor and
the truest realization hitherto attained of the dem-
ocratic control of industry. Though apparently
it matters little to the social student or reformer
whether they were derived from ancient Rome or
Greece, or sprang up from the soil itself of the
respective European countries, under the influence
of the Church, the question in reality is of vital
significance. Whatever their earliest origin, it
was the Church, as we shall see, which impressed
upon them, and upon the civilization in the midst
of which they developed, those marvelous Chris-
tian characteristics which essentially distinguished
them from every similar form of organization his-
torians may find in Egypt, India or China, in
Greece or Rome, and even among the barbarous
tribes from which many of the great nations of
modern Europe have sprung.

It is true that long before the medieval gilds
came into being, the Roman ofjicia opificum, or

102

ORIGIN OF MEDIEVAL GILDS IO3

trade unions, had existed not merely in Rome it-
self, but also in the ancient cities of Gaul, Britain
and other provinces under Roman dominion.
This civilization, however, was soon to be swept
away, and about such unions the history of the
centuries that immediately followed is silent. Lit-
tle can now be learned of economic conditions dur-
ing these submerged epochs of history except that
slavery was again made the practice of the bar-
barian conqueror, and the slave was deprived, as
in the former pagan days, of every human right.
Yet the many analogies and even possible points
of contact existing between the ancient and the
medieval gilds have naturally given rise to a theory
which would see in the medieval trade unions the
lineal descendants of the ancient labor organiza-
tions. In the same manner the merchant gilds of
the Middle Ages are thought to be derived from
the trading organizations of the Romans and the
Syrians.

Especially interesting is the fact that in the
East classical traditions continued unbroken at
Constantinople, and it is not impossible that Ro-
man gilds may there at least have survived until
the very fall of the city, towards the end of the
Middle Ages. Certain it is that such gilds are
found both under the Byzantine Emperors and
in the days of Moslem rule. Mohammed him-
self is said to have been a member of a merchant
gild. The tradition which makes of him the

104 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

founder of the Esnafs, as the Turkish gilds are
called, is accounted for by the same process which
ascribed to Numa or to Servius Tullius the insti-
tution of the Roman craft gilds, or which attri-
buted to iEsop the fables that centuries before had
been familiar to the old Egyptians. All that is
needed is a historic nucleus.

The Esnafs, as the gilds of Turkey and the va-
rious Mussulman tribes are called, were not im-
probably derived from such early institutions, and
popular traditions made bold to trace them back
to the days before the flood. Like the classical
Christian gilds they acknowledged the need of re-
ligion, but showed a true Mohammedan singular-
ity, and at times perversity, in the choice of pa-
trons. Thus to Adam were dedicated the gilds of
bakers and tailors, to Noah the shipwrights and
carpenters. Cain was the patron of the grave-
diggers, Abel of the herdsmen and Nimrod of the
smiths, while Mother Eve was patroness of the
gild of washerwomen.1 Enoch was regarded as
the first weaver and Seth as the first button-maker
and wool-dealer, the inventor of the shirt.2

Westward the course of Empire takes its way.
Along the same path, by a finely elaborated and
seemingly plausible theory, certain writers have
attempted to trace the progress of the gilds.

1 Garnett, " Turkish Life in Town and Country."

2 Kosta NikoloflF, " Das llandwerk und Zunftwesen in Bui-
garien" etc.

ORIGIN OF MEDIEVAL GILDS 105

What in fact could seem more simple than to map
out this uninterrupted course of gild life through
more than twenty centuries ? Beginning with the
days of the Roman King Numa, almost seven hun-
dred years before the Christian era, we would
thus trace it down to Augustus; from Augustus to
Constantine; from the first Eastern Emperor to
the last of the Byzantine monarchs. Finally from
Constantinople we should see it spreading through-
out the Orient, thence passing over into Lombardy,
from Lombardy into Southern France, and from
France into Germany and England!

While this may forcibly appeal to the theorist,
there is no historic evidence to make the gilds of
the Middle Ages essentially dependent upon those
of other civilizations. Influences from Roman
and Byzantine sources may undoubtedly have been
brought to bear upon them, whether directly or
indirectly. Yet such influences were not sufficient
to account for a system which seemed almost to
partake of the universality of the Catholic Church
itself, and which differed vastly in its entire spirit
from all other forms of gild life which had pre-
ceded it.

While the Roman trade-unions during the last
centuries of the declining Empire were purely ser-
vile organizations, and the Eastern esnafs and the
trade castes of India remained stagnant, the gilds
which arose under the influence of the Catholic
Church were a dynamic force. Nowhere perhaps

106 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

was that freedom and spirit of brotherhood, which
the Church has come to bring to mankind, better
illustrated than in these gilds at the period of their
most ideal development. They were the natural
flowering of her teachings by which alone labor
was truly honored and sanctified. Under her in-
spiration nobles and captains, princes and rulers
laid aside their robes of state and shining armor
to don the poor patched habit of the monk. To
the great Religious Order of the Benedictines, in
particular, as we have seen, the civilization of
barbarous nations was due. They drained the
marshes and cultivated the arid land; they cleared
the forests which were still the lurking places of
wild beasts and more savage men; they tutored the
fierce minds of the barbarian hordes, and with
solemn chant and #holy word raised up men's
hearts to God. Beneath their labors the waste
wilderness became fertile with the benediction of
golden harvests and the desert bloomed into an
Eden of beauty. Soon hamlet and town arose
about the monastery wall, and God was glorified
throughout the land. Amid such influences many
of the gilds of the Middle Ages took their origin.

So intimate indeed was the relation between
the Church and organized labor, and so inter-
fused were the religious and economic purposes
of the labor gilds that it is almost impossible to
classify them. " The religious element," writes
Gross, M a potent factor in the history of gilds

ORIGIN OF MEDIEVAL GILDS 107

from their birth to their final extinction, is an al-
most insurmountable obstacle to their logical clas-
sification; for, as Wilda rightly observes, every
gild comprehended within itself a religious one." 3

While the relation of the gilds with the Church
is unquestionable, both as regards their origin and
their development, an outline must at least be
given here of the theory which would seek to
trace them back to the old pagan sacrificial feasts
of the nations among whom the early missionaries
labored.

The old Teutonic root of the word gild has two
distinct meanings. It signified " to pay " and also
14 to sacrifice." The word, therefore, in its first
meaning, might readily have been derived from
the contributions, or " payments," which have al-
ways been an essential part of the gild statutes in
every age. Geld in German still retains this root
meaning, and is the exact equivalent of our mod-
ern English word " money " for the Anglo-Saxon
gild.

Writers, however, who insist mainly upon the
sacrificial character of the first gilds naturally ac-
cept only the derivation which confirms their own
theory. According to Brentano, one of the fore-
most champions of this view, gild meant originally
the sacrificial meal made up of common contribu-
tions; then a social banquet in general; and lastly
a society.

3 Charles Gross, " The Gild Merchant," I, p. 176.

108 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

Christianity — to sum up this theory in brief —
had not come to banish the cheer of life, but to
hallow it. The old feasts were therefore still
retained as paganism gradually disappeared. But
Christ was worshiped and His saints were hon-
ored in place of the idolatrous homage which had
once prevailed. The banquets formerly held in
connection with superstitious sacrifices were now
opened with Christian prayers. The virtues of
the Gospel expelled the vices of the pagan orgies.
The Church in fine retained, and elevated to a
higher sphere, whatever elements of brotherhood
and mutual helpfulness had already existed under
the old worship of the false gods.

Such an argument may appear plausible. Yet
here likewise there is no evidence which forces us
to accept it. The banquets which were to become
so striking a feature of the Christian gilds had
already existed in the gilds of Rome and Greece.
With a different spirit they reappeared in the love
feasts of apostolic days. They were the natural
expression of man's social nature, and like all other
indifferent actions could be supernaturalized by
religious motives. While instituted for manifold
and specifically various purposes, the medieval
gilds were invariably social and religious. Hence
they naturally delighted in conviviality, without
forgetting the public as well as private duties of
worship.

ORIGIN OF MEDIEVAL GILDS IO9

Wilda,4 one of the earliest authorities upon this
subject and a foremost defender of the dual origin
of the gilds, attributes them both to the heathen
banquets and to the later influence of the Church.
Gross, who takes issue with him upon the first
part of this theory, fully admits the importance
of the second. " However erroneous," he writes,
" Wilda's theories may be in detail, he is doubt-
less right in ascribing to Christianity a prominent
part in the inception of the gilds." The Chris-
tianity of those days was nothing else than the
Catholic Church, the same in her teaching as we
know her to-day.

After what has already been said we can dis-
pense ourselves from entering into the evolution-
ary theories which deduce the gilds from the fam-
ily. While admitting freely the possibility of
many and various modifying influences, such as
we have here described, it is sufficient to recur to
the needs of human nature and the principles of
Christianity as the chief sources from which sprang
the medieval gilds.

4W. E. Wilda, "Das Gildenwesen im Mittelalter."

CHAPTER XII

MERCHANT GILDS

ANEW epoch in the history of labor opens
with the merchant gilds. Seen in their
best aspect, they are the first approach
towards an adequate expression of industrial de-
mocracy that the world had known. To appre-
ciate the progress implied in these early " town
gilds " we need but cast a single glance backward
into the past.

Far in the distance lies the arid waste of an-
cient paganism. In the famous cities of classical
antiquity the oppression of labor reached its height
amid the culmination of art and wealth, while the
fair countrysides, that once had been held as the
possession of sturdy freeman, were filled with
gruesome prison dens whence the branded slaves
went forth to toil beneath the lash and till for
heartless Roman masters the earth that God had
made for all alike. In such a world was sown
the great doctrine of human brotherhood. Jud-
aism had never been able to practise it perfectly.
Christianity realized it for the first time within its
own early community. But bitter and ceaseless
to the end was the Church's struggle with Ro-
man vice and heartlessness and greed, though

no

MERCHANT GILDS III

great and many were the saints she reared. Then
came the hurricane of the barbarian invasion lay-
ing waste all the earth. One institution alone re-
mained. It was that same Church of Christ
which had sought to Christianize the Roman as it
now labored to convert and civilize the rude
hordes that fell upon him as the scourge of God.

Again amid the new paganism of the barbarian
conquerors sprang up the beauty of the Gospel
teachings of human brotherhood and the Father-
hood of an all-loving God. The fierce and bloody
Wotan disappeared before the fair Christ, born
of the lowly virgin and reared in the humble car-
penter's shop, Himself the Carpenter of Nazareth.
No wonder that with the growing power of the
Church labor too should rise into dignity, should
develop its new-found freedom and should finally
attain to the perfection of industrial democracy in
the days when the great Catholic gilds were at
length to reach the summit of their usefulness.

With the gilda mercatoria — as the first of the
new institutions we are now to study was called in
the Latin documents of the day — the economic
chapter of the medieval labor associations prop-
erly begins. Variously known as the gild mer-
chant, merchant gild or town gild, this organiza-
tion is peculiarly interesting to us from many
points of view. It appeals alike to the historian,
the lawyer, the social worker, the inquirer into
the origin of corporations, the student of munici-

112

DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

pal government or popular civic activities, and to
all who are following the momentous develop-
ment of economic organizations in our day.
Previous societies had been exclusively civic, social
and religious in their scope. The new institution
embraced all these purposes, although it was pre-
dominantly commercial in its nature.

No trace of any merchant gild can be found
previous to the records of the Norman Conquest
in England. It was in this country that it re-
ceived its most complete development and exer-
cised a greater influence than in Germany, France
or any other European land. A reason for this
fact may not improbably have been the compara-
tively late expansion of industry in England, which
made commercial intercourse with the continent
peculiarly necessary. Even in the Anglo-Saxon
days the merchant who thrice crossed the ocean
was raised to the dignity of a thane.

Whatever cause we may assign, it is certain
that with the Norman Conquest a new era of com-
mercial and industrial expansion opened up for
England. Not only was foreign trade stim-
ulated by the close relation of the Norman mer-
chant with the continent, but a new impulse was
given to domestic trade and industry. Probably
the first clear reference to a merchant gild is found
in a charter granted to the burgesses of Burford
by Robert Fitz-Hamon (1087-1107).

The name given to the particular form of asso-

MERCHANT GILDS 113

ciation which we are here considering is apt to
prove misleading to the modern reader. The
term " merchant gild " only vaguely implies the
meaning it would convey to-day. It was in reality
a labor gild. Each craftsman, at this period, was
likewise a merchant. He personally manufac-
tured his wares and personally sold them in the
market, at the fair, or in his own shop and home.
He not only directly purchased the raw material
of his trade, but at times even bartered with it.
Thus the brewers of Hamburg are said to have
been the principal corn merchants of their city.
Similar instances might readily be given in illus-
tration from English history.

All the burgesses, or citizens, of these primitive
communities could therefore be members of the
merchant gild of their respective town or borough.
Since, however, the possession of a burgage — the
ownership of a town lot, apparently with or with-
out a tenement, according to different regulations
— was in some instances at least required for the
right of citizenship and of the ballot, there would
necessarily be many who could not fulfil this con-
dition. Others again were not strictly resident
inhabitants, while lastly there was a large unfree
population, known from this time on as villeins.
In many boroughs members of all these grades
could enter the gild. Special clauses in favor of
villeins were even to be found in not a few in-
stances. The exclusiveness of later gilds became

H4

DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

more absolute as the town population grew, and
the gradual emancipation of the unfree classes
filled the cities with men who were often almost
on a footing with the free burghers, although still
in a nominal state of villeinage.

The merchant gilds were a protection against
the feudal lord, and the bondman who had fled
from the land was to be recognized as a freeman
after he had lived in the town a year and a day.
This certainly applied where he held land, paying
" scot and lot." But even before the expiration
of that time he could be a member of the gild.
It is evident therefore how the spirit of industrial
democracy was gradually developed by these free
institutions.

In illustration we may quote the answer made
by the mayor and community of Bedford to the
crown attorney who by royal authority had asked
to know what inhabitants were admitted into their
Merchant Gild. " Both burgesses (i.e., citizens)
of the town," they replied, " and any others dwell-
ing in the same, from the time that they take the
oath to preserve the liberties of the town and the
king's peace and to maintain all other privileges
touching the aforesaid town and gild, are ad-
mitted into the gild, so that they can then sell all
kinds of merchandise by retail, and everywhere
enjoy the aforesaid immunities and liberties, just
as the burgesses themselves." ! It is evident,

1 Gross, " The Gild Merchant/' I, p. 38.

MERCHA.NT GILDS 115

therefore, that citizenship and gildship were not
synonymous, as has often been assumed.

The specific object of the merchant gild is
likewise clearly defined in this quotation. It is
briefly expressed in the words, " so that they can
then sell all kinds of merchandise by retail."
While a certain liberty was allowed to foreign
merchants in disposing of their goods by whole-
sale in so far as this could not harm domestic
trade, no one except a gildsman might in general
deal in retail merchandise without being subject to
tolls from which the members of the gild were
free. The sale of certain products was moreover
strictly a gild monopoly. It is probable however
that the necessaries of life were not ordinarily
subject to such restrictions.

" No one shall buy anything in the town of
Southampton, to sell again in the same town,"
reads a local gild statute, " unless he be of the
Gild Merchant, or of the franchise; and if any one
does it and is found guilty, all that he has thus
bought shall be forfeited to the King." 2 Even
in making purchases the gild merchant of this
town was to take precedence over all others who
might wish to buy :

And no simple inhabitant nor stranger shall bargain for nor
buy any kind of merchandise coming to the town before bur-
gesses of the Gild Merchant, so long as a gildsman is present
and wishes to bargain for or buy it; and if any one does it

2 Ibid., p. 46.

I l6 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

and is found guilty, that which he buys shall be forfeited to the
King.3

Thus we read that the abbot of Buckfastleigh,
to enjoy the gild privileges of purchase, entered
into the following agreement with the citizens of
Totnes about the year 1235: " That the said
burgesses receive the said abbot and monks into
the gild merchant, i. e., that they be allowed to
make all purchases like other burgesses, excepting
all sales in the name of trade." For this privi-
lege a yearly tollage was paid by the abbot.

To judge fairly of these regulations we must
bear in mind that, at least in their best period, the
English merchant gilds were generally open to ev-
ery merchant and craftsman in the town. Even
foreign merchants not belonging to the gild might
sell their wares at the great fairs and on market
days, when the main purchases of the year were
made. Merchants of neighboring towns might
moreover receive the liberty of the gild, and an
interchange of privileges took place. In some
charters express mention is made of freedom from
toll throughout the realm. It is even believed that
this was a general privilege of the merchant gilds.

In every case strict provision was made in the
royal charter, or by the town authorities, to pro-
tect the gildsmen from the unlicensed competition
of non-members or foreigners. The latter title
was applied to all who were not townsmen. The

3 Southampton Gild, A. D. 1327.

MERCHANT GILDS 117

isolation of the individual boroughs, the dangers
often encountered in passing from one to the
other, made the separation between town and
town perhaps as great as that which now exists
between country and country. Every stranger,
though coming from the nearest city, was a " for-
eigner." The gildsmen therefore could not per-
mit him to carry away at pleasure the wealth of
the little community. Many exceptions, as we
have already seen, were made in this medieval pro-
tective system.

The retail selling of merchandise by non-gilds-
men was forbidden, not only within the borough,
but likewise within the immediate neighborhood,
so that there might be no possibility of circumvent-
ing the law. Thus the charter given by Henry II
to Oxford lays stress upon the privilege of the
merchant gild, " so that no one who is not of the
gild shall presume to deal in merchandise either
within the city or in the suburbs." 4 Frequently
only certain classes of articles are specified as sub-
ject to such restrictions.

Although the merchant gilds were therefore, in
a wide sense, trading monopolies, they cannot
even remotely be compared with the monopolies
of our day, or with any that have sprung up since
the Reformation. They are essentially different.
This is at once evident from the fact that so far
from seeking to bring about a concentration of

4 Stubbs, " Select Charters," 167.

I I 8 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

trade in the hands of a few their object was to
embrace all who could be considered merchants
in any sense of the word, including the craftsmen
of the town who formed the overwhelmingly great
majority of the original membership.

If, nevertheless, there always remained a num-
ber who were not members of the gild, and con-
sequently were excluded from its public privileges,
the reason is not difficult to see. It was upon the
gildsmen, even though not citizens, that a large
portion of the burden of taxation fell. They
therefore demanded likewise the advantage of
special privileges not to be accorded to strangers
and others who had no share in paying the munici-
pal expenses and answering the royal obligations
placed upon the town. Such a demand was justi-
fied, provided it was not carried to excess. The
first duty of the gildsmen was to pay scot and lot.
This implied that they were to be assessed in pro-
portionate shares whenever money was required
not only for public improvements, but likewise to
meet the exactions of the king. In the latter case
particularly, there was question of forfeiting the
dearly bought and jealously guarded franchises of
the town itself, should they fail in their duties.
The merchant gild therefore was the last re-
source and the great strength of the municipalities
with which it was identified. The town devel-
oped and prospered along with it. Not only did
the gild pay the imposed taxes, but it often under-

MERCHA.NT GILDS 119

took considerable works for the common good.
The municipal welfare and the unsullied reputa-
tion of its borough was the main concern of the
merchant gild,

That there were likewise serious disadvantages
to be dreaded from excessive protection, and from
abuses of power, leading to selfishness, need not
be insisted upon. Like all purely human institu-
tions, the merchant gilds had their defective side
due to mere misjudgment, to faulty social cus-
toms and traditions not yet cast aside, or to other
human frailties. Even in the most ideal earthly
state we shall never be able to ignore the fact of
the original fall. Civic injustice and domestic
grievances will, to a greater or less extent, always
crop up anew owing to human selfishness. Re-
ligion alone can successfully attack this evil at its
root.

Another vital difference between the merchant
gild and modern monopoly lies in the fact that the
right of the consumer was constantly kept in sight.
The object of the gild was to set a fair price
which should be neither exorbitant for the pur-
chaser nor unjust for the tradesman. All traf-
ficking above or below this just standard was cer-
tain to bring severe penalties upon the offenders.
Heavy fines moreover were imposed for all dis-
honesty in weight, measure or quantity. The nu-
merous records which remain show that these laws
were duly enforced. Here indeed is one of the

120 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

first demands made upon the producer in any
system of industrial democracy worthy of the
name. Both profits and wages must be kept
within a reasonable limit that will effectively ward
off from the consumer the menace of a high cost
of living.

Lastly, all monopoly, such as the term implies
at present, was not only strictly forbidden, but
stringent regulations were drawn up to make it
impossible. No individual or group of individ-
uals could monopolize any product. Attempts to
buy up goods, not indeed to control the market —
an offense so heinous that it was utterly unimag-
inable to the mind of the medieval gildsman —
but to conduct a larger sale than was possible to
others, was likely to meet with instant and abso-
lute confiscation of the goods purchased for this
purpose. The genius of the individual was to
manifest itself, not by accumulating a vast fortune
and by employing the greatest number of men, but
by producing the most perfect article for the mar-
ket. Each gildsman was to earn an honest in-
come. No one was to monopolize or even par-
tially control any industry.

While therefore under the later system of op-
pressive individualism the merchant gilds were
naturally condemned as destructive of free compe-
tition, and we may readily concede that their pro-
tective measures may at times seem irksome and ex-
cessive, they nevertheless prevented the far greater

MERCHANT GILDS 121

evils that were to follow under capitalism. These
truths are being admitted more freely every day.
fi*&e» Mr. Henry C. Vedder, Professor of Church
History in Crozier Theological Semir^rv, con-
fesses no less in a volume written Ano-vory yoaj- of
tlii rotfb— afe of»the world war* Iate a<ryTf

The despised Middle Ages were in many respects, marked by
a social justice superior to our own. Society then tried to pre-
vent unfair competition, to give every man a chance in his own
rank. Rising capitalism was from the beginning impatient of
all such restraints, and insisted that they should be removed,
so that competition might be made free and every man find his
level. It proved strong enough to carry its point; restraints
were removed; competition was without limit. What followed?
We have but to look about us and see.5

The three great commercial vices against which
the merchant gild statutes are directed were then
known as " forestalling " or buying articles be-
fore they could be offered in the open market on
equal terms to all gildsmen; " engrossing," or
making large-scale purchases in order to corner
any product; and lastly " regrating," or buying
goods in order to retail them above the market
price. The main objection which can be urged
against the merchant gilds is the discrimination
against the non-gildsman, the reason for which we
have already explained. The civic and national
responsibilities and burdens as well as the com-
mercial privileges were equally the share of the

5 " The Gospel of Jesus and the Problems of Democracy," p.

72.

122 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

gildsman, who was ordinarily a laborer, practising
his trade and selling his ware upon the market.
The non-gildsmen, in the beginning, were mainly,
as would appear, the half-free population of the
towns whose condition the Rev. J. Malet Lambert,
a Protestant divine, holds: " Was in many re-
spects as prosperous, compared with the rest of
the population, as that of the artisan class of the
present day." 6 We are dealing here with a stage
of social development which was the historic
status of the time, and which, under the influence
of the Church, was constantly developing into a
more perfect form of industrial democracy.

A word must here be said of the gild officials.
According to the various constitutions each organ-
ization was usually presided over by an alderman,
steward or master, assisted by two or four war-
dens or echevins. Sometimes two officials were at
the head of the gild. Other special officers were
appointed for particular functions, such as provost,
sergeant and bailiffs. In later times there existed
a council of twelve or twenty-four members who
were most influential in the control of the organ-
ization. The meetings were known as " morning-
talks, " and often were simply called " gilds. "
Social conviviality was of course indispensable for
the public gatherings of the gildsmen.

Religion, charity and good fellowship were all
carefully provided for within the merchant gild.

• " Two Thousand Years of Gild Life," p. 88.

MERCHANT GILDS 1 23

Regulations regarding the appointment of a chap-
lain, the offering of candles for altar and shrine,
the celebration of Masses for the intentions of the
gild, the prayers for departed souls and similar
ordinances were carefully drawn up and every gild
was dedicated to a patron Saint. Sick members
were to be visited, those who had fallen into pov-
erty were to be relieved, and daughters dowered
for the wedded life or for the convent. Banquets
played an important part and often were held on
the occasion of business meetings. Even the sick
gildsmen who could not attend were remembered,
and special portions were set aside and sent to
them. So too, according to statute ten of the
Southampton merchant gild:

If a gildsman was in prison in any place in England, in time
of peace, the alderman, with the seneschal and one of the
echevins, should go at the cost of the gild to procure his de-
liverance. If any gildsman strike another with his fist and be
thereof attained, he should lose his gildship, but might regain the
same for 10s. and a new oath. A stranger (with gild privi-
leges) striking a gildsman, to lose his privileges of the gild and
go to prison for a day and night; a stranger not of the gild
so offending, to be imprisoned (since he had no gild privileges
to lose) two days and nights. A gildsman reviling or aspersing
another gildsman to be fined 2s., or in default lose his gildship.7

Where there is question of delivering or de-
fending a gildsman his innocence is presumed, since
gild regulations do not shield the guilty, nor is im-
punity given to the gildsmen against non-members,

7 Cornelius Walford, "Gilds," p. 116.

124 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

unless a gild should be in its decline, religiously
and socially.

What at first glance must strike the reader is
the extensive civic power delegated to the mer-
chant gilds. So great was their influence at times
that the impression has been created that not in-
frequently the entire control of the municipal gov-
ernment rested with the town gild. Whatever
may be said of various continental gilds it is certain
that the English merchant gild was dependent, as
such organizations should be, upon the civil au-
thorities and had its vast powers duly delegated
from them or even directly from the King himself.
The early city charters usually embodied the priv-
ilege of establishing such a gild, a privilege eag-
erly coveted by them, since not only the prosperity
of the city but even the development of its consti-
tution was greatly determined by gild influence.
The very establishment of a merchant gild was of
such significance that legal writers have commonly
mistaken it to have been equivalent to municipal
incorporation. Such therefore was the status of
this important institution during its most flourish-
ing period, in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.

CHAPTER XIII

A SCOTCH MERCHANT GILD

IN the name of the Lord God, and of the indi-
visible Trinity, and of the Blessed Virgin
Mary, and of all the Saints, these are the
statutes of the Burghers' Gild. Such is the brief
but solemn introduction to the code of ordinances
drawn up for their merchant gild by the citizens of
Berwick-upon-Tweed. Their regulations will ad-
mirably serve us as an illustration of the varied
interests of these ancient town gilds.

The earliest documentary reference to the
Scotch gildry dates back to the reign of David I
(1124-1153). From that period onward the
gild idea continued to develop. It took its most
definite form in the burgh of Berwick, which was a
Scotch town until the fourteenth century. Pre-
vious to the year 1283 several gilds had coexisted
there until the gildsmen conceived the plan of
uniting them into one corporate organization.
11 So that/' reads the gild preamble, " where
many bodies are found side by side in one place,
they may become one and have one will, and in
the dealings of one towards another have a strong
and hearty love." The new association thus
formed was a merchant gild.

125

126 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

The ordinances, we are told, were drawn up by
the burghers in the course of two days' delibera-
tions in the year 1283, and three days' delibera-
tions in the year following. They had probably
been drafted previously by individuals or com-
mittees, who doubtlessly took into consideration
many earlier gild regulations. The body of
statutes thus approved became a model for sub-
sequent Scotch merchant gilds in other towns.
They were in fact of such importance that they
were admitted into the early collections of the
burghal laws, and may be found in this connec-
tion in the work of Cosmo Innes, " Ancient Laws
and Customs of the Burghs of Scotland." * In
our study of this interesting subject, we shall use
the translation given in his documentary work on
14 English Gilds " by Toulmin Smith.2

44 All separate gilds," the first statute ordains,
" heretofore existing in the borough, shall be
brought to an end. The goods rightfully belong-
ing to them shall be handed over to this gild. No
other gild shall be allowed in the borough. All
shall be as members having one head, one in
counsel, one body, strong and friendly." We
have here in this ideal a reflection of the one su-
preme reality in the minds of the gildsmen, the
unity of head and members in the Catholic
Church. The economic object was to eliminate

1 1, pp. 64-88.

2 See also Thorpe, " Diplomatarium Angl.," pp. 605-617.

A SCOTCH MERCHANT GILD 1 27

destructive competition among the various gilds,
whose members evidently agreed to unite their in-
terests and combine their treasuries. Yet there
was no question of a monopoly in the hands of a
few wealthy merchants.

In the ordinances which follow it is often easy
to perceive the influence of Catholicity in the spirit
of charity and brotherhood displayed, in the con-
sideration taken of the common good of the com-
munity, and in the generous concern for the spirit-
ual welfare of the members. It would be unjust
on the other hand to hold the Church accountable
for such imperfections and faults as may exist in
this or any other gild system. They are due to
the shortcomings of human nature and the miscon-
ceptions or selfishness of individuals, against
which her voice is constantly raised.

Continuing our reading of the statutes, we find
that gild brethren making a will are obliged to
bequeath a portion of their possessions to the gild,
thus providing for the common good of the city
and of their fellow members. Women likewise
were admitted into the gild, as we may judge from
the eighth statute, which places the entrance fee
at not less than forty shillings, but exempts from
this payment " the sons and daughters of gilds-
men." If ever the entrance fees of gilds became
prohibitive for the general public they had lost
their democratic character.

The observance of the Christian law of charity

128 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

is duly provided for, first in the mutual respect the
brethren are to show each other. Foul words
spoken to a gild brother " going to, at, or coming
back from the gild meeting n are punishable by a
monetary fine. Poverty and human infirmities are
carefully relieved. " Whoever shall fall into old
age or poverty, or into hopeless sickness, and has
no means of his own, shall have such help as the
aldermen, dean and brethren of the gild think
right, and such as the means of the gild enable to
be given." So too, whoever dies without leaving
means enough to pay for- becoming burial rites
11 shall be buried at the cost of the gild." He
was thus receiving the honors of the gild and not
a pauper funeral. What was of even greater im-
portance, his family was not forgotten. " If any
brother die, leaving a daughter true and worthy
and of good repute, but undowered, the gild shall
find her a dower, either in marriage, or in going
into a religious house."

Charity, however, was to be tempered by jus-
tice. Thus if a brother was charged with serious
wrong-doing he was to be helped by three of the
gildsmen, and even the charges of the litigation
were for a time to be borne by the gild. But " if
the brother has been rightly charged," continues
the twelfth statute, " he shall be dealt with as the
aldermen and brethren think well."

The gild likewise took the place of a modern
board of health. Thus it kept up " a proper place

A SCOTCH MERCHANT GILD 1 29

for lepers " outside of the town, and saw to it
that fitting alms were bestowed upon them. But,
if a leper wilfully forced his way into the borough,
thus endangering the city, he met with a some-
what primitive punishment, but no bodily violence
was done to him. Another important sanitary
measure, which modern municipalities might profit-
ably imitate, was to prevent all unsightly and pol-
luting heaps of rubbish of whatever kind from
being piled along the fair banks of the Tweed.
Marks were set within which this gild law was
strictly enforced under penalty of a fine. An-
other statute intended for the common welfare
of the citizens was to oblige each burgher whose
fortune was at least forty pounds to keep a horse
worth twenty shillings. If it died he was to pro-
cure another within forty days, or pay a fine of
eight shillings sterling. Judging from the statutes
of a similar English gild it would appear that the
purpose may have been to use the horses for draw-
ing water in case of fire, and probably likewise for
other civic emergencies and the defense of the
town.

In imposing its obligations, the gild, as is evi-
dent, did not confine itself to its own members.
Its charter enabled it to enforce its statutes
throughout the entire burghal community. Thus
it could ordain, for the sake of peace, that " No
burgess shall get an outsider to plead for him
against a neighbor, under penalty of a cask of

130 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

wine." The purely economic regulations of the
gild show best how far-reaching its power was.

Unemployment was to be carefully avoided.
So, to keep the town millers in work, the nine-
teenth statute ordains : " No one shall grind
wheat or other grain in hand-mills unless through
urgent need. The miller must have his share, —
the thirteenth part for grain and the twenty-fourth
part for malt." In the same manner the butcher
is not to deal in wool or hides, " unless he would
abjure his ax and not lay hands upon beasts." He
is to carry on his own trade and not interfere with
the trade of another man. The price, however,
of the meat is fixed for the different seasons.
11 Mutton shall not be sold from Easter to Whit-
suntide at dearer than sixteen pence the carcass,
from Whitsuntide to the feast of St. James at
dearer than twelve pence, thence to Michaelmas
at dearer than ten pence, thence to Easter at
dearer than eight pence. Whoever breaks this
assize shall pay a fine of eight shillings." In the
same way the price of ale was graded, and the
ale-wives were to be registered.

Very little is said expressly of gild monopoly.
Statute twenty is an exception: "No one, not
being a brother of the gild, shall buy wool, hides
or skins to sell again, or shall cut cloths, save
stranger-merchants in course of trade."

Most important, however, are the regulations
drawn up in order to prevent any individual from

A SCOTCH MERCHANT GILD 131

acquiring excessive wealth, or from controlling
even the smallest section of the market.

Any brother of the gild advancing money to a stranger-mer-
chant, and sharing profits thereon, shall be fined forty shillings
the first, the second and the third time. If it be done a fourth
time he shall be put out of the gild. And in the same way shall
any brother be punished who takes money from a stranger-mer-
chant for such kind of trade.

Married women could not buy wool, since the
husband would thus be able to carry a double stock.
For the same reason it was ordained that no citi-
zen could have more than one buyer of wool and
hides. The fine for thus attempting to create a
little private corner was very severe. " Whoso-
ever unreasonably ingrosses such goods out of the
market shall forfeit them to the gild, and pay a fine
of eight shillings."

No one was to be able to buy up more than a
limited amount of raw material to carry on his
trade. In this way no one could deprive others of
their opportunities. " No woman shall buy (at
one time) more than a chaldron of oats for mak-
ing beer to sell." So again, " No one shall have
more than two pair of mill-stones." Live and let
live, was the rule. If more labor was required in
such a method of production there was likewise
far more joy in the performance of the work.
Methods of production, we must remember, were
far different from those employed to-day.

Particularly interesting are the regulations

132 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

which made the sharing of large purchases an
obligation in this as in other early gilds. " Who-
ever buys a lot of herrings shall share them, at
cost price, with the neighbors present at the buy-
ing. Any one not present and wanting some shall
pay to the buyer twelve pence profit." To pre-
vent such sharing from becoming excessive an-
other statute ordains that, " No brother of the
gild ought to go shares with another in less than
a half quarter of skins, half a dicker of hides, and
two stones of wool."

Of greatest importance, however, are the pro-
visions made for the common good of all the citi-
zens. Thus forestalling the market is guarded
against in every way. The goods brought by
trading vessels, and all " sea-borne articles of
food M in particular, are to be sold only at a cer-
tain place or under certain conditions, to give all
an equal opportunity of making a fair purchase,
and prevent large purchases by individuals. So
likewise in regard to all goods brought into the
city, the consumer is to have the first choice, and
only at a given signal can the middleman buy the
remaining articles. u No huckster shall buy fish,
hay, oats, cheese, butter, or any things sent to the
borough for sale, before the stroke of the bell in
the bell-tower of Berefrid. If any one does this,
the goods shall be seized, and shall be given to
the poor." To prevent, however, the possibility

A SCOTCH MERCHANT GILD 133

of any one buying up the goods on the farm before
they are brought into the town, or while still on
their way to the town, in order to sell them at a
profit and raise the price for the consumer, the
prudent rule is made: " Goods shall not be
bought up before they reach the market. Goods
so bought up shall be forfeited to the gild."

These last ordinances in particular we would
recommend to all sociological students for their
most careful consideration. There is a world of
economic wisdom contained in them. After al-
most a thousand years we are again making our
own blundering attempts at what the old gilds-
men had solved so satisfactorily. We need above
all things to devise methods — suited to our times
and conditions — of cheaply conveying the farm
products and other articles directly into the city
and to the market, so as to give the producer the
full value of his labor and the purchaser the full
value of his money. Protected by such provisions
men will more willingly return to the farm, and
the problem of the high cost of living will find its
solution — a solution which can be rendered fu-
tile only by the excesses in which modern society
indulges. A key to the solution is the system of
cooperation.

Attention is here called to the special chapter
on the middleman in the author's volume, uThe
World Problem," in which the system of the mer-

134 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

chant gilds is contrasted with the modern waste-
ful methods.3 There is no question of simply re-
storing the ancient gilds and blindly copying their
methods, but of adapting to our own economic
needs the excellent principles, more or less wisely
applied in the various medieval gilds, accordingly
as the spirit of the Church was able to exert its
influence. As Mr. E. T. Raymond says:

No sensible person will hold that the days of the gilds and
the monasteries were the days of a terrestrial paradise. Nobody
but a fool would want to go back to the precise ways of those
times, any more than a grown person would care to put on a
child's jersey and knickerbockers. The point about the Middle
Ages is that they did represent vigorous childhood. . . . They
were not perfect, but they had nobility, and held the germ of
still nobler things.4

It is with the aid of the principles suggested
to us by the medieval gilds and in the light of
their experiences that the modern social order
must be reconstructed if it is ever to be safely and
sanely established for the procuring of the com-
mon good.

3 Husslein, " The World Problem/' pp. 65-74. See also chap-
ters on cooperation: xviii, xix, and xx. The question of cooper-
ation is still more fully developed in the concluding chapters of
ihe present volume.

4 Everyman,

CHAPTER XIV

ECONOMICS, RELIGION AND CHARITY

WHATEVER defects and faults may be
ascribed to the merchant gild system,
it ever sacredly maintained the great
truth, that religion concerns the whole man, and
that it may not be disregarded by him in his eco-
nomic, social and civic activities. Religion is far
more than " a private matter," as the old gildsmen
well realized. It determines the principles that
actuate men in their commercial and industrial re-
lations. With religion removed, there can be no
authority to make them seek truth, justice and
charity in all their dealings with their fellow-men.
Merchant gilds were less noted than trade gilds
for ordinances of a religious character. Exam-
ples chosen from them will, therefore, be all the
more convincing. They will, likewise, serve to
illustrate the relation between religion and social
works. The large body of craftsmen and mer-
chants who constituted these organizations seem,
in particular, to have had a very special devotion
to the Mystery of the Holy Trinity. To this, in
fact, many of the merchant gilds were dedicated.
We shall confine ourselves in the present chapter

135

136 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

to two such associations, one at Lynn, dedicated
to this great Mystery; the other at Coventry, with
the Assumption of Our Lady for its patronal
feast.

The organization at Lynn dated back to a pe-
riod prior to the reign of King John; but it was
this monarch who granted it by letters patent the
privilege of a recognized merchant gild. Its al-
derman was second only to the mayor in civic
importance, and no great municipal work was ever
undertaken to which it did not liberally contribute
out of its own private funds. The spacious gild-
hall which it erected in the center of the market
place gave distinction to the town. Particularly
intimate was the cooperation between its officials
and the Bishop.1

If now we consider the organization on its
spiritual side, we find it no less magnificently pro-
vided for. The two sources of information in
our possession are the statutes and other ordi-
nances of the gild, and an inventory made at the
demand of King Richard II. According to the
latter, the gild, out of the income of its lands,
goods, chattels and bequests, actually supported
thirteen chaplains. Six of these officiated in the
church of St. Margaret, four in the chapel of St.
Nicholas and three in the chapel of St. James.
They were to celebrate Mass daily, and to pray

1 Richards, " History of Lynn," pp. 458-466 ; Gross, " The
Gild Merchant," II,*pp. 151-170. Harrod.

ECONOMICS, RELIGION AND CHARITY 1 37

for the intentions of the gild. Never perhaps,
except in apostolic days, did men appreciate more
highly the value of the Holy Sacrifice. Among
the items enumerated in its list of possessions, are
" many books, vestments, chalices, and other or-
naments for the chaplains of the said gild." Fur-
ther items of expense were the " wax for lights
in the said church and chapels, in the honor and
laud of the Holy Trinity " and " torches at the
funerals of poor brethren, and so on." If any
one of the chaplains should ever fail to give the
edification which men might rightfully expect of
him, the gild provided that he should be removed,
and another, " able and honest," should be ap-
pointed in his place. The souls of the gildsmen
were thus assured of every possible spiritual bene-
fit and assistance. The zeal of the chaplains was
not, of course, to be limited by the duties here
described, and even their prayers, according to
gild ordinances, were, in particular, to secure
the welfare of the entire Kingdom.

The additional usages and customs of the gild
indicate the care taken to give instant relief to
the soul of a departed gildsman that it might ob-
tain as soon as possible the remission of its tem-
poral punishment and enjoy the eternal vision
of God. Immediately upon the death of a
brother, the custom prescribes that:

The alderman shall order solemn Mass to be celebrated for
him, at which every brother of the said gild that is in town,

138 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

shall make his offering; and further the alderman shall have
every chaplain of the said gild, immediately on the death of any
brother, to say thirty Masses for the deceased.

The works of charity performed by the gild
were in proportion to its religious fervor. Out
of the profits derived from the gild possessions of
many kinds, liberal alms were yearly given :

Towards the support of the poor brethren of the same gild, to
the blind, lame and other distressed persons, to poor clerks keep-
ing school, and poor religious houses as well of men as of
women, to the lepers in and about Lenne, and in the repairs
and so forth of the parish church and chapels aforesaid, and in
the ornaments of the same, together with the alms given to the
four orders of friars in Lenne, and to the maintaining of sev-
eral aqueducts for the use of said town.

Such is the testimony of the writ of inquiry made
in the reign of Richard II.

The gildsman, himself, was assured his support
no matter what fortune might befall him. " If
any brother," reads the fifth of the additional or-
dinances, " shall become poor and needy, he shall
be supported in food and clothing according to
his exigency, out of the profits of the lands and
tenants, goods and chattels of the said gild." In
case of death he was to be " honorably buried " at
the expense of the gild. To make sure that no
human misery would be overlooked in the town,
it was made the sacred duty of the alderman and
leading gild officials, l< to visit, four times a year,
all the infirm, all that are in want, need, poverty,

ECONOMICS, RELIGION AND CHARITY 1 39

and to minister and relieve all such out of the alms
of the said-gild."

In order that the Lynn gild may not be taken as
an isolated example, we may briefly summarize
the religious characteristics of the similar mer-
chant gild in Coventry. It obtained its charter
from Edward III in 1340. Its statutes, written
in Old French, may be found to-day among the
royal charters. The reasons urged for its es-
tablishment were the economic difficulties expe-
rienced by its merchants and craftsmen because of
the fact that Coventry lies at a considerable dis-
tance from the sea.

The first concern of the " brethren and sisters "
of the gild was to secure as many chaplains, and
therefore as many Masses, as their means per-
mitted, without sacrificing other important ob-
jects. Enough money was always to be on hand
to provide for any brother or sister who might
have fallen into poverty. There was no need of
countless sickness, old age, accident and other in-
surances, since the simple gild ideal was to help a
brother whenever and however he might need
help. The assistance given was not to be pro-
portioned by the amount he had paid, but by
the extent of the charity he might require. Be-
sides attending to the material need of its own
brethren and sisters, the gild supported thirty-one
men and women who were unable to gain their
own livelihood. It furthermore kept a free lodg-

140 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

ing house with thirteen beds for poor folk making
religious pilgrimages or for any other " works of
charity in honor of God and of His Saints." An
officer was kept at the house to provide for the
wants of the poor and a woman to wash the feet
of the pilgrims and perform whatever corporal
acts of mercy Christian charity might suggest.
On the great gild feast of our Lady's Assumption,
all the poor in the care of the gild were newly
clad in her honor.

Besides performing all these works the gild was
able, at the time of which we write, to support out
of the rent of its gild lands, four chaplains. They
were to offer Masses and pray for the welfare of
the entire Church, of the King and Queen, of the
hierarchy and nobility, of all the commonalty of
the realm, and for the brethren and sisters of the
gild and its benefactors. The latter, as was the
custom, had at times bestowed lands and houses
upon the gild to increase its annual income, and
consequently its possibility for doing good. It
was rich, moreover, in precious chalices, vestments
and church ornaments.

Not only were Masses to be offered liberally for
the departed brethren and sisters, but they were
to be given a memento by name, in every Mass,
for an entire year. Such apparently is the mean-
ing of one of the gild statutes. The names, more-
over, were to be written on a tablet and placed
at the altar where the Masses were sung. Those

ECONOMICS, RELIGION AND CHARITY 141

who died in poverty were no less honorably
buried, " as becomes a brother or sister of the
gild." To preserve the high moral standard of
the society no man or woman openly suspected of
any shameful sin could be admitted. One who
was already a member of the gild was instantly
expelled if found guilty.

Religion, therefore, in the minds of the gilds-
men, was not a mere humanitarianism, such as is
preached by so-called Christian Socialists. It im-
plied a complete compliance with faith, dogma and
external worship, as well as a regard for the tem-
poral wants of the neighbor. It was all that
Christ wished it to be when He instituted His one,
infallible Church. To carry out in our own day
the economic, social and civic duties which are
implied in the faithful observance of all the teach-
ings of this Church is often difficult in the ex-
treme. It is, therefore, all the more necessary
that we look from time to time at the true ideal
as we find it expressed, in spite of abuses, in many
of the gilds which flourished during the course
of the Middle Ages.

Aside from economic gilds, it should here be
noted, there were also purely religious and
benevolent gilds from which the former not sel-
dom developed. The science of philanthropy
was never again to reach the development it at-
tained in the Middle Ages, but it was inspired by
religion and therefore became charity because

142 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

done in the name of Christ. The charity of the
monks was not, as modern ignorance of medieval
history often assumes, a mere reckless prodigality.
It was truly scientific, providing opportunities of
labor to the unemployed as well as affording food
and lodging. Above all it remedied the evils of
society at their very source as we have never been
able to do in our later, self-glorious days. The
final test, however, is found in the fact that it was
absolutely efficient and effective, so that pauper-
ism was unknown in its time, but at once came
into being, like an overwhelming catastrophe, with
the passing of the medieval monastery. The
same may be said of the charity dispensed by the
gilds. This truth must doubtless have become
sufficiently apparent, but a brief reference may
here be made to two religious gilds, that of the
Palmers at Ludlow and the Gild of the Blessed
Virgin Mary at Hull. As an instance of scien-
tific charity we here adduce the following statute
from the latter :

If it befall that any of the gild, either a brother or an un-
married sister, being young and able to work, has, through mis-
hap, become so poor that help is much needed, there shall be
paid to him, out of the goods of the gild, as a free grant for
one year, ten shillings, to enable him to follow his own calling
in such manner as he thinks best {ad mercandisandum ad opus
suum proprium, prout sibi melius inderit expedire). And if,
owing to weakness or any other cause that may be excused, he
is not able to earn back the ten shillings during the first year, he
shall be let keep the money during another year. If at the end
of the two years he is not able to earn back the ten shillings,

ECONOMICS, RELIGION AND CHARITY 1 43

nor to make increase thereupon, nor to live on his own, he may
keep the money for yet another year, in order that he may make
a profit out of it. If at the end of the third year he is unable
to earn back, beyond what is his own, the ten shillings with an
increase, then the money shall be wholly released to him.2

While unemployment, poverty and beggary
were thus scientifically averted in the spirit of
Christ, the social evil was similarly warded off
by preventive means and Christian love. Here,
for example, is a statute from the Palmers' Gild
that might be paralleled by countless similar ordi-
nances:

If any good girl of the gild, of marriageable age, cannot
have the means found by her father, either to go into a re-
ligious house or to marry, whichever she wishes to do, friendly
and right help shall be given her, out of our means and our
common chest, towards enabling her to do whatever of the two
she wishes.3

All other material evils were remedied with the
same generosity, that looked only to the extent of
the suffering to be relieved or the greatness of
the danger to be averted. Thus the same gild,
which was founded in 1284, gave help in fire,
theft, shipwreck or any other mishap, provided
only that the members had been actually impov-
erished. In grievous sickness the brethren and
sisters were to be aided until restored to health.
11 But if any one becomes a leper, or blind, or
smitten with any other incurable disorder (which

2 Joshua Toulmin Smith, "English Gilds," pp. 156, 157.

3 Ibid., p. 194.

144 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

God forbid!), we wish that the goods of the gild
shall be largely bestowed on him." Nor did the
charity of the gildsmen remain at home, though it
quite properly began there. Thus the statutes
of the Gild of St. Omar in Flanders, existing in
the early part of the twelfth century, conclude
with the order to remember all the poor and the
lepers: " Postea autem omnes poster os in XPO
monemus ut pauperum ac leprosorum miserean-
tut." 4

That the real progress towards industrial de-
mocracy which we find in the merchant gilds on
their economic side was due to the Catholic re-
ligion rather than to any material cause must be
obvious to the intelligent student. In a volume
on economic problems, published by the Univer-
sity of Chicago Press, Mr. Walton Hale Hamil-
ton draws the following impartial conclusions in
this regard:

The town was born in an atmosphere saturated with the
spirit of medieval Catholicism. Brotherhood and equality had
long been preached by the Church. Vertical, or inter-class
equality was never realized, either in chivalry or in the Church.
But many medieval institutions presented a fair semblance
of horizontal, or intra-class equality. It was under the influ-
ence of ecclesiastical precedents that the towns established their
new organizations. A study of the characteristic features of
the gilds shows how great was the number of things to which
they were indebted to religious institutions, and how few were
the real innovations springing out of the newly created urban

4 Memoires de la Soc. des Antiquaires de la Morinie, XVII.
(Gross.)

ECONOMICS, RELIGION AND CHARITY 1 45

life. Influenced by such habits of thought and freed from the
obstacles opposed by an already stratified society, the merchant
gild legislated with the end in view of placing social interests
above class or individual interests.5

This last is clearly the supreme ideal to be kept
in view in all social organization and legislation.
Yet who indeed can fail to realize how far in this
particular we have fallen short of the social prog-
ress made in the Middle Ages, even at the very
beginning of their first economic organizations, the
merchant gilds? What was true of them was no
less true of all the medieval gilds, even of those
whose prime object may seem to have been the
acting of mystery plays and the presentation of
pageants. They too, as Bishop Stubbs says, were
organized for charity and prayer : " It was with
this idea that men gave large estates in land to
the gilds, which down to the Reformation formed
an organized administration of relief." 6

5 " Current Economic Problems," p. 24.

• " Constitutional History of England," III, p. 648.

CHAPTER XV

A FIFTEENTH CENTURY GILD

THE widespread activity and the great
civic power of the old merchant gilds has
already been made sufficiently clean
The most authentic sources of information are
fortunately available to us in the many gild ordi-
nances that have been preserved among the royal
charters and other ancient documents. Like all
gild records they are the most precious historic
monuments of the life of the people at the period
to which they belong. For the student of social
problems they are a veritable treasure-trove.

In the present instance we shall select from
these scattered documents the statutes of an insti-
tution existing at the period when the craft gilds,
which we are next to consider, had already at-
tained their full development. While normally
the merchant gild was first chartered as the only
economic association of the early English towns
until the craft gilds arose and finally supplanted it,
we here find an institution which draws up new
legislation for the various trade organizations of
its city that are all gathered in a friendly way be-

146

A FIFTEENTH CENTURY GILD 1 47

neath its aegis. Its ordinances, constitutions and
articles, we are informed in the preamble to the
gild statutes, were drawn up

By the kynges commaundement and by the hole assent of the
citesens inhabitants in the Cyte of Worcester at their yeld
merchant (meeting of their Merchant Gild), holden the Sonday
in the feste of the exaltacion of the holy crosse, the yere of the
reigne of kynge Edward the fourth, after the conquest the VI.1

The institution of the merchant gild had at this
period existed in England for four centuries. At
the time in question it was already in general sup-
planted by the trade gilds. In Worcester, as the
statutes show, it coexisted with them and finally,
by common consent, even legislated for them.
It may in fact, in the present instance, be consid-
ered as an entirely new institution resembling the
old merchant gilds which belonged to an earlier
date. The present ordinances therefore embody
the result of earlier regulations, while they intro-
duce us to a later and far more complex state of
economic development. These facts render them
doubly interesting. The original statutes may be
found to-day in the archives of the city of Wor-
cester.

To begin with, the shrewd old burgesses well un-
derstood the weakness of human nature, and knew
how even Judas was tempted while carrying the
purse. They did not know of our modern graft
and peculation, but they were wisely beforehand

1 September 14, 1467.

I48 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

in preventing, as far as possible, the first begin-
nings of such a condition. Great sums of money
constantly came into their treasury and were paid
out from it. Their statutes therefore ordained
that there should be " a stronge comyn cofur wt
VI keyes, to kepe yn ther tresour." These six
keys were held respectively by the high bailiff, by
one of the aldermen, by the chamberlain chosen
11 by the grete clothynge " and by another similar
official chosen by the commoners. The remaining
two keys were then consigned to two " thrifty
comyners, trewe sufficiant, and feithfulle men.1'
Collusion between these officials was practically
impossible.

The protective measures of the gild were very
simple. A distinction was made between " foreyn
burgers " and simple strangers. The former
dwelled in the city and payed common taxes with
the citizens, and consequently enjoyed commercial
privileges not granted to mere strangers. Va-
rious restrictions however applied to both classes.
Thus neither a foreign burgher nor a stranger
could buy barley or malt until the town brewers
and malt-makers had been served. The gildsmen
were ordinarily very definite in their ordinances,
and so to avoid possible confusion here, the hour
at which purchases might be made by foreign citi-
zens and strangers was set at eleven of the bell in
summer and at twelve in the winter season.

For the privilege of standing in the gild hall

A FIFTEENTH CENTURY GILD 1 49

strangers were to pay id. every market day, and
2d. every fair day. " Also that no manner foreyn
(foreigner) sille (sell) no lether in the seid cite,
but it be in the yelde (gild) halle of the same,
payinge for the custom of every dyker, id."

How great the municipal powers of the gild
were is evident from the fact that it is ordained
in statute 38 that no citizen be put in the common
prison, but in one of the chambers of the gild hall,
unless he be committed for felony or murder or
some other heinous trespass or for a considerable
debt. Regulations are likewise made for the po-
lice sergeant, who for " attachment of any goods "
at the request of a stranger may take 2d. for his
fee from a stranger, but nothing from a citizen.
The fee he may take from citizens in serving a
capias for them under certain circumstances is
strictly limited to 2d. Persons under arrest were
to be given the choice of three courses by the bailiff.
Either they were to accept a reasonable fine, or
be amerced by two assessors, or else seek trial be-
fore a jury of twelve men. The gild prescribed
the qualifications of the jurymen, the duty of the
sergeant impanelling the jury and the method of
trial.

Not only did it solve the police and the prison
problem, but it likewise legislated to prevent un-
employment within the city and conducted a very
effective employment bureau. Thus no working
people from out of town could be employed to the

150 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

injury of the workingmen in the town. The
method of hiring labor is thus described:

Also it ys ordeyned by this present yelde, that all manner
laborers that wolle be hyred wtyn (wish to be hired within)
the cyte, that they stonde dayly at Grascroys (at the Gross-
Cross) on the werkedays wtyn the seid cite, ther redy to alle per-
sones suche as wolle hyre hem (wish to hire them) to their cer-
teyn labor, for reasonable summes; in the somer season at V of
the Belle in the mornynge, and in the wynter season at VI. And
that proclamation be made at iiij (four) places assigned, ij
times a quarter, by the Belmon (bellman) of the citee.

A considerable labor population had by this
time arisen and the gild was concerned in many
ways about their welfare. In particular did it
legislate against the abuse which was creeping in
of paying the workingman in kind. They must be
paid in gold or silver, and not by " mercery, vi-
telle," etc. No butcher was to occupy the craft
of a cook, and so deprive the latter of his living.
To prevent overproduction on the one hand or an
insufficiency of food on the other the wardens of
the Bakers Craft were every Saturday to deter-
mine the amount of bread that was to be baked
during the following week. The same regulations
was made for the ale. A special ordinance was
made for the tilers:

And that the Tylers of the cite sett no parliament amonge
them, to make eny of them to be as a maister, and alle other
tylers to be as his seruants and at his commandment, but that
euery tyler be ffree to come and go to worche wt every man
and citezen, frely as they may accorde, in peyn xx.s. and lesynge

A FIFTEENTH CENTURY GILD 151

of his ffraunches (losing his franchise) of hym thay be found
in defaut.

While considering the interests of the crafts-
man, the gild never forgot the paramount good of
the public. Thus each tyler was obliged to set
his mark upon every tile he made, " to that ende,
yf it be defective or smalle, that men may remedy
of the seid partie, as lawe and reasonne requirith."
As often as a man refused to mark a tile he was
to pay 20s. into the common treasury. In the
same way, to see that the ale was good and fit to
drink, two " ale conners of sadd and discrete per-
sones " were appointed on election day to test its
quality. The price of the ale was fixed at every
law day. Particular care was taken that the
" great enquest " which was to decide the price
was not made up " to the half partye or more " of
brewers. There was, moreover, to be a public
measure " to mete ale wt." The consumer could
hardly have been better protected. It is in this
particular again that our modern organizations,
whether of laborers or employers, have much to
learn from the medieval gilds.

The merchants likewise were to have their pro-
tection. No one was to forestall the market, by
selling before the appointed time or out of the
appointed place. Buying up large quantities to
sell at a high price was prevented. No ale could
be sold unless there was a sign at the door, and
similarly no inn could be kept except under this

152 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

provision. Cases of debt were tried in the gild
hall.

The gild provided not only for the work done
to-day in a very perfunctory way by a pure food
commission, but likewise took the place of the
modern health department. All fish were to be
examined in the market to see that they were fit to
be eaten. Bridges were inspected and repaired.
Cleanliness and health were to be guarded by the
gild officials. The water near Severn bridge was
kept pure. The ordinances contained regulations
of every kind for the prevention of fires, and es-
tablished a mounted bucket brigade. The gilds-
men likewise saw to the gates and the town wall,
ready to protect their city against any attack, and
to fight shoulder to shoulder against a common
foe.

The triple institution of craftsmen, journeymen
and apprentices was already perfectly developed
within the city of Worcester at the period when
these statutes were made. The craft gilds like-
wise were in flourishing condition. All these in-
stitutions and organizations, however, were uni-
fied by the merchant gild. It prescribed how a
craftsman coming into the city could be admitted
to his craft and set up his shop, and under what
conditions a journeyman from without could re-
ceive permission to exercise his trade. In all
these cases the individuals were referred to the
wardens of the craft gilds and paid their yearly

A FIFTEENTH CENTURY GILD 1 53

contributions for the religious pageants and for
the candles required on these occasions. The
great feast of the gild was the Nativity of Saint
John the Baptist.

To obtain burgess (citizenship) rights a pay-
ment was required from which the sons of a bur-
gess and every apprentice who had served seven
years — the full term of apprenticeship — were
excepted. All the above articles and the other
ordinances and constitutions were to be " openly
redde and declared at euery law day next after
the feste of Seynt Michell the Archangelle, yf it
be desired."

Institutions more or less similar to the English
merchant gilds existed also upon the Continent,
but in many cases there was question merely of
associations of merchants, in our modern sense
of the word and not of town gilds in which all
participated. The same is true also of many of
the later English merchant gilds, as when we read
in the public records of a petition from the Com-
mons to Parliament in the reign of Edward III,
printed among their Rolls,2 that certain whole-
sale merchants had formed themselves into a gild
whose real purpose was not the common good,
but to create a monopoly for themselves. In this
association we already find the commercial in-
iquities of modern capitalism clearly fore-
shadowed. It was called the Grocers' (i. e.,

2 Rot. Pari. II, 278.

154 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

grossers) Gild, because its members " en-
grossed/' or in our modern parlance " cornered/'
the merchandise upon the market. The com-
plaint of the Commons therefore was:

That great mischiefs had newly arisen, as well to the King as
to the great men and Commons, from the merchants called
grocers (grossers), who engrossed all manner of merchandise
vendible, and who suddenly raised the prices of such merchan-
dise within the realm, putting to sale, by covin and by ordi-
nances made among themselves, in their own society which they
called the fraternity and gild of merchants, such merchandises as
were most dear, and keeping in store the others until times of
dearth and scarcity.3

Here, therefore, we behold the vices which the
Church had been successfully combating all these
years breaking out anew, until they finally gained
complete control under the post-Reformation cap-
italism when the suppression of her influence in
industrial and commercial life had been brought
about. Long before this period we can perceive,
with the lessening of faith or devotion, the growth
of oligarchy and monopoly in England.

Mention of a merchant gild in Paris occurs in
a document dating back to the year 1121. In
Spain also the merchant gild preceded the craft
gild. The oldest known gild record in that coun-
try, drawn up under King Alphonso VII (1126—
1 157), refers to the confradia of the merchants
of Soria.4 In Florence the consules of the mer-

3 Rot. Pari. II, 279.

* R. Leonard, " Ueber Handiverkgilden und Verbriiderungen
in Spanien."

A FIFTEENTH CENTURY GILD 1 55

chant gild first appear in 1182 in an original docu-
ment.5 Everywhere we can trace the same course
of economic development, from agriculture to
commercial and then to craft organization. But
in England alone do we find the universal develop-
ment of the merchant gild as a true town organ-
ization in its early period, so that by the end of
the thirteenth century eighty-two out of 102 Eng-
lish towns had their flourishing merchant gilds.
Only later were merchant gilds in England also
to become mere gilds of business men, established
for foreign commerce or the control of some par-
ticular trade within their own town.

In this connection it is important to remember
the three meanings, which as C. Gross points
out, the word " merchant " implied at three differ-
ent periods of English history:

At first it embraced all who, in their trade, were in any way
connected with buying and selling, including petty shopkeepers
and many handicraftsmen. During the fifteenth and the great
part of the sixteenth century it applied preeminently to all who
made a business of buying for resale — retailers as well as
wholesalers — manual craftsmen not being included. It then
came to have its present significance of an extensive dealer. In
this conception the old " gild merchant " represents the first
stage ; the " companies of merchants " the second ; the " staplers "
and " merchant adventurers " the third.6

Merchant staplers were those who, under the

5 Santini, " Documenti dell' antica costituzione del Comune di
Firenze, p. 18.

•"The Gild Merchant," I, p. 157.

156 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

British Administration, exported the principal raw
materials after the export trade had passed from
the hands of the German Hanse merchants. The
staples themselves were specified towns to which
these wares had to be brought for sale or expor-
tation. Merchant adventurers constituted a
private company whose members held the monop-
oly of exporting certain manufactured articles.
So the word, which at first practically applied
to every independent craftsman, finally came to
receive its present significance and contains in
its various meanings an entire history of social
development.

CHAPTER XVI

FIRST CHRISTIAN TRADE UNIONS

THE origin of craft gilds, or Christian
trade unions, the most important social
institutions of the Middle Ages, and in-
deed of all history, followed directly upon the de-
velopment of the merchant gilds. The purpose
of these newly arisen organizations of specialized
craftsmen was the mutual protection of their
members; the promotion of the common indus-
trial and commercial interests of the city as well
as of their own fraternity; and the fostering of
that spirit of brotherhood, based upon super-
natural motives, which was to last through life
and continue beyond the shadow of death.

Before approaching this important subject a
short review will be in place to trace the various
stages of development that finally led to the or-
ganization of the free craft gilds.

Agriculture, as we have seen, was almost the
universal employment of men during the period
of social reconstruction, after the tidal wave of
pagan barbarism had swept over the civilization
of Europe and the Church began anew her work
of Christianizing and civilizing the world. Spe-
cialized craftsmen were rare or unknown in com-

i57

158 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

munities where each family built its own home,,
spun its own clothing, and drew its sustenance
from the flocks it reared and the crops it planted.
There was consequently only a very gradually de-
veloping need of them. Over all Europe the re-
ligious communities of this period were the cen-
ters of economic development as they were the
hearths that kept alive the spark of learning be-
neath the cinders of almost universal destruction.
They were in turn to become the first trade schools
as previously they had taught the cultivation of
the soil to the roaming hordes of barbarians, and
in due time were to hold up for their descendants
the torch of learning and unseal for them the wis-
dom of the ages.

It was still, however, a far cry from the first
scattered craftsmen, a few of whom might suffice
for the growing village communities, and the or-
ganized craft gilds which were to play so impor-
tant a role in the life of the Middle Ages. As
civilization grew more complex the free crafts-
men, where these existed, united with other free-
men of their communities into the frith or
11 peace " gilds for the prevention of theft and the
preservation of order. In the course of time the
merchant gilds arose, particularly in England.
Since craftsmen were likewise merchants at this
period they were, in the latter country at least, ab-
sorbed into these new organizations, in which the
great body of burghers were originally united

FIRST CHRISTIAN TRADE UNIONS 1 59

for the protection -of their own and their city's in-
terest and trade.

Often the same men were both the gild and
the town officials. Men of the same town might,
moreover, still remain under the jurisdiction of
their various lords, but when engaged in the oc-
cupations of their trade or the sale of the mer-
chandise they had produced they were all mem-
bers of the same town gild and subject to its reg-
ulations only.

It is evident that in none of these stages was
there any call for specialized gilds of artisans.
But the towns now grew rapidly in population.
Economic conditions became more complex. The
villeins, or unfree workmen, were fast emanci-
pating themselves. The ranks of free craftsmen
were constantly swelling. The merchant gilds,
where they existed, no longer sufficed. The time
was ripe for a new stage of economic develop-
ment, and the craft gilds, which answered to the
growing need, sprang into being. Soon prac-
tically everywhere they had taken their place
throughout Christendom.

Prescinding from the unions said to have been
organized among the serfs, the beginning of the
craft gilds proper may be ascribed to the early
part of the twelfth century, although isolated in-
stances can be found even in the preceding cen-
tury. Thus we read of the victory won, in the
year 1032, by the Flemish weavers of Courtrai

l6o DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

in the defense of their city. Mention is made of
the weavers of Mayence in 1099. In Paris there
is a royal confirmation, in 1162, of the consue-
tudines carnificum, or the statutes of the Butchers'
Gild, which itself dates back in its origin to the
earliest times. The church of St. Pierre aux
Boeufs, on the island to which Paris was then con-
fined, is thought to have taken its name from this
gild.

Yet in practically every country the earliest
known gilds were the gilds of the weavers. The
first craft gilds of England are recorded under
the reign of Henry I, 1100-1133. The " Pipe
Roll " mentions the weavers' gilds of Oxford,
Huntington, Winchester, Lincoln, London; the
fullers of Winchester and the cordwainers of Ox-
ford. Material for clothing was everywhere the
first great industrial demand.

Other trade gilds followed in rapid succession
and gradually obtained official recognition from
the Government or the King. In 1130 the Eng-
lish gilds of weavers at London, Lincoln and Ox-
ford were making their annual remittance to the
royal treasury in return for their official recogni-
tion. The possibility of levying additional taxes
may often have been no slight inducement for
granting authorization to the numerous craft gilds
that now sprang into existence. Gilds not thus
authorized were known as " adulterine. " They
could not claim the privileges of chartered organ-

FIRST CHRISTIAN TRADE UNIONS l6l

izations, though they might be permitted to con-
tinue unmolested. The new gilds were the more
welcome in as far as they strengthened the au-
thority of the ruling sovereign by weakening the
power of the barons. Towards the middle of the
fourteenth century the craft gilds, or medieval
trade unions, had therefore become a character-
istic feature in the industrial life of England.

The unfolding of the craft gilds in England was
comparatively normal, and outbreaks of violence
were apparently rare. The merchant gilds of
each important town, as has been shown, had
previously embraced the craftsmen as well as the
leading burghers occupied in other pursuits.
Gradually, for various reasons, the craftsmen
withdrew from this larger gild to form organiza-
tions restricted more or less to their own trade.
In some cases they may still for a time have
remained members of the original gild. Each
withdrawal of a craft to form its own union meant
a weakening of the merchant gild, whose province
was thus ever more and more restricted, since its
purpose originally had been the monopoly and
control of the municipal trade and toll. As long
as the communities were small and the burghers
were practically all united in the town gild, the
need of craft organizations was not felt, nor were
they possible in many cases. As the towns grew
in population and the gilds increased in size, it
was natural that a division should take place.

1 62 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

The greater and more prosperous the towns the
greater also was the division of labor. In smaller
boroughs the merchant gild might still remain in
all its vigor, but in the larger cities the aggregate
of the craft gilds usually took over the functions
and the power that had once belonged to the an-
cient merchant gild, which ceased to be, or con-
tinued merely in a nominal state. In some cities
its name was still applied as late as the sixteenth
and seventeenth centuries to the entire group of
craft gilds. In other instances the latter were
fused again into a single body, as in the Worcester
gild.

Sooner or later, however, the craft gilds dom-
inated everywhere, each charged with the control
of its own branch of industry, under municipal or
royal authority. The vague general rule that the
merchant gild was prior to the former by an en-
tire century cannot be applied upon the Conti-
nent as readily as in England. It was to the lat-
ter country alone that we turned to study in detail
the systematic development of the merchant gilds.
Upon the Continent their appearance was spo-
radic, while they often differ greatly in their nature
and usually were purely associations of business
men. The craft gilds, however, though always
enjoying their local peculiarities, were sufficiently
alike to allow of broad generalization. Their
similarity indeed is one of the most remarkable
characteristics of the Middle Ages. This fact

FIRST CHRISTIAN TRADE UNIONS 1 63

is the more striking when we consider the wide
separation in space, the difficulty of communica-
tion, and the practical isolation of the cities.

How far the English merchant gilds themselves
became exclusive, and so necessitated the forma-
tion of new organizations, it is difficult to say
with certainty. In not a few of the towns weav-
ers and fullers, we know, were denied the rights
of free burgess as long as they exercised their
trade. As one of the comparatively few instances
left on record in England, we may mention the
laws set down for the weavers and fullers of cer-
tain cities in the London " Book of Customs. " All
sale of cloth, wholesale and retail, was forbidden
these craftsmen, and legislation was enacted that
they must not dispose of their wares even outside
the town limits, lest they interfere with the trade
of the local gild. They were thus permitted to
dispose of their cloth to no one except the town
merchants. Nor was this their only grievance.
Not only was all their work to be done for the
" good men " of the town, but they could not even
practise their trade itself without obtaining the
consent of the former. No merchant or franke
homme could be brought into court by a weaver
or fuller, nor could the latter be summoned as a
witness against him.1 As the gildsmen in such
instances had grown in wealth and power their

XW. J. Ashley, "An Introduction to English Economic His-
tory," Part I, p. 84.

164 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

Christian democratic principles had apparently
suffered in proportion. A Christian renewal was
needed.

Upon the Continent itself the struggle attending
the establishment of the new craft gilds was far
more severe. Of this we shall speak in the fol-
lowing chapter. A great economic readjustment
was taking place over all the earth, and the result
was to be the wonderfully organized and firmly
established craft-gild system, which was to con-
tinue supreme and intact for centuries.

CHAPTER XVII

THE WORLD'S GREATEST LABOR
MOVEMENT

THERE is but one parallel in history to the
universal unrest of the laboring classes
following the World War, and their ef-
fective determination to better their economic and
social conditions. It is to be found in the rise of
the craft gilds upon the Continent. Many epochs
of " storm and stress M and various periods of
world conquest had preceded this event, but none
of these ever profoundly affected the masses of
the people or radically altered their conditions of
life. During all the centuries of pagan civiliza-
tion, in the great empires of the ancient world,
the laborers as a class might change their mas-
ters with the change of rulers and of dynasties,
but they could not better their position.

Similarly in modern times the great industrial
revolution, which completely transformed the
methods of production, left the worker in the
most helpless dependence on capital and the ma-
chine. The Reformation, as Protestant econo-
mists frankly state, had but hastened this result:
" The later Lutheran overstress on the rights of
the individual," testifies the Rev. Frank Monroe

165

1 66 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

Crouch in the Churchman, " found at least an in-
direct result in the socio-political philosophy of
laissez-faire, which, in conjunction with the indus-
trial revolution, brought about the economic con-
ditions that have occasioned widespread revolt
during the last century, both in Europe and Amer-
ica. " Luther's own remorseless demand for the
blood of the warring peasants ended his prestige
with labor.1 So too the French Revolution,
though itself partly a labor movement and aris-
ing out of the conditions of extreme social oppres-
sion then existing, was local in its action, relent-
lessly cruel, bloody and irreligious in its methods,
and terminated in the elevation of a courtezan to
the altar of Notre Dame as the goddess of the
new liberty. Its final result was the subjection of
the masses to the merciless exploitation of capi-
talism. Stripped of his last right of organiza-
tion the laborer was now rendered more helpless
than before. His lot, indeed, as Pope Leo wrote,
was " little better than slavery." 2

The terrorism of the French Revolution can
almost find its counterpart in some of the more
recent excesses of Bolshevism. Yet the signifi-
cance of the labor movement throughout the world
in the period following the World War was not
to be obscured by these. Unfortunately the in-
jection of the spirit of irreligion again proved it-

1 Husslein and Reville, " What Luther Taught," chapter VI.

2 "The Condition of the Working Classes/'

world's greatest labor movement 167

self the greatest peril of modern labor, precisely
as the Faith of the Middle Ages was the very
strength that made possible the winning of the
only universal labor victory recorded in all his-
tory, a victory achieved with moderation and com-
paratively few outbreaks of violence, if we con-
sider the universality and thoroughness of its ef-
fects. It was in fact to last on unbroken until
the coming of a new social era.

Everywhere in the growing medieval towns,
from the eleventh to the thirteenth century, we
find the gradual banding together of the Catholic
freemen into social and religious unions according
to their respective crafts. They little realized
that they were launching then the world's greatest
labor movement. They were in fact organizing
the first Christian trade unions to work out in
this manner their more complete emancipation, to
maintain their industrial and civic independence,
to preserve within their own hands, though under
proper sanction of legitimate courts and rulers,
the control of the various trades on which their
livelihood depended, and to establish on a true
and Christian foundation the dignity of honest
labor. So in the course of time, throughout all
Europe, the system of craft gilds came into being.
Based on the personal and not the communal own-
ership of the means of production by the workers,
and on their joint control, under proper public
authority, of the industries in which they were

I 68 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

engaged and of the marketing of the wares which
they produced, the craft gilds were in their origin
the ideal democratic solution of the social prob-
lem of their age.

But more than this, they stand out in all the
history of the world as labor's supreme achieve-
ment. Feudalism, curbed by the Church at all
times, was fast outliving its period of real social
service. The burghers in the small towns were
seeking for industrial freedom from their feudal
lords. Servile dues were gradually cast off for
a single payment or an annual tax, and the right
of gild courts, in place of trial before the lord,
and of gild-controlled markets was effectively won
by them. Charters containing their privileges
were granted and respected by the King or lord
to whom they rendered their allegiance. So, one
by one, their economic and civic rights or priv-
ileges were gained and maintained. But the
struggle, which by the fourteenth century had
practically everywhere been successfully ter-
minated, was not merely directed against oppres-
sive feudal lords, but also against a new form of
capitalism that threatened to submerge both labor
and the craft gilds.

In England, as we have seen, no real struggle
of the craft gilds occurred. The way had been
prepared for them by the old merchant or town
gild, which had purchased or otherwise obtained
charter privileges and protected its members

world's greatest labor movement 169

against the incroachments of feudal lords. Sel-
dom did these old gilds become oppressive. As
the democratic institutions of their day they had
originally embraced almost all the free burghers of
their respective towns. They now merely disap-
peared or yielded in importance to the new craft
gilds that had been formed out of their own mem-
bership. In Scotland, however, bitter struggles
ensued between the trade unions and the ancient
gilds as late as the fifteenth and sixteenth cen-
turies. The Scotch " gildry n had largely devel-
oped into organizations of rich merchants, who
continued to retain to a great extent the political
control of the burghal councils and could alone be
chosen as magistrates.

As early as the twelfth century the Leges Burg-
orum enacted that: " No dyer, butcher or cob-
bler may be admitted to the Gild Merchant un-
less he abjures the practice of his trade by his own
hands and conducts it only by those serving under
him." 3 In the thirteenth century fullers and
weavers were apparently excluded, but not the
craftsmen as a class. The craft gilds, as such, ac-
cording to Gross, exercised as yet no political
power in the civic community.

It was upon the Continent, however, that the
real struggle of these first trade unions in Chris-
tian times took place. The emancipation in ever

3 Cosmo Innes, " Ancient Laws and Customs of the Burghs
of Scotland," p. 46, Gross.

170 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

greater numbers of the serfs upon the landed es-
tates and their crowding into the cities, together
with the natural growth of the latter, naturally
resulted in a comparatively large population who
lived by the labor of their hands and personally
produced the wares which they sold. Many of
the ancient gilds, which perhaps had originated
as popular democratic associations, now grad-
ually became exclusive, oligarchic and oppressive.
Membership was often retained within the same
families and extravagant entrance fees were de-
manded to exclude new applicants. The distinc-
tion between rich and poor was daily more
marked. Not only did the former obtain con-
trol of gild and city, but they soon succeeded in
excluding from their organization all who lived by
handicraft. Ordinances were enacted denying ad-
mission to all who had not relinquished the prac-
tice of their trade for at least a year and a day.
11 Soiled hands " and " blue nails M were specified
in various gild statutes of different countries as
badges of toil debarring a citizen from gild com-
munion.4 Yet without the privileges accorded by
gild membership it was impossible for him to com-
pete with the richer merchants in the profitable
exercise of his chosen trade. He would there-
fore be obliged to labor for them. Not the com-
mon good, but their own profit was the end in

4Brentano, Wilcia, Herbert, etc.

world's greatest labor movement 171

view. Such was the menace of medieval capi-
talism.

There had arisen against the craftsman a
joint conspiracy of the nobility of the land and
the aristocracy of wealth. Taking account of al-
tered circumstances of time and place, conditions
were not so very different from those created un-
der the post-Reformation capitalism of modern
times. Just as the chains of the old bondage of
villeinage or serfdom were being broken there
arose the danger that new ones would be forged
to bind the freeman. The laborer was often com-
pelled by necessity to place himself under the
protection of a patrician, to render him service
and pay him taxes. At times the old merchant
families and the nobility, who controlled the city,
assumed the administration for themselves and
threw the burdens upon the craftsmen, who were
held in equal disrespect by both.

The oppression of the craftsmen was partic-
ularly aggravated at Cologne, where the Bishop
sided with the weavers against the patrician ele-
ment. On November 21, 137 1, the execution of
thirty-three weavers took place in this city and
1,800 men, according to Brentano, were exiled
with their wives and children.5 The fact that on
this occasion the churches and monasteries were

5 Lujo Brentano, " History and Development of Gilds and the
Origin of Trade Unions," pp. 46, 47.

172 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

ordered searched indicates upon what side the
sympathy of the clergy and religious lay. They
were seriously suspected, at all events, of harbor-
ing the craftsmen from the violence of their ene-
mies.

If instances of ecclesiastics of religious com-
munities can be adduced that might apparently
place the Church in an unfavorable light, all doubt
regarding her real attitude must disappear when
we consider that the entire gild system, which the
craftsmen of these centuries were everywhere con-
structing, enjoyed not merely the sympathy, but
the positive support of the clergy. In all instances
the priest was the chaplain of the craft gild, a
position which he could not have maintained,
universally and invariably as he did, in opposi-
tion to the Church. No such opposition was ever
expressed by her. On the contrary, the craft gilds
grew from suspected institutions into power and
influence under the eyes of the priest-chaplain,
with the tacit or open sanction of bishops and ab-
bots, and beneath the fostering care of the Church
herself. They were as truly religious institutions
as economic and social organizations. They
sprang up out of the soil of Catholicism and were
lovingly hedged in by the Church against all ag-
gression. The error of historians has often been
to mistake the individual action of certain inter-
ested and perhaps highly worldly prelates for the
policy and the spirit of the Church herself.

world's greatest labor movement 173

Nothing could be more unfair. The attitude of
the people towards the Church and of the Church
towards the people is thus briefly expressed by
Dr. Cutts, a non-Catholic authority:

One reason for the popularity of the Medieval Church was
that it has always been the champion of the people, and the
friend of the poor. In politics the Church was always on the
side of the liberties of the people against the tyranny of the
feudal lords.6

, If now we remember that in England and upon
the Continent the most intimate relation had ev-
erywhere and at all times existed between gild-
ship and citizenship, that chartering a gild and
chaptering a city were often identical, and that
" gildsmen " and " citizens," though not coexten-
sive, are often practically synonymous in royal de-
crees, we can understand how the official authoriza-
tion of the craft gilds was an act which violently
conflicted with the interests both of the patrician
classes and of the ruling merchant families. It
frustrated completely the efforts of the latter to
make of their gilds an exclusive oligarchy of
wealth while it helped to break the power of the
feudal lords and strengthened the national govern-
ments. The struggle of the new organizations
was for equal rights and equal privileges. New
citizens were constantly created through their ef-
forts, outnumbering the old aristocracy. The for-
mal recognition of the craft gilds therefore meant

6 Quoted, London Universe, April 26, 1918.

174 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

nothing less than a complete readjustment of civic
as well as of economic conditions throughout Eu-
rope. Their victory may rightly be considered
as one of the most important recorded in history.
Yet because it was won without flourish of trum-
pets and crash of armies and storming of ancient
citadels, the historian has often failed to realize
that it was of immeasurably greater importance
and profounder human interest than all the idle
conquests of an Alexander or Napoleon.

The Church had been present at the birth of
this vast movement. She had captained it with
her priests and religious, to whom the honest
craftsmen looked for counsel and for guidance,
and in whom he confided with loving reverence
and trust. She was present also at the victory
and saw that it was tempered with charity as it
was animated with the spirit of justice. Rich
and poor alike are her children and she has equal
care of both; but her predilection, like that of her
Divine Master, must always be with the weak and
the lowly and those who have most need of her
protecting arm.

CHAPTER XVIII

TRUE INDUSTRIAL DEMOCRACY

B

"^-"^ACK to the gilds !" is the cry of our
age. Many who, at first blush, might
repudiate any such intention are in
reality working eagerly to bring about their own
gild ideals. Nothing therefore is of greater im-
portance at the present moment than a clear con-
ception of the true nature of the medieval craft
gilds, on which, with proper adaptations, every
modern program of reconstruction must be based.
Aside from some of the early merchant or town
gilds, they afford us the only instance of industrial
democracy throughout the whole extent of the
world's history.

It would be folly to claim for them an abso-
lute perfection. Like all other human institu-
tions, they passed through various stages of de-
velopment. Our reference here is solely to the
period when gildhood was in flower. A great
similarity existed among the trade gilds of all the
various Catholic countries of the Middle Ages.
They everywhere gradually assumed the same
forms of industrial organization, but they did not
everywhere progress with the same rapidity or

i75

176 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

show the same high conceptions of industrial de-
mocracy. The period during which gildhood may
be said to have arrived at its full flowering time
began in some countries with the thirteenth cen-
tury, and lasted until the close of the fifteenth.
Craft gilds however existed, as we have seen, at
an even earlier period and continued until a con-
siderably later date, not seldom maintaining them-
selves in a more or less prosperous condition.
Thus at Aries there was a College of Heads of
Crafts in the twelfth century, but only in the thir-
teenth century were the gilds fully organized.
The legislation then drawn up remained in its
essentials until 1791.1

" Crafts " and " misteries," are the names ordi-
narily given to these institutions by the English
craftsmen. The latter name is derived from the
Latin minis terium, meaning a service or office in
which any one is engaged. The two words are
not infrequently used together, so that we read of
the founding of a " craft and mistery." The
word " gild ,f itself continued in use from the
earliest days, but is general in its application and
applies to organizations of every kind. The
French name corresponding to our " craft gild " is
metier, the Italian arte and the German Zunft.

The craft gilds were not established for the
sake of creating an exclusive trade monopoly.

1 Etienne Martin Saint-Leon, u Histoire Des Corporations de
Metiers " pp. 62, 63.

TRUE INDUSTRIAL DEMOCRACY 1 77

Every craftsman was welcomed, and even urged
to join his own craft gild. Their purpose was to
include within each association all the approved
workmen employed in the same trade within the
same town. The number of these gilds increased
with the constantly increasing specialization of
the crafts themselves, until finally almost every
industry was divided into a variety of gilds.
There was a period when this separation became
excessive, but we are speaking of the craft gilds
at their perfection. Their prime object was the
regulation of trading conditions within their own
locality. Hence the necessity of bringing into the
gild or including under its economic control every
townsman who desired to engage in any organ-
ized craft. Instances were not wanting where
craft gilds, like our modern federations of labor,
extended over entire districts. Thus the great
Silesian Tailors' Gild, embraced in its jurisdiction
no fewer than twenty-five towns.2 Both the cut-
lers' and the builders' gilds of Germany were fed-
eralized into four central organizations.3

Trade monopoly, however, was sought, not for
its own sake but as the sole condition under which
the gild could effectively exercise the management
and supervision of its own craft. In this way
only was it possible to legislate regarding the price
of raw material as well as of the finished product;

2 Berlepsch, II, p. 230.

3 Brentano, " History and Development of Gilds," pp. 70, 71.

178 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

to determine the maximum hours of work, the
number of apprentices and journeymen that might
be engaged by a single master, the years of ap-
prenticeship and the wages of assistants; to in-
spect in the interest of the consumer the quan-
tity, measure or weight of the product offered for
sale ; to prevent, in fine, undue competition, exces-
sive wealth or unnecessary poverty. In this way
only could the highest standards of workmanship
and of morality be secured. No one might be
admitted into a craft gild who had not given due
evidence of technical skill or whose fair name was
sullied in any respect. As W. Cunningham
rightly says upon this point :

The purpose of these gilds was the regulation of work in such
fashion that the public might be well served and that the trade
might therefore flourish. . . . The effort was to secure satis-
factory conditions for production — skilled workers and honest
materials — and to ensure a price which should be "reason-
able " to receive and therefore reasonable to pay for such ware
thus made.4

The fact that there might exist, under such a
system, a number of " half-taught helpers and
unskilled laborers, " not included in the member-
ship of any of the craft gilds, does not militate
against the purely democratic nature of these as-
sociations. True democracy, industrial as well as
political, is not a blind leveling process, but a
condition of society in which the rights of all are

4 " The Growth of English Industry and Commerce during
the Early and Middle Ages," I, p. 342.

TRUE INDUSTRIAL DEMOCRACY 1 79

religiously respected, and ample opportunities for
economic self-development are offered. The
chimerical conception of a society which would
obliterate all distinctions is not to be classed as
an ideal of democracy but as a mad utopia. It is
built up neither on the Gospel of Christ nor on the
nature of man. The gilds at their perfection
never overlooked the needs and rights of all the
classes comprised within the commonwealth.
They knew of no class-warfare such as was later
to arise. The master workman had attained his
full political and economic liberty and did not
envy those who might be above him in legal or
spiritual authority, nor did he forget the rights
of those who, in the. same religious spirit, were
duly subject to him in his own little workshop.
In this happy age, as Professor Seligman says :

A conflict of interests was unknown. The journeyman always
looked forward to the period when he would be admitted to the
freedom of the trade. This was as a rule not difficult for an
expert workman to attain. No insuperable obstacle was thrown
in his path. In fact there was no superabundance of skilled
labor at this time. It was a period of supremacy of labor over
capital, and the master worked beside the artisan.5

The exclusiveness of the gilds was not there-
fore of the nature of a modern monopoly, since
all who would properly qualify themselves, as
true men and true workers, might be admitted.
When in later years serious economic restrictions

5 G. R. A. Seligman, " Ten Chapters on the Medieval Guilds
of England" (1887).

l8o DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

were introduced, it was merely a sign that the
craft gilds, like many of the Continental merchant
gilds before them, had arrived at the period of
their decline. That abuses might exist at any
period is sufficiently obvious. They can nowhere
be eliminated. Thus we read of complaints
brought as early as 132 1 against the London
weavers that they were misusing their power by
demanding excessive entrance fees for admission
to their gild and so unduly limiting the number
of licensed workmen.6 In general, however,
a small entrance fee only was exacted. Special
taxes were levied as occasion arose. Regular dues
were demanded at a later period only. But dona-
tions were frequent, bequests were constantly
made, and the gilds were always financially well
supplied.

The trade monopoly, legally exercised by the
craft gilds, was always a great advantage to the
town itself. Not seldom the organization of a
gild was insisted upon by the municipal authori-
ties in order to secure the proper regulation of
production and sale. The reputation, and conse-
quently the prosperity of a town, depended upon
the quality of its wares. To maintain this at its
highest mark the vigilance of a thoroughly organ-
ized craft gild was indispensable. Besides, it
saved all the civic expenses that would else be in-

6 W. J. Ashley, " An Introduction to English Economic His-
tory and Theory," II, p. 75.

TRUE INDUSTRIAL DEMOCRACY l8l

curred for the citizens by a large corps of munici-
pal and police officials. As a pertinent example
we may instance the reasons given for the estab-
lishment of the Bristol gild, probably in 1392,
which was known as " The Craft of St. John the
Baptist and the Craft of Tailors."

The craft of tailors in this honorable town, we
are informed in its ordinances, had been and was
14 greatly slandered in many parts of the realm."
The reason given is that any person might prac-
tise the craft at that time, though " not skilled in
the art of clothing, or not belonging to the busi-
ness, or one who steals the cloth entrusted to him,
to the great slander of the town and craft, and
to the danger of the people in default that good
ordinance is not made in this town." It is there-
fore ordained that as in London, in York and in
other towns of the realm, " No man of the craft
of tailors shall be received into the franchise or
freedom of this craft to cut any cloth, unless he
be first presented by the master and wardens of
the craft to the mayor of this town, as an able and
skilful person in his craft." If therefore it could
be shown that he was of good condition, good
name and full perfect in his trade, he was to be
received into the gild. All further responsibility
concerning malpractice of any kind in the tailor-
ing business of that town was thenceforth taken
by the gild.

To carry into effect the many craft rules regard-

I 82 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

ing quantity and quality of work, prices
and hours, purchase, sharing and sale, it is evi-
dent that an extensive craft jurisdiction was re-
quired. The amount of civic authority and execu-
tive power thus delegated to the craft officials
varied largely in different countries and at differ-
ent times. The gilds had their own courts in
which members were tried for delinquencies and
punished with fines. It is not improbable that
in some instances the gild jurisdiction was almost
absolute within its own province. Thus the Lon-
don weavers could insist upon trial before their
own court rather than before the civil authorities.
Or the process was reversed and the gildsman was
directly tried before his own gild court for the
violation of gild statutes, but remained at liberty
to demand a trial before the mayor. Thus the
regulation of an English cutlers' gild, drawn up
in 1344, reads: " As to all those of the said
trade who do not wish to be tried by the wardens
of the trade for the time being, the names of
such shall be presented to the mayor and alder-
men, and by them shall be judged. " 7

Gild courts were held at regular intervals, pre-
sided over by gild officials. A gild sergeant was
sent to summon offenders. Thus, unlike many of
our modern laws dealing with the interests of in-
dustry or commerce, all the gild regulations re-
garding production, purchase and sale were

7 Riley, "Memorials of London," p. 218.

TRUE INDUSTRIAL DEMOCRACY 1 83

strictly carried out with neither the de^ay nor the
expense of our modern systems. The penalties
of money imposed were applied to the needs of
the association or devoted to the purchase of
wax for candles which every gild burned at its
shrines or in its churches. Confiscation of arti-
cles illegally purchased or produced was also
within the gild jurisdiction. Most serious of all
punishments, however, was that which expelled a
member from the gild, whether for immorality or
obdurate violation of laws, and so excluded him
from the right to practise his craft in the town
as a master craftsman. The statutes in conform-
ity with which these sentences were passed had
usually been drawn up by the craftsmen them-
selves and received the municipal sanction or the
seal of some higher authority. They thus right-
fully became the law of the city for which the gild
was established and contributed their own impor-
tant share towards promoting the common good
of all the inhabitants. They were drawn up with
no selfish hand, but in a spirit of fair play for
all and thus effectively prevented both profiteer-
ing and special privilege, excessive wages or un-
just pay, high prices or inadequate returns, careless
labor and over-work. How this was brought
about we shall consider in another chapter.

The spirit of Christian democracy which per-
meated many of these early organizations is per-
haps best exemplified by the custom introduced in

184 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

various French gilds of making their annual
change of craft officials during the chanting of
the Magnificat at the Vespers. " In the middle
of the verse, ' He hath set down the mighty from
their seat,' the organ and the singing ceased while
the past warden left his place and delivered up
the insignia of his office. At the conclusion of the
verse, 4 He hath exalted the humble,' the new
warden was conducted to his seat." 8 While the
craft gilds continued in this spirit there could be
no danger for the safety of the industrial democ-
racy confided to such leaders.

The two following chapters shall present under
still other aspects this " True Industrial Democ-
racy " of the Middle Ages.

8 Abbot Snow, O. S. B., " The Church and Labor," p. 29.

CHAPTER XIX

LIVE AND LET LIVE

MDENYS-COCHIN, Deputy from
Paris, relates in the Journal Offi-
• ciel,1 how when he was a member of
the Board of Aldermen two of his associates in
office were Socialist workingmen, rather advanced
in years. One of them he describes as of un-
usual refinement and learning, un vieillard char-
mant. Arguing with him one day the future Dep-
uty said: u You hold that the working class is
not fairly treated now-a-days. At what period
of history, in your opinion, was the laborer best
provided for and had the least reason for com-
plaint? " The Socialist paused for a moment and
then said: " Now I know that Til surprise you,
but it seems to me it was at the end of the reign
of St. Louis." He had evidently read to advant-
age the famous " Livre des Metiers" 2

The master craftsman of the Middle Ages was
capitalist, laborer, merchant and entrepreneur in
one. He was none of these exclusively, because

1 January 19, 1910.

2 fitienne Boileau, Prevote of Paris in 1258. The first part of
his book is divided into a hundred different titles, each dealing
with a gild, corporation,

185

I 86 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

he embraced the functions of them all. He him-
self bought the raw material of his trade, unless
purchased for him by the customer whose orders
he fulfilled, made his own wares and personally
sold them in his shop or at the fair. The gild
did not permit any unnecessary intrusion of a
middleman, and so successfully prevented those
crying inequalities that were to arise in later days.
All were assured of a reasonable competence
and no one could shirk the ordinance of labor.
But labor itself was then held in honor and not
considered an indignity as in the days of ancient
or of modern paganism.

Idleness was a vice not tolerated in a gildsman.
No craft master might ever work by proxy.
Each one, except in case of sickness, was obliged
to manage his own small enterprise and lead in
the labor of the day. Widows only might em-
ploy a substitute. The number of apprentices and
assistants whom a single master might engage
was strictly limited. This was done in the in-
terest of the apprentices, who else could not re-
ceive a proper education; in the interest of the
journeymen, who else would compete with child
labor; and in the interest of the master craftsman
whose shop, however little, might fairly rival
that of the wealthiest burgher. If it is true that
production was somewhat reduced by these meth-
ods, it is certainly true to an even far greater ex-
tent that the general happiness and the common

LIVE AND LET LIVE 1 87

welfare, temporal and spiritual, were greatly in-
creased. To promote this end is after all the ob-
ject of society.

For this same reason no man might engage in
more than a single trade. In the " Secular Re-
formation " of Emperor Sigismund, 1434, the
following law is enacted:

The crafts have been devised for this purpose, that every-
body by them should earn his daily bread, and nobody should
interfere with the craft of another By this the world gets rid
of its misery, and every one may find his livelihood. If there
be one who is a wineman, he shall have to do with this trade,
and shall not practise another thing besides. The same shall
hold if he is a bread-baker and the like, no craft excepted.
And it is to be prevented on Imperial command, and to be fined
with forty marks of gold, where it is heard that the Imperial
towns do not attend to this, that so nobody of any trade what-
ever may interfere with the craft of another.3

Thus the gild regulation received the support
of the Crown. Usually however the gildsmen
themselves saw to the fulfilment of their own
statutes, at least in the days to which our observa-
tions are confined, when gildhood was at its per-
fection. In pursuance of the same gild princi-
ple, that " every one shall have the same means of
subsistence," and to procure especially the " bet-
ter relief and comodytie of the poorer sorte," reg-
ulations were carefully drawn up regarding the
purchase of raw materials. The producer was

3 Goldasti, " Constituttones Imperiales" IV, p. 189. Brentano,
p. 60.

1 88 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

not to begin the day with the knowledge that he
was placed at any disadvantage in competing with
a wealthier neighbor. In some of the German
crafts the material needed for production was
bought for the entire fellowship by gild members
appointed for this office. Each gildsman could
then supply himself, at a standard price, with the
needed quantity of his material, and no one could
exceed his allowance.

If special opportunities of a bargain were of-
fered to any individual member he was obliged,
according to gild statutes, to give others a portion
of his purchase, at the same rate, if so they de-
sired it. Such, too, had been the custom in the
early English merchant gilds. To make this ef-
fective a special ordinance is even found forbid-
ding him to keep his purchase secret. Thus the
poorest gildsman could obtain the material for his
craft at the same price and under the same ad-
vantages as the richest. On this principle, too,
common town purchases were frequently made
and even common mills erected where all the
wheat must be ground, that " thus the advantage
of the poorer sort might be secured. " In other
instances a trade in cattle and corn was carried
on by the town authorities. There are many who
in our own day would denounce such actions as
Socialistic, although no one had heard in those
days of " Das Capital" Capitalism itself did not
exist on which Marx based his ponderous vol-

LIVE AND LET LIVE 1 89

umes. In the same manner cooperative selling,
as in the case of the German potters, must not be
considered a modern innovation.

As for the working time, a six-hour day was
never dreamed of by these old gildsmen, unless it
might possibly have been the case in some very
hazardous or exhausting occupation. The eight-
hour day was not unknown. Ordinarily, how-
ever, men worked without haste, and with proper
intervals for rest and refection, so long as the
daylight lasted, content and happy in their oc-
cupation. There is no instance on record of any
protest, on the part of journeymen or craftsmen,
against the length of the working-day, though
these old gildsmen were not slow to express their
mind on subjects of gild interest. Neither, how-
ever, was any one permitted to exceed the definite
hours set respectively for winter and for sum-
mer work. The object was again to prevent un-
necessary competition and to preserve unimpaired
the full dignity of man.

The usual hours of labor may at first sight
appear long to us, in comparison with modern
standards. Yet we may be surprised to learn
that one of the objections brought against the
Middle Ages is the accusation that there were
then too few working hours in the year. It is suf-
ficient to answer that all the necessary work was
well and duly done.

The Sundays were sacred to religion, and all

I90 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

the many Holy Days then enjoined by the Church
were strictly enforced by the gild authorities. At
six o'clock on Saturdays all industry ceased. In
many gilds work ended with the first Vespers, at
noon. In some instances this rule was observed
not merely on Saturdays but also on the Vigils of
the Feasts, which then were many in number.
Men might so fittingly prepare themselves for the
celebration of the high festivals of that Faith
which was dearer far than life to those ancient
gildsmen. To it they owed the privileges they
possessed and all the honor and the dignity with
which labor was encompassed. The master gilds-
man needed not to envy King or noble. Religion
gave to him his accolade, and every apprentice
might hope in his good day to be a master. Writ-
ing of Chartres Cathedral, where kings and dukes
and barons are commemorated among the bene-
factors, Ouin-Lacroix adds : " Des corporations
de simples artisans y ont mele avec orgueil les em-
blemes de leur profession." 4 The tools of the
humblest laborers were not considered unworthy to
be emblazoned with crown or coronet on those
glorious stained-glass windows of the thirteenth
century.

The Socialist Paul Lafargue declared unchal-
lenged before la Cour df assises du Nord: " I
say and I maintain, that under the old regime, the

4 Histoire des Ancienncs Corporations d'ArU et Metiers et des
Confreries Religieuses de la Capitate de La Normandie, pp. 6, 7.

LIVE AND LET LIVE 191

laborer was in a better position than to-day. The
Church each year assured him fifty-two Sundays
and thirty-eight holidays, a total of ninety days of
rest." 5

Whatever the actual number of Holy Days may
really have been, the Church did far more than
this for the workingman. She not only assured
him the necessary rest and relaxation, but by the
attendance at Holy Mass and other religious serv-
ices kept him constantly in touch with the great
spiritual realities of life and thus prevented that
degradation of labor which is sure to follow in
every pagan society. It was not mere idleness,
but a sanctified day of rest that she procured for
the humblest apprentice as well as for the master
craftsman, and thus preserved in both all that is
finest, noblest and highest in man. It is this that
the false modern radicalism forgets in its unrea-
sonable demands.

The life of the Middle Ages, in their perfection,
was a life of labor, of charity and of religion.
But everywhere and throughout, it was a life of
joy. In the beauty of so much of the most com-
mon workmanship of those days we behold the de-
light of the workman in his craft. But above all
it is plain in the sacred monuments that he has
left us of his skill and faith. It is written in every
arch and spandrel, in every pinnacle and turret,
in the carven tracery and richly varied harmonies

5 Spoken after Vaffaire de Fourmies.

192 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

of light and shade, in the fantastic gargoyles and
grotesques no less than in the reverently sculp-
tured saints and angels of the ancient minsters,
where every artisan was gifted with an artist's
soul and every artist was an artisan. The same
was true of the very homes and shops of those
ancient craftsmen. Though we read much in our
day of the narrow medieval streets, and the over-
hanging stories of their houses, crowded together
within the high town walls, that naturally could
not expand with every growth of the community,
yet the richness of medieval life surpassed all that
modern science has devised. Cities were then the
centers of Christian culture, consisting of real
homes, and filled with true men and women who
knew that there were higher things in life than
frantic production and mad greed for gain. This
truth is strongly expressed in the work of two re-
cent authorities upon the subject, J. L. Hammond
and Barbara Hammond, who like Ruskin have
penetrated beneath the surface of that medieval
culture, so rich, so varied, so warm with life and
love and faith:

The old English towns were often over-crowded, insanitary,
honey-combed with alleys and courts that never saw the sun or
breathed the air, but the fancy, and emotion, and the skill and
craftsmanship of different ages had made them beautiful and
interesting. They were the home of a race, with all the tradi-
tions and pieties and heirlooms of a home. It was of immense
moment to the citizens of such towns whether the towns were
beautiful, well-governed, and administered with justice and

LIVE AND LET LIVE 1 93

magnanimity: this mattered much more to them than half the
wars that have filled so disproportionate a page in the writings
of history.6

Comparing the new industrial districts of the
age of capitalism with the towns of the medieval
gildsmen, the same writers say of the former:

They were not so much towns as barracks: not the refuge of
a civilization but the barracks of an industry. This character
was stamped on their form and life and government. The
medieval town had reflected the minds of centuries and the
subtle associations of a living society with a history; these towns
reflected the violent enterprise of an hour, the single passion that
had thrown street on street in a frantic monotony of disorder.
Nobody could read in these shapeless improvisations what
Ruskin called "the manly language of a people inspired by
resolute and common purpose," for they represented nothing
but the avarice of the jerry-builder catering to the avarice of
the capitalist.7

The Coal Commission of England in 19 19
showed that in one town alone 27,000 out of 38,-
000 people were living in one or two-room houses ;
in another, twenty-eight per cent of the popula-
tion was living in houses of one room only. In
Lanarkshire, out of 188,000 children born, 22,000
died before they reached the age of one year.8
But what is all this compared to the slums of mod-
ern cities as Francis Thompson knew and pic-
tured them in terrible words, or Tennyson de-
scribed them in the England of his day:

8 The Town Laborer," p. 37.

7 Ibid.

8 The London Universe, March 21, 1919.

194 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

There among the glooming alleys Progress halts on palsied feet,
Crime and hunger cast our maidens by the thousands on the

street.
There the master scrimps his haggard sempstress of her daily

bread,
There a single sordid attic holds the living and the dead.

It is with a sense of relief, therefore, that we
turn back to those earlier and better days, and
with Lowell dare to say: u I am not ashamed to
confess a singular sympathy with the Middle
Ages." 9 But to understand best the joy of life
that filled them, we must turn to the craft gilds of
those days : their gild-halls and their richly sculp-
tured churches; their banners, pageants and plays;
their feasts and banquets and rejoicings. No gild
was ever without its festal gatherings when the
hardy craftsmen sat about the common board, and
cheer and merriment were universal. There is
no gloom in the Catholic religion. It admits of
the highest abnegation, but it never seeks to crush
in others the life of innocent pleasure. Puritan-
ism and rigorism became possible through the Re-
formation only. Asceticism itself was not dour-
ness, but joy of spirit. The cup of life was never
so full to overflowing, for the greatest and the
least, as in those days when gildhood was in
flower.

0 " A Few Bits of Roman Mosaic."

CHAPTER XX

THE GOLDEN RULE APPLIED

THE salient characteristic of the gild ideal
was its regard for the interests of the
public. However the craftsman might
personally fail, the statutes of his gild never over-
looked the common good. Here precisely we can
discover by contrast the great and fundamental
defects of our modern organizations of labor and
capital. Social obligations were never so deeply
impressed on the minds of men as in the days
when religion laid the economic basis for the med-
ieval gilds.

Of first importance was the quality of the work.
A false conception of class loyalty is often likely
to protect the modern member of an employers' or
workmen's association who fails in this or any
other regard. Even where flagrant offenses have
been committed, such unions in countless instances
have sought to shield their members from the
just penalties to be inflicted. At times a patent
conspiracy exists to promote the class interest at
the expense of the public welfare. The medieval
gild statutes, at their perfection, never dissociated
these two, and the common welfare was in fact the

195

196 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

first to be regarded. Not in vain had the Church
imbued the minds of these sturdy gildsmen with
the principles of Catholic morality and her own
sane interpretation of the Gospel law of social
justice and of charity. Hence not only was care-
ful investigation made by every gild into the
quality of the goods produced by its own mem-
bers, but even tools, according to one gild regula-
tion, could not be used " unless the same were
testified to be good and honest." Our modern
pure food laws were anticipated and carried to a
degree of perfection unknown to us. Night work,
too, was prohibited for the precise reason that
proper inspection was then impossible, frauds
might readily be perpetrated and high class work
could not be produced by inadequate light.

The purchaser could always appeal to the gild
for satisfaction if any article had been imper-
fectly made, and he might probably find the gild
officials even more eager than he to discover and
right the wrong. Since the raw material of the
tradesman was in many instances furnished by the
consumer, special safeguards were provided to as-
sure him that his goods would not be spoiled or
wasted. Thus the Bristol craft of tailors or-
dained that the work must be performed deftly
and properly or the gild itself would see that the
price paid for the cloth of a misfit garment was
refunded to the customer, the garment remaining
with the tailor. " So," the gild quaintly incul-

THE GOLDEN RULE APPLIED 1 97

cates its lesson, " every tailor shall be advised to
cut well and sufficiently the cloth that is unto him
delivered to be cut."

Similarly all frauds in weight, width, measure
or any established standard of quantity were
promptly adjudged by the gild itself or brought by
it to the notice of the municipal authorities. An
instance of the latter kind is found in the statutes
of the London bracemakers, known as " brae-
lers," drawn up in 1355 : " If anY one shall be
found making false work, let the same work be
brought before the mayor and aldermen, and be-
fore them let it be adjudged upon as being false
or forfeited; and let such person go bodily to
prison." * It is to be noted that articles defective
in measure or weight were then known as " false."
Of the gild courts themselves enough has already
been said in another chapter. The extent of their
power naturally varied in different towns. But
all weights and measures were carefully tested*
particularly at the great fairs at which alone for-
eign goods could be bought from foreign pro-
ducers, although domestic goods, too, were sold
on these occasions. The greatest care was doubt-
less also taken on the fixed market days when the
country produce was sold to the townsmen and
the work of the craftsmen was bought by the
farmers.

The fact that legislation concerning fraud and

1 Riley, " Memorials of London," p. 278.

I98 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

deceit was sufficiently common in the Middle Ages
is sometimes construed into an argument to prove
the existence of a laxity of conscience. The same
conclusion is drawn from the number of judg-
ments passed in this matter. The very contrary
however would seem to follow. It is only a high
conception of rectitude that can insist upon the
instant correction of even the lesser offenses that
in more recent days were to be almost entirely
overlooked, while the most flagrant abuses grew
up unchecked under the capitalistic regime in most
essential matters. A conscientious use of the pil-
lory, as in the days of the old gildsmen, would
have displayed a marvelous rogues' gallery in
our public squares before the pure food laws some-
what relieved these conditions. Nor did abuses
end with them. We need but refer to the whole-
sale deceits practised in the war by merchants and
manufacturers of all nations. The contrast with
the old-time gild regulations will enable us to ap-
preciate better the watchfulness of the gildsmen
and the high sense of righteousness exemplified in
their gild statutes.

We may in general accept, in this particular re-
gard, the statement made by Stella Kramer in
11 The English Craft Gilds and the Government,"
when she thus described their economic activities
in the English boroughs :

As administrators of the land's law they kept control over
market regulations for this whole period. They saw that

THE GOLDEN RULE APPLIED 1 99

commodities were made of proper materials and that they con-
formed to the standards of width, weight and measure. In case
of fraud the consumer had redress from the gild tribunal as
well as from that of the common law. But proceedings at the
latter, for the ordinary breaches of market regulations, must
have been rather unsatisfactory. Indeed, appeals on craft mat-
ters to any courts other than those of the gilds were probably
slow and cumbersome. The gild acted essentially, not as a law-
making body, but as an administratory organ interested in the
maintenance of certain standards of production and the enforce-
ment of certain rules for market transactions, and its officers
were commissioned to bring transgressors to speedy justice.
But it could enforce no laws without the approval and coopera-
tion of the local powers. Above the local magnate stood the
State, occasionally issuing national regulations, which also the
gild took upon itself to execute (p. 137).

The power of gild initiative doubtless differed
greatly in various towns, and even much more so
in the various countries. It would seem reason-
able that gild statutes should not have been given
a power of control, which really amounted to civil
law, until they had received the sanction of mu-
nicipal or State authority. It was sufficient that
Crown and municipality recognized their import-
ance and fully acknowledged them " as organs in
control of every-day market transactions." This
the author absolutely admits and adds : " In prac-
tice, State, borough and gild presented frequently
the appearance of a three-fold combination work-
ing together for a common end. It is therefore
not always easy to consider the gilds apart as dis-
tinct organs with their own special purposes and
functions." (p. 143.) This sufficiently illustrates

200 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

both the great power of craft gilds and their aim
to secure in all things the common good of the
entire community and not their own class interests
as distinct from this and opposed to it. At their
height of development they best illustrate the
golden rule reduced to practice. They are the
safest and the sanest model of true Christian de-
mocracy in the realm of industry.

Of greatest importance was the regulation by
the gilds not merely of the process of manufac-
ture, but also of its amount, wherever this was
necessary. Thus over-production and unemploy-
ment were alike prevented by the wise gildsmen.
This was made possible, among other ways, by
preventing a surplus of apprentices within any
given trade and encouraging a greater number to
interest themselves in the crafts that needed de-
velopment. Other means were employed to avoid
temporary over-production while the workers and
their families were never starving because of sea-
sons of unemployment.

The problem of woman labor was met with
equal wisdom, and woman enjoyed her true place
and esteem. Where she chose the function of
wife and mother the gild enabled her to perform
it in all its perfection. So there was work and
bread for all.

To prevent underselling or unfair competition
and at the same time to protect both the consumer
and the producer, prices too were strictly regu-

THE GOLDEN RULE APPLIED 201

lated. The method was simplicity itself. A fair
value was set upon the raw material, knd a fair
reward was assigned for the labor normally re-
quired to produce the finished work of craftsman-
ship. So much and no more the consumer could
be reasonably expected to pay. So much and no
more the producer could reasonably ask to re-
ceive for his work. There was no middleman to
absorb the profits. To use improper methods of
advertising and to entice away another craftsman's
customer was an offense that met with severe pun-
ishment. Not in his very dreams could the old
gildsmen have conceived of the modern school of
advertising when every article made is the best
in the market, and all others are inferior in qual-
ity or poor imitations, against which a gullible
public is solicitously warned by the solemn caution:
" Beware of imitations." Honesty and merit
were to be the only qualities by which a buyer was
to be attracted to the craftsman's little shop. Su-
perior skill in workmanship was to be the one ad-
vertisement.

By these methods — which are to be copied in
principle, though not literally, by us — prices were
kept within the reach of all and the extreme suf-
ferings brought upon modern civilization by the
constantly recurring high cost of living were then
unknown. Even so prejudiced a writer as Henry
Hallam reluctantly makes the following signifi-
cant admission:

202 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

There is one very unpleasing remark which every one wlio
attends to the subject of prices will be induced to make, that the
laboring classes, especially those engaged in agriculture, were
better provided with the means of subsistence in the reign of
Edward III or of Henry IV than they are at present. In the
fourteenth century, Sir John Cullum observes, a harvest man
had four pence a day, which enabled him in a week to buy a
comb of wheat. But to buy a comb of wheat a man must now
(1784) work ten or twelve days. (History of Hawsted, p. 228.)
So under Henry VI, if meat was at a farthing and a half a
pound, which I suppose was about the truth, a laborer earning
threepence a day, or eighteen pence a week, could buy a bushel
of wheat at six shillings the quarter and twenty-four pounds of
meat for his family. A laborer at present, earning twelve
shillings a week, can only buy half a bushel of wheat at eighty
shillings the quarter, and twelve pounds of meat at seven-
pence. • . . After every allowance has been made, I should find
it difficult to resist the conclusion that, however the laborer has
derived benefit from the cheapness of manufactured commodities
and from many inventions of common utility, he is much inferior
in ability to support a family to his ancestors three or four
centuries ago.2

The comparison here applied to the respective
periods in which Cullum and Hallam wrote their
histories is stated by J. E. T. Rogers to have held
true already in the early days of the Reformation.
" The masses of the people" as he says in his
11 History of Agricultural Prices in England M (I,
p. 10), u were losers by the Reformation" It
became necessary to pass twelve Acts of Parlia-
ment between 1541 and 1601 " with the distinct
object of providing relief against destitution."

2 " View of the State of Europe during the Middle Ages,"
II, pp. 814-816. (Appleton.)

THE GOLDEN RULE APPLIED 203

But there is still another way in which the Gold-
en Rule was applied by the craft gilds. It would
be impossible to enumerate the countless works
of charity performed by them. In this particular
too there was a wonderful similarity among the
gilds of every Catholic country. Craft gilds and
more or less purely religious gilds here worked
side by side. Not only were comfort and relief
generously afforded to poor gild brethren and sis-
ters, sick members visited, the dead religiously
buried at the gild expense, and prayers and Masses
offered for their souls, but the poor of the entire
city were remembered by the gilds, cottages for
the old and indigent were erected and charitable
institutions of every kind called into being. Thus
St. Job's Hospital for small-pox was founded at
Hamburg by a gild of fishmongers, shop-keepers
and hucksters.3 Free loans and gifts to those in
need or to the young seeking an opportunity for
self-support, doweries for indigent girls, assist-
ance to the imprisoned or such as were overtaken
by misfortunes of any kind, lodging for pilgrims
and the offering of purses to enable them to con-
tinue their pilgrimages to distant shrines or to the
Holy Places — these were some of the many com-
mon charities practised by the tradesmen through
their crafts and brotherhoods. Roads and
bridges were repaired by them, schools supported,
churches renewed or entirely built, and splendid

3 Janssen.

204 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

vestments, gloriously illumined missals, jeweled
chalices and waxen candles for shrines or serv-
ices abundantly supplied. In the stately gild-
halls, such as were erected by all the more pros-
perous crafts, the poor were banqueted upon the
special religious feast-days of the gilds. There
was no want or suffering to which human nature
may fall heir that was not relieved in as truly a
scientific as a Christian manner by gild and mon-
astery.

The spirit of religion and brotherhood that
went hand in hand to form the first and only true
industrial democracy of the world's history, em-
bodied in these craft gilds at their perfection, is
thus accurately described by Lujo Brentano:

All had particular saints for their patrons, after whom the
society was frequently called, and where it was possible, they
chose one who had some relation to their trade. They founded
Masses, altars, and painted windows in cathedrals; and even at
the present day their coats of arms and their gifts range proudly
by the side of those of kings and barons. Sometimes individual
craft gilds appear to have stood in special relations to a par-
ticular church, by virtue of which they had to perform special
services and received in turn a special share in all the prayers
of the clergy of that church. In later times the craft gilds fre-
quently went in solemn procession to their churches. We find
innumerable ordinances also as to the support of the sick and
the poor, and to afford a settled asylum for distress the London
companies very early built dwellings near their halls. The
chief care of the gildsmen was always directed to the welfare
of the souls of the dead. Every year a Requiem was sung for
all departed gild brothers, when they were all mentioned by
name, and on the death of any member special services were

THE GOLDEN RULE APPLIED 205

held for his soul and distribution of alms was made to the
poor, who in return had to offer up prayers for the dead.4

To complete the picture given here of the so-
cial and religious service of the gilds it will suf-
fice to quote the words of Dr. Jessop. The gilds,
he wrote in the Nineteenth Century, referring in
general to all these medieval organizations:

Were benefit clubs, they were saving banks, they were social
unions, and, like every other association of the Middle Ages,
they were religious bodies, so religious that they were con-
tinually building special chapels for themselves, and they had
chaplains of their own who received a regular stipend. Fre-
quently they were splendidly provided with magnificent copes
and banners and hangings and large store of costly chalices and
jeweled service books used on festive occasions in the worship
of the gild chapels; and I have never met with the least indi-
cation that the gilds were at any moment other than solvent.5

In proportion as this spirit of Christian Faith
was living and active in the gilds of the Middle
Ages did they realize in its fulness the golden
rule of the Gospel's precept of brotherly love.

4 " History and Development of Gilds," pp. 69, 70.

5 March, 1898.

CHAPTER XXI

LEARNING A TRADE

CONSIDERABLE attention has been given
in our day to the problem of apprentice-
ship. Never was this so perfectly
solved as in the days of the medieval crafts. Ap-
prenticeship was one of the wisest and most im-
portant gild institutions of the Middle Ages. It
was meant to be a religious and moral, as well
as an economic schooling for the future crafts-
man. It was in effect a striking application of
the principle of brotherhood and mutual help-
fulness everywhere taught by the Church.

No similar institution is known in all preced-
ing history. Individualism was the marked char-
acteristic of ancient paganism as of modern liber-
alism. In spite of the workingmen's unions
which for centuries existed in ancient Greece and
Rome there was no systematic attempt at trade
education. The task was left to the individual.
There was neither joy nor dignity in labor. It
was regarded as fit for the slave only. Cathol-
icity restored it to honor, and gave it those high
ideals which were first to be fully developed under

the aegis of the Church in the Middle Ages.

206

LEARNING A TRADE 207

The rudimentary conceptions of brotherhood
which paganism contained, and which were per-
haps nowhere more perfectly expressed than in
its gild life, were not sufficient to abolish the
stigma which rested upon labor. It was only
when the Son of God Himself came in the Per-
son of a Laborer, that men recognized the full
sacredness of toil and its appointed place in the
plan of Providence. Jesus Himself was the Di-
vine Apprentice. The Builder of the universe
learned in all obedience the trade of a carpenter
in the shop of Joseph, His foster-father.

The first trade schools where the crafts were
systematically taught, where apprenticeship and
industrial training may be said to have begun,
were the monasteries. The monks themselves
were the first great master craftsmen. Ova et
labora, " Labor and pray," was their motto.

With the development of the craft gilds the in-
stitution of apprenticeship likewise gradually came
into being. It was not at first obligatory and
men might be admitted to a gild and the practice
of a trade upon the testimony of the craft officials,
provided the latter had carefully assured them-
selves of the proficiency of the candidates. In
the course of time this alternative was no longer
accepted; but the term of apprenticeship and the
conditions under which it was to be made varied
largely for the different countries or even for the
different trades themselves. An English ordi-

208 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

nance of 1261 forbids having an apprentice for
less than ten years.1 This was considerably more
than the ordinary period. Soon seven years came
to be received as the normal length of apprentice-
ship in England. " No apprentice shall be re-
ceived for a less term than seven years," was the
London ordinance. A similar rule obtained in
France, although the term still varied largely.
Five or six years as " prentice M was the Scotch
gild law, " and one year for meat and fee." 2
During this time a complete knowledge of the
trade was to be acquired.

The temptation might naturally arise to turn
apprenticeship into child labor, but this the gild
regulations strenuously combated. No one, more-
over, was to practise a trade without having first
been apprenticed. So the English gild of Leather-
sellers ordained that: " From henceforth no one
shall set any man, child, or woman to work in the
trade if such person be not first bound appren-
tice, and enrolled in the trade." The master's
own wife and children might of course be of as-
sistance to him.3

In Germany the period of apprenticeship varied
from two to six years; but in addition to this

1 " Liber Custumarum," 536.

2 Bain, " Merchant and Craft Gilds," p. 204.

3 W. J. Ashley, u English Economic History and Theory,"
Part II, p. 84.

LEARNING A TRADE 209

there was imposed upon the young journeyman,
who had just completed his term, the obligation
of traveling, and practising his trade abroad.
These years of " wandering " were to give him
experience and varied knowledge of his craft.
They were meant to be the completion of his
technical education. This practice, though like-
wise observed in France, was not known in Eng-
land. During the term of apprenticeship proper,
the remuneration, if any, was frequently insignifi-
cant. In many instances it was very slight in the
beginning of the term and regularly increased with
the years. It was often, however, no more than
the equivalent of a modest allowance of pocket
money. In some cases the apprentice after con-
cluding his term was to remain with his master for
another year at a set wage. Tools, food and
other necessaries, often including also clothing of
a stipulated kind, were furnished by the master.

Apprenticeship was the novitiate of the crafts-
man. It was even preceded in many instances by
a probation, as we find was the case in Germany
where frequently a full month was required for
this preliminary test of fitness. The youth to be
admitted was moreover to have been born in
honest wedlock, for it was not considered befitting
that any one should be a master craftsman whose
fair name was blemished by even the slightest
stain. Everywhere the general principle was re-

2IO DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

ceived that the artisan who would aspire to the
dignity of masterhood must hold his reputation as
sacred as the honor of a king.

The admission therefore into this gild novitiate
was often conducted with the most impressive
ceremonies. It took place in the gildhall before
the assembled masters, or even in the town hall
itself in presence of the public authorities. The
apprentice now solemnly pledged himself " to
begin his future calling in the name of God, to be
obedient, faithful and attentive to his master, and
by his moral conduct to render himself worthy of
becoming in time a worthy member of the gild
and of civil society." 4 His name was then en-
rolled among the gild apprentices. Such import-
ance was given to this function when the gilds
were in their perfection.

The young apprentice now lived in the master's
house as a member of the family. He was to be
subject to his master in fidelity and obedience as
a son to his father, and was to receive a corre-
sponding care and attention in return. Nothing
was to be kept secret from him that might further
him in his trade. But above all he was to be
protected with scrupulous watchfulness, so that,
like his Divine Model, he might advance in wis-
dom and grace as well as in age. His moral con-
duct and his observance of religious duties were
to be foremost in the master's eye. If in any

4 Huber-Libenau, p. 23.

LEARNING A TRADE 211

way he failed he was to be chastised, " so that
through the pain of the body the soul may re-
ceive good." In the good old days men did not
believe in our modern educational principle of
sparing the rod and spoiling the child. In France,
however, there was a special rule that he must
not be beaten by the master's wife. The English
statutes require that he be chastised " duly, but
not otherwise."

The true spirit of apprenticeship, as inculcated
by the Church, is nowhere more beautifully ex-
pressed than in the book of " Christian Exhorta-
tion":

No trade or profession can succeed honorably unless the
apprentice is early taught to fear God, and to be obedient to
his master as if he were his father. He must, morning and
evening and during his work, beg God's help and protection,
for without God he can do nothing; no protection of men is of
avail without the protection of God, and often even hurtful
to the soul. Every Sunday and holy day he must hear Mass
and sermon and read good books. He must be industrious and
seek not his own glory, but God's. The honor of his master
and of his trade he must also seek, for this is holy, and he may
one day be master himself if God wills and he is worthy of it.5

The duties of the master are laid down with
no less discernment:

The master must not be weak-hearted towards the apprentice,
but neither must he be tyrannical nor too exacting, as often
happens. The master shall protect the apprentice from railler-
ies, ear-pullings, and abuse from the journeymen. Masters,

5 Janssen, " History of the German People," II, p. 20.

212 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

think of your duties. The apprentice has been entrusted to you
by the gild to care for his soul and body according to the laws
of God and the corporation. You must account for your ap-
prentice and care for him as if he were your own son. You are
not master only to govern and to do masterwork, but also to
command yourself as Christianity and your trade require. Re-
member, masters, you must be an example to your wife and
children, to your apprentices and servants.6

The gild did not fail, as the historian remarks,
to provide the young man with securities against
an unworthy master. As the bans are proclaimed
before marriage in the Catholic Church, so before
an apprentice was committed to a gildsman the
question was asked in the full assembly of the
craft if any fault could be found with the future
master either as a Christian or a craftsman.
Again when the term of service was over the ap-
prentice was publicly to bring his charges, if any
injustice had been done him, or else " remain for-
ever silent." He was now amid further solem-
nities freed from his obligations to his former
master and furnished with his diploma. His
status, however, was not perfect until, in later
times, he had been received into the brotherhood
of journeymen, a reception which took place amid
much merriment, but not unaccompanied by seri-
ous admonitions and sage and religious advice.

Like all human institutions the system of ap-
prenticeship was subject to abuses which rapidly
accumulated in the days of religious decline and

c ibid.

LEARNING A TRADE 213

of the Reformation. The term of apprentice-
ship was at times made unconscionably long, ex-
tending in England to as many as twelve years.
In France it varied from two to twelve years.7
In Germany, where the indenture was for a lesser
period than in England, the years of " wander-
ing M were often unduly prolonged. They were
known to extend even over seven years and more.

Technical skill was evidently not the only ob-
ject where such conditions prevailed. Care, too,
was taken at a later date to exclude those of
11 villein estate or condition." Attempts were
made in the reigns of Richard II and Henry IV
to prevent the vast emigration from country to
town by legislating that children who had been
employed upon the farm until the age of twelve
were to remain in that occupation.

Strict limitations were set regarding the num-
ber of apprentices that could be employed by a
single master. It usually varied, according to the
different periods or conditions, from one to three.
In later years, with the more complete develop-
ment of industry and commerce, a certain propor-
tion was to be preserved between the number of
apprentices and journeymen. The reason was
evident. Apprenticeship was then degenerating
into child labor and the adult workingmen were
obliged to protest in self-defense. Before this
stage had been attained, however, the object of

7 Boileau, u Livre des Metiers"

214 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

limitation had been to provide a good technical
training and later to avoid an overcrowding in
the various provinces of skilled labor. The true
gild idea was that no master should have more
apprentices than he could properly " keep, in-
form, teach and maintain," that he might make
of them good craftsmen and excellent Christians.

Towards the end of the reign of Richard II
a distinction began to be drawn between the
wealthier and the more indigent gilds, the mem-
bers of the former gaining a political as well as
social predominance, and being privileged to
wear a special livery.8 In 1489 we meet with
a regulation enacted in London by which the gilds-
men " out of clothing," i. e., not wearing liveries,
might employ one apprentice and no more, except
they had good reason for complaint, while those
11 of the clothing " might have two apprentices
and no more. He who had been warden might
have three, and the upper warden, four.9 These
distinctions were henceforth to become more ac-
centuated, and the name of " crafts " and " mys-
teries " came into common use in place of " gilds."

Another sign of decline was the levying of
large fees both upon the entrance to apprentice-
ship and to mastership. Such abuses, too, reached
their climax in the post-Reformation days, while
they were unheard of in the period of true gild

8 William Herbert, " Livery Companies of London," pp. 36, 37.
• Williams, " Founders," p. 11.

LEARNING A TRADE 215

development. " It was a great matter in for-
mer times to give £10 to bind an apprentice," says
Stowe, referring even then to the days of the de-
cline, M but in King James Fs time they gave £20,
£40, £60 and sometimes £100 with an apprentice.
But now these prices are vastly enhanced to
£500, or £600, or £800." 10 Brentano remarks
that reference is probably made here to the
Twelve Great Companies.

Finally the famous Statute of Apprentices,
drawn up in " the spacious days " of good
" Queen Bess," and technically known as " 5 Eliz.
cap. 4," sought to reinstate the institution of ap-
prenticeship which had then largely fallen into
disuse. It was at last to be replaced, under the
old name, by pure child labor. The hours of
work were fixed by her at twelve, as a minimum;
but a labor day of fifteen and sixteen hours was
not considered unnatural for children in their
teens by the new Individualism in which the
Reformation culminated on its economic side.
Pauperism, which arose at the same time, was to
extend its abhorrent effects equally to the unhappy
little ones. Says Professor Hayes of Columbia:

There was a law by which pauper children could be forced
to work, and under this law thousands of poor children, five
and six years old, were taken from their homes, sent from
parish to parish to work in factories, and bought and sold in
gangs like slaves. In the factories they were set to work with-

10 Ed. 1720, p. 329.

2l6 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

out pay, the cheapest of food being all they could earn. If they
refused to work irons were put around their ankles, and they
were chained to the machine, and at night they were locked up
in the sleeping huts. The working day was long — from five
or six in the morning until nine or ten at night. Often the chil-
dren felt their arms ache with fatigue and their eyelids grow
heavy with sleep, but they were kept awake by the whip of the
overseer. Many of the little children died of over-work, and
others were carried off by diseases which were bred by filth, fa-
tigue and insufficient food.11

Boys and girls alike were subjected to the same
slavery. " Harnessed and chained like dogs to
go-carts," as another writer says, " these poor
little slaves might be seen half-naked and ill-fed
crawling on all fours dragging after them the
coal-trucks filled/' So hour after hour they made
their way through the dark, low tunnels of the
coal pits. " But why did not the churches inter-
fere?" asks Father Vaughan. "I am afraid,"
he is obliged to answer, " that the established
Church at the time was on the side of capital.
Methodism was all for Quietism, while the Cath-
olic Church had not yet emerged in England from
her catacombs. She was hardly allowed to live,
let alone to utter." 12 Voices like those of Mrs.
Browning were at a later date to arouse the land:

The young lambs are bleating in the meadows;
The young birds are chirping in the nest;

11 Carlton J. H. Hayes, " A Political and Social History of
Europe," Ii, pp. 85, 86.

12 London Universe, May 3, 1918.

LEARNING A TRADE 217

The young fawns are playing with the shadows;

The young flowers are blooming toward the west —
But the young, young children, O my brothers,

They are weeping bitterly!
They are weeping in the playtime of the others,

In the country of the free.13

Anti-slavery orators dilated eloquently upon
the miseries of the negroes, while the children of
Englishmen at home, as Sir Robert Peel said in
18 16, " torn from their beds were compelled to
work, at the age of six years, from early morn
till late at night, a space of perhaps fifteen or six-
teen hours," under the lashes of even more heart-
less slave-masters. Such was the institution that
had replaced the apprenticeship system of the
Catholic gilds of the Middle Ages.

The possibility of a system of apprenticeship
such as existed in the best days of the medieval
gilds is indeed no longer to be realized. But it
does not follow that we cannot apply their prin-
ciples in our own times, by a true craft educa-
tion, combined with morality and religion. Chris-
tian schools are here, as elsewhere, of the high-
est importance. Unfortunately a vast propor-
tion of the industrial output under capitalism has
been such that articles were made merely to sell
at the biggest profit. Perfect and durable work
was often not even desired. The joy and satis-
faction of expert craftsmanship could no longer

13 " The Cry of the Children."

2l8 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

be realized in the specialized factory work, re-
quiring only a momentary instruction. Entire
classes of skilled labor were cast helpless upon
the labor market by the invention of new ma-
chinery. Yet a wide field remains for the expert
and the craftsman. For the rest, we must take
modern conditions as we find them and seek to re-
produce, so far as we can, the spirit of joy, char-
ity, justice and religion that were found in the
crafts when gildhood and brotherhood were still
in their perfection. The teachings of Chris-
tianity are for all time and can never become ob-
solete or inapplicable in any rightful system of in-
dustry adapted to the existing periods of economic
development. Under no circumstances must fac-
tory and workshop be permitted to become schools
of immorality and irreligion, where heart and in-
tellect alike are perverted and the whole man is
degraded to a level that makes him the fit tool of
godless agitators and anarchistic revolutionists.

With the conscientiousness of the medieval
gildsman we must watch over our youth, preserv-
ing for them their true inheritance and opening
to them their just opportunities both industrially
and religiously. In their program of " Social
Reconstruction," the American Bishops thus ex-
pressed their attitude towards the particular mod-
ern phase of this subject known as vocational
training, showing their keen interest no less in the

LEARNING A TRADE 219

intellectual than in the religious and physical wel-
fare of the laborer and his children:

The need of industrial or, as it has come to be more generally
called, vocational training is now universally acknowledged.
In the interest of the nation, as well as in that of the workers
themselves, this training should be made substantially univer-
sal. While we can not now discuss the subject in any detail,
we do wish to set down two general observations. First, the
vocational training should be offered in such forms and condi-
tions as not to deprive the children of the working classes of at
least the elements of a cultural education. A healthy democracy
can not tolerate a purely industrial or trade education for any
class of its citizens. We do not want to have the children of the
wage earners put into a special class in which they are marked
as outside the sphere of opportunities for culture. The second
observation is that the system of vocational training should not
operate so as to weaken in any degree our parochial schools or
any other class of private schools. Indeed, the opportunities of
the system should be extended to all qualified private schools
on exactly the same basis as to public schools. We want neither
class divisions in education nor a State monopoly of education.

The question of education naturally suggests the subject of
child labor. Public opinion in the majority of the States of our
country has set its face inflexibly aganst the continuous employ-
ment of children in industry before the age of 16 years. Within
a reasonably short time all of our States, except some stagnant
ones, will have laws providing for this reasonable standard.14

So, from first to last, has the Catholic Church
ever been eager to champion the interests of the
working classes, beginning with their earliest edu-
cation and devoting herself to them unstintedly
with all her zeal and love.

14 January 1, 1819.

CHAPTER XXII

THE FIRST MODERN LABOR CLASS

CRAFTSMEN, apprentices and journeymen
formed the triple alliance of labor in the
Middle Ages. All these classes did not
however spring into being at once, and it was long
before they had developed into distinct parts of
a complete gild system. Apprenticeship was al-
ready becoming a necessary preliminary for mas-
tership while the journeymen were as yet rarely
mentioned in the gild statutes. As a class, they
may be said to have come into existence during
the fourteenth century. The most detailed ref-
erence is made to them in the German gild statutes
of the middle of this century, at which time they
also first appeared in England as a definite body
of workers with distinct interests. They were
then variously known as yeomen, journeymen,
valets or servants. The German Geselle and the
French compagnon express more perfectly the in-
timate relation of fellowship and family associa-
tion that existed between master and journeyman.

Of the three grades within the gild system, the
journeymen alone corresponded, in a certain de-
gree, to the modern laborer. Yet even this cor-
respondence was vague and entirely wanting in

220

THE FIRST MODERN LABOR CLASS 221

the beginning, when the journeyman, though la-
boring for wages under an employer, was really
looking forward to the day when he would open
his little shop in one of the narrow, winding streets
of his own cherished town, and be honored as mas-
ter gildsman.

The reason for the rise of a journeyman class
is obvious. It was not always possible or desir-
able for the apprentice, upon completing his ap-
pointed term, to practise his craft as an independ-
ent master. Hence he would often remain for a
space of years as an assistant to his former mas-
ter or to some other craftsman in need of his serv-
ice. The number of these journeymen was at
first comparatively small and their condition one
of the closest intimacy with their employers. The
journeyman was as the elder son of the family in
which he lived and worked. In dress and conduct
he was obliged to do honor to the gild, even as
the master's wife was to sustain the fair name of
his craft by her virtue and decorum. Both jour-
neymen and apprentices were under the protec-
tion of the craft gild.

The journeyman, in brief, was looked upon as a
member of the household for whose conduct and
religious behavior the master was accountable be-
fore God. The same responsibility was consid-
ered to rest upon the gild itself. Gambling, late
hours and worse vices on the part of the journey-
man could not therefore be ignored by the mas-

22 2 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

ter, and were strictly guarded against by the gild
rules. Disobedience or irreverent behavior were
to be seriously punished. Since, at this early pe-
riod, the journeyman was bound to live beneath
the master's roof and was hardly less incorporated
into his family than the apprentice himself, it nat-
urally followed that he could not be married.
Thus a statute of the Bakers' Gild of Mainz, 1352,
reads: " We are agreed that whatsover journey-
man marries a housewife is no longer to be kept
by his master than his contract lasts. He should
then pay for his shop (er enkeuffe danne den
marcket) and become master." *

Such regulations can be readily understood, if
we remember, as was already stated, that the jour-
neyman, like the apprentice, was merely in a tran-
sitional stage of his career which would last only
until he could becomingly provide for a family in
a manner to bring honor to himself and credit
to his gild. In France such a transitional stage,
known as le compagnonnage, was made a definite
condition for mastership towards the end of the
fourteenth century.. The journeyman might,
however, freely choose his master and freely make
his terms, in so far as these were not regulated by
gild statutes. Like the master himself, he might
count on gild assistance in his need.2 The time

1 Bohmer, "Beitrdge zur Geschichte des Zunf fives ens."

2 £tienne Martin Saint-Leon, " Histoire des Corporations de
Metiers."

THE FIRST MODERN LABOR CLASS 223

would soon come when he would marry and be-
come an independent master craftsman. He could
then set up his own shop, take his place in the
gildhall and be honored in the land, until the in-
signia of his trade would at last be laid upon his
grave, and the prayers of his brethren and the
Masses offered for his soul by them would be pre-
sented at the Throne of God. Nor would his
family be forgotten, if through any misfortune
he left them in want, since the charity of the gild
would provide for them.

Nowhere perhaps is the Christian spirit of
these early gilds more evident than in some of the
regulations made by the gild masters for the wages
of their assistants. Thus while the master tilers
of London, according to the regulations drawn
up in 1350, were to receive 5^d. a day during
summer, and 4j^d. in winter, their journeymen
were allowed 3^d. during the longer season and
3d. during, the shorter. Considering the addi-
tional burdens resting on the master worker, and
understanding that both labored equally hard and
long, the division of the payment may well be con-
sidered adequate. Even better terms were made
by the master daubers, to whose 5d. and 4d. cor-
responded the 3^d. and 3d. of their garqons or
journeymen.3 Since the master and his assistants
usually worked to the order of their customers,
except in seasons of lax trade, provisions were

* H. T. Riley, " Memorials of London," p. 251.

2 24 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

often contained in the gild statutes of this period
that payment must be made directly to the journey-
man by the party engaging his services, and not
through the master. By a particular arrangement
the Builders of Nurnberg, both masters and jour-
neymen, stood immediately under the city council,
were equally independent, and received equal
wages.4 At the head of the stone-masons stood
a skilled monk, who drew the plans and supervised
the buildings. No difficulties occurred in the cities
where these conditions prevailed until the monas-
tery leadership passed into the hands of secular
masters. Even then the old traditions were not
entirely lost.5

But we now come to a period when the number
of journeymen was growing larger and capital be-
came of greater consequence. The time arrived
when it was not possible for every journeyman to
become a master. Such men could obviously no
longer remain part of the master's family and must
provide their own homes. They alone correspond
to the laboring class of later years.6 Hence the
reason for a new form of organization: the jour-
neymen gilds. These arose at the end of the four-
teenth century, and under the name of Gcsselenver-
bande became well nigh universal in Germany.

4 Georg Schanz, " Zur Geschichte der deutschen Gesellen-Ver-
bdnde," pp. 67, 68.

■ Ibid.

ft W. J. Ashley, "Introduction to English Economic History,"
II, pp. 101, 102.

THE FIRST MODERN LABOR CLASS 225

They were wide-spread also throughout France,
England and western Europe in general, but the
contrast and often the conflict between masters'
gilds and journeymen gilds was most marked in
Germany. In England these gilds, where they
survived, seem finally to have become merely sub-
sidiary organs to the masters1 organizations.7

When these new institutions first appeared in
their full strength the deterioration of the roas-
ters' gilds had already begun. The great influx
of country population into the towns had helped,
economically, to aggravate the situation. The
craft gilds themselves were slowly entering upon a
policy of exclusiveness. Entrance fees were raised
until in later days they often became extravagant.
In the meantime comparatively slight fees were
exacted from those belonging to the gildsmen's
own families. In some instances membership be-
came hereditary. Thus a monopoly might be
created by the leading families. Entire classes
were excluded by various legislations from even
entering upon apprenticeship. Such laws were at
times directed by the State itself against the chil-
dren who had, for a certain period at least, worked
upon the farms. Their object was to prevent the
depopulation of the agricultural sections. In Ger-
many, France and Scotland the execution of a
masterpiece was demanded of the journeyman be-
fore he could be admitted to the craft gild.

7 Gross.

226 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

Hence the chef d'auvre.8 The idea was in itself
excellent, but with the decline of the gilds the con-
ditions set were at times such as to make this task
not merely difficult, but very costly, while the ar-
ticle produced was often unsaleable. To this was
added in Germany the expensive Meisteressen, or
inauguratory dinner, after the journeyman had
completed his prescribed years of traveling and
produced his Meisterstuck*

Such were some of the abuses that arose as the
influence of the Church was lessened and her prin-
ciples of charity and social justice were in part dis-
regarded. The climax was reached with the Ref-
ormation and the years that followed. Thus at
Strassburg, the center of the new religion, as
Schanz recounts, the holidays were cut off, wages
instead of being raised between Christmas and
St. James's Day were lowered and other restric-
tions were enacted.10 Cromwell abolished the
feasts of Christmas, Easter, " and other festivals
called holidays," as superstitious. The fixed
11 play days M given later were no adequate sub-
stitute.

11 The Reformation," says Bruno Schoenlank,
a foremost non-Catholic authority upon this sub-
ject, " was drawing its social conclusions, the
golden age of the laborer was coming to an end,

8 £tienr.e Martin Saint-Leon, op. cit., p. 92.

0 Lugo Brentano, " History and Development of Gilds."

10Georg Schanz, op. cit., pp. 56-66.

THE FIRST MODERN LABOR CLASS 227

capitalism began to bestir itself." There was a
tightening of the autocracy of the State regime.
The free holidays of Catholic times were done
away with. Journeyimen " were obliged to pro-
duce a far greater amount of work, without hav-
ing their wages raised. They were strained far
more than before and were far more intensively
exploited." Difficulties of every kind were put in
their way that they might not become masters,
and their right to marry was unconscionably post-
poned. Thus according to a decree of October
9, 1 6 13, the pamphlet-maker journeymen were
not to marry until they had practiced their trade
twelve years without interruption. Any one vio-
lating this law was to be " entirely deposed from
his trade and might never again be helped to re-
sume it." Finally the silk-weavers' journeymen
were commanded by the Niirnberg city council,
about 1650, to observe " the fear of God and a
fifteen-hour work day." Such was the economic
result of the Reformation, as vouched for by Prot-
estant and other non-Catholic authorities.11

The journeymen gilds began as religious con-
fraternities, and indeed retained this character
even after the Reformation in Catholic sections.
In the meantime they were gradually developing
economic features and championing the interests
of their members. There was at this early period

11 Bruno Schoenlank, " So dale Kdmpfe vor 300 Jahren," pp.
51, 72, 143, 146. (Second Edition.)

228 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

no evidence of what might be called a conflict be-
tween capital and labor. The number of journey-
men who might be employed by any single master
was very restricted. Until the day of their ab-
solute decline the craft gilds sought to prevent the
concentration of wealth in the hands of a few.
Hence the number of journeymen that could be
engaged by even the most prosperous gildsman
was usually restricted to two or three, together
with a proportionate number of apprentices. Fre-
quently, in the early statutes, the master was lim-
ited to a single servant. No craftsman, at this
period, was likely to have more than two journey-
men and as many apprentices. Considering the
methods of production then employed, such meas-
ures did not interfere with the quantity of the out-
put, while they greatly enhanced its quality and
absolutely prevented every form of capitalism.
Under these conditions apprentices and journey-
men could still have every reasonable opportunity
of attaining to mastership, and the journeymen
gilds were rather religious and social than eco-
nomic in their nature. Later, however, when the
number of apprentices was increased and more
capital was consequently required for competition,
fewer could attain to economic independence, and
even the work itself of the journeymen might be
threatened. The worst conditions arose where
the craft gilds themselves had lost their religious
principles, or failed to put them into practice, and

THE FIRST MODERN LABOR CLASS 229

became capitalistic and exclusive. In proportion
as this took place the journeymen gilds became
militant organizations and the conflict between the
oligarchic merchant gilds of the Continent and the
early trade gilds was repeated, but with far less
success for the organizations of the journeymen
that now really represented the labor class. Al-
though this situation reached its climax after the
Reformation, it had already become serious
enough in many instances before this time. In
France it became necessary, as early as 1456, to
insist that masters must personally supervise their
shops.12

In the beginning, even where conflicts developed,
a tolerable understanding existed between masters
and journeymen. The old disputes, says Bren-
tano, seemed merely like family disagreements,
between parents and children. The situation
could not be stated more exactly. Nowhere was
there a trace of opposition to the existing system,
or of a class struggle, in the Socialistic sense of
the word.13 In most instances a working agree-
ment was gradually arrived at between the journey-
men gilds and the masters' organizations. Mas-
ters, journeymen and apprentices still worked side
by side at the same tasks, sharing the same labors
and exchanging their mutual confidences with one

12 E. Levasseur, " Histotre des Classes Ouvrieres en France!'
II, p. 92.

13 Ashley, Pesch, Schoenlank,, etc.

230 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

another. Hence the family spirit that abided
among them. So long, indeed, as the principles
of their Catholic faith strongly influenced both
masters and men it was possible always to effect
a reconciliation between the various interests.
Thus at Strassburg in 1363 we find a board of
arbitration appointed to decide all disputes be-
tween masters and journeymen, made up of five
members from each of these two classes.14 An-
other arrangement, made by the Tailors' Gild at
Aschaffenburg, 1527, was the settlement of all
difficulties by a commission appointed jointly by
the journeymen's gild, the master tailors and the
archbishop.15

That attempts to suppress the journeymen or-
ganizations must have been frequent in the begin-
ning, when their economic demands were first set
forth in opposition to their masters, we might
well surmise. Thus in London a proclamation
was issued by the city authorities in 1383, forbid-
ding all " congregations, covins and conspiracies M
on the part of the workmen for fear that they
would seek to raise their wages. Four years later
three journeymen cordwainers, in the same city,
combined with a Friar Preacher to found a fra-
ternity. The latter was to bring their case to
the notice of the Pope, but the men were seized

14 Schanz, op. cit., p. 28.

15 The Journeyman Barber. Mss. of gild statutes at Bene-
dictine Monastery, St. Meinrad, Ind.

THE FIRST MODERN LABOR CLASS 23 1

and confined in Newgate prison before the plan
had matured.16 It shows how here, as at all other
times, the Church supported the workingman in
his just rights.

In Germany, too, the Church was with the
journeymen. The monks of Niirnberg excited
the ire of the masters by permitting the secret
meetings of the former to be held in their mon-
astery, while the Bishop of Eichstaat championed
the cause of the journeymen belonging to the va-
rious cutlery trades. In mentioning such in-
stances, Schoenlank with an unconscious bias con-
cluded that such a course must have been to the
Church's interest. But alignment with the rich
and powerful masters might have far more ad-
vanced her cause in a temporal manner. She was
following in the footsteps of her Master. So,
too, she had been with the crafts in their early
trials. It was with the help of the Church only
that journeymen gilds were ever formed at all.

After a period of conflicts or strikes, such as
now often took place, a working agreement was
usually found, or the journeymen gilds, as in Eng-
land, were gradually brought under the super-
vision of the craft gilds and various arrangements
were made to deal with their grievances. Often
they simply ceased to exist and in not a few in-
stances the journeymen were in some way admitted
into the masters' gilds, whose wardens or other

16 Riley, " Memorials," 480, 495.

232 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

officers would adjudge their case when brought
to the notice of the gild. In England a class of
journeymen, as Ashley says, became a permanent
part of the gild system and remained so for cen-
turies.17 In the Council of Keyserberg, on the
other hand, we find them established with their
own courts and laws. It was in Germany that
the journeymen gilds flourished most and gave
rise to an entire series of imperial and terri-
torial decrees.18

As a typical instance of the claims set forth by
these journeymen we may take the following list
summarized here from the demands made by the
journeymen tailors of Strassburg towards the end
of the fifteenth century. They were drawn up in
connection with a new set of regulations which the
master tailors were seeking to obtain from the city
council. The journeymen demanded: (1) the
maintenance of the customary fourteen days' trial
before entering upon a contract. (2) The main-
tenance of the fourteen days' wandering, a period
of time within which the journeymen as well as
the masters were at liberty to dissolve their con-
tract. (3) The continuance of the old custom
which permitted the journeyman to provide a sub-
stitute to take his place if he desired to leave his
occupation, instead of being subject to fine and
black-list. (4) The abrogation of the vague rul-

17 W. J. Ashley, op. cit., II, pp. 101-103.
I* Ibid. Note 163.

THE FIRST MODERN LABOR CLASS 233

ing that journeymen and apprentices must pledge
themselves to prevent the master's losses and fur-
ther his gain, since this might give an opportunity
for the latter to dismiss his journeymen without
PaY- (5) The clarifying of a certain clause re-
garding the wage-contract. (6) The righting of
the disproportion between the wage and the high
fine inflicted on the journeymen for absenting
themselves from work through idleness. (7)
They admit that they are to do no independent
work, but are to receive all work through their
masters, and they further agree with the latter
that no journeyman should do piece-work. (8)
They finally demand greater precision in regard
to another wage clause which arouses their shrewd
suspicion.19

The journeymen's headquarters were the inn,
or Herberge, as it was called in Germany, where
organization had progressed exceptionally in this
regard. Both masters and journeymen cooper-
ated in this institution. Here the journeymen
met, consulted and held their feasts. The Her-
bergsvater found accommodation in the inn for
every wandering journeyman. It was the Y. M.
C. A., and far more than that, of the later
medieval times. Here were listed the names of
the masters in need of men. They who applied
first were served first, but precedence was given
to the master with a smaller number of journey-

19 Schanz, op. cit.t pp. 37-40.

234 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

men, so that the old gild principles were still kept
in view. Beds, too, and hospital care were pro-
vided here for the sick, while traveling journey-
men who could not find employment were often
paid a sum sufficient to bring them to the next
town. The fund for this was jointly contributed
by the masters and the journeymen. Similar in-
stitutions were conducted by the French compag-
nons.20

Shelten, or reviling, was the weapon used by the
journeymen gilds. It was a system of black-list-
ing, by which a gild member was not allowed to
work for a master or with a journeyman who had
been " reviled," until they had atoned for their
offense and been restored to favor. So, too, in
case of strikes, warning was sent to the journey-
men of neighboring towns not to seek employment
in the strike center until economic peace had been
restored. These strikes were never directed
against the existing system, nor even against the
hours of work, though the question of holidays
was raised and wages at times became a very vital
issue. Often however it was merely a matter of
gild honor. Such was the famous ten-years'
strike of the Colmar baker journeymen, which be-
gan with a question of precedence at a Corpus-
Christi procession, and ended finally in a complete
victory for the journeymen, without a single issue
of economics being raised throughout all this

20Brcntano, etc.

THE FIRST MODERN LABOR CLASS 235

period. It had lasted from 1495 to 1505.
Hence the reason for admitting under such cir-
cumstances Brentano's happy description of these
disagreements in early Catholic times as " family
disputes between parents and children."

This condition can best be understood by noting
the fact that although abuses existed, yet gild reg-
ulations were no less severe in regard to masters
than to servants. If the latter were to conduct
themselves " properly " and respectfully, the for-
mer too were strictly punished by their own gild
authorities if they held back the wages of their
men. These wages were determined, in England,
by the gild or its wardens in a manner which, Ash-
ley remarks, " was fair in itself in so far as the
master's own remuneration was fixed by legisla-
tive or civic ordinance."

The journeymen gilds, in fine, were, until the
Reformation, religious societies, and indeed re-
mained such in Catholic countries. They were
established " in honor of Almighty God, His
Blessed Mother Mary and all the Saints " or with
some similar sacred dedication. They created
funds for the lighting of candles before the altars
on Feast Days and other occasions. They pro-
vided Masses for their dead comrades and sol-
emnly attended the funeral services. They do-
nated precious vestments, chalices and missals, and
even built their own chapel, as did the bakers'
journeymen at Strassburg with the aid of liberal

236 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

donations given them. Special vaults were set
aside for their dead in church or monastery, as
in Freiburg and Frankfurt. Nor, as we have
seen, was Christian charity neglected. They pro-
vided beds for the sick in their own inns or founded
funds for this purpose in some established hospi-
tal. Thus in 1524 the Schaffhausen gild of jour-
neymen smiths gave its entire capital to the Seel-
haus that every sick journeyman might there be
cared for until he was restored to health. A per-
manent official was appointed to supervise this task.
At times the masters' gild itself provided for such
needs. " If any serving man of the said trade, "
reads an ordinance of the Braelers' Gild, " who
has behaved himself well and loyally towards his
masters whom he served, shall fall sick or be un-
able to help or maintain himself, he shall be found
by the good folks of the said trade until he shall
have recovered and be able to maintain him-
self." 21 At times contributions were made by
masters and journeymen to a common foundation
that was equivalent to a social insurance fund for
sick and disabled journeymen. Thus everywhere
the Catholic creed of faith and works was applied
in action so far as the influence of the Church
extended.

21 Riley, " Memorials," 277.

CHAPTER XXIII

REVALUATION OF THE MIDDLE AGES

AMONG the most hopeful signs of our
time is the changed attitude regarding
the Middle Ages. This was brought
about by three causes. First came the fail-
ure of the capitalistic system. Concentrating
the ownership of the means of production
in the hands of the few it deprived the mil-
lions of any voice, or share in the regulation of
what most vitally concerned them. Against the
arbitrary use of this tremendous power the minds
of men naturally revolted and they reverted to
the days preceding the great Industrial Revolution
and the Reformation. Here, in the Catholic
Middle Ages, they found realized, for the first
and last time in history, the ideals of industrial
democracy which to them were of far greater im-
portance than any outward forms of government
or mere national prosperity that left their own
lives unaffected. " To-day," E. T. Raymond
wrote in Everyman, " the most earnest minds are
looking to a revival of the gild system as the only
alternative to a new servile State."

237

238 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

But the thunder of the cannons, too, in the
great World War helped to recall the fact, which
had so long been studiously overlooked, that the
highest achievements of human skill and intellect
had after all been accomplished in the ages once
accounted " dark"; the ages which produced the
world's most wonderful art and architecture, its
greatest poetry and richest thought; the ages of
which Shakespeare was but the lavish heir, spend-
ing prodigally the legacy whose full greatness had
been attained in Dante and the Angelic Doctor,
in Raphael and Michelangelo, in the beauty of
Rheims Cathedral and the stateliness of Notre
Dame. To quote Ralph Adams Cram:

It has needed this war to drive men back and beyond the form
to the matter itself, and to give them some realization of the sin-
gular force and potency and righteousness of an epoch which
begins now to show itself as the best man has ever created, and
one as well that contains within itself the solution of our
manifold and tragical difficulties, and in fact the model where-
upon we must rebuild the fabric of a destroyed culture and
civilization.1

11 The great productive scholars of the present
day," wrote Lane Cooper in the Nation for June
7, 1919, " are medievalists."

Comparable entirely with the supreme triumphs
of art and architecture, was the social wisdom
displayed in the medieval gilds at their highest
stages of perfection. The brush of a Titian or

1 " The Substance of Gothic," Preface, pp. viii, ix.

REVALUATION OF THE MIDDLE AGES 239

the pen of the great Florentine himself never gave
expression to a deeper knowledge of human na-
ture than we find reflected in these masterpieces
of social thought and experience, transfused with
profound religious conviction and touched with
an artistry of the spirit that singer and painter
have never surpassed.

Lastly there has taken place a revival of his-
toric knowledge. To the long-continued school-
boy repetition and the learned-by-rote recitation
of half truths and entire falsehoods regarding the
Middle Ages, on the part even of otherwise most
reputable authorities, there succeeded a more di-
rect and sympathetic study. Men gradually began
to drop the misnomer " dark " applied to those
ages of brilliant thought and magnificent achieve-
ment. It was an epithet best suited to qualify the
mind of the writer who still so sadly misused it.
Who knows but at some future period of history
men may suggest for our own materialistic cen-
turies the title once so unjustly applied to those
ages of vigorous youth and lofty aspiration. To
those times the world now wisely reverts for lesson
and inspiration. In the third of his articles on
" Prospects in English Literature," published in
the London Athenaum, " Muezzin " thus pic-
tured the modern situation as it was to be more
fully revealed in the aftermath of the Great War:

To-day it is the Middle Ages that claim our interest and
understanding, for there are signs everywhere that the era in-

24O DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

augurated by humanism and Protestantism, and carried forward
on the two great tidal waves of industrialism and the French
Revolution, is already passing away. We have gained much
in the way of intellectual freedom, political privileges, and the
creature comforts from these changes; but it is beginning to be
realized that we have sold a large measure of our birthright
for this appetizing mess of pottage. Above all the temple of
the human spirit lies in ruins, its altars are overthrown, and
the wild asses pasture undisturbed within its walls. And
though, as we must, we bring all the appliances of a scientific
civilization and the fruits of accumulated knowledge to assist
us in the task of reconstruction, we can learn much from the
men of the Middle Ages, for they were supreme architects in
this manner of building, and the temple they set up lasted a
thousand years.2

With a new sense of freedom, after the passing
of the abhorrent Reformation doctrine of the Di-
vine right of kings, against which the voice of the
Church had thundered through the centuries, men
can now better realize her services to humanity as
the champion in all times of the poor and disin-
herited. Referring to Cardinal Mercier the New
York Times believed that it could pay him no
higher compliment than simply to pronounce him
worthy of the great tradition of his Church, which
was the only Church of the Middle Ages. " This
valiant priest," it wrote, " recalls the best things
in the Middle Ages, when the Church never feared
to speak out, at any cost or danger, in behalf of
the oppressed." (April 20, 1919.)

We recall the glowing passage in President
Wilson's " The New Freedom," describing the

2 May, 1917, D. 234.

REVALUATION OF THE MIDDLE AGES 24 1

Catholic Church as the perennial fountain-source
of the spirit of freedom and democracy through-
out the Middle Ages. It was this same spirit
which she infused into the gilds, wherever they
remained responsive to her teachings and direc-
tion. Men even of such extreme views as Hynd-
man, in his " Historic Basis of Socialism in Eng-
land," and the Russian anarchist writer, Kropot-
kin, in his " Mutual Aid a Factor of Evolution, "
grow eloquent when discoursing upon the Middle
Ages. Without understanding the inwardness of
the true Catholic devotion to Mary, which never
confuses her with Divinity nor hopes for pardon
where sin is unatoned and unrepented, Mr. Henry
Adams passes into an ecstasy of admiration in his
44 Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres." Almost at
random Ralph Adams Cram 3 covers page after
page with references to modern works filled with
the deepest appreciation of medievalism. The au-
thors, it is true, are not seldom at fault in their in-
terpretations owing to the want of that Catholic
Faith which holds the key to its own past, and is
in all its essence the same to-day, as in the days of
Dante or the days of the inspired writers of the
books of the Newr Testament, while always ad-
mirably adapted to every change of social life the
centuries may bring.

Medievalism is the study of a lifetime, for it is that great
3 " The Substance of Gothic," xiii-xviii.

242 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

cycle of five centuries wherein Christianity created for itself a
world as nearly as possible made in its own image, a world
that in spite of the wars and desecrations, the ignorance and
the barbarism and the " restorations " of modernism has left us
monuments and records and traditions of a power and beauty
and nobility without parallel in history.4

It is with the democracy of the Catholic gilds of
these ages that we are particularly concerned, and
it is interesting to notice how this is recognized
to have extended even into the field of education.
Besides charity schools, like our modern parochial
schools, and largely supported by the gilds, there
were also gild schools proper. Our word u uni-
versity " itself, as the Columbia University pro-
fessor, James Harvey Robinson, explains, is
merely a medieval synonym for gild:

Before the end of the twelfth century the teachers had be-
come so numerous in Paris that they formed a union, or gild,
for the advancement of their interests. This union of profes-
sors was called by the usual name for corporations in the
Middle Ages, universitas ; hence our word, university. The
King and the Pope both favored the university and granted the
teachers and students many of the privileges of the clergy.5

So during the following centuries numerous uni-
versities sprang up in France, Italy and Spain.
Oxford and Cambridge were founded and great
centers of learning flourished everywhere. Uni-
versity life attained a prominence it has never
equaled since. Oxford alone is said to have num-

4 ibid.

6 " Medieval and Modern Times," p. 251.

REVALUATION OF THE MIDDLE AGES 243

bered about 10,000 students. Other universities
are claimed to have numbered even 20,000 and
30,000 students. " Monasteries," says Professor
Laurie, " regularly sent boys of thirteen and four-
teen to university seats. A Papal instruction of
1335 required every Benedictine and Augustinian
community to send boys to the university in the
proportion of one in twenty of their residents. " 6
Traveling scholars, as the writer adds, were ac-
commodated gratuitously, in the houses of priests
or monastery hospitals, and even local subscrip-
tions were offered to help them on their way.
Here was a true democracy of learning. Higher
education was not confined to the clergy except
only when the energy of the Church was neces-
sarily absorbed in the teaching of the very rudi-
ments of civilization and of the first principles of
religious life to the races emerging from savagery.
In the establishment of these early seats of
learning the influence of the gilds was predom-
inant. Regarding the origin of the three great
universities at Paris, Oxford and Bologna, Father
Cuthbert is thus quoted in the London Tablet:

They started without charters or even buildings of their own,
and were at first simply a group who formed themselves into
a closed gild, and borrowed private houses, churches or public
halls. Both scholars and masters were subject to gild authority.
At Bologna it was a Scholars' Gild which ruled and appointed
the authority to which the masters were responsible; but even-
tually the masters allied themselves with the town authorities,

6 " The Rise and Early Constitution of the University."

244 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

and so the university became subject to the civic power. At
Paris and Oxford the Masters' Gild elected the Council and
officials who governed the universities. Later on the two gilds
combined, that is the gild included both scholars and masters.7

Thus these early Catholic universities were in
the strictest sense popular and democratic institu-
tions. Later it became the fashion to ask for a
Papal or a royal charter. " That given to Oxford
in 1 2 14 by the Legate Otho is probably the earli-
est." These facts are now fully acknowledged
by non-Catholic authorities and even the London
Times was able to launch forth upon a eulogy of
the Papacy in the work of elementary and higher
education during the entire period of the Middle
Ages:

The organization and control of the universities of Europe
was an achievement that is a deathless laurel in the Papal
crown. In educational matters there was universal confidence
in the judgment and justice of the Papacy from the days of
Eugenius II in the ninth century to the days of the Counter-
Reformation in the sixteenth.

But it was not only in university matters that the educational
activity of the Papacy was so remarkable. Whether we regard
Canon 34 of the canons promulgated at the Concilium Romanum
in 826, or the decrees of the Third Lateran Council in 1179, of
the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215, and of other Councils, such
as that of Vienna in 1311, we always find that the medieval
Church is seeking to advance learning of all grades, and to
coordinate educational effort of all kinds. And the efforts of
the Central Conference were amply supplemented by what were,
in effect, diocesan conferences.8

7 May 3, 1919.

8 Educational Supplement, Jan. 2, 1919.

REVALUATION OF THE MIDDLE AGES 245

The decree of the Third Lateran Council, in
1 179, to which the London Times refers is itself
a complete refutation of the calumnies that,
through ignorance, had long been spread against
the Church in the Middle Ages. It reads:

Since the Church of God, like a good mother, is bound to
provide so that the poor who can get no help from the wealth
of parents should not be deprived of the opportunity of learn-
ing and making progress in letters, let a complete benefice be
assigned in every cathedral church to a schoolmaster, who will
teach clerics and poor scholars for nothing.

The Fourth Lateran Council extended this de-
cree to all countries. By this a perfect system
of free public schools was ordained. The democ-
racy of learning as of industry was the natural
result of the genuinely democratic spirit of the
Catholic Church which has never changed since,
the Galilean fisherman was made the Rock on
which Christ constructed it: " Thou art Peter,
and on this rock I will build my church." The
seal of the Popes is the seal of the Fisherman.

Our revaluation of the Middle Ages is thus
steadily progressing and entering into the final
stage of popularization through the daily press.
Particularly in the field of sociology will these
ages be of constantly increasing interest and pro-
foundly practical instruction for our times. That
the common workingman was then better provided
for than in the days when capitalism reached its
climax before the outbreak of the World War, is

246 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

now universally acknowledged by all who may be
trusted to speak with authority upon this question.
The advantages of labor were all secured to it
through the potent influence of the gilds, but in
particular of the craft gilds as based on the re-
ligious principles of the Catholic Church with
which they were integrally connected. Separated
from her, they were left as a body reft of the
soul, lifeless, inefficient, passing slowly into inevita-
ble decay. With their religious spirit intact they
might have confidently faced the period of eco-
nomic reconstruction. This too we find admitted
without hesitation.

It was due to the struggle of the craft gilds
alone, as was shown in a previous chapter, that the
world was not sunk into a state of uncontrolled
capitalism half a millennium before the coming of
the Industrial Revolution. Through the struggle
of the gildsmen the nascent cities, beginning with
the eleventh century, won their enfranchisement
from the feudal lords who then had too often out-
lasted their usefulness. In the same way they
overcame the formidable power of the merchant
corporations that threatened to establish their oli-
garchy of wealth. So too, through the efforts of
the gilds the first modern Christian democracies
were formed. Many of the medieval cities grew
into independent States. In Italy particularly,
sprang up those marvelous Catholic republics, like
Genoa, Lucca, Pisa, and Florence.

REVALUATION OF THE MIDDLE AGES 247

Thus, in the latter city, the consules of the mer-
chant gilds first appear in 1 182 and from this time
on no important transaction takes place without
their cooperation. In Pisa, besides three mer-
chant gilds, there existed after about 1260 a union
of seven artes or trade gilds consisting respectively
of such different elements as notaries, smiths, and
wine dealers. They were governed by two capi-
tanei chosen in turn from different gilds and seven
other officers, one from each gild. The widest
autonomy -was enjoyed by each organization.9

Oligarchy and class-rule, it is true, began again
in proportion as the gilds themselves deteriorated
in their spirit of religion and democracy, or their
influence declined, but their results lived on in the
magnificent efflorescence of art stimulated through
the powerful incentives offered by the Church.
These are some of the facts that now again are re-
ceiving their due valuation.

9 Alfred Doran, " Entwickelung und Organisation der Floren-
finer Ziinfte im 13. und 14. Jahrhundert."

CHAPTER XXIV

CIVIC PAGEANTS AND PLAYS

WE have within recent years witnessed
many revivals of medievalism in art and
literature. In England Ruskin stood
as the leader of this great movement. He had
caught as none other the external beauty and
splendor of the Middle Ages. As he came to
know them better he likewise approached more
closely to a love and veneration of the religion
that has been the inspiration of everything noblest
in life and highest in art. At a greater distance
from the shrine stood the modern Pre-Raphaelite
school of artists. They might indeed copy the
outward form of the art of a Fra Angelico, but
could not feel the rapture that inspired it. They
lacked the faith and the love. Trammeled by
conventions and remote from human sympathies,
they could not stir the hearts of men. In our own
day we are again approaching medievalism, but in
another way. We have caught, however faintly
and vaguely, what Ruskin had already sought to
teach the world, the spirit of cooperation. It ex-
presses itself in countless, often sadly misleading,
ways, in our economic life. But again men fail
to understand that there can be no assurance of a

248

CIVIC PAGEANTS AND PLAYS 249

true and lasting universal brotherhood without a
universal faith.

Among the latest revivals of medievalism are
the civic pageant and drama. The reproduction
of " Everyman," in spite of its modern surround-
ings and professional actors, faintly suggested the
force and influence of the Catholic morality plays.
Intended not for a select few, but for the religious
instruction of all the people, such plays were truly
popular in their nature. More ambitious were the
first modern attempts once more to suggest by
mammoth performances the medieval idea of co-
operation in art. Perhaps most successful in this
direction was the magnificent Civic Pageant and
Masque of St. Louis. Manifestly, however, it
is impossible to reproduce artificially in our own
times the true spirit of cooperation as it was un-
derstood in the days when the great minsters
were erected, the work of generations of humble
artisans. In spite of private interests there was
always one center of Truth in which all were
united. Every popular ceremony was full of
beauty and symbolism, because religion had given
a higher meaning to life. As a characteristic ex-
ample of a purely civic nature we may here refer
to the welcome given to King Henry at Dover in
1432. The scene is pictured for us by Stow
and the poet Lydgate. It is at once simple and
artistic, popular and religious.1

1 Herbert, " Livery Companies of London," I, 93 ff.

250 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

Robed in gowns of scarlet and with hoods of
red the aldermen are described riding out to meet
their monarch, who had been crowned King of
France. At their head was the mayor, in crim-
son velvet, with a furred hat of velvet, a girdle
of gold about his waist and a " jewel " of gold
hung about his neck. In attendance upon him,
mounted on great coursers, rode the huntsmen,
clad in suits of red bespangled with silver. Then
followed in procession the entire commonalty of
the city, all in white gowns and scarlet hoods, with
" sundry devyses embrowdyd richly." Their gar-
ments of white symbolized the purity of their loy-
alty, while the embroideries evidently suggested
the gilds to which they belonged. To lend still
greater variety, the Merchant Strangers, the Gen-
oese and Florentines, and the " Easterlings," as
the German Hanse Merchants were called, all
took part, " clad in there manere." The poet
Lydgate thus pictures the scene in the quaint Eng-
lish of his day:

The clothing was of colour full covcnable:

The noble mair clad in red velvet,

The shrieves, the aldermen, full notable,

In furryd clokes, the colour of Scarlett;

In stately wyse whanne they were met,

Ich one were wel horsyd, and made no delay,

But with there mair rood forth on there way.

The citezens ich on of the citee,

In their entent that they were pure and clene:

CIVIC PAGEANTS AND PLAYS 25 I

Ches them of whit a ful faire lyvere,2

In every craft, as it was wel scne,

To shewe the trowthe that they dede mene3

Toward the kyng, hadde mad them feithfully

In sundry devyses embrowdyd richely.

What a lavishness and wealth of color, what a
freshness and delight of life, as compared with
our own modern drabness! Something of the
beauty of the faith of these old gildsmen was re-
flected even in their daily intercourse. The mayor
on this occasion was a grocer by profession.
What more appropriate, therefore, than that the
scenic display which crowned the festivity should
represent a grove of foreign fruits:

Oranges, almondys and the pomegranade,
Lymons, dates, there colours fresh and glade,
Pypyns, quynces, chandrellys to disport,
And the pom cedre, corageous to recomfort;
Eke othere fruites, whiche that more comown be,
Quenyngges, peches, costardes, and wardens,
And others manye ful faire and freshe to se.

In the midst of this new Garden of Eden were
three wells, in allusion to the mayor's name, who
chanced to be called Wells. But the true Scrip-
tural joyousness of these days of Catholic merri-
ment displayed itself when at the King's approach
the waters, by some clever mechanical device, sud-
denly disappeared and all the three wells were
filled with purest wine, recalling our Lord's

2 /. e., " Chose them of white, etc."
s "Did mean."

252 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

miracle at the wedding feast of Cana. And there,
prepared to serve the guests, stood the three al-
legorical personages: Mercy, Grace and Pity.
There, too, were the ancient patriarchs, Enoch and
Elias, " full circumspect and wys," with " lokkes
hore," to offer prayers for the King and call down
God's blessings on his reign: " In enemyes
handes that he nevere falle."

In his " Livery Companies of England/' pub-
lished in 1837, William Herbert says:

What confers an additional interest on the shows of this
period is, that almost all the ceremonies of the companies, and
indeed every public act, was then more or less mixed up with
the Catholic religion; a religion which, bringing with it a
peculiar splendor of worship, shed over them a luster which
we find but faintly reflected on its disuse.4

How religion in its most serious form could be
happily combined with popular amusement is best
seen in the grand pageants and plays of these
times. Our modern theater with its garish lights,
its tremulous music and feverish passion, can give
no conception of the popular performances of the
simple craftsmen, which dealt with the intense
realities of life and death, and with the august
sanctities of religion. Even the banterings and
buffooneries, before the days of the decline, were
conceived in the spirit of childish innocence and
glee, telling of simple trust in the mercy and love
of an Almighty Father. Only when the spirit of

* Vol. I, p. 66.

CIVIC PAGEANTS AND PLAYS 253

religion itself had been weakened among the peo-
ple did these performances degenerate until they
finally passed away. Most famous among the few
survivals was the decennial play of Oberammer-
gau, which has remained the wonder and despair
of the world's greatest artists.

To show how truly popular these performances
were, it will suffice to point to the gild statutes of
a single English town, Newcastle-on-Tyne. Ap-
parently every trade union within its walls per-
formed its public play on Corpus Christi Day.
Thus the gild of Barber-Chirurgeons, after going
in procession arrayed in their liveries, were after-
wards to play at their own expense " The Bap-
tizing of Christ." Similarly the Craft of Weav-
ers in the same city ordained that its members
must corporately participate in the procession and
must play their play and pageant of " The Bear-
ing of the Cross." The Slaters, according to an
ordinance of 145 1 were to give their own play,
specified at a later date, when they had united
into one gild with the Bricklayers, as " The Offer-
ing of Isaac by Abraham." The Millers of the
same town were enjoined to enact " The Deliver-
ance of the Children of Israel out of the Thral-
dom, Bondage and Servitude of King Pharao."
The House Carpenters, then known as Wrights,
played " The Burial of Christ," and the Masons,
" The Burial of our Lady Saint Mary the Vir-
gin." Many of these ordinances, it may be men-

254 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

tioned, refer to the sixteenth century, showing how
the religious spirit had still survived in the hearts
of the people.

All the crafts annually combined for the solemn
Corpus Christi procession. This custom was ev-
erywhere observed in all cities of Christendom,
and the pageants and processions of Corpus
Christi were the great civic as well as religious
event of the year. Nothing in modern times can
equal the true social spirit which animated these
splendid demonstrations of Christian faith and
universal brotherhood. Here indeed all were
united in a common membership with Christ, their
Head. He Himself was present in their midst,
as of old among His Apostles when the sacred
words, daily spoken in the Holy Mass, were for
the first time uttered and that mystery enacted
which He commanded should be repeated to the
end of time by the successors of His chosen
Twelve : " Taking bread, he gave thanks, and
brake; and gave to them, saying: This is my
body, which is given for you. Do this for a com-
memoration of me." 5 The meaning of those
words was clear. The mystery they contained
was as infinitely condescending as it was sublime.
No wonder, therefore, that the day set aside for
its honor should have become the occasion of civic
demonstrations such as will never again be wit-
nessed until men are once more united in the one

■ Luke xxii.19. (Douay.)

CIVIC PAGEANTS AND PLAYS 255

true Faith which alone can satisfy their longings.
To make plain the civic nature of these events
we need only instance the Corpus Christi proces-
sion held at York. In that single city in the year
141 5, ninety-six gilds marched with their insignia
and fifty-four pageants were presented in the pro-
cession. As early as 1325 we find, in fact, a spe-
cial Corpus Christi Gild which had developed out
of a former merchant gild whose economic use-
fulness had evidently ceased with the coming of
the craft gilds. Not the laity only, but the priors
of two religious houses and all the parish priests
were enrolled in its membership. The main ob-
ject of the gild was to make provision for the
Corpus Christi procession in which the priests
marched with the craft gilds. The latter carried
candles, unfolded their banners and displayed their
marvelous pageants, after which they regaled
themselves in good Scriptural fashion.6 What
could be more closely related than popular hap-
piness and true religion, whether we behold
David dancing before the Ark or Christ among
the wedding guests. As Lowell beautifully says:

This is what the Roman Cnurch docs for religion, feeding
the soul not with the essential religious sentiment, not with a
drop or two of the tincture of worship, but making us feel one
by one all those original elements of which worship is com-
posed ; not bringing the end to us but making us pass over and
feel beneath our feet all the golden rounds of the ladder by

• Gross, "The Gild Merchant," I, p. 162.

256 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

which the climbing generations have reached that end; not
handing us drily a dead and extinguished Q. E. D., but letting
it declare itself by the glory with which it interfuses the incense-
clouds of wonder and aspiration and beauty in which it is
veiled. The secret of her power is typified in the mystery of
the Real Presence.7

But such pageants and processions were not lim-
ited to Corpus Christi Day. They frequently
took place on the great feast days of the different
gilds. The members in their liveries, garlanded
with flowers or crowned with wreaths of leaves,
bearing in their hands lighted candles which often
were most richly ornamented, might be seen
marching through the streets of the city with song
and music on the way to their own gild church or
altar. Here they attended at Mass, which was
solemnly celebrated, and a merry banquet followed
at which all partook. On the next day they might
again assemble at a Requiem sung for the souls of
the departed members. As an interesting ex-
ample it will suffice to quote the regulations for
the annual pageant held on the feast of the Puri-
fication by the religious gild of St. Mary, estab-
lished at Beverley in 1355. They are charming
in their faith and simplicity.

All the brethren and sisters, the ordinance reads, shall meet
together in a fit and appointed place, away from the church;
and there one of the gild shall be clad in comely fashion as a
queen, like to the glorious Virgin Mary, having what may seem
a son in her arms. Two others shall be clad like to Joseph

7 Other similar flashes occur in Old New England writers.

CIVIC PAGEANTS AND PLAYS 257

and Simeon; and two shall go as angels, carrying a candle-
bearer, on which shall be twenty-four thick wax lights. With
these and other great lights borne before them, and with music
and gladness, the pageant Virgin with her Son, and Joseph and
Simeon shall go in procession to the church. And all the sisters
of the gild shall follow the Virgin; and afterwards all the
brethren. Each of them shall carry a wax light weighing half
a pound. And they shall go two and two, slowly pacing to the
church; and when they have got there, the pageant Virgin shall
offer her Son to Simeon at the high altar; and all the sisters
and brethren shall offer their wax lights, together with a penny
each. All this having been solemnly done, they shall go home
again in gladness.8

Mass having been heard, as was the custom,
they were later in the day to meet again for a
simple banquet, regaling themselves with modest
but hearty cheer, " rejoicing in the Lord, in praise
of the glorious Virgin Mary." Such was the
faith, such the happiness, such the civic spirit,
such the brotherhood in Christ in those days when
there was still a " merrie " England, and when
the Catholic Church in all her beauty was close
to the hearts and lives of men.

There was withal a spirit of profound democ-
racy in this religion. It displayed itself in the
very building of the churches where we behold that
deep inward joy that comes from a conscience at
peace and a heart inflamed with the love of God.
In a letter written in 1145 Abbot Haimon thus
describes how the building of Chartres Cathedral
was begun:

s Cornelius Walford, " Gilds," pp. 244, 245. J. T. Smith.

258 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

Who has ever seen! Who has ever heard at all, in times
past, that powerful princes of the world, that men brought up
in honor and in wealth, that nobles, men and women, have bent
their proud and haughty necks to the harness of carts, and that,
like beasts of burden, they have dragged to the abode of Christ
these wagons, loaded with wines, grains, oil, stone, wood, and
all that is necessary for the wants of life, or for the construc-
tion of the church? . . . There one sees the priests who preside
over each chariot exhort every one to penitence, to confession
of faults, to the resolution of a better life! There one sees old
people, young people, little children, calling on the Lord with a
suppliant voice, uttering to Him, from the depth of the heart,
sobs and sighs with words of glory and praise! After the peo-
ple, warned by the sound of trumpets and the sight of banners,
have resumed their road, the march is made with such ease that
no obstacle can retard it. . . . When they have reached the
church they arrange the wagons about it like a spiritual camp,
and during the whole night they celebrate the watch by hymns
and canticles. On each wagon they light tapers and lamps;
they place there the infirm and sick, and bring them the precious
relics of the Saints for their relief. Afterwards the priests and
clerics close the ceremony by processions which the people fol-
low with devout heart, imploring the clemency of the Lord
and of His Blessed Mother for the recovery of the sick.9

Merriment and deep devotion blended in the
life of these brave men and leal, who best under-
stood the true meaning of democracy and found
its only safeguard in religion, whose worship was
no less profound because they loved the brightness
and the cheer of life, who mingled laughter with
their deepest thoughts; who joyed to see the grin-
ning gargoyle gurgling from cathedral eaves while
saints and angels stood in glorious ranks about

8 Henry Adams, " Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres," pp. 104,
105.

CIVIC PAGEANTS AND PLAYS 259

the carven portals that admitted to the House of
God. They knew how, as men have never better
known, to mingle prayer, worl^ and play into the
glowing tapestry of life.

CHAPTER XXV

THE CHURCH AND THE PEOPLE

WANT of accurate historic knowledge and
a dearth of reliable literature on the
historic backgrounds of the social ques-
tion helped for a long time to perpetuate the be-
lief that the Church, in the past, was opposed to
the democratization of labor. Hence the conclu-
sion that she must equally be opposed to it in our
day. Reference is invariably made in this con-
nection to the occasional clashes of interests be-
tween bishops or monasteries on the one side, and
the sturdy old gildsmen on the other. They are
isolated instances chosen from the long centuries
of medieval history and merely serve to call at-
tention to the lasting harmony that existed be-
tween the Church and the crafts, whose indebted-
ness to her was beyond all reckoning.

In dealing with this important question, it is
necessary to distinguish between the period preced-
ing the latter part of the fourteenth century, and
the period which immediately followed and con-
tinued on to the date of the Reformation. Going
back to the ninth and eighth centuries, and even
to earlier times, when all of Europe was Catholic,

260

THE CHURCH AND THE PEOPLE 26 1

we look in vain for any wide-spread disaffection
of the people against the Church. During this
period, it is true, the bishops were often temporal
sovereigns, while the abbots of famous monas-
teries not seldom enjoyed an equal influence and
power. Such was the accepted condition of the
time. The rule of the bishops was characterized
by its special benignity, while the wealth of the
monasteries was in reality the dower of the poor.
u Good hap to live neath the bishop's crook," be-
came a proverbial expression. The influence of
the monasteries cannot be called in question, nor
the love and respect which all classes showed for
the habit of the monk. The gifts which flowed
into the coffers of the abbey found their way back
again most freely to the people in their need.
Religious houses at times lost the spirit of their
primitive rule. Highly placed prelates, with in-
creasing prosperity, might yield in particular in-
stances to the lure of temporal interests and am-
bitions, yet the confidence of the people was never
withdrawn from the great body of their bishops
and clergy and the truly popular religious orders
of the day. Nor was this trust misplaced. Un-
der all circumstances they ever found in them their
only lasting friends.

It was under the direct influence of the Church
that the democratization of labor took place in
the Middle Ages. It was under her guidance
and tuition that the craft gilds unfolded their

262 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

marvelous statutes. If the application of her
teaching, embodying the highest possible concep-
tion of human brotherhood, was not perfect on
the part either of gildsmen or of clerics, the rea-
son was to be found, not in the Church, but in
that human nature which will always fall short
of its loftiest ideals. It is clearly irrelevant to
speak of any serious discord, at this period, be-
tween the Church and the people who owed ev-
erything to her.

But can it be said that a change took place in the
popular mind? The first great event to be noted
occurred at the middle of the fourteenth century.
We refer to the Black Death, which carried off
one-fourth of the population of Europe. It
reached England in 1348. " The clergy seem to
have suffered the worst," writes Alfred Milnes,
" probably falling a sacrifice to their own devo-
tion in ministering to the dying; and the monas-
teries worst of all." * Such was the example the
Catholic clergy has ever given in every great
popular calamity, showing how truly and pro-
foundly the welfare of the people is at their heart.
Priests and monks were found at their posts, giv-
ing their lives for their flocks.

The fewness of laborers, when the plague had
passed, enabled those who survived, to demand ex-
orbitant wages. The abundant crops of that year
were left to stand unharvested in the fields and the

1 "From Gild to Factory."

THE CHURCH AND THE PEOPLE 263

cattle roamed unherded over the pastures. In
the cities also the same dearth of laborers existed.
The laws repeatedly enacted at this period to for-
bid the taking or giving of unusual wages are often
severely censured. It was not possible strictly to
enforce them, and wages almost doubled, but it is
wrong to look upon them as capitalistic measures.
44 These regulations of wages," says Brentano,
44 were but the expression of the general policy of
the Middle Ages, which considered that the first
duty of the State was to protect the weak against
the strong, which not only knew of rights but also
of duties of the individual towards society, and
condemned as usury every attempt to take un-
seemly advantage of the temporal distress of one's
neighbor." 2 Yet a great confusion resulted from
which Europe seems never to have entirely recov-
ered. A religious decline, too, set in and with it
the inevitable economic disorder. Inferior and
undesirable postulants, we are told, were often ac-
cepted to fill out the ranks of the depleted clergy.
The Church, however, had already accom-
plished a great work. She had been the domi-
nant influence in the abolition of slavery and had
mightily contributed to the disappearance of the
old forms of serfdom. She was now, gradually
but surely, helping towards the greater emancipa-
tion of the peasant classes. The process was nor-
mal so long as the direct influence of the Church's

2 " History and Development of Gilds," p. 78.

264 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

teaching could be effective. Another instance of
the lack of historic information is the statement
often made that the liberation of the peasant
classes began with Wyclif and the preaching of
his " poor priests." The latter, it may be said in
passing, were not priests at all, though some of
them may have been poor enough after the fashion
of the Bolshevist agitator of to-day. Misapplied
Scripture texts served for their weapons of de-
struction. More material means were to be used
later.

The theological theories of Wyclif do not con-
cern us here. They centered in a denial of the
spiritual authority of the Church and in an at-
tack upon the Holy Eucharist. His direct princi-
ple of social anarchism, however, was the doctrine
that " dominion is founded in grace." No regard
was to be had either for the property or authority
of men in the state of sin. It was sufficient for
Wyclif or his followers to decide that the men
whose property they desired to alienate were not
in the state of grace. Since, Wyclif himself, like
other reformers, was a close personal friend of
the wealthy secular lords, he cautiously limited the
application of his principle to ecclesiastics only.
This enabled him to curry favor with the rich in
a twofold manner. Clerics and monks, he taught,
committed sin by the very fact that they held prop-
erty. It was therefore a pious duty of secular
princes to relieve them of this encumbrance which

THE CHURCH AND THE PEOPLE 265

else must bring them to eternal damnation. The
good lords would thus gain for themselves both
earth and heaven at one happy stroke. In a simi-
lar manner Luther later won the support of his
favorite princes by giving them, not merely the
property of the Church, but her spiritual authority
as well.

Wyclif s " poor priests," unlike their master,
had no close intimacy with rich and powerful
lords. Logically they extended their principle
to secular owners as well. They were the Bol-
shevists of their time and carried on their cam-
paign with a similar enthusiasm. The existence
of real social abuses won a temporary hearing for
their wild and exaggerated statements. Their
preaching contributed, with other causes, to bring
about the Peasant Revolt of 138 1.

Lollardy, as this movement was called, was of
but short duration. It gathered for the moment
a great following among the anti-clerical lords and
adventurers, who were greedy to obtain posses-
sion of ecclesiastical property and of the spoils
of churches and monasteries. It gained adherents
also among the disaffected subjects of rich abbeys
and lords, and among all who wished to shake off
the spiritual authority of the Church. " Wyclif s
real influence," says the foremost writer upon this
subject, Dr. James Gairdner, " did not long sur-
vive his own day, and so far from Lollardy hav-
ing taken any deep root among the English peo-

2 66 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

pie, the traces of it had wholly disappeared long
before the great revolution of which it was thought
to be the forerunner.3 In the meantime the
Church continued her effective work for the crafts
and the people, who did not fail to show their con-
stant recognition and gratitude. " Here, as in
Germany," says Cardinal Gasquet writing of Eng-
land in the latter fifteenth and early sixteenth cen-
tury, " the burgher folk, the merchants and the
middle class generally, began to pour their gifts
into a common fund from which to beautify their
parish churches with a profusion which corre-
sponded to, and is indicative of, the general
growth in the material comforts of life, and would
seem to show that religion had in nowise lost its
hold over the hearts of the people." 4 Summing
up his impressions of the social conditions of the
period, James E. Thorold Rogers says:

There were none of those extremes of poverty and wealth
which have excited the astonishment of philanthropists, and are
now exciting the indignation of workmen. The age, it is true,
had its discontents, and these discontents were expressed for-
cibly and in a startling manner. But of poverty which perishes
unheeded, of a willingness to do honest work and a lack of
opportunity, there was little or none. The essence of life in
England during the days of the Plantagenets and Tudors was
that every one knew his neighbor, and that every one was his
brother's keeper.5

3 See Cardinal Gasquet, " England under the Old Religion
and Other Essays."

4 Ibid., pp. 21, 22.

5 See Gasquet, " The Last Abbot of Glastonbury," pp. 251, 252.

THE CHURCH AND THE PEOPLE 267

This truth the Church had instilled deep into
the minds of men. So she continued in her bene-
ficient influence upon the people, until her teach-
ings of charity and social justice were at last
widely disregarded and her great popular institu-
tions disrupted or rendered ineffective by the ca-
tastrophe which now impended.

It is impossible, says Cardinal Gasquet in
another of his accurate and profound historic
studies, to read the sermons of the period follow-
ing upon the Black Death, " without seeing how
entirely the clergy were with the people to secure
full and entire liberty for themselves and their
posterity." It is probably to the clergy, he
concludes, that the preamble of an act passed in
the first year of Richard II refers, which says:
11 Villeins withdraw their services and customs
from their lords, by the comfort and procurement
of others, their counsellors, maintainers and abet-
tors, etc., etc." 6

Describing conditions in the " Golden Age,"
when England still retained the glorious heritage
of its Catholic Faith, R. L. Outhwaite, in his study,
11 The Land or Revolution," contrasts them with
the evils that followed on the Reformation, though
no controversial purpose was in his mind. He
states the facts as he sees them, without penetrat-
ing deeper to their ultimate causes, and it is sig-

• Cardinal Francis Aidan Gasquet, " The Black Death," pp.
232, 233.

268 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

nificant that his only reference to the lands pos-
sessed by the monks is the accurate statement that
they were " held largely in trust for the people."
The monks, we must remember, were themselves
laborers, with a right to the soil they tilled. Of
the days preceding the Reformation Outhwaite
writes :

Englishmen once had no dread of hunger, for they once were
free. Four hundred years ago they had won their way out of
serfdom and had established the Golden Age. Then no man
starved, for three or four days' labor provided sufficient food
for the week. So it was on the countryside, and so it was in
the towns where, united in gilds, the workers were craftsmen
and free. And this came about by no miraculous dispensation
but through the simple fact that those who wished to till the
soil had the opportunity to do so. Those were the days of
Merrie England, when the village surrounded by its common
fields sheltered a yeomanry the like of which the world had not
seen before, and has not since. The common people, the Saxon
serfs, had won their way to freedom by way of the land, for
freedom consists in not being compelled to beg leave of an-
other to toil and live.

But the Reformation now followed, and with it
came the era of " the land monopolist " and " the
industrial slave market." He thus continues:

Those from whose bondage the serfs had escaped, the feudal
holders of one-third of English soil, determined to reestablish
serfdom. The free land they saw was the basis of freedom,
and this they proceeded to add to their estates. Rapidly the
transformation of the Golden Age took place as the great es-
tates grew. The peasants rose in rebellions, but were crushed
by the nobles aided by foreign mercenaries of despotic kings.
To these estates in the time of Henry VIII were added the
monastery lands, held largely in trust for the people. The

THE CHURCH AND THE PEOPLE 269

gilds were broken up, and the unemployed man appeared.
Slavery, with all its pains and penalties, the branding-iron and
the gallows, was established, and in the course of fifty years
the Golden Age had passed away. Soon after, in the reign of
Elizabeth, the first Poor Law was placed on the Statute Book.

From all this the Church had preserved the peo-
ple. That this is no unfounded statement is plain
from the fact that the same consequences followed
in other lands. After quoting the English par-
liamentarian, we shall allow ourselves the luxury
of quoting to the same effect the volume of an
Anglican chaplain in the Great War, who rightly
says :

It is perfectly true that the monastic life was a special voca-
tion, but it is interesting that the ideals of the monastery were
largely the ideals of labor outside it. Those ideals existed in
the world of labor so long as the monastic system in its midst
radiated them — that also is interesting. For the gild was ex-
traordinarily like the community of religious. It also was based
on religion, and sought both the sanction and the reward of re-
ligion; it also maintained the honesty of physical toil, for the
master had first to serve his apprenticeship, not as a junior
partner but as a laborer; and it also set high the beauty of its
craftmanship as ,a thing in itself a reward. With the passing
of the gild, passed these ideals generally from the economic
world.7

These facts will be more fully illustrated in the
chapter on " The Great Catastrophe."

7 Robert Keable, " Standing By," pp. 242, 243.

CHAPTER XXVI

CATHOLICS AND POLITICAL
DEMOCRACY

AMONG the fictions which long retained
their hold upon the popular imagination
was the strange assumption that democ-
racy had been begotten by the Reformation. The
movement that for a time actually succeeded in
crushing almost every expression of popular rights
was marvelously transformed into the very foun-
tain-source of democratic liberties. It would in-
deed be difficult, as men can now readily under-
stand, to point to a more monumental travesty in
all history. The patent absurdity was made pos-
sible only by the lack of careful and impartial
research. Even Luther, who conferred on his
own princes the most autocratic powers in spiritual
no less than in temporal matters, who fiercely sur-
rendered the hapless peasants into the blood-
stained hands of their merciless lords and for gen-
erations to come fixed on them the yoke of a new
and bitter serfdom, who in the famous sermon
preached in 1524 longed for the return of the days
of slavery, and to whom in his closing years the in-
dignant people gave the fitting title: "Hypocrite

270

CATHOLICS AND POLITICAL DEMOCRACY 27 1

and princes' menial," was still hailed by some, in
our own twentieth century, as the great protagonist
of modern democracy. Such praise must seem the
consummation of all irony to those who are fa-
miliar with his detestation of " the vulgar masses/'
as he scornfully called them, telling the princelings
of his day, that :

They must be like men who drive mules. One must con-
stantly cling to their necks (*. e., of the common people) and
urge them on with whips, or else they will not move ahead. So
then are the rulers to drive, beat, choke, hang, burn, behead
and break upon the wheel the vulgar masses, Sir All.1

With such texts, that can be quoted profusely,
written about his pedestal, Luther must form " a
sorry sight," indeed, for those who would behold
in him the glorification of democracy. " In virtue
of the principle cujus regio, hnjus religio (the
lord's religion is the subject's creed)," says Go-
yan, " faith, in spite of Luther's doctrines, has not
been a product and inspiration of conscience, but
a livery only, imposed by some prince on his sub-
jects." 2 It was Luther himself who is responsi-
ble for this twofold autocracy.

The good Church of England fares no better.
In her " Constitutions and Canons," June 30,
1640, it was made the sacred duty of every clergy-
man at least four times a year to preach that " the

^'Erlangen Edition of Luther's Works, XV, 2, p. 276. See
* What Luther Taught," Chapter VI.
2" VAllemagne Religieuse" p. 2, apud Baudrillart.

272 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

most sacred order of kings is of Divine right" a
doctrine that would have been anathema if uttered
in the Middle Ages. The preachers are further
to instruct all good subjects that to set up " under
any pretense whatsoever, any independent coactive
power, either papal or popular, whether directly
or indirectly ... is treasonable against God as
well as against the King." 3

In his two articles on " The Catholic Origin of
Democracy," in Studies for March and June,
19 19, to which the author is exceptionally indebted
throughout this chapter, Professor Alfred Rahilly
shows further how this same doctrine of the Di-
vine right of kings, and their absolute autocracy in
things temporal and spiritual, was upheld in the
English universities of Reformation days. Only
seven years before the " Revolution " of 1688 the
University of Cambridge solemnly declared in its
address to Charles II :

We still believe and maintain that our kings derive not their
title from the people but from God, that to Him only they are
accountable, that it belongs not to the subjects either to create
or censure but to honor and obey their sovereign, who comes
to be so by a fundamental hereditary right of succession which
no religion, no law, no fault or forfeiture can alter or di-
minish.4

At the same time her sister university con-
demned the u damnable doctrines ,f of the Jesuit

3 Laud, "Works," V, p. 613, 614.

4 Seller, " The History of Passive Obedience," p. 108.

CATHOLICS AND POLITICAL DEMOCRACY 273

Cardinal Bellarmine, and the Jesuit theologian,
Suarez, which soon found its way into the Ameri-
can Declaration of Independence and inspired
democratic Englishmen with a larger concept of
true popular liberty, though they might not know
its source. The very same doctrine is, at the pres-
ent writing, taught at the Gregorian University at
Rome, and is thus compactly stated by Father C.
Macksey, S. J., in his " De Ethica Naturally
printed for the use of the Roman students:

The community, constituted into a civil society, is the natural
subject on which, of its very essence and of necessity, by the
natural law, civil authority descends in the first place. By the
consent of the community it subsequently passes to the subject
by whom it is permanently and formally exercised.5

Ultimately, of course, all authority must be de-
rived from God as its original source. But it is
the doctrine of popular rights and of the consent,
explicit or implicit, of the governed which was
the insufferable heresy in the days of " good Queen
Bess." The same held true of the other Reforma-
tion countries. " All the people of the Protestant
countries," Lord Molesworth quaintly remarked
in 1892, " have lost their liberty since they changed
their religion for a better." But by the fruit
shall the tree be known.

Yet the doctrine of democracy survived and has
been safely handed down, not merely to the Cath-
olic schools, but to the world at large, from the

5 Thesis LIII.

274 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

Middle Ages. How, we naturally wonder, has
this come about? As the first cause, though per-
haps not the most important, we may mention the
gild organizations. These institutions, though
sadly hampered, debilitated and degenerated, still
for a time continued in existence. Norwich, the
cradle of Congregationalism, as Professor Rahilly
points out, was famous for its gilds as well as for
its chartered companies. From their ordinances
and statutes, established " by the common con-
sent," after the same democratic methods that had
obtained in the medieval Religious Orders, it was
not a far cry to the Mayflower Covenant of 1620:

The American colonists, merchant as well as religious ad-
venturers, merely set up farther afield in untrodden soil those
little commonwealths and bodies politic which had long existed
in Calais and Antwerp and Bruges. Religious gilds working
through nonconformist churches, and merchant gilds trans-
formed into trading companies and chartered plantations, com-
bined to produce the United States of America, whose inde-
pendence was ultimately won not by political theories but
largely by the prowess of those who were driven into exile by
Puritan persecution and chartered plantations in Ireland.6

But it is to the writings of the Catholic school-
men in particular that we must look for the dy-
namic principles to which we owe the very concep-
tion of all true modern democracy, which is purely
a child of the Middle Ages. It was thence that
Bellarmine and Suarez and their direct predeces-
sors had drawn those doctrines to which our gen-

6 Studies, June, 1919, p. 197.

CATHOLICS AND POLITICAL DEMOCRACY 275

uine democratic systems owe their origin. The
44 Conferences " of Father Persons, the Jesuit, who
was known under the name of Doleman, were the
source, according to that strict defender of auto-
cratic royalty, Abednego Seller, writing in 1690,
44 whence most of our modern enemies of the true
rights of princes have borrowed both their argu-
ments and their authorities." The " true rights
of princes," after the mind of good Abednego,
were those comprised under the doctrine of the
Divine right of kings, mercilessly demolished by
Persons, whose book, in turn, was publicly burned
by Oxford University, and its printer, tradition
says, " hanged, drawn and quartered." Persons
indignantly denounced the Reformation doctrine
that princes are subject to no law or limitation,
44 as though the Commonwealth had been made
for them and not they for the Commonwealth,"
and boldly declared:

There can be no doubt that the commonwealth hath power
to choose their own fashion of government, as also to change
the same upon reasonable cause. ... In like manner it is
evident that as the commonwealth hath this authority to choose
and change her government, so hath she also to limit the same
with what laws and conditions she pleaseth.7

This obviously was no comfortable doctrine for
the court of Elizabeth and its 44 State-ridden
Church."

The extreme acts of the Puritans were not jus-

7 Ibid., 198, 199.

276 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

tified by the teachings of the Catholic schoolmen,
but their conception of democracy itself was de-
rived by them from no other sources. " These
Puritan preachers," wrote Selden in his " Table
Talk," " if they have anything good, they have
it out of Popish books, though they will not ac-
knowledge it for fear of displeasing the people."
In the same manner the Covenanters drew upon
Jesuit authorities, while Charles I, in 1639, said
of the Presbyterian arguments that they " are
taken almost verbatim out of Bellarmine and
Suarez." 8 Professor Rahilly quotes from Sam-
uel Rutherford's " Lex Rex" which was the great
Presbyterian armory in those strenuous days. A
single brief passage, indeed, suffices to indicate the
indebtedness which Rutherford vainly sought to
deny:

Covarruvias, Soto, and Suarez have rightly said that power
of government is immediately from God, and this or that defi-
nite power is mediately from God, proceeding from God by
the mediation of the consent of a community.9

So too the Calvinists, " except for their oppor-
tunist advocacy of tyrranicide . . . merely re-
peated, and sometimes unfortunately distorted, the
teachings of their Catholic predecessors and mas-
ters." As a very pertinent instance reference is
made to the Calvinist George Buchanan of whom
it has been grandiloquently said that: " The prin-

8 Ibid., 201-20 5.

°Q. 2, p. 3b, Ed. 1843

CATHOLICS AND POLITICAL DEMOCRACY 277

ciples which he successfully floated in unpropitious
times undoubtedly produced the two great English,
the American, and the French Revolutions, with
all their continuations and consequences," whereas
he himself plainly states: " I will explain not so
much my own view as that of the ancients." 10
And would that he had learned his lesson far more
thoroughly ! The same is true in the case of other
Calvinist writers whose democracy, in France,
came to a sudden and unprovided end when auto-
cratic principles served their purpose better. For
as Baudrillart says :

If at first the French Calvinists seemed to favor liberty, it
was only when the royal power was against them. From the
day the heir to the throne was a Protestant they quickly cast
all their liberal and democratic theories to the wind and began
to preach the doctrine of absolute legitimacy and of passive
obedience to the sovereign, whoever he may be.11

The Catholic writers, whose doctrines dated
back to the Middle Ages, were not responsible for
all the conclusions drawn from their books, yet
they were clearly the originators of modern de-
mocracy. Its entire structure, in so far as it is
true and sound, rests upon the work of the Cath-
olic schoolmen and is broadly based upon the foun-
dations laid by medieval thinkers, both lay and
clerical.

10 "De jure regni apud Scotos." See Studies, March, 1919,

PP- 14-17-

11 " The Catholic Church, the Renaissance and Protestantism,"
p. 311.

278 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

For a conclusive argument it is hardly necessary
to refer to any other source than the u Patriarchal
of Sir Robert Filmer, an ardent royalist who died
in 1680. He not merely finds that democracy
" was first hatched in the schools," but quotes,
moreover, a passage from Cardinal Bellarmine as
comprising " the strength of all that ever I have
read or heard produced for the natural liberty on
the subject." The following is the passage from
the great Cardinal's " De Laicis," as translated
by Filmer himself:

Secular or civil power is instituted by men ; it is in the people
unless they bestow it on a prince. This power is immediately
in the whole multitude as in the subject of it. For this power
is in the Divine law, but the Divine law hath given this power
to no particular man; if the positive law is taken away, there
is left no reason why amongst a multitude (who are equal)
one rather than another should bear rule over the rest. Power
is given by the multitude to one man or to more by the same
law of nature; for the commonwealth cannot exercise this
power, therefore it is bound to bestow it upon some one man
or some few. It depends upon the consent of the multitude to
ordain over themselves a king or consul or other magistrates.
And if there be a lawful cause, the multitude may change the
kingdom into an aristocracy or democracy.12

In quoting at some length from this volume
Professor Rahilly alludes to the fact that Jeffer-
son's own copy of it still exists in the Congres-
sional Library, and that there certainly can be no
doubt whatsoever that in this very citation from
Bellarmine there " is comprised, " to adapt the

12 Studies, June, 1919, pp. 206, 207.

CATHOLICS AND POLITICAL DEMOCRACY 279

words of Filmer to more recent times, " the
strength of all that Jefferson or Mason could ever
have read or heard produced for the natural lib-
erty of the subject" So that the suggestion is not
in the least far-fetched when it is hinted that these
very citations from the Catholic schools directly
11 influenced Mason in writing the Virginia Bill
of Rights and Jefferson in drafting the Declara-
tion of Independence." We can nowise doubt,
therefore, that the democracy of the United States,
like all other forms of sound modern democracy,
was indirectly derived from them. In the days
of the Reformation there was certainly no hesi-
tation in the minds of men as to the " popish "
origin of the " damnable doctrine " of democracy,
nor can there be any reasonable doubt of it to-
day.

The expression of this democracy can be traced,
in greater or less perfection throughout the en-
tire period of the Middle Ages: in the great re-
ligious orders with their systems of representa-
tion; in the popular organizations of the gilds with
their industrial jurisdiction sanctioned by the State ;
in numberless city democracies that were based
upon gild organizations and maintained their own
self-government; in the free town-republics of Ger-
many, in the splendid Catholic cantons of Switzer-
land, in the independent provinces of Spain, in the
cities of the Netherlands, and in the towns of the
Lombard League, established in 1168 and de-

280 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

fended so successfully in their democratic freedom
by the great Pope Alexander III, whose memory
still remains in the name of Alessandria.13

Particularly valuable as a training for democ-
racy were the early Church councils in the various
sections of Europe. The Council of Toledo, in
the year 400, dealt with civil as well as ecclesias-
tical matters and was deputed to act as the equiv-
alent of a National Parliament for Spain. The
Spanish people did not fail to profit by this guid-
ance of the clergy, with the result that we find a
virile democracy putting forth its claims in the
independent towns of Spain early in the twelfth
century. " For three centuries at least the or-
ganization of the free cities was the natural out-
let of all democratic aspirations of the people. " 14

The spirit of democracy ever alive within the
Catholic Church is indeed to-day acknowledged
in places where we might least expect to find it. It
is to this spirit of democracy that President Wilson
means to allude when he speaks of the Catholic
Church as " a great democracy." Referring to
the Middle Ages, he thus writes of her in " The
New Freedom " :

The Roman Church was then, as it is now, a great democ-
racy. There was no peasant so humble that he might not be-
come Pope of Christendom; and every chancellery in Europe,

13 J. A. Dewe, "Medieval and Modern History," p. 119.

14 " Types of Democracy among Catholics," The Catholic Mag-
azine for South Africa.

CATHOLICS AND POLITICAL DEMOCRACY 28 1

every court in Europe, was ruled by these learned, trained and
accomplished men, the priesthood of that great and dominant
body. What kept government alive in the Middle Ages was
this constant rise of the sap from the bottom, from the rank and
file of the great body of the people through the open channels
of the priesthood.15

Most interesting of all is the testimony of Dr.
Paul Rohrbach, who in " The German Idea in
the World " widely distributed during the World
War, attacked the Catholic Church, because by
its spirit of democracy it impeded the propaga-
tion of the idea of imperialistic autocracy. " The
religio-democratic pulse which at the present
time beats in Catholicism, at least here in Ger-
many," he wrote, " contributes to the weakness of
German ideals." No more glorious tribute could
have been given to the Catholics of Germany, and
to the Catholic Church throughout the world.

It was owing solely to the doctrine and influ-
ence of the Church that, as W. S. Lilly says:
14 The notion of unlimited dominion, of Caesarism,
autocratic or democratic — perhaps the most bane-
ful manifestation of human selfishness — had no
place among its political conceptions, which re-
garded authority as limited and fiduciary: nor did
it allow of absolutism in property." 16

Attention should finally be called here to the
many resemblances between the Government of
the United States and the government of the

*5Pp. 85, 86.

16 " Christianity and Modern Civilization," pp. 160, 161.

2 82 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

Catholic Church, wherever the spirit of democ-
racy finds its truest expression. In the words of
the Rt. Rev. John P. Carroll, D.D. :

The government of the Church.has many points of resemblance
with our own republican form of government. The Pope, like
the President, is elected. Bishops are appointed by the Pope, but
only after the priests and bishops of the territory concerned are
heard, just as justices of the Supreme Court and Federal judges
are appointed by the President, but not without the approval of
the United States Senate. The Ecumenical Council, the supreme
law-making body in the Church, made up of the Pope and the
Bishops, resembles the American Congress, composed of dele-
gates from the various States, with the President at their head.
The Pope's college of Cardinals is like the President's Cabinet.
The members of the Cabinet are the heads of various depart-
ments of the administration, just as the Cardinals in the Roman
Curia are heads of the various Congregations which transact
the business of the Universal Church. Every American citizen
has access to the supreme tribunal at Washington. So the hum-
blest child of the Church has the right of appeal to the highest
court in Rome, and no question is decided until it has been given
the fullest consideration.

Dr. Charles Phineas Sherman in his three
volumes on " Roman Law in the Modern World M
traces the conception of modern liberty to the
Catholic Canon Law and to St. Thomas and the
Catholic schools. His theory that these them-
selves derived it from Roman civil law is un-
founded, since the latter has merely been used as
the support of modern autocracy. To sum up
therefore the conclusions arrived at here we can
do no better than to refer once more to the first
of the articles by Professor Alfred Rahilley:

CATHOLICS AND POLITICAL DEMOCRACY 283

" Such then are the seed-thoughts and the em-
bryo-outlines of democracy which we owe to Cath-
olic civilization and culture. The great Church
Councils for over eight centuries slowly trained Eu-
rope in the theory and practice of self-govern-
ment, finally eventuating in commune, cortes, par-
liament and states-general. The organization of
the Church — the representation of cathedral and
collegiate chapters, the appointment of proctors,
above all the democracy of the friars — showed
the way to secular States. The discussions con-
cerning the structure of the Church formed for
nearly three centuries the great polemic of the
West and thus inaugurated and habituated in men's
minds those categories of political thought whose
inheritors we are to-day. And all the while there
flowed that stream of deep, patient thinkers who,
from Thomas of Aquino, Nicholas d' Oresme,
Antonius of Florence, down to Almain, Major,
Bellarmine and Suarez, upheld the ideal of popu-
lar rights and government by consent. It was the
ideas of these men to which the Catholics of the
Ligue made their appeal; and notwithstanding
their vehemence and passion, their ideals were
sound. It was to this same treasure house of the
past that the French Calvinists turned in their first
and short-lived alliance with democracy. And it
was back once more to the rock whence they were
hewn that the Covenanters and Presbyterians
turned when the day of reckoning came for the

284 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

Stuarts. From the annals of the past, from Brac-
ton and Fortescue, from forgotten canonists,
legists and schoolmen, from the great conciliar
controversialists, were dragged forth principles
which shattered forever the Reformation tenet of
Divine Right and traversing the ocean founded the
American Republic, principles whose dynamic pos-
sibilities and far-reaching consequences are not yet
exhausted."

It is no surprise, therefore, to read the state-
ment by Pope Benedict XV to Cardinal Lucon,
according to the report in the New York Sun,
September 8, 19 19:

The great outstanding fact in the world to-day is the ever-
strengthening current everywhere toward democracy. The pro-
letariat classes, as they are called, having taken a preponderant
part in the war, desire in every country to derive therefrom the
maximum advantage. . . . The Catholic Church has always
loved those who suffer and has always taught that public power
established for the common good must work especially to
improve conditions for those who suffer. That is why the
Catholic clergy must not oppose the proletarian revindications,
but must favor them, provided they remain within the limits
of honesty and justice.

Good words these, and just as good is the
Pope's caution against the excesses of those who
11 to the detriment of everybody would overturn
the social order which human nature renders neces-
sary." The spirit of democracy breathes no-
where more freely than within the Catholic
Church.

CHAPTER XXVII

MODERN CATHOLIC GILD PROGRAM

OF all the constructive labor movements
that at the close of the war are sweeping
over the world in a mighty wave of in-
dustrial unrest, there is not one whose leaders are
not inspired by the supreme idea of labor organ-
ization. Trade unionism and the cooperative
movement, Syndicalism and the groupings of the
I. W. W., gild Socialism and the Soviet system are
but different and often hostile phases of the same
world-wide labor agitation that is steadily gather-
ing to a crest and moving on with impetuous force.
Law-abiding or opposed to all authority, Christian
or relentlessly determined on the destruction of
all religious beliefs, these various movements still
conform with one another in a vague acceptance
of the gild idea.

Anarchism cannot be reckoned among the
world's constructive forces. Though it may
blend with other movements and even for the time
adopt their purposes, it remains, as its name im-
plies, a pure negation. Its immediate object is
neither more nor less than the annihilation of the
entire existing order of society. Out of the ashes
of the old world, sunk in flame and ruin, a new or-

285

2 86 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

der is phenix-like to arise in liberty, youth and
beauty. Destruction is sufficient for to-day. The
morrow will provide for itself. Such was the
principle of its founder, Bakounin. The construc-
tive ideas that its ardent champions claim for it
are nothing more than a mere general license,
with no authority of God or man to hold it in
restraint.

Socialism, too, while allied with a thousand
plans that are not of its own origin or being, con-
tains but one vague constructive thought: The
more or less common ownership of the means of
production and distribution. How far this shall
be effected, how it shall be carried out, and what
shall be its future details, no one is qualified to say.
We do not marvel, therefore, that Socialism has
been the prolific breeding place of every variety of
radical thought. Countless numbers of its lead-
ers, and of its rank and file have steadily drifted to
the gild idea, which many of its own members now
conceive to be the only practical working plan.

Men realize that the outcome of Socialism can
be nothing but tyranny. This was again fully
evinced in its ultimate development, Bolshevism.
Speaking of the philosophy of the Russian Bol-
shevists, the American Secretary of Labor, the
Hon. William B. Wilson, rightly said:

The will of the majority is as objectionable to them as it
was to the Kaistr or the Tsar. It establishes a dictatorship on
the plea that the autocrat knows better what is best for the people

MODERN CATHOLIC _GILD PROGRAM 287

than they themselves know. It sets up a close dictatorship which
demands obligatory labor service. The worker sacrifices his
own free will. Whether he likes his employment or not — what-
ever may be his desire to move, he cannot do so, without per-
mission of the dictator. He cannot change the conditions of his
employment, he must not quit, because of the merciless " dicta-
torship of individuals for definite processes of work."

This dictatorship would control the courts which are to be
used as a means of discipline that will consider responsibility
for the " pangs of famine and unemployment to be visited upon
those who fail to produce bread for men and fuel for industry."

The public press is to be systematically repressed or con-
trolled. Nothing is to reach the attention of the masses except
that which has been prepared for them.

The gild system, then, under one form or an-
other, is doubtless the most important social sug-
gestion for our own time, and indeed for any stage
of industrial development. It is the one unfailing
means of self-help that labor possesses. The first
true conception of the craft-gild idea was given to
the world by the Catholic Church. We are not
therefore surprised that in assigning the causes of
our modern social disorders Pope Leo XIII sig-
nificantly singled out before all others the aboli-
tion of the gilds : " For the ancient working-
men's gilds were abolished in the last century, and
no other organization took their place." * So,
too, in the work of reconstruction he naturally
placed the greatest stress upon their speedy res-
toration. It will be easy for working men to
solve aright the question of the hour, he tells

luOn the Condition of the Working Classes." See A. C
Breig, " Papal Program of Social Reform," p. 10.

288 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

them, " if they will form associations, choose wise
guides and follow on the path which with so much
advantage to themselves and the commonwealth
was trodden by their fathers before them." 2 The
utmost betterment of the condition of each indi-
vidual member " in body, mind and property," 3
is the purpose for which these gilds are to be
founded. But for their success religion is as es-
sential to-day as in the days of old. It is true
that the outline of these new organizations drawn
by Pope Leo in his Encyclical on " The Condition
of the Working Classes," is suggestive merely of
an ideal Christian labor unionism, such as alone
was practical at the time of his writing. This
does not preclude a far closer approximation to
the medieval gild system. He purposely refrains
from adding more specific details, since the latter,
as he wisely remarks, must of necessity vary with
time, and place, and circumstances:

We do not judge it expedient to enter into minute particulars
touching the subject of organization: this must depend on na-
tional character, on practice and experience, on the nature and
aim of the work to be done, on the scope of the various trades
and employments, and on other circumstances of fact and of
time: all of which should be carefully considered.4

Following the example of his predecessor, Pope
Pius X, too, called attention above all to the need

2 Ibid., p. 56.

8 Ibid., pp. 53. 54.

4 Ibid., p. 53.

MODERN CATHOLIC GILD PROGRAM 289

of workingmen's unions. He, too, reminded men
that social science is not of yesterday, that no new
civilization is to be invented and no city to be
built in the clouds; that the successful organizations
established in the past, under the wise coopera-
tion of Church and State, are of far more than
historic interest. Writing to the Archbishops and
Bishops of France, he thus instructed them in this
regard:

It will be enough to take up again, with the help of true
workers for social restoration, the organisms broken by the
Revolution, and to adapt them to the new situation created by
the material evolution of contemporary society in the same
Christian spirit which of old inspired them. For the true
friends of the people are neither revolutionists, nor innovators,
but traditionalists.5

Urgently as he recommends the gild ideal, his
greatest stress is placed upon the need of adapta-
tion, the need of carefully availing ourselves of
" all the practical methods furnished at the pres-
ent day by progress in social and economic
studies." This thought is even more clearly ex-
pressed in his letter to the Bishops of Italy, June
11, 1905 :

It is impossible at the present day to reestablish in the same
form all the institutions which may have been useful, and were
even the only efficient ones in past centuries, so numerous are
the radical modifications which time has brought to society and
life, and so many are the fresh needs which changing circum-

5 Letter to Archbishops and Bishops of France, August 25,
1910.

29O DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

stances cease not to call forth. But the Church throughout her
long history has always and on every occasion luminously shown
that she possesses a wonderful power of adaptation to the vary-
ing conditions of civil society, without injury to the integrity
or immutability of faith or morals.6

For a brief but complete summary of all that
has hitherto been said we may turn to the Encycli-
cal of Leo XIII on " The Condition of the Work-
ing Classes." Referring to the various associa-
tions and organizations that can be created for the
benefit of the laborer, he concludes:

The most important of all are workingmen's unions; for these
virtually include all the rest. History attests what excellent
results were brought about by the craft gilds of olden times.
They were the means of affording not only many advantages
to the workingmen, but in no small degree of promoting the
advancement of art, as numerous monuments remain to bear
witness. Such unions should be suited to the requirements of
this our age, an age of wider education, of different habits, and
of far more numerous requirements in daily life.7

But neither Leo XIII nor Pius X could have
foreseen the rapidity with which social develop-
ments were accelerated by the stirring events of
the World War. The slow material evolution of
centuries was then compressed within as many
years of energetic, throbbing life, of revolutionary
and often misdirected social action. Yet it was
all finally to aid in bringing the world nearer to
the ideals of the Middle Ages, in making possible

6 " On Christian Social Reform," Catholic Social Guild Pam-
phlets, pp. 18, 19.

7 Cnf. Breig, p. 48.

MODERN CATHOLIC GILD PROGRAM 29 1

a closer approximation of the Catholic gild sys-
tem than even Leo XIII, with all his marvelous
insight into the social developments of the fu-
ture, could have considered feasible. He has not,
however, failed to leave provision for even this
situation. We need but turn again to the final
norm by which, as he says, every labor organiza-
tion of the future must be tested and found true
or wanting:

To sum up, then, we may lay it down as a general and last-
ing law, that workingmen's associations should be so organized
and governed as to furnish the best and most suitable means for
attaining what is aimed at, that is to say, for helping each in-
dividual member to better his condition to the utmost in body,
mind and property.8

This ideal was strictly kept in view in the pro-
gram of social reconstruction drawn up by the Ad-
ministrative Committee of the National Catholic
War Council, January, 19 19, and later incorpo-
rated in the Congressional Record of the United
States. That suggestions occur here which were
never formally included in the Encyclicals of Leo
XIII or Pius X need not startle anyone. They
are not the less surely contained in that " general
and lasting law " of the great " Pope of the Work-
ingmen " which was just quoted. In the recon-
structive program, stamped with the seal of' the
Hierarchy of the United States, can be found the
consummation of the gild idea. In their most
vital passage the Bishops say:

8 Ibid., pp. $3, 54-

292 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

The full possibilities of increased production will not be
realized so long as the majority of the workers remain mere
wage-earners. The majority must somehow become owners, or
at least in part, of the means of production. They can be
enabled to reach this stage gradually through cooperative pro-
ductive societies and copartnership arrangements. In the for-
mer the workers own and manage the industries themselves;
in the latter they own a substantial part of the corporate stock
and exercise a reasonable share in the management. However
slow the attainment of these ends they will have to be reached
before we can have a thoroughly efficient system of production,
or an industrial social order that will be secure from the danger
of revolution.9

Such is the aim of the new Catholic gild sys-
tem. No one maintains that these developments
are possible without wisely directed labor organi-
zations, both where there is question of establish-
ing cooperative productive societies — a true gild
ideal — or of merely sharing in the management
of industries, obviously through the representa-
tives of craft gilds. Such, too, is clearly the mean-
ing of the Bishops, who strongly vindicate the right
of labor " to organize and to deal with employers
through representatives," and heartily approve of
the establishment of shop committees, u working
wherever possible with the trade union." 10 That
such methods will imply " to a great extent the
abolition of the wage-system," they candidly con-
fess, but their main purpose is the increase of

9 " Social Reconstruction." Reconstruction Pamphlets, No. I,
p. 22.

10 Ibid., p. 19.

MODERN CATHOLIC GILD PROGRAM 293

private productive ownership and so the most per-
fect attainment of the supreme gild ideal proposed
by Leo XIII: the betterment of the condition of
each individual member " to the utmost in body,
mind and property." In the words of Pope Pius
X, they are " neither revolutionists, nor innova-
tors, but traditionalists." And with these great
Pontiffs they, too, understand that no program of
labor can be finally successful that is not inspired
by true religious ideals. Here is the great need
of the future.

CHAPTER XXVIII

THE GREAT CATASTROPHE

THE Reformation, as every intelligent and
impartial student of history will now
freely admit, was not primarily a re-
ligious, but an economic revolution. It took root,
as a non-Catholic clergyman recently expressed it
to the writer, in autocracies only. It relied en-
tirely upon the favor of the powerful secular lords,
who gladly disguised their personal greed and am-
bition under the cloak of religion. The poor, as
even men like Harnack confess, were to be the
great sufferers. " Politically and socially/' writes
Dr. Cram, " the inevitable outcome of the Renais-
sance and Reformation was absolutism and tyr-
anny, with force as the one recognized arbiter of
action." 1 That such statements are matters of
fact that can no longer give offense to open-minded
Protestants shows the progress that has been made
towards a better understanding of history.

It is equally admitted by Catholics, in their own
regard, that grave abuses existed at this time
in the Church, not doctrinally, since her teaching
has never changed since the days of the Apostles,
but on the part of many of her members. In

i " The Sins of the Fathers/' p. 9.

294

THE GREAT CATASTROPHE 295

England and in Germany, the two great Reforma-
tion countries, the Church was suffering at the
same time both from a plethora of wealth and an
anemia of poverty. A vast proportion of the
landed property of these countries had been gath-
ered into the hands of ecclesiastical lords who
often took but little interest in the welfare of the
souls entrusted to their care. Abbeys and con-
vents were not unfrequently tinctured with world-
liness. In the mean time deserving priests were,
in too many instances, but poorly and inadequately
provided for. Such conditions lent themselves ad-
mirably to the caustic pen of the satirist and the
misdirected attacks of the reformer. The fault,
where it existed, was not that of religion, but of
politics. It was not a question of the Church in-
terfering with the State, but the time-worn story
of the State interfering with the Church. As
Cardinal Gasquet writes of the time of Henry
VIII:

The bishops were, with some honorable exceptions, chosen by-
royal favor rather than for spiritual qualifications. However
personally good they may have been, they were not ideal pas-
tors of their flocks. Place-seeking, too, often kept many of the
lords spiritual at court, that they might gain or maintain in-
fluence sufficient to support their claims to further preferment.
The occupation of bishops over much in the affairs of the na-
tion, besides its evident effect on the state of clerical discipline,
had another result. It created in the minds of the new nobility
a jealous opposition to ecclesiastics, and a readiness to humble
the power of the Church by passing measures in restraint of its
ancient liberties.2

2 " The Last Abbot of Glastonbury," pp. 25, 26.

296 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

Similar precisely was the dark side of the pic-
ture in Germany, as presented by Janssen, a most
impartial historian. Men had in many instances
flagrantly failed to observe the teachings of the
Church, and avarice became the besetting sin of
the day. Neither had the clergy themselves al-
ways been loyal to the spirit of their Divine Mas-
ter and the high ideals of the Sermon on the
Mount:

The lower orders of parochial clergy, whose merely nominal
stipends were derived from the many precarious tithes, were
often compelled by poverty, if not tempted by avarice, to work
at some trade which was quite inconsistent with their position,
and which exposed them to the contempt of their parishioners.
The higher ecclesiastical orders, on the other hand, enjoyed
abundant and superfluous wealth, which many of them had no
scruple of parading in such an offensive manner as to provoke
the indignation of the people, the jealousy of the upper classes,
and the scorn of all serious minds.3

Here then we have plainly stated the worst
side of the case. Moral delinquencies were ob-
viously not wanting, and we must add in fine, as
Cardinal Manning suggests, the distraction caused
shortly before in the minds of men by the great
Western Schism.

But this is not the entire picture, nor does it in
any way represent the Church herself. Ham-
pered by the evil of State interference which
thrust into the place of the chosen shepherds of
her flock worldly-minded princes and court favor-

8 " History of the German People," II, p. 293.

THE GREAT CATASTROPHE 297

ites, she still continued as before in her work of
charity and in her fearless vindication of the prin-
ciples of social justice, while preaching the pure
Gospel of Christ as she had done in the centuries
past. Sanctity had not departed from her relig-
ious orders because some of their members had'
fallen into laxity, nor was zeal for the cause of
God and of his poor less truly the dominant char-
acteristic of the Church because some of her pas-
tors had been found unworthy.

It was but the fulfilment of Christ's prophecy
that the tares should be permitted to grow up
with the wheat, and that the net of His Church
should hold alike the good and the bad until the
time of final separation. So it has always been
from the days of the Apostles, and so it will re-
main. But it is also true that there are periods
of more than usual delinquency. Such was the
case in the years immediately preceding the " Re-
formation." Unhappily, in place of seeking to
conform the lives of men more perfectly to the
true Faith of their fathers, a new religion was sub-
stituted in its stead. Here, as is now more clearly
seen than ever before, was the beginning of all our
economic evils. Ralph Adams Cram thus briefly
states the case :

For 300 years, generation after generation has been fed on
the shameless fiction of historians and theologians until it is
bred in the bone that the Reformation, the suppression of the
monasteries, the Huguenot revolt, etc., were godly acts that

298 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

formed the everlasting cornerstones of modern civilization.
They were: but what that civilization was we are now finding
out and paying for at a price never exacted before since Im-
perial Rome paid in the same coin.4

To have these facts made clear in the minds of
men, and to know that such statements can no
longer be looked upon with suspicion, as the prod-
uct of Catholic zeal or of an artistic or intellectual
partiality for medievalism, is a distinct gain, eco-
nomically no less than culturally. As Muezzin
writes in the London Athenaum:

Man in the Middle Ages somehow held the clue to a happi-
ness and a harmony that we have lost. Life had a meaning
for him which transcended the desires of the flesh and the
promptings of self-interest; his universe was charged with in-
telligible and blessed purpose; and his work, which was con-
secrated to the service of that meaning and that purpose, was
crowned with such exuberance of joy and beauty that the ca-
thedrals, abbeys and churches of his creation tease us moderns
out of thought, so sublime they seem, so unattainable to the
more accomplished, more learned craftsman of to-day.5

The greater accomplishment and learning of the
modern laborer, where this may be said to exist,
is merely upon the surface. Culturally the
medieval craftsman was immeasurably superior to
the average workman of to-day. Education is of
the whole man, and such an education the medieval
craftsman enjoyed in his religion and his churches,
as well as in his gilds and his craft. The most

4 "The Sins of the Fathers," p. 96.

5 May, 1917, p. 223.

THE GREAT CATASTROPHE 299

striking and obvious fact of these ages, as the
writer last quoted remarks, is " the universality
of the feeling and appreciation for beauty."
Beauty dwelled with men and walked with them
and found expression at their touch. The things
of the spirit were then shared by all and expressed
by all. " Those prayers in stone, which are so
marvelous in the eyes of posterity, were not built
by highly paid specialists, but by the common peo-
ple themselves, who enriched their handiwork with
a thousand blossoms of their quaint and untutored
imagination." 6 Such was the perfection of dem-
ocratic industry, its flower, and glory, and joy.

11 In those times and in that society the trinity
of the human spirit, beauty, truth and love, was
a trinity in unity," the unity of one Catholic Faith.
All this was swept away by the Reformation,
through the instrumentality of autocratic rulers to
whose grasping greed the people were mercilessly
delivered, to fall an easy prey, subsequently, to the
no less merciless autocracy of that capitalism which
now was given birth.

The sickness which had broken out in the social
organism, previous to the Reformation, was not
unto death, nor did it at all effect the entire body.
This still remained sound. A local remedy only
was needed. Luther himself was forced sadly to
admit on many an occasion that the cities of Ger-
many which most eagerly welcomed him had

6 Ibid.

300 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

changed for the worse after accepting his " New
Evangel." 7 The same can clearly be shown to
have been the case in England, where the Com-
mons became the laboring poor,8 and in every
other land into which the Reformation entered.
Catholic countries were in many cases hardly less
affected by the reflex of the disastrous economic
doctrines which now gained ground as the corol-
lary to the new religious theory of individualism.
In too many instances the State, though nominally
Catholic, hampered the Church in every way and
made impossible her free social activity, while the
false principles, imported from abroad, confused
the minds of men. Hence the universality of the
social disorder, as wide-spread as had once been
the beneficent influence of the Church.

The width and breadth and depth of the eco-
nomic disaster implied in the Reformation is only
now beginning to be understood. " We talk with
a great deal of indignation of the Tweed ring,"
says a Protestant divine, the Rev. Dr. Jessopp, in
" The Great Pillage," " the day will come when
some one will write the story of two other rings:
the ring of the miscreants who robbed the mon-
asteries in the reign of Henry VIII was the first;

7 " Now that one devil has been driven out, seven others,
worse than the former, have entered into us, as we can see in
princes, lords, nobles, burghers, and peasants!" — Luther's words
in 1529. (Erlangen Edition, xxxvi, p. 411.) "What Luther
Taught," Chapter IV.

8 Cobbett.

THE GREAT CATASTROPHE 301

but the ring of the robbers who robbed the poor
and helpless in the reign of Edward VI was ten
times worse than the first."

From the closing of the monasteries, as the
havens of all human miseries and the open inns
of God's poor, the world has never recovered:

They burnt the homes of the shaven men, that had been quaint

and kind,
Till there was no bed in a monk's house, nor food that man

could find
The inns of God where no man paid, that were the walls of

the weak,
The King's Servants ate them all. And still we did not speak.

So sang Chesterton of the first of the great
deeds of pillage which took place at the same time
with the looting of the churches, and whose
spiritual consequences extended with the most
dreadful results into the domain of economics.
The second act was the robbing of the gild prop-
erty devoted to religious purposes, which prac-
tically implied a complete act of confiscation, since
the great funds which the gilds devoted to works
of charity and similar objects, were intimately as-
sociated with religion and held and administered
in its name. Hence the writer upon " Gilds " in
the non-Catholic " Encyclopedia of Religion and
Ethics" rightly affirms that: " The Reforma-
tion by disendowing the religious and social gilds
and crippling the organization of the craft gilds,
prepared the way for Poor Law reform and the

302 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

changes in the industrial revolution which were
then shaping." The immediate consequences of
the royal pillage are thus forcefully described by
Dr. Jessopp :

Almshouses in which old men and women were fed and
clothed were robbed to the last pound, the poor alms-folk being
turned out into the cold at an hour's warning to beg their
bread. Hospitals for the sick and needy, sometimes magnifi-
cently provided with nurses and chaplains, whose very raison
d'etre was that they were to look after and care for those who
were past caring for themselves — these were stripped of all
their belongings, the inmates sent out to hobble into some con-
venient dry ditch to lie down and die in, or to crawl into some
barn or hovel there to be tended, not without fear of conse-
quences, by some kindly man or woman who could not bear
to see a suffering fellow creature drop down and die at their
own doorposts.0

The same results followed in Germany, and
Luther's complaints that people, after adopting
the " true M religion of his own making no longer
interested themselves in charity as they had done
before, were unavailing. The princes and their
hirelings had eaten up and spent in horses, lux-
uries and vices the dowries of the poor. The
people had no mind to replace them. " We wish
to do nothing but take and rob by force what oth-
ers have given and founded, " Luther exclaimed
regretfully of the work begun by him.10

The looting of the gilds began with the act of
Parliament of Henry VIII entitled: "An acte

»"The Great Pillage."
^Erlangen Ed., XLIII, p. 164.

THE GREAT CATASTROPHE 303

for dissolucion of colleges, chauntries, and free
chapelles, at the king's majestie's pleasure," and
was brought to its completion in the next reign
when the new act, 1 Edward VI, c. XIV, de-
manded that: " All payments by corporations,
misteryes or craftes, for priests' obits and lamps,"
be thenceforth given to the king. The law itself
was entitled: " An acte whereby certaine chaun-
tries, colleges, free chapells and the possessions
of the same be given to the king's majestic"
Writing of the effect of these acts, in his work on
" The Livery Companies of London," William
Herbert says:

The effects of the Reformation were severely felt by the
livery companies. It had been customary in making gifts and
devises to these societies in Catholic times, to charge such gifts
with annual payments, for supporting chauntries for the souls
of the respective donors; and as scarcely an atom of property
was left without being so restricted, at a period when the sup-
posed efficacy of these religious establishments formed part of
the national belief, almost the whole of the companies' Trust
Estates became liable, at the Reformation, to change masters
with the change of religion.11

What was true of these companies, which rep-
resented the wealthier middle class, was all the
more true of the ordinary craft gild. " The
powers of the gilds," Professor Cunningham be-
lieves, " had been so much affected by the legisla-
tion of Edward VI that they had but little influ-
ence for good or evil." 12 Professor Cheyney con-

11 P. "3.

" " Modern Times," Part I, p. 26.

304 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

siders it the heaviest blow inflicted on the gilds.13
Enormous loans were next exacted of the com-
panies and a number of u sponging expedients "
resorted to, by which, as William Herbert says:
" That 4 mother of her people,' Elizabeth, and
afterwards James and Charles, contrived to screw
from the companies their wealth." 14 When
forced loans and levies had been pushed as far
as they would go, Elizabeth granted " patents for
monopolies and for the oversight and control of
different trades." Thus in 1590 one of the
Queen's courtiers, Edward Darcy, sued and ob-
tained a patent against a Leathersellers' Company.
This empowered him to set his seal upon all the
leather that was to be sold in England, for which
" he sometimes received the tenth part, the ninth
part, the seventh, the sixth, the fourth, and some-
times, and often, the third part of the value of
the commodity." 15 We are not therefore sur-
prised that the establishment of gilds was still en-
couraged in Elizabeth's reign. They were a con-
stant srource of revenue to the crown or the cour-
tiers. The gilds were not discontinued at once
with the Reformation; many of them sufficiently
recovered from the confiscation of their property
after redeeming it at a high cost, but their eco-
nomic efficiency was a thing of the past. This is

13 " Industrial and Social History," p. 158.

14 Herbert, op. cit., p. 119.

15 Stype's Stow, II, 293. W. Herbert.

THE GREAT CATASTROPHE 305

the one fact to be borne in mind. They now
gradually passed away or became mere capitalistic
societies. Their soul was reft from them with
their religion.

The way was now open, both for political au-
tocracy and for individualistic capitalism. What
followed is too well known to call for description
here. The domestic system, the factory system
and the industrial revolution are the successive
mile stones. With each step forward towards a
loudly acclaimed national prosperity, the toiling
masses were ground more helplessly beneath the
feet of that merciless idol of modern commercial-
ism to which the Reformation had surrendered
them. In breaking with Catholicism, as Dr.
Ralph Adams Cram wisely analyzes the process
that now took place, religion and all spiritual in-
terests and principles were separated from the eco-
nomic and material phases of life :

The division was not avowed, indeed, particularly during
the Puritan regime; it was part of the system that religion and
life should be more aggressively at one than at any time since
the earlier theocracy of the Hebrews. Under the Common-
wealth in England, the Puritan tyranny in New England, and
the capitalistic autocracy in Great Britain, it was practically
impossible to draw a line between Church and State; super-
ficially it seemed as if the identity, or rather cooperation, was
more perfect than at any time during the Catholic Middle Ages.
Certainly the abuses of power, the gross infractions of liberty,
the negation of even rudimentary justice in legislation, in law
and in society, that followed from this apparent union, were
more aggravated and intolerable. As a matter of fact, however,

306 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

the alliance was only between a formal and public religion and
the equally formal machinery of government; it did not extend
to the individual, and here, in his domestic, social, business
and political relations, the severance was almost complete. The
typical figure in Protestantism is Luther, preaching a lofty
doctrine of personal union with God, and conniving at bigamy,
adultery and the massacre of starving peasants; and the pious
iron-master or mill magnate of Badford or Leeds, zealously
supporting his favorite form of Evangelicalism, pouring out his
money for the support of missions to heathen countries or for
the abolition of slavery, enforcing the strictest Sabbatarianism
in his own household — and fighting in Parliament and through
the press for the right to continue to employ little children of
six years old in his mines, crawling on all fours, half naked,
dragging carts of coal by ropes around their tender bodies, or
to profit, by the threat of starvation, through mill hands whose
wages were a miserable pittance, insufficient to keep body and
soul together, and who were forbidden under penalty of the
law to combine with one another for self-protection.16

The industrial slavery that fettered the city-
laborer after the Reformation can be paralleled
only by the injustice perpetrated upon the land.
Reference has already been made to Outhwaite's
treatise 17 which tells how the tenements of Glas-
gow were crowded, " because 3,600,000 acres had
been turned into silent sanctuaries for the red
deer." So the English farmer was driven to the
slums of London to yield place to the Rothschild
stag-hounds. At the diet of Mecklenburg, in
1607, as Dollinger informs us, the peasants were
declared mere ciphers. They could be robbed at
pleasure of the acres their forefathers had pos-

16 " The Sins of the Fathers," pp. 94, 95.

17 Chapter XXV.

THE GREAT CATASTROPHE 307

sessed. They were reduced to a slavery which
differed from that of the blacks in no respect ex-
cept that they might not be taken from their fam-
ilies and sold to the highest bidder. " Yet this
law was often eluded and the serfs were often
trafficked like horses or cows." 18

Basing his statements upon the facts gathered
by Dollinger, Alfred Baudrillart, of the French
Academy, thus summarizes the conditions of the
European peasantry as the effect of the Reforma-
tion:

The introduction of the Reformation in Pomerania caused the
introduction of a similar slavery. The law of 1616 decreed
that all peasants were serfs without claims of any sort
Preachers were obliged to denounce from their pulpits the peas-
ants who had taken flight. ... In Sweden the liberty of the
peasants was the price the King paid for the assistance of the
nobility in the accomplishment of the religious revolution. In
Denmark and in Norway the nobles followed this example.
In Denmark the peasant was subjected to serfdom like a dog.
"Enforced labor," says the historian Allen, "was increased
arbitrarily, the peasants were treated like serfs." As late as
1804, personal liberty was granted to 20,000 ^families of serfs.
. . . In Scandinavia, as in Germany, Lutheranism was advan-
tageous to the sovereign and the aristocracy only.19

But could this catastrophe have been averted by
the Church? It certainly could have been. As
John L. and Barbara Hammond state the case in
their book " The Town Laborer " :

18 Baudrillart, " The Catholic Church, the Renaissance and
Protestantism," p. 308 ; Boll, " Histoire de Mecklembourg "; Dol-
linrer, " Kirche und KirchenJ*

19 Op. cit., pp. 308, 309, 312.

308 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

Religion in one form or another, might have checked this
spirit by rescuing society from a materialistic interpretation, in-
sisting on the conception of man as an end in himself (i. e.t
dependently upon God), and refusing to surrender that revela-
tion to any science of politics or any law of trade. Such a force
was implicit in the medieval religion that had disappeared,
good and bad elements alike, at the Reformation.20

It had not indeed disappeared with the Refor-
mation, but its voice had for the time been disre-
garded in the political and economic life of the
nations. There was nothing " bad " in the ele-
ments of this religion itself. The evil was all,
then as now, in the hearts of men and in their
want of conformity to its teachings. By the un-
happy separation from the Church founded by
Christ upon Peter men had lost the one and only
authority that could with certainty guide and di-
rect them in the principles of social justice and of
charity. Under Catholicism, however unworthy
individual representatives of the Church might at
times be found, the principles which they were
obliged to admit and to teach ever embodied the
true spirit of Christian brotherhood. There was
consequently not merely the possibility, but the
moral certainty of reform.

As a teaching body, the clergy remained true to
the unadulterated Gospel of Christ. The doc-
trine of the Church insisted upon the rights of
the workingman, the just and reasonable distri-

20 " The Town Laborer, 1760-1832," pp. 328, 329.

THE GREAT CATASTROPHE 309

bution of earthly goods, and the universal law of
helpfulness and brotherly love. It repudiated the
claim of the capitalist to dispose at pleasure of his
property, without regard to the common good,
and denied in all its phases the theory of the false
modern individualism, while offering the fullest
liberty to all true individual development in every
sphere of endeavor. So, too, the monk was kept
within his strict, but voluntary, vow of poverty
and the ecclesiastic might not appropriate at his
mere will the proceeds of rich benefices without
considering the poor. To all alike was applied
the principle, so clearly expressed by St. Thomas
in the famous passage quoted by Pope Leo XIII
in his labor encyclical: " Man should not con-
sider his outward possessions as his own, but as
common to all, so as to share with them without
difficulty when others are in need." This doc-
trine has found its practical industrial expression
for our own times in the concluding words of the
pastoral on " Social Reconstruction " by the
American Bishops:

The laborer's right to a decent livelihood is the first moral
charge upon industry. The employer has a right to get a
reasonable living out of his business, but he has no right to in-
terest on his investment until his employees have obtained at
least living wages. This is the human and Christian, in con-
trast to the purely commercial and pagan, ethics of industry.

So the unbroken tradition is handed down and
the inviolate teaching of the Church still con-

3IO DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

tinues from the Middle Ages, as it began with
the preaching of Christ and the Sermon on the
Mount. By this teaching can the evils of today
be remedied as were the evils of yesterday. By
its light shall we learn the proper limitation of
interest on capital, and the fair remuneration of
management and labor, together with the true
spirit of cooperation, copartnership and Christian
brotherhood.

CHAPTER XXIX

THE TRIUMPH OF WORKINGMEN'S
COOPERATIVES

THE basis of all true social reconstruction
is the gild concept. The ideal social or-
der will be that which most perfectly
applies it. The medieval gilds continued in their
usefulness for many centuries. There is no rea-
son why a new gild development, as perfectly
adapted to our own times, should not continue in
existence for as many centuries to come, stabiliz-
ing our economic conditions, ending class-conflict
and securing social peace and welfare. Minor ad-
justments can readily be made with changing cir-
cumstances, as the old gildsmen constantly adapted
their sane and approved principles, based on the
Gospel and the natural law, to the newly arising
needs of the day.

Lest it be imagined that we are here dealing
with empty illusions, it may be well to begin by
showing how the gild idea is already practically
and successfully applied in what may be called the
merchant gilds of our day. Like the medieval
English gilds of that name they are not the out-
growth of high finance, but the achievements of
simple workingmen. The economic gild idea, as
conceived in its perfection, is a movement of the

311

JI2 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

workingmen, by the workingmen, for their own
and the common good, understanding by " work-
ingmen " all those who labor either with hand or
brain, provided their purpose is not the amassing
of their own individual profits. They must seek
the common good no less than their own ad-
vantage.

It was in 1 844 that twenty-eight poor weavers
organized in England a cooperative store, dealing
in four commodities only, the Rochdale Equitable
Pioneers Society. The movement prospered with
never a failure or a single lean year. Within
three quarters of a century it embraced one-third
of the total population of Great Britain and an-
nually distributed to its members commodities
amounting in worth to $1,000,000,000. Its
profits were then $100,000,000 a year, of which
$65,000,000 were returned in dividends to the
members, the remaining portion being used for in-
terest on capital or for education, propaganda and
welfare purposes. Dividends represented the
worker's savings on his purchases which had been
made at market prices.

The full meaning of its " dividends M to the
workingman will be made clear when it is stated
in concrete terms that they ordinarily amounted
to a sum large enough to pay the entire rent bill
for the enrolled laborer and his family. Mem-
bership, therefore, in a cooperative trading society
was equivalent for him, to the free gift of a home.

workingmen's cooperatives 313

Surely no small consideration. The figures here
quoted are offered on the authority of Mr. James
P. Warbasse, President of the Cooperative League
for America in 19 19, who thus describes the state
of the Cooperative British Wholesale Society at
the close of the war:

The British Wholesale Society supplies 1,200 societies. It
owns its own steamships. It has fourteen great warehouses.
It gives lavishly of its great resources towards welfare work.
It is the largest purchaser of Canadian wheat in the world.
Its eight flour mills are the largest in Great Britain. These
mills produce thirty-five tons of flour every hour for the people
who own the mills. The cooperators of Glasgow own the
largest bakery in the world. The British Cooperative Whole-
sale Society owns sixty-five factories. Their soap works make
500 tons of soap a week. They produce 5,000,000 pairs of
boots annually. They conduct three great printing plants.
Their 24,000 acres of farms in England produce vast quantities
of dairy products, fruit and vegetables. They have recently
purchased 100,000 acres of the best wheat lands in Canada.
They own their own coal mines. They own 3,200 acres of tea
plantations in Ceylon and vineyards in Spain. In Africa they
control vast tracts of land for the production of olives, from
which oil for their soap factories is produced.1

Rather a fair development from the modest be-
ginnings made by the twenty-eight weavers with
apparently no prospects in life but the poorhouse!
It illustrates what can be accomplished by an or-
ganization owned and controlled by workingmen.

1 The Carpenter. It must be understood that the productive
enterprises themselves, enumerated above, were not ordinarily
conducted cooperatively. Thus the various factories were still
usually operated on the wage-system.

3 14 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

In a similar manner Danish farmers have shown
their power of self control by binding themselves
to buy or sell to their own cooperatives only for
a definite number of years in order to overcome
the competition of capitalist rivals who for the
first year might offer their goods at a lower rate
than the cooperative in order to withdraw the men
from their own undertakings, and later raise the
prices at their own pleasure. In the meantime
the farmers could fairly judge whether their co-
operative was sound and safe.2 Hence the great
success of the Danish cooperative movement. Co-
operative trading has proved successful in small
countries and large, in Finland and Russia.

The question of cooperation has been suffi-
ciently dealt with by the present writer in previous
studies gathered together in " The World Prob-
lem." It is further developed here to show the
possibility of applying the gild idea on a scale com-
mensurate with our modern civilization. From
the above illustration we can perhaps surmise what
may yet be accomplished in the more difficult field
of cooperative production as well as in the highly
successful trading and banking enterprises of the
workingmen. The latter are an education for
labor. This the Catholic Bishops of the United
States pointed out in their u Social Reconstruc-
tion, " January, 19 19, as also the American Fed-
eration of Labor in its own u Reconstruction Pro-

2 Central-Blatt and Social Justice, Nov., 1918, p. 239.

workingmen's cooperatives 315

gram." The following passages express the Fed-
eration's hearty endorsement of consumers' co-
operative societies :

There is an almost limitless field for the consumers in which
to establish cooperative buying and selling, and in this neces-
sary development the trade unionists should take an immediate
and active part. . . . Participation in these cooperative agencies
must of necessity prepare the mass of the people to participate
more effectively in the solution of the industrial, commercial,
social and political problems which continually arise.

With the American National Cooperative Con-
vention, held at Springfield, 111., September, 191 8,
the United States may be said to have definitely
entered upon the new era of cooperation, as the
last of the great world Powers to realize the im-
portance of this movement. Best of all, it was
a workingmen's convention, in which the speeches
and discussions were by workingmen mainly. Its
purpose was " the formation of a national coop-
erative wholesale house as a medium of supply to
upward of 1,000 retail cooperatives in the United
States." By this wider cooperation the various
stores hoped more effectively to overcome the com-
petition of wholesalers and jobbers. The com-
prehensive plans of the American workingmen
were thus outlined at the time in the Catholic
Charities Review:

This will supply the special abilities of the best men of each
group — men qualified for organizing being placed in one
group, financial men in another, expert accountants in another,
and shrewd buyers in others — who will give the seven groups

316 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

concerned the immediate benefit of their collective experience.
The organization will finally resemble that of labor unions,
which are formed into State federations, with national and in-
ternational bodies above them. Owned from below and man-
aged democratically from below, the warehouses supervised by
the national organization will ultimately be erected in every
important center of the country.3

In these now historic events we behold a true
gild idea applied and carried out, as it should be,
on a broad democratic basis. Shares were usually
placed at the reasonable valuation of from $5 to
$25, within the easy reach of every workingman.
The more a family buys the more is the money
returned to it in " dividends, n but really as sav-
ings. It is a movement away from Socialism and
back to the gilds with their sound tenet of wide
private ownership and management by the work-
ers in place of ownership and management by a
communistic state. It is our first gild lesson.

The very beginnings of this movement remind us
of the origin of the medieval craft gilds which in
their early struggle effectively ended the capitalistic
system of their day. It was the cradle exploit of
a youthful Hercules whose labors were to be de-
voted to the good of mankind. " The coopera-
tive movement, as we know it to-day," wrote Lewis
S. Gannett in the Survey, " began with more or less
spontaneity among small groups of weavers, me-
chanics, peasants, here and there, in Ireland, Rus-
sia, Denmark, France, England and Germany —

3 March, 1919, p. 82.

workingmen's cooperatives 317

almost everywhere except in America." 4 When
it finally arose in America, it began in exactly the
same manner. The Church at once welcomed this
movement and took it into her arms. Her priests,
like their predecessors a thousand years before,
not merely encouraged it but gave to it their hearty
support. Everywhere cooperative credit banks, in
particular, were started for the rural populations
by the parish priests. Even in distant India we
find them successfully controlling or inspiring the
cooperative trading and credit movement among
the natives. A large and interesting volume could
be written showing the active interest taken by
the Catholic Church in the system of cooperation.
It is not a revolutionary movement, in the So-
cialist and Bolshevist sense, but a gradual and
far more lasting transformation of society and of
the entire economic order, without violence or in-
justice, provided the common good and the Gos-
pel teachings are not lost to sight. " While the
Socialists have been talking State ownership, and
then, once having control of the states, have be-
come afraid of the thing they preached," says the
wrriter just quoted, " the cooperatives have, rela-
tively unnoticed, been building up a form of in-
dustry which, more peacefully but no less cer-
tainly, challenges the pre-war irresponsible capi-
talist system of production." 5 To this system we

4 " The Cooperative International/' April 5, 1919.

5 Ibid.

318 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

all are opposed and the Socialist vote has to a
great extent implied no more than a protest against
it. So far all can heartily agree. But men have
failed to see the equally pernicious principles of
the Socialist movement and the dangerous power
given by it into the hands of men who are opposed
alike to religion and to Christian morality, while
their communistic dreams can only prove eco-
nomically ruinous in the end. What men really
desire is the solution offered by a Christian sys-
tem of cooperation. Unfortunately cooperatives
are constantly confused with Socialists by careless
journalists, and even Bishop Ketteler and Pope
Leo XIII, as well as the first Christians in the
Apostolic Church, have been called Socialists.
The word itself is perfectly innocent, and we might
willingly claim it for ourselves, if its root-meaning
were alone to be considered. But words often
lose their primitive significance and gather about
them a variety of associations in which they are
clothed. Hence the wise insistence of Pope Pius
X that the Christian popular movement be known
as Christian Democracy and not as Social Democ-
racy. There is an essential difference between
the two. The former acknowledges all just rights
of property, and seeks to bring about, not the
abolition of private ownership in the means of
production, but its widest distribution. The case
has been clearly stated by a writer in the Irish
Theological Quarterly. He asks :

workingmen's cooperatives 319

Ought we try to remedy our present system by gradually
working back to the Middle-Age conception of industry, in which
practically every worker would be capitalist and laborer at the
same time? Or ought private ownership to be abolished entirely,
and an experiment be made with collective ownership ? . . . The
former alternative is favored not only by Catholics, who have
definite ethical considerations to guide them, but also by a large
body of non-Catholic social reformers. No one wants to re-
vert to the industrial conditions of the Middle Ages. That
would be obviously an absurd policy in view of the develop-
ments of science and machinery. What is aimed at is to bring
bur present industrial system into line with the more humane
conception of industry, which obtained in those days. With this
end in view social reformers have from time to time put forward
various more or less tentative schemes, such as cooperation, co-
partnership and profit-sharing.

Cooperation would bind together in groups the small capi-
talists, that is the men who are at once the owners and workers
of their business, and would thereby give them the economic
advantages enjoyed by the large unit of capital. The system
has been adopted with great success in the case of agriculture,
and the consumers' cooperative stores. Copartnership is meant
to apply chiefly to great industrial concerns, in which the de-
velopment of machinery and the specialization of functions have
rendered it necessary for great numbers of workers to cooperate
in the manufacture of specific articles. The idea is to give all
such workers a share in the capital and profits of the concern,
so that the worker will no longer be a mere wage-earner, but will
have a personal interest in the success of the business.

The second alternative, that of collective ownership, is pro-
posed by Socialism and a number of other more or less extreme
policies which have developed from Socialism. . . . The ideal
of every collectivist policy is a social organization, in which there
will be but one owner, the Community, and in which every cit-
izen will be merely a wage-earner. The ideal of the Catholic
social reformer on the other hand is an equitable distribution
of wealth in a community in which every laborer will be owner,
or at least part-owner of the business in which he works.6

6 W. Moran, April, 1919.

320 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

The aim, then, of an ideal Christian gild system,
applied to our modern economic developments, is
to enable every man, so far as possible, to be an
owner of productive property, not by a meaning-
less collectivism under a Socialist bureaucracy, but
by a strictly private ownership, such as every in-
dividual gildsman enjoyed in the Middle Ages,
and every apprentice and journeymen could rea-
sonably hope to acquire in his own good time. In
this way alone can society be stabilized and ren-
dered immune from revolution and social unrest.
Vastly significant is the fact that the only organ-
izations that were able successfully to withstand
all the forces of Bolshevism, were the Russian co-
operative societies. They had been big enough to
provision the great armies after the corrupt Czar-
ist Government had ceased to function, says the
New York Evening Post, and they were not to be
shaken by even a Bolshevist revolution. So too
the Weekly Freeman reports the remarks of the
Rev. T. A. Finlay, S. J., at the annual meeting of
the cooperative Irish Agricultural Organization
Society:

It was a remarkable thing that even in Russia, where revolu-
tion seemed to have broken into the wildest orgies, the Coop-
erative Society had held its own and seemed to be increasing
daily in favor. Cooperative societies have been favored by
all the Governments that had succeeded one another in that
disturbed country.

The gild idea reached its most perfect modern

WORKINGMEN S COOPERATIVES 32 I

expression, so far attained, in the cooperative pro-
ductive societies. It shall be the purpose of an-
other chapter to outline the future of society were
this ideal still more fully and more adequately real-
ized.

Attention may here be called to the wide system
of socialization, combined with private productive
ownership, carried out by the farmers of North
Dakota. Thus Bill No. 20 declared the purpose
of the State of North Dakota to engage in the
business of manufacturing and marketing farm
products and to establish a warehouse, elevator
and flour-mill system. To make State institutions
independent of private capital, the State engaged
in the banking business, without however closing
the private banks. There was also a State hail-
insurance department and a State home-building
association established. All these laws were
passed in January and February, 19 19.

The principle itself of private productive owner-
ship was not attacked, but the purpose rather was
to safeguard it for the farmers by socializing cer-
tain institutions where cooperation had been em-
ployed in other countries. It all helps to make
plain the trend of the times: collectivism or co-
operation. We do not object to a limited State
ownership, provided it does not exceed the de-
mands of the public good; but we oppose the prin-
ciples of Socialist collectivism and favor coopera-
tion.

CHAPTER XXX

MODERN INDUSTRIAL DEMOCRACY

A FEW years before the World War a
strike was declared in one of the Italian
glass-blowing industries. Unfortunately
for the men, the employers' association had been
most thoroughly organized, and the workers soon
found themselves engaged in a losing fight. The
funds from which to pay the strikers were rap-
idly running low and defeat was staring them in
the face. At this moment, as Mr. Andrew E.
Malone describes the event in the Irish Monthly,1
a flanking movement was decided upon. Sufficient
capital was collected by the workers and a coop-
erative society was formed that now gave em-
ployment to the men in their own plant. The ex-
periment proved too successful to be discontinued
with the termination of the strike. A period of
sharp competition between the workmen's coop-
erative and the employers' plants naturally fol-
lowed. It was a severe test for the workers' en-
durance and the financial soundness of their ven-
ture. But every difficulty was overcome, and by
the end of the war, one-half of the entire output
of bottles in Italy was produced in the four large

1 June, 1919.

322

MODERN INDUSTRIAL DEMOCRACY 323

factories of the Federated Cooperative Glass-
works, owned and managed by the workers.

The success of the Bottleblowers' Union was a
lesson not lost upon the workers in other indus-
tries, and soon almost every department of pro-
duction could number its enterprises coopera-
tively conducted by the men engaged in them.
The movement had proved the ability of the work-
ers to manage their own industries in open com-
petition with capitalistic factories and workshops.

In the United States workmen's cooperative
productive societies had sprung up periodically
during almost the entire history of the labor move-
ment. They were usually founded under condi-
tions precisely similar to those under which the
Italian union began its venture. A series of labor
defeats was likely to be followed by a mushroom
growth of cooperative productive societies, which
either failed, or became capitalistic with success,
or else disappeared so noiselessly that no further
record can be found of them in contemporary doc-
uments. Yet these desultory pre-war efforts were
no test of what could be accomplished under more
favorable circumstances. Cooperative production
in industry was more successful in France and Eng-
land during this same period, but the movement
rather declined than increased in these countries
before the war. The immense productive enter-
prises of the great cooperative trading society of
Great Britain were not necessarily cooperative,

324 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

but were ordinarily conducted on a mere wage-sys-
tem, with the cooperative society as the employer.

A remarkable step was taken when in 19 19
the trade union movement in Britain, with its
5,000,000 members, decided to join forces with
the Union of British Cooperative Societies, num-
bering about 4,000,000 members, with the pur-
pose of dominating production, consumption and
distribution in Great Britain. Yet this too was
not a society for cooperative production, but to
control prices and guarantee a market for the co-
operative organizations. The unions were to sup-
ply capital for increased production on the part
of the cooperative societies, while all their bank-
ing business was to be undertaken by the Coop-
erative Wholesale Bank.

With the close of the World War the idea of
cooperative production in industry had taken a
new hold upon the mind and imagination of the
workers of the entire world. Unfortunately the
true historic lesson of the gild idea had not been
brought home and communism and Socialism were
widely confused with it. Hence the many aber-
rations of the new movement.

Long before this period Bishop Ketteler, in his
plans for cooperative factories to be owned and
managed by the workers, had made a modern
Christian application of the medieval gilds to the
large-scale machine production of our day. Nat-
urally his ideals were never realized. The work-

MODERN INDUSTRIAL DEMOCRACY 325

ers of Germany were still financially and in many
other ways too helpless to undertake this enter-
prise on their own responsibility, and Bishop Ket-
teler looked for the altruistic support of some
of the great employers, who, he hoped, might be
induced to give part of their accumulated fortunes
to enable the workers to begin their cooperative
ventures. The good Bishop was not the only
one, as we know, vainly to entertain such hopes.

Passing next over the many unsuccessful ef-
forts of the Utopian Socialists, we find a new im-
petus given to the gild idea in industry by M.
Georges Sorel, the founder of the modern athe-
istic syndicalism, which began in the French non-
Catholic syndicats, became the doctrine of the di-
rect-actionists in England, and was copied by the
I. W. W., or Industrial Workers of the World,
in America. Direct action (i.e., action without
reliance upon political means), violence, sabotage,
and the general strike u with folded arms," soon
became inseparably connected with the word
" Syndicalism."

This, however, was merely its destructive as-
pect. Constructively, syndicalism proposed to ac-
quire for the workers the factories in which they
were engaged, without any compensation to the
owners. Since the idea of authority, both human
and Divine, was scornfully rejected by its follow-
ers, any means that could bring about this con-
summation were held to be justifiable. While,

326 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

therefore, the medieval gild idea was in a measure
caught by them in the ownership and manage-
ment of industries by the workers, the means by
which this was to be brought about and the meth-
ods by which it was to be carried out were dis-
tinctly false, morally unjustifiable and economi-
cally ruinous.

What has been said of syndicalism can be re-
peated, in its own way, of the Soviets, as intro-
duced by the Bolshevist Socialists of Russia.
They shared in the worst vices of the proposed
atheistical syndicats. They were equally regard-
less of the rights of property and the claims of
authority, human and Divine. And yet they con-
tained the germs of the gild idea, but without be-
lief in God and obedience to His Ten Command-
ments and to the voice of His Church. Here pre-
cisely is the essential difference, the difference that
implies failure on the one side and success on the
other. The just rights of property were never dis-
regarded by the gilds, as supported by the Church,
nor were the interests of the various classes neg-
lected. A classless society was never a gild ideal,
but rather a society in which the laborer could
achieve economic independence, could hope by in-
dustry and virtue to own his means of produc-
tion and might joyfully perform his daily task
without envy of other classes, who were made to
respect his just rights as he religiously respected
theirs. To paraphrase a line long consecrated to

MODERN INDUSTRIAL DEMOCRACY 327

the efforts of schoolboy oratory : " To be a gilds-
man was to be a king." But of this position the
laborer was first to render himself worthy by train-
ing, experience and the record of a true religious
life. Here is the great weakness of modern in-
dustrial democracy. It is a sad mistake to im-
agine that it can succeed without God or that men
can be fit for responsibility without previous train-
ing and trial. Such were many of the immature
attempts that led to failure.

Gild Socialism is another, and more direct mod-
ern application of the medieval gild conception.
The mistake made here consists in yoking to-
gether two irreconcilable ideas that mutually con-
tradict each other. The essence of the gild con-
cept is private ownership attainable by the work-
ers who prove their fitness. The essence of So-
cialism is, on the contrary, the denial of private
ownership by the workers. A common form of
Gild Socialism is that which would vest the own-
ership of the various industries in the State and
give their management into the hands of the re-
spective workers. Yet this idea, combining State
ownership with labor control, if justly applied and
limited to certain industries, is not of itself more
objectionable than other forms of public owner-
ship that are licit if the public interest demands
them. The danger of abuse is obvious.

The originality of the Plumb plan, designed by
Glen E. Plumb for the railroad brotherhoods,

328 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

was to be found in its directorate, which distin-
guished it from all other forms of Gild Socialism.
While the latter commonly vests the ownership
with the public and leaves the control and man-
agement to the workers, the new device admitted
/ the public as one of three controlling factors.
The board of directors was to consist of fifteen
persons, five of whom were to be appointed by the
President to represent the people, five to be elected
by the operating officials and five to be chosen by
the other employees. Rates were to be fixed, as
before, by the Interstate Commerce Commission,
but the determining of wages were ultimately to
rest with the operating officials and employees, in
as far as they constituted two-thirds of the direc-
torate.

The surplus left after the payment of all ex-
penses and charges was to be divided equally be-
tween the Government and the employees. But
should the share accruing to the former ever ex-
ceed five per cent on the gross operating revenue,
the entire government dividend was to be ab-
sorbed in a reduction of rates. Thus it was
hoped gradually to reduce both traveling and
freight charges for the public.

To prevent the employees from voting them-
selves higher wages whenever the government
dividends would exceed five per cent, so that the
wages might continually increase and the rates
never fall, it was determined to give the operat-

MODERN INDUSTRIAL DEMOCRACY 329

ing officials twice the dividend paid to the other
employees. An increase in dividends, it was held,
would thus be preferable for them to an increase
of salary. It is obvious how delicately adjusted
the new mechanism was and how readily it might
be thrown into disorder. The remaining sections
of the plan dealt with the building of extensions
and the establishment of a sinking fund, the money
of which was eventually to be used to retire bonds
now privately held, so that the roads might become
the property of the people.

The ethical aspects of this plan are as compli-
cated as its mechanism. If the property is owned
by the people, we naturally ask, why should half
the dividends be given to the workers who do
not own it? Yet, on the other hand, it is not
improper that labor be permitted a share in divi-
dends to encourage production. But if the peo-
ple are the employers of the railroad brother-
hoods, why should the employees alone, in prac-
tice, determine the wages in which the people are
equally interested? Why should not both have
at least an equal vote? The common good
should here be a main consideration. This again
is a principle of true democracy. The workers
themselves must always be the first to demand
that the rights of the people are scrupulously re-
spected. The application of such plans to all in-
dustry would destroy private ownership.

The true gild idea demands the persistence of

330 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

private productive property, but would have both
its ownership and management vested, so far as
may be justly and reasonably possible, in the
workers themselves. This idea is to be carried
out neither by violence, sabotage and general
strikes, nor yet by confiscation, whether direct or
in the form of taxation. It can be realized, in
the first place, by the competitive efforts of the
workers themselves, as has been shown in the
case of the Italian Bottleblowers' Union, and
might be illustrated by countless similar instances.
Writing in the American Journal of Sociology,
Victor S. Yarros says :

It is our duty and our privilege to promote industrial democ-
racy in all proper, expedient ways. Trade unions should turn
their thoughts to the question of cooperative production and
cooperative distribution. They are demanding justice, but they
are not doing all they can to advance and establish industrial
justice. They think too much of immediate questions and not
enough about the future of industry and labor. Why should
not American trade unions, or industrial unions, assume en-
trepreneur functions? Why should they not compete with pri-
vate contractors? Why should they not start, on a modest
scale, cooperative factories? One such factory, if successful,
would be worth a thousand strikes from the point of view of
ultimate economic justice and order. In primitive Russia there
are thousands of Artiels, cooperative organizations of peasants
and laborers. If American labor wants democratic industry,
it should proceed to give society object lessons in democratic or
cooperative industry. We may be sure that before long it will
do this instead of contenting itself with negative methods. In
the Old World cooperation has grown steadily and has been
iuccessful in many ways.2

2 " The Coming Industrial Democracy," May, 1919.

MODERN INDUSTRIAL DEMOCRACY 33 I

But it is not necessary that cooperative enter-
prises should be undertaken by the workers ex-
clusively. Hence the value of copartnership, de-
fined as : u A system of industry under which
the great mass of workers will not only have a
direct interest in the profit of their work, but be
part owners of the capital with which it is carried
on." 3 Copartnership of necessity includes profit-
sharing, but profit-sharing by itself alone is not
copartnership. It is " an agreement, freely en-
tered into, by which the employee receives a share,
fixed in advance, of the profits. " 4 Copartnership
may often be the most feasible method of coop-
eration where larger sums of capital are required
than the workingmen themselves can furnish from
their own resources. It therefore invites outside
shareholders to provide a portion, greater or
smaller, of the capital needed. Labor then shares,
according to its own contribution, both in the
profits and the control of the business. This plan
was evolved by workingmen themselves in Eng-
land and was put into successful operation on the
initiative of employers as well as of labor.

In the typical English labor copartnership so-
ciety, as described by Aneurin Williams in 19 13,
each shareholder was given a single vote, irrespec-
tive of his or her amount of share capital. The

3 Aneurin Williams, " Co-partnership and Pofit-Sharing," p.
10.

4 Ibid., p. 13.

332 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

latter might never exceed £200 for any one in-
dividual. The committee on management was
democratically elected by the shareholders, and
every class of the membership was to be repre-
sented, including the customers, who were the co-
operative societies and as such held shares. The
division of profits, after wages and expenses have
been paid, is thus explained:

The first charge upon the net profit, after providing for de-
preciation, reserve, etc., is usually a dividend of five per cent
on the shares. The profit remaining after that is divided as a
dividend to the workers on wages, a dividend to the customers
on the amount of their purchases, a small additional dividend
on shares, certain payments to educational and provident funds,
and so on. Thus shares may in a prosperous society get a
total return of six or even seven per cent, labor a dividend of
is. or is. 6d. (in pre-war values) on wages, and customers a
rebate of perhaps %d. in the pound on their purchases. The
figures, of course, vary greatly. In all the more modern soci-
eties the worker cannot withdraw his dividend on wages in
cash, until he has accumulated a certain sum in the shares of
the society. Up to that sum it is capitalized.5

Employers themselves have often taken a lead-
ing part in the development of copartnership as
well as of profit-sharing schemes. Among the
first notable methods for the partitioning of divi-
dends between capital and labor in the United
States, was the so-called Ryan-Callahan plan of
11 distributive justice." The following is a de-
scription of it as it was operative in 19 17, when a

6 Ibid., p. 56.

MODERN INDUSTRIAL DEMOCRACY 333

bonus equal to fifty-six per cent on their wages fell
to the share of the employees:

First, the entire profits of the business for the year are reck-
oned, lump sum. Then, they are cut into two equal parts. One
part goes to capital, the other to labor. The share to capital is
distributed in proportion to the capital actually invested, paper
stock not being considered. Capital gets no other share in the
profits of the business. Thus capital and labor share equally
in all profits, on the principle that they are equally indis-
pensable factors of production. Labor's share is distributed in
this way: As the Callahan plant is a manufacturing concern,
there are three distinct classes of workers employed, each alike
indispensable, namely, factory employees, salesmen, and office
force. Each of these classes gets one-third of labor's share and
each member of a class receives the proportion that his wage or
salary bears to that third. This completes the plan.

As an educational feature, the dividends were
placed at a good rate of interest for the workers.
The capital thus formed was paid out to them
only in case they desired it for the building of a
home or some similar worthy purpose, or if they
left their employment. This course was followed
in as far as the dividends given out the first year
in a lump sum had quickly disappeared, without
improving the condition of the workers.

Even where capital is less willing to make con-
cessions it recognizes the falsity of the assump-
tion that what is of advantage to the laborer must
be of advantage to the employer. The reply
given by Robert Owen to the factory owner who
said to him, " If my men liked, they could save
me £10,000 a year by better work and the avoid-

334 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

ance of waste," has become classical: u Then
why don't you pay them £5,000 a year to do it? "
As John Leitch has expressed the same idea:
" Old-fashioned owners expect people to work for
them. Working for spells competition; working
with is cooperation." To bring men to work with
him is the problem to be solved by the modern
business man.

The following is a characteristic type of the
copartnership plan as introduced in England by
many of the employers themselves during the pre-
war period.

Every regular worker has a share of profit credited to him
in proportion to the economy of production, and to the amount
of his wages. By the accumulation and investment of this
profit he becomes a shareholder, and, at the shareholders' meet-
ings, he has a vote in proportion to his capital; and he helps
to elect the Directors. Thus copartnership gives the share in
responsibility and control which normally goes with sharehold-
ing. I do not mean by that a right to interfere in the details
of the management, any more than an ordinary stockholder has
a right to do so in a joint stock company. I mean a voice in
settling the general policy of the business, and in electing the
Directors who are to carry out that policy.

But an even broader vision was given by the
Great War, and employers were in many instances
of their own accord prepared to welcome the par-
ticipation of labor also " in the details of the man-
agement " on its industrial side. So the world
was daily progressing towards new concepts of a
new order of democratic industry. A first step
towards this was the shop-committee system.

MODERN INDUSTRIAL DEMOCRACY 335

In " Man to Man " John Leitch outlines a plan
modeled by him after the Government of the
United States. It consists of a House of Rep-
resentatives, elected by the employees; a Senate
constituted of foremen and department managers;
and a Cabinet, or executive council, with the pres-
ident of the company as the president of the cab-
inet. In this the discussions of the two Houses
are taken up and with it the ultimate approval of
all measures pertaining to the conduct of the fac-
tory must therefore rest after having passed the
House and Senate. The complaints and griev-
ances of the men, their disputes over rates or
wages are to be presented to their representatives
in the House, there to be fairly discussed and de-
cided at the meeting. These representatives are
to be elected by departments, one for each twenty-
five employees. Small departments combine with
each other. Such at least was the first practical
application made. The following illustration of
this plan, as it was operative during the years
19 1 8 and 19 19 in the Demuth Company, the larg-
est manufacturers of pipes and smokers' articles
in the world, will be of interest:

In the Demuth plan the employee's profit from the plan is
dependent upon his effective interest in it and in the prosperity
of the plant, not upon his " bargaining power." His dividends,
which are distinct from his wages, increase and decrease with
the quantity and quality of output, individual and group effi-
ciency, and market conditions. In this plant, therefore, the em-

336 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

ployee's representatives have not approached the question of
hours dogmatically, but have experimented with various work-
ing schedules and adjusted them to output and market condi-
tions, with a view to the greatest profit to the company as a
whole. In a similar scientific spirit they keep a close eye on
labor turnover, have made a plant schedule of holidays for a
great variety of races, and have set up their own Americaniza-
tion classes. The plan was not introduced because of labor
troubles, and there have never been any at this plant.6

Yet in spite of this roseate picture a combined
strike and lock-out resulted a few months after
these lines were written. For two reasons the
American Federation of Labor objected to all
such plans of " Industrial Democracy/' however
benevolently intended and conducted. The first
was that they still leave the final decision with the
employer; and the second, that they overlook the
labor unions and substitute an employer's organi-
zation in their stead. These are sound objec-
tions. There can be no doubt that labor must
ultimately find its safety in its own organization,
since it cannot make itself dependent upon the
mere benevolence of employers.

The main problem for labor unions is to keep
just and reasonable in their demands. It will
thus be possible, through them, to cooperate
towards industrial democracy along the lines of
the already existing order. The initiative to many
such movements in the United States was given

6 The Review, June 21, 19 19.

MODERN INDUSTRIAL DEMOCRACY 337

by the War Labor Board whose general princi-
ples in the shops conducted by it were :

That men and management should together and by common
consent work out a shop-committee system; that this system
should be adapted to the peculiar local needs of the factory or
plant; that due proportional representation should be given to
every group which, upon investigation, appears to be entitled
to it.7

In the same way the Whitley Report, adopted
by the British Government, sought to apply the
principle of representative government to the
whole field of industry, calling for joint industrial
councils, national, district and " works," in which
labor and capital were to be equally represented,
while the presidency of the various councils was
to be assigned to impartial officers. It is to be
observed also that both workers and employers
are represented by their unions or associations.
Even copartnership plans themselves cannot dis-
pense with the need of the trade unions, since the
danger will always remain that wages may be re-
duced in favor of dividends. Thus the Labor
Co-Partnership Association of London, after the
great railway strike of September, 191 1, wisely
issued the following pronouncement:

Copartnership assumes a standard wage before there can be
any talk of profit to divide. A standard wage assumes organ-
ization to maintain it and to raise it. It assumes reasonable
forms of trade unionism, collective bargaining, the meeting of
capital and labor.8

7 The Survey, June 7, 1919.
•Williams, op. cit., p. 207.

33 8 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

The democratization of industry does not im-
ply the disappearance of all previous economic
institutions. Cooperative and copartnership ar-
rangements, public ownership, individually con-
ducted enterprises and private corporations will
continue side by side, as shall be demanded for
the common good. But labor's increasing share
in ownership and responsibility will be the surest
safeguard of lasting industrial peace. On the
other hand the legal restrictions placed upon the
acquisition of excessive fortunes through just
methods of graded taxation, whose purpose is not
confiscation, but the public good, will greatly re-
duce the former inequalities, and the envy and
discontent to which they gave birth. Bidding
us look with him into the future a recent writer
asks:

Does it please you to contemplate a future in which one boy
or girl out of ten may " rise " to a condition of independence
and dignity, while the other nine must remain dependent for their
living upon the hiring and firing process, with no interest in
the work by which they live except such as can be enclosed in
the pay-envelope? Or would you rather contemplate a future
in which the range of jobs that have been emancipated from
the status of wage-slavery [i. e., the exclusive dependence upon
wages and denial of all partnership in responsibility] is coex-
tensive with the field of industry? That is the issue reduced to
its essentials.0

Finally it is necessary that the burden of eco-

9 The New Republic, June 7, 1919.

MODERN INDUSTRIAL DEMOCRACY 339

nomic betterment of the worker, where this is rea-
sonably called for, or the just taxation of incomes,
be not placed upon the consumer, so that every
increase in wages or taxation may not be accom-
panied by a rise in prices. This can be brought
about, on the one hand, by the various methods
which enable the worker to share in the profit
and responsibility of the business and hence in-
crease his productivity, and on the other by keep-
ing profits and taxation within reasonable limits.
The worker, too, must act upon conscientious mo-
tives, be satisfied with wages that the industry can
bear without burdening the consumer, and give
his fair energies through a period of time that is
not abnormally shortened. These are principles
the gildsmen held sacred, and that must be revived
again in modern industry, if it is ever to be truly
democratized. The home, too, must be kept in-
violate, as well as the mother's place in it with her
little ones. This will reduce the problem of un-
employment, and make possible adequate wages,
based on increased productivity, such as should
certainly result from real industrial cooperation.

The large corporations themselves were in a
manner democratized long ago by the thousands,
and even tens of thousands, of small investors who
brought together into them their joint savings.
But their management did not so readily change
its autocratic nature. The small shareholder was
to be satisfied with his dividend check and blindly

340 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

vote " proxies." To protect him, therefore, from
gambling, frenzied finance and outright spoliation,
as Victor S. Yarros suggests, " publicity, demo-
cratic control, directorates of a new type, will be
found increasingly necessary." If the small in-
vestor can not protect himself, the State must do
so; for as the writer correctly says, the only mean
between reactionary Bourbonism and Bolshevism
is democratic industry. The Church had discov-
ered this centuries ago and consistently acted
upon it.

The emphasis throughout this chapter has been
placed upon self-help. It is the Socialistic fallacy
to depend entirely upon the State, by surrender-
ing land and industry to it, and thus establishing a
new and worse autocracy in place of the old. It
is on the other hand the mistake of many more
judicious minds, who rightly look instead for a
wider distribution of productive property among
the workers themselves, to seek to attain this end
by legislative measures almost exclusively. The
lesson of the gilds can here again be of service.
They accomplished their success through perfect
cooperation with the municipal or State govern-
ment, seeking first and foremost the common good.

It is well that there should be State regulation
protecting the small investor and discriminating in
his favor, within all just limits. It is well that
the burden of taxation should bear increasingly
upon those who accumulate shares in their own in-

MODERN INDUSTRIAL DEMOCRACY 34 1

dividual hands, whether from one or from many
corporations. It is well that there should be thus
created the widest just distribution of voting stock
among the people. It is well, too, that the manip-
ulations of speculators should forever be made
impossible by a relentless publicity and by ade-
quate legal action. But the first step towards a
true democratic industry is self-help on the part
of labor and of the many sincere employers who
are eager to promote the new democratic indus-
try that alone can give social stability — provided
always that the principles of the Church are not
forgotten, on which every sound social order must
be based.

A CATHOLIC SOCIAL PLATFORM

A CATHOLIC SOCIAL PLATFORM

PREAMBLE

i. True modern democracy first arose beneath
the fostering care of the Church, derived its prin-
ciples from the great Catholic thinkers of the Mid-
dle Ages, found its expression in many of the
early Catholic city-democracies, was actively main-
tained in its rights of self-government during the
wars of the twelfth century by Pope Alexander
III, has been continuously exemplified since the
thirteenth century in the Catholic cantons of Swit-
zerland, and was most brilliantly defended in the
theological schools of the seventeenth century.
The Reformation doctrine of the Divine right of
kings was ever strenuously opposed by the Church.
(D./., XXVI.) 1

2. All true democracy, as an embodiment of the
brotherhood of man, must be based on the funda-
mental doctrine of the Fatherhood of God. (D.

I, v.)

3. Its aim is not the abolition of classes, from

1 At the end of the various clauses, " W. P." stands for " The
World Problem " (P. J. Kenedy & Sons, New York, and R. &
T. Washbourne, London), while the numerals following indicate
the respective chapters. " D. I" similarly refers to " Democratic
Industry" (same publishers).

345

346 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

which universal happiness is vainly expected by
some to flow. It freely acknowledges " the di-
versity of gifts that man receives, with the conse-
quent inevitable difference in position, learning,
acquirements and possessions which have ever
characterized, and must always characterize the
members of the human race." (Cardinal
Bourne.)

4. The perfect social ideal is found only in the
Christian cooperation of all classes and of all in-
dividuals, as members of one social body, under
the governance of lawfully appointed authority,
whose power, however conferred by the people,
is ultimately derived from God. (W. P., XXV.)

5. Democracy in education took its beginning in
the great system of public schools created by the
Church (Third and Fourth Lateran Councils,
1 1 79 and 12 15) and in the vast medieval univer-
sities fostered by her, with their gilds of masters
and scholars. (D. I., XXIII.)

6. With the " Great Pillage/' the suppression
of monasteries and the confiscation of gild funds
devoted to religion and charity, pauperism arose
for the first time. The one power that by its very
teaching and influence, as exemplified in the gilds
at their perfection, could have preserved the work-
ing classes from the degradation to which they
were subjected, was set aside. Hence the u ra-
pacious usury M that followed, so that, as Pope
Leo XIII described the conditions existing in his

A CATHOLIC SOCIAL PLATFORM 347

own day: "A small number of very rich men
have been able to lay upon the teeming masses
of the laboring poor a yoke little better than slav-
ery itself." (R. N.2) (D. I., XXVII.)

7. The chief aim of Christian social endeavor,
or " Christian Democracy," is, in the words of the
same Pontiff: " To make the condition of those
who toil more tolerable; to enable them to ob-
tain, little by little, those means by which they
may provide for the future ; to help them to prac-
tice in public and in private the duties which mo-
rality and religion inculcate; to aid them to feel
that they are not animals but men, not heathens
but Christians, and so to enable them to strive
more zealously and eagerly for the one thing
which is necessary: the ultimate good for which we
are all born into this world." (R. N.) What
doth it profit a man if he gain the whole world and
suffer the loss of his own soul. (Matt, xvi: 26.)
(W. P., XXV; D. I., XXVIII.)

FALSE SOCIAL SYSTEMS

8. Socialism is no solution for the evils which
have followed the Reformation. Far from satis-
fying the legitimate desire of the worker for a
personal share in productive ownership, it would
ultimately deprive all alike of such ownership, sub-
jecting the laborer hopelessly to a bureaucratic

2"Rerum No<varum/t the Encyclical of Pope Leo XIII, "On
the Condition of the Working Classes," issued in 1891.

348 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

control, both tyrannical and inefficient. Social-
ism is more or less complete in proportion as it
aims at this abolition of private productive own-
ership. {W.P., III; D.I., IV.)

9. Individualistic capitalism, understood as a
system in which the means of production are in the
hands of a few men of wealth, inspired merely
with a passion for the utmost gain and unre-
strained by due legal restrictions, is equally per-
nicious. (/F.P., IV, XXI.)

CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY

10. The Church of Christ has not been founded
to teach any particular system of sociology or eco-
nomics. She condemns whatever is morally false
in the existing practices or theories and commends
whatever form of social order, based upon the nat-
ural law and the Gospel, wisely answers the needs
of any given period. She is not for any single
generation but for all time, while economic condi-
tions are fluctuating perpetually. {W . P., XVII;
D. /., V-VIII, etc.)

1 1. Yet it is the duty of Christians, particularly
at the present moment, not to overlook the social
dangers that imperil civilization; and it is possible
for them to build up on her principles, teachings
and traditions a true system of democratic indus-
try which shall answer all the needs of their day.
On no other foundation can a sound social order
be erected.

A CATHOLIC SOCIAL PLATFORM 349

12. Equally opposed to the unnatural abolition
of private productive ownership under Socialism,
and to its restriction to a few men of wealth under
capitalism, the true social system advocates instead
the widest diffusion of the possession of productive
as well as of private property, that as many as
possible of the workers can hope, by just means,
to become sharers in it. And this personally, and
not merely in the name of a communistic common-
wealth. (W. P., XVIII; D. /., I, XIX, etc.)

13. Such possession will satisfy the aspirations
of men, lift them above the position of wage-earn-
ers only, and help to their full and harmonious de-
velopment, insuring the stability of the new social
order. (D. /., XXIX, XXX.)

14. Such was the consummation most closely
attained when Catholic gildhood was in its prime
and the influence of the Church effective; when
the apprentice might hope, by industry, skill and
virtue, to become a master; when social discon-
tent was unknown and pauperism undreamed of;
when each lived for all and all for each. Such
is the Catholic ideal. (D. /., XVIII-XXII,
XXV.)

DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

15. The old organizations cannot be restored as
they were. But it is possible, in the words of
Pius X: " To adapt them to the new situation
created by the material evolution of contemporary

350 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

society in the same Christian spirit which of old
inspired them." (D. /., XXVIII.)

1 6. Such, in a material way, are the cooperative
trade, credit and agricultural societies intended for
self-help and to eliminate a wasteful system of dis-
tribution. Such are the attempts at cooperative
production, where the entire enterprise is owned
by the workers who alone receive both wage and
profit, and where each worker is personal owner
of shares and participates, directly or indirectly,
in the management. {W. P., XIX, XX; D. I.,
XXIX, XXX.)

17. Such, too, though less completely, are the
various plans in which the workers own a consid-
erable part of the voting stock. And such in fine,
to a greater or less degree, are all copartnership
arrangements by which the workers share in the
corporate stock and reasonably participate in the
industrial management: the regulation, through
their shop gilds, of hours, wages, discipline, proc-
esses of production, etc. (W . P., XIX; D. L,
XVIII.)

1 8. Since every business is constituted of money-
capital and labor-capital, it is unreasonable that
the former alone, as under capitalism, should have
the entire power of control and the latter be sub-
jected to a state of complete dependence. Men
are more than money, and persons more precious
than machinery. (Z). /., XVIII, etc.)

19. But for the lasting success of any economic

A CATHOLIC SOCIAL PLATFORM 35 1

plans, religion is essential. The gilds were able to
maintain their spirit of democratic industry in pro-
portion only to their religious zeal. With this
they waxed or waned. Without certain disaster,
religion can never be dissociated from economics.
(D.I., XIV, XXVII.)

THE PUBLIC GOOD

20. While keeping clearly in sight this vision of
the true city, which is to be constructed after no
merely speculative model, we must not forget the
intermediate measures that are not, however, to be
confounded with the ultimate goal.

21. Adequate government regulation should
prevent the accumulation of excessive gains in the
hands of a few, the monopolistic control of com-
modities, and the abuses that may arise in such
public service monopolies as are under private op-
eration. (D.I., XII.)

22. Monopolies or combines are guilty of injus-
tice when in the articles of common use they ex-
ceed the highest prices, that would obtain in the
market were it freely open to competition, presum-
ing in each instance the previous payment of a just
wage. They may offend against charity by not
lowering this price as well when notable hardship
is inflicted upon the poor. All " cornering " must
be prevented absolutely and all unfair business
methods. {W. P., V, VI.)

23. State ownership should not be introduced

352 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

where State control suffices. The farther an in-
dustry is removed from a public service utility or
a natural monopoly, the greater the presumption
in favor of private ownership, cooperative or oth-
erwise. (W. P., XVIII.)

24. Since it is the duty of the State to see that
natural resources are turned to good account for
the support and welfare of all the people, " the
State or municipality should acquire, always for
compensation, those agencies of production, and
those agencies only, in which the public interest
demands that public property rather than private
ownership should exist." (Irish Bishops, 19 14.)
{JV. P., Ill, XXI.)

25. Unjust restrictions should not be placed on
those, who to the general benefit are acquiring
legitimate prosperity -under private enterprise.
{IV. P., XVIII.)

26. Taxation should bear most upon those who
are able to contribute most to the common good,
but should not be made a means of confiscation.
Special protection should be given to the small
share-holder and a wider diffusion of shares made
possible, within the limits of justice. The words
of Pope Leo XIII must be borne in mind: " The
right to possess private property is derived from
nature, not from man; and the State has the right
to control its use in the interest of the public good,
but by no means to absorb it altogether. The
State would therefore be unjust and cruel if under

A CATHOLIC SOCIAL PLATFORM 353

the name of taxation it were to deprive the private
owner of more than is fitting." (R. N.) (W .
P., XXI.)

LABOR MEASURES

27. Until a larger social justice reigns, mini-
mum wage laws must enable every male worker
to support a family in Christian decency. Every
adult woman worker must be enabled to live re-
spectably by her earnings alone. Enough should
gradually be paid to make it possible for every
worker to provide for the future out of his or her
own wages, without need of State insurance. In
this way only can industry be said to be properly
supporting those engaged in it. (W. P., IX.)

28. As exceptional business enterprise and effi-
ciency, directed towards the greater common good,
is entitled to an exceptional reward, so labor also
should be remunerated in proportion to its con-
tribution to industry.

29. By workers we understand all engaged in
mental as well as in manual occupations, in the
service of distribution or production, from man-
ager to messenger, although the need of State pro-
tection for the former may be insignificant.

30. As the State must come to the aid of the
consumer in as far as the general welfare requires,
so too it must safeguard labor's rights: religious,
moral, physical and economic. In like manner
the rights of every class must be duly protected

354 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

by it to whatever extent the common good de-
mands. {W. P., VIII.)

31. The duty of labor is to give a fair day's
work, as the duty of the employer is to provide
a fair wage and proper working conditions, from
a religious and moral, as well as from a material
and sanitary point of view. {W . P., X.)

32. Strikes are permitted for a grave and just
cause, when there is a hope of success and no other
satisfactory solution can be found, when justice
and charity are preserved, and the rights of the
public duly respected. Conciliation, arbitration
and trade agreements are the natural means to be
suggested in their stead. Hence the utility of
public boards for this purpose. As in the strike,
so in the lock-out, a serious and just cause is re-
quired, and the rights of the workers and of the
public must be respected. Charity is far more
readily violated in the lock-out than in the strike,
because of the greater suffering likely to be in-
flicted on the laborer deprived of his work than
on the employer. (W . P., XI.)

33. Justification of the sympathetic strike will
rarely be found, while the presumption is over-
whelmingly against the general sympathetic strike.
(fV. P., XII.) Blacklists on the part of em-
ployers that permanently exclude from his trade
a worker displeasing to them, who honestly seeks
employment, are opposed to the first principles of
justice.

A CATHOLIC SOCIAL PLATFORM 355

34. The problem of unemployment should be
met by a permanent national employment service,
acting with the cooperation of municipal and pri-
vate bureaus. Methods of preventing or meeting
the crisis of unemployment should be carefully
studied. Governments have a serious duty to ob-
viate this evil, and provide for the unemployed
according to their necessity. {W. P.} XIII,
XIV.)

35. Hours of labor should be neither unrea-
sonably long nor unreasonably short. Sunday la-
bor should be prohibited, except in cases of real
necessity, such as is too often merely presumed to
exist. {JV. P., VIII; D. /., XIX, XX.)

36. Until labor can properly provide for itself,
the State should interest itself in housing condi-
tions, particularly where there is danger to mor-
als and religion as well as to the physical well-
being of the worker and of his family. Health
inspection in the schools and municipal clinics
for the poor are recommended. (W. P.,

id

37. Vocational training is desirable, without
neglecting the cultural and religious education of
our children. " A healthy democracy cannot tol-
erate a purely industrial or trade education for any
class of its citizens." Further, " the opportunities
of the system should be extended to all qualified
private schools on exactly the same basis as to the
public schools. We want neither class divisions

356 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

in education nor a State monopoly of education."
(American Bishops.) (D. I.f XXL)

38. So long as proper wages are not accorded,
social insurance is to be favored to whatever ex-
tent may be necessary to safeguard the laborer
in sickness, accident, invalidity and old age. It
must be clearly understood, however, that there is
question of a temporary substitute only for an ade-
quate wage, which will enable the worker to carry
his own insurance and not to be a mere ward of the
State. The dignity of labor must be protected
from communistic paternalism as well as from cap-
italistic abuses. {W. P., XVII; D. /., IV.)

39. An intelligent penal system will make it
possible for dependents to live upon the earnings
of the imprisoned wage-earner. It may also en-
able the prisoner to lay aside something for future
rehabilitation. (W. P., XVII. ),

40. The right of labor organization is no
longer in question and never should have been.
The worker should see that Christian principles
are maintained within his union and not permit it,
through his own carelessness, to be made the
helpless tool of extremists. {IV. P., XVI; D. I.,

in.)

41. It is therefore of the highest importance
that Christian social education through organiza-
tion and literature, be extended to every single one
of our own labor unionists. Hence also the im-
perative need of Christian schools of sociology for

A CATHOLIC SOCIAL PLATFORM 357

the training of Christian social leaders. (W. P.,
XVI, XXV.)

WOMAN LABOR

42. Exploitation of woman and child labor is to
be strictly abolished, as well as every other form
of sweating. ( W. P., XXII, XXIII, XXIV. )

43. While woman in industry is to receive a
minimum wage sufficient for her own support, it
is reasonable that she should moreover be paid
according to her service. This will imply an
equal wage with man for work equal in quantity
and quality, when engaged at the same task with
him. (W. P., XXIII.)

44. If wife and mother are no longer driven
to the factory, owing to the husband's inadequate
wage, and child labor is ended, there will be work
for the fathers of families as well as for all men
and women who must provide their own support.
So too a widowed mother's pension, to be paid
as far as necessary, will keep both mother and
children in the home. (W. P., XVII.)

45. " Woman," says Leo XIII, " is by nature
fitted for home-work, and it is this which is best
adapted to her modesty and to promote the good
up-bringing of children and the well-being of the
family." (R. N.) " The proportion of women
in industry ought to be kept within the smallest
practical limits." (American Bishops.) They
should not be placed at occupations unfit, or

358 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

morally and physically dangerous; it is the duty
of the State to ensure this right for them and to
secure for them reasonable hours, sanitary condi-
tions, abolition of night work, and the removal of
all circumstances injurious to sex and maternity.
{W. P., XXIV.)

FARM LABOR

46. Every just encouragement is to be given
to promote farm labor and the development of a
large class of small farm owners. (W . P., XV;
D.I., VIII.)

47. Cooperative buying, selling and credit as-
sociations, and cooperative production are here to
be particularly recommended as thoroughly ap-
proved by experience. All abuses in transporta-
tion, working equal hardship on the producer and
consumer, must be removed, and produce brought
to the market with the least intervention of middle-
men. (JV. P., XIX, XX, VII; D. /., XIII.)

48. Government loans should be made, where
needed, to enable men to settle upon the land,
either as owners or as tenants with long-time
leases. M It is essential that both the work of
preparation and the subsequent settlement of the
land should be effected by groups or colonies, not
by men living independently of one another and in
depressing isolation. M (American Bishops.)
Attention should be given in particular to the fa-
cilities of regularly fulfilling religious duties.

A CATHOLIC SOCIAL PLATFORM 359

The problem of the farm laborer, too, is to be
carefully studied. (JV. P., XV.)

49. The principle of land nationalization is to
be strongly condemned as unnatural, economically
ruinous and undemocratic. The rights of the
tiller to his soil must be held sacred. Keeping in-
violate all just property rights, the laborer should
14 be encouraged to look forward to obtaining a
share in the land.'5 (Leo XIII, R. N.) (JV.
P., XVIII.)

CAUSES OF SOCIAL DISASTER

50. The roots of the social problem penetrate
deep. The evils of impurity, birth control and
divorce corrupt the individual, the home and so-
ciety. With these are associated the inordinate
craving after pleasure, the shirking of duty, and
the wide-spread wastefulness and excess of all
classes, together with a desire for the utmost gain,
regardless of the common good. (W. P., II,
XI; D. /., IX.)

51. These evils, which naturally flow from a
rejection of religion, are most intimately connected
with all our economic and social disorders, whose
last cause is godlessness. (W . P.} XIV.)

52. Finally, there is the doctrine that would
make of the State a fetish to which all human
rights, whether of the family or of the individual,
are to be relentlessly sacrificed. Hence follow
State autocracy, bureaucracy, Socialism and all the

360 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

endless forms of State paternalism that threaten
to submerge democracy. (D. I., I, IV, XXVI,
XXIX, etc.)

FIRST PRINCIPLES

53. The sacredness of all human life must be
recognized, and the duty of conforming it to the
Will of God.

54. The purity of family life must be restored,
and the family, as the unit of society, must bravely
assume its duties and responsibilities in a true
Christian spirit. The future belongs to those who
safeguard the home.

55. The pagan theory that the individual exists
for the State and not the State for the individual,
must be absolutely rejected.

56. Secularization of education must be op-
posed as the greatest danger to modern society,
together with all over-centralization and undue
State interference, as tending to establish the most
pernicious of all autocracies. To the parent alone,
and not to the State, belongs, of itself and di-
rectly, the responsibility for the upbringing of the

child. .

57. The safe-guarding of the just rights of
Christianity, on which the future of civilization
depends, is not possible without the development
of a strong, alert, loyal and intelligent Christian
press. The support and furtherance of this is a
first duty. The law, on the other hand, should be

A CATHOLIC SOCIAL PLATFORM 36 1

made to prevent the publication of untrue state-
ments and reports, and protect from slander all,
whether individually or collectively.

58. The success of Christian Democracy, which
is purely social and not political, will finally depend
upon the utmost organization and concentration of
effort. Nor should Catholics neglect the full use
of their political rights in the measure in which
they are granted to every citizen, since by reason
of their Divine Faith they " may prove themselves
capable, as much as, and even more than others,
of cooperating in the material and civil well-being
of the people, thus acquiring that authority and
respect which may make it even possible for them
to defend and promote a higher good, namely, that
of the soul." (Pius X. " Christian Social Ac-
tion.")

CONCLUSION

59. Besides the rules of social justice, the laws
of Christian charity should bind together employer
and employees, and all classes and ranks, into one
Christian brotherhood. To accomplish this in its
perfection, nothing can be of greater importance
than that all should heed again the voice of that
Mother from whom the nations have wandered,
who begot them in the unity of a great Christen-
dom in the ages of Catholic Faith. Her teach-
ings are the same now as they were in the days
of the Apostles, and as they will remain to the

362 DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRY

end of time, yet always perfectly adapted to every
changing period of history. For the promise of
Christ to her can never be made void: " Behold
I am with you all days, even to the consummation
of the world." (Matt. xxviii:20.) {W. P.,
XXV.)

60. Hence she alone can never possibly mislead
mankind, and there can be no surer hope for true
and lasting reconstruction than the return of all to
her, the one and only apostolic Church, the Church
of our fathers.