388 



COMMUNISM 



COMO 



Communism is a system of society in which 

 common property is the recognised form. In later 

 times it is an attempt to prevent or remedy the 

 evils arising out of the inequalities of private pro- 

 perty by holding property in common. But in 

 primitive societies, in the hunting and pastoral 

 stages of civilisation, communism was universal. 

 It was only when the transition was made to a 

 settled life and to agriculture that private owner- 

 ship in land began to appear, and even then it was 

 slowly introduced. Long after the private use of 

 land had been established, the common ownership 

 of it by the tribe or clan was still recognised and 

 enforced, and the arable land of the community was 

 subject to periodical redistribution with the view 

 to cultivation. Survivals of this system still exist 

 in various countries of the world, notably in Russia 

 under the Mir. 



In the ancient world a partial communism pre- 

 vailed in Crete and Sparta. Towards the decline 

 of Greece more systematic speculations and experi- 

 ments in communism appeared. The most eminent 

 example of the former was the republic of Plato, in 

 which a community of goods and also of wives was 

 taught, as the form of society among the ruling 

 and military class. These were to be supported by 

 the industrial classes, whose form of life is not 

 indicated. In Palestine, about the Christian era, 

 the Essenes were a society of recluses with celibacy 

 and the community of goods. 



A most remarkable instance of community of 

 goods is that of the early Christians at Jerusalem, 

 recorded in Acts, iv. 32. Under the influence of 

 Christianity the rigorous and often merciless ideas 

 and rights of private property developed in the 

 ancient world, especially among the Romans, were 

 greatly modified. Denunciations of wealth tending 

 to communism are not infrequent in the church 

 fathers. Not to mention the corporate property of 

 the church itself, which in medieval times embraced 

 about one-third of the land in the countries where 

 it was established, many of the monastic institu- 

 tions were based on the community of goods. 

 During the middle ages, sects holding the com- 

 munity both of goods and women appeared, like 

 the sect of the Giovannali in Corsica. 



At times of social and spiritual change or fer- 

 mentation communistic ideas usually grow up with 

 special vigour. Such was the case at the Refor- 

 mation, when the anabaptists Miinzer and Bock- 

 holt set up communism in Germany, and similar 

 notions had a wide diffusion in other countries 

 (see ANABAPTISTS). The most eminent literary 

 form of it, combined with the noblest humani- 

 tarian ideals and practical suggestions for reform, 

 which even yet have not been realised, was the 

 Utopia of Sir Thomas More (1516). In that great 

 work, besides the institution of common property, 

 we have the most advanced views on toleration, 

 universal education, a mild criminal code, sanita- 

 tion, and a working-day of six hours. Cam- 

 panella's Civitas Solis (1623) has a similar com- 

 munity of goods under the despotic rule of the 

 wise men, with a working-day of four hours. 



At the discovery of America the Spanish con- 

 querors found a system of agricultural communism 

 under a central despotism both in Mexico and Peru. 

 Like the partial communism of Crete and Sparta it 

 may have been a survival or continuation of the 

 primitive communism. In the earliest English 

 settlements in America, both Virginia and New 

 England, a system of common property was 

 attempted, but soon abandoned. During the fer- 

 mentation which preceded and accompanied the 

 French Revolution communistic ideas again 

 emerged in the Avritings of Morelly and Mably. 

 They are also found vaguely expressed in the 

 works of Rousseau, and through him they to some 



degree affected the principles of Robespierre and St 

 Just ; but the general tendency of the Revolution 

 was to consolidate individual rights and private 

 property. The conspiracy of Babeuf was intended 

 to establish a systematic communism by revolution. 



Socialism is a vague phenomenon which must not 

 be identified with communism. Yet the movement 

 is largely coloured with communistic conceptions, 

 and in some of its schools a thoroughgoing com- 

 munism is taught with lax notions as to the rela- 

 tion of the sexes. In the anarchist, as also in the 

 Marx school to a considerable degree, socialism takes 

 the form of a systematic community of property, 

 associated with vague theories of the emancipation 

 of women (see SOCIALISM). Different both from 

 socialism and this aggressive communism are the 

 communistic societies still existing in the United 

 States. The latter are simply quiet efforts to 

 realise for their members a happier state of things 

 by community of property, but without a revolu- 

 tionary propaganda and remote from the main 

 current of modern social development. See BROOK 

 FARM, PERFECTIONISTS, SHAKERS ; Nordhoffs 

 Communistic Societies of the United States (1875) : 

 and for the rising of the so-called Communists at 

 Paris in 1871, which was a political and not an 

 economical movement, see COMMUNE. 



Commutation. See TITHE, PENSIONS. 



Commutator, an apparatus attached to many 

 electric machines for reversing the currents. See 

 ELECTRICITY. 



4'oinnr nils, the name of a family, originally 

 Italian, of which many members occupied the 

 throne of the Byzantine empire from 1057 to 1204, 

 and that of Trebizond from 1204 to 1461. See 

 BYZANTINE EMPIRE, TREBIZOND, ALEXIUS, ISAAC. 

 ANNA COMNENA (q.v.), who lived in the first 

 half of the 12th century, was a high literary as 

 well as historical celebrity. DAVID COMNENUS, 

 the last representative of the imperial race in 

 Trebizond, was executed at Adrianople in 1462, 

 with all his family, by command of Mohammed II. 

 The attempt to trace the descent of the Bonaparte 

 family from a branch of the Comneni settled in 

 Corsica is not supported by valid evidence. 



Como, a city of Lombardy, Northern Italy, 

 beautifully situated at the south-west extremity of 

 the Lake of Como, 30 miles N. of Milan by rail. It 

 lies in a valley, surrounded by hills, clad with 

 luxuriant gardens, olive plantations, and orange 

 groves, with here and there an old ruin cropping 

 out. The city is surrounded by old walls flanked 

 with towers, the gateways by which the walls are 

 pierced being fine specimens of medieval military 

 architecture. Among the principal buildings of 

 Como are the cathedral (1396-1732), and the town- 

 hall, built of marble, dating from the beginning of 

 the 13th century. The chief articles of manu- 

 facture are" silk, satin, gloves, and soap. By means 

 of its port, Como carries on extensive trade in the 

 produce of the district with Switzerland. Pop. Avith 

 suburbs (1893) 32,600. Como, the ancient Comum, 

 was the birthplace of Csecilius Statius, the two 

 Plinys, of several popes, and of the physicist Volta. 

 In 1107 it began to war with Milan, and in the 

 course of twenty years was utterly destroyed by its 

 antagonist. As an important headquarters of the 

 Ghibelline party, it was rebuilt in 1158 by 

 Frederick Barbarossa, and remained a republic for 

 two centuries, when it fell into the hands of the 

 Viscontis, its history since that time being bound 

 up with that of Milan. 



Como, LAKE OF (Ital. Lago di Como, or II 

 Lario, ancient Larius Lacus), a sheet of water, in 

 Northern Italy, lying at the foot of the Bernine 

 Alps. It is chiefly formed by the river Adda, which 

 enters it at its north, and issues at its south-eastern 



