The Theological Method. 265 



enormously so as time went on. Sinners and saints, de- 

 parting from this life, emptied their private fortunes into 

 its bursting coffers, either in the hope of bettering their 

 chance of heaven or in supreme assurance of its bliss. 

 The secular clergy growing sleek and comfortable, the reg- 

 ular clergy, that is to say the monks, took up the role of 

 poverty. These also soon attained to wealth, but in their 

 corporate capacity ; and for a monk to crave the joy of 

 private ownership was the most heinous sin. If ever So- 

 cialism has a patron-saint it should be Gregory the Great. 

 He was abbot of a Benedictine Monastery before he was 

 made pope, and, falling sick, a monk named Justus saved 

 hfs life by his unwearying care. Soon after, Justus falling 

 sick and being near to death, confessed that he had three 

 pieces of gold concealed in a flask of medicine. At once 

 command was given, and by Gregory himself, that no one 

 should approach the bedside of the dying man to speak 

 a word of hope or consolation. And no sooner was he dead 

 than his body was cast upon the dung-hill with his three 

 pieces of gold, the whole brotherhood shouting with one 

 voice, " Thy money perish with thee ! " Here, at any rate, 

 was Socialism that had the courage of its convictions. But 

 private poverty immersed in corporate Avealth was seen to 

 be only a half-way poverty ; and out of this perception 

 grew the mendicant orders, taking the vow of poverty not 

 for themselves only, but for the order also ; a scheme which 

 prospered for a time, and then the mendicants grew rich 

 and rich and richer, till, like the Roman augurs, they could 

 not meet in private without laughing in each other's faces 

 at the joke. It is a significant fact that, at the beginning 

 of the French Eevolution, one-fifth of all the land in 

 France Avas in the church's hands. Of other wealth it had 

 a larger share. 



The monastic ideal of poverty, in which the Xew Testa- 

 ment ideal survived, was far from being hostile to the gen- 

 eral pursuit of wealth in the community. It was a "counsel 

 of perfection," a rule confessedly too high for general 

 attainment, and so it gave carte blanche to all who did not 

 adopt it to put money in their purses and add field to field 

 without reproach or shame. It is evident that mendicancy 

 implied having and giving, just as the virginity tliat 

 peopled heaven implied the marriage that peopled earth. 

 There were never more rich men than the church found for 



