The Theological Method. 269 



The principal operation of the Theological and Ecclesi- 

 astical method is not, however, to be sought in the appli- 

 cation of specific precepts and examples of the Scriptures 

 to the social world, but in the diffusion of a spirit of com- 

 passion and good-will and brotherhood. Nothing was more 

 fundamental than the institution of slavery to the social 

 structure of the pagan world. Nothing is more creditable 

 to Christianity of the first and middle period than its oppo- 

 sition to this institution, an opposition by which it was 

 ultimately destroyed. I know the gibe that it was Chris- 

 tians who could not be slaves in Christian eyes, not men. 

 It somewhat dims the splendor of the church's work in this 

 direction. But all were welcome to the church, and its 

 recruits were largely if not mainly from the servile class. 

 So, with its anti-slavery, there went along a social democracy 

 which has always been the glory of the Mother Church 

 not allied with political Democracy, because to this the 

 church's doctrine of passive obedience is a fatal blow. Of 

 social equality and fraternity the old church was a much 

 better conservator than the reformed. It is so to this day. 

 It is Protestantism that has rich men's churches, to which 

 poor men cannot come. How good it is in every Catholic 

 church in Europe to find rich and poor upon an equal foot- 

 ing, it is generally footing and not sitting, the fine lady 

 and the peasant, the merchant and the artisan at elbow- 

 touch ! What a monstrous thing that in democratic Amer- 

 ica Catholicism contracts the aristocratic taint of pew-owning 

 and renting, though happily as yet the poor have not been 

 cTriven out into unlovely chapels or the unlovelier streets. 



Another splendid service of early Christianity to the 

 industrial world was in its enhancement of the dignity of 

 labor. It was a piece of happy fortune that Paul, combating 

 the disorder and the idleness of a world expecting daily 

 Christ's return, said, "He that will not work shall not eat," 

 a copula Avhich has lost none of its validity in the course 

 of 1900 years. But it was the Benedictine monks who, 

 making labor a rule of their order yet not a counsel of per- 

 fection, gave an immense enhancement to the dignity of 

 labor in men's eyes. Nor would it be easy to exaggerate 

 the labors of the monks as pioneers of civilization, tamers 

 of the wilderness, founders of universities and towns, and 

 as exemplars to the general world of sturdy industry. 



You must not think that I have wilfully omitted Ameri- 

 can slavery from my consideratipn. Strange as it may seem. 

 Las Casas, one jof the most benevolent of Spanish Catholics, 



