of mankind; but it is a standard which it is worth while to apply, as it is that by which the doctrines of the scholastics have been most generally condemned by modern critics.  To test the mediaeval economic doctrine by this, the lowest standard, it may be said that it made for the establishment and development of a rich and prosperous community.  We may summarise the aim of the mediaeval teaching by saying that, in the material sphere, it aimed at extended production, wise consumption, and just distribution, which are the chief ends of all economic activity.

It aimed at extended production through its insistence on the importance and dignity of manual labour.[1] As we showed above, one of the principal achievements of Christianity in the social sphere was to elevate labour from a degrading to an honourable occupation.  The example of Christ Himself and the Apostles must have made a deep impression on the early Christians; but no less important was the living example to be seen in the monasteries.  The part played by the great religious orders in the propagation of this dignified conception cannot be exaggerated.  St. Anthony had advised his imitators to busy themselves with meditation, prayer, and the labour of their hands, and had promised that the fear of God would reside in those who laboured at corporal works; and similar exhortations were to be found in the rules of Saints Macarius, Pachomius, and Basil.[2] St. Augustine and St. Jerome recommended that all religious should work for some hours each day with their hands, and a regulation to this effect was embodied in the Rule of St. Benedict.[3] The example of educated and holy men voluntarily taking upon themselves the most menial and tedious employments must have acted as an inspiration to the laity.  The mere economic value of the monastic institutions themselves must have been very great; agriculture was improved owing to the assiduity and experiments of the monks;[4] the monasteries were the nurseries of all industrial and artistic progress;[5] and the example of communities which consumed but a small proportion of what they produced was a striking example to the world of the wisdom and virtue of saving.[6] Not the least of the services which Christian teaching rendered in the domain of production was its insistence upon the dominical repose.[7]

[Footnote 1:  See Sabatier, L’Eglise et le Travail manuel, and Antoine, Cours d’Economie sociale, p. 159.]

[Footnote 2:  Levasseur, Histoire des Classes ouvrieres en France, vol. i. pp. 182-3.]

[Footnote 3:  Reg.  St. Ben., c. 48.]

[Footnote 4:  List, National System of Political Economy, ch. 6.]

[Footnote 5:  Janssen, History of the German People, vol. ii. p. 2.]

[Footnote 6:  Dublin Review, N.S., vol. vi. p. 365; see Goyau, Autour du Catholicisme sociale, vol. ii. pp. 79-118; Gasquet, Henry VIII. and the English Monasteries, vol. ii. p. 495.]