These principles for the guidance of the owner of property are not collected under any single heading in the Summa, but must be gathered from the various sections dealing with man’s duty to his fellow-men and to himself.  One leading virtue which was inculcated with great emphasis by Aquinas was that of temperance.  ’All pleasurable things which come within the use of man,’ we read in the section dealing with this subject, ’are ordered to some necessity of this life as an end.  And therefore temperance accepts the necessity of this life as a rule or measure of the things one uses, so that, to wit, they should be used according as the necessity of this life requires.’[1] St. Thomas explains, moreover, that ‘necessary’ must be taken in the broad sense of suitable to one’s condition of life, and not merely necessary to maintain existence.[2] The principles of temperance did not apply in any special way to the user of property more than to the enjoyment of any other good;[3] but they are relevant as laying down the broad test of right and wrong in the user of one’s goods.

[Footnote 1:  II. ii. 141, 5.]

[Footnote 2:  Ibid., ad. 2.  As Buridan puts it (Eth., iv. 4), ’If any man has more than is necessary for his own requirements, and does not give away anything to the poor, and to his relations and neighbours, he is acting against right reason.’]

[Footnote 1:  ’Rationalis creaturae* vera perfectio est unamquamque rem tanti habere quanti habenda est, sicut pluris est anima quam esca; fides et aequitas* quam pecunia’ (Gerson, De.  Cont.).]

More particularly relevant to the subject before us is the teaching of Aquinas on liberality, which is a virtue directly connected with the user of property.  Aquinas defines liberality as ’a virtue by which men use well all those exterior things which are given to us for sustenance.’[1] The limitations within which liberality should be practised are stated in the same article:  ’As St. Basil and St. Ambrose say, God has given to many a superabundance of riches, in order that they might gain merit by their dispensing them well.  Few things, however, suffice for one man; and therefore the liberal man will advantageously expend more on others than on himself.  In the spiritual sphere a man must always care for himself before his neighbours; and also in temporal things liberality does not demand that a man should think of others to the exclusion of himself and those dependent on him.’[2]

[Footnote 1:  II. ii. 117, 1.]

[Footnote 2:  Ibid., ad. 1.]

’It is not necessary for liberality that one should give away so much of one’s riches that not enough remains to sustain himself and to enable him to perform works of virtue.  This complete giving away without reserve belongs to the state of the perfection of spiritual life, of which we shall treat lower down; but it must be known that to give one’s goods liberally is an act of virtue which