[Footnote 1:  Gen. iii. 19; Ps. cxxvii. 2; 2 Thess. iii. 10.  The last-mentioned text is explained, in opposition to certain Socialist interpretations which have been put on it, by Dr. Hogan in the Irish Ecclesiastical Record, vol. xxv. p. 45.]

[Footnote 2:  Wallon, op. cit., vol. iii. p. 401.]

[Footnote 3:  De Cont., i. 13.]

[Footnote 4:  De Cont.]

[Footnote 5:  Janssen, op. cit., vol. ii. pp. 93-4.]

[Footnote 6:  Levasseur, Histoire des Classes ouvrieres en France, vol. i. pp. 182 et seq.]

[Footnote 7:  Western Civilisation, vol. ii. p. 35.]

The result of this teaching and example was that, in the Middle Ages, labour had been raised to a position of unquestioned dignity.  The economic benefit of this attitude towards labour must be obvious.  It made the working classes take a direct pride and interest in their work, which was represented to be a means of sanctification.  ‘Labour,’ according to Dr. Cunningham, ’was said to be pregnant with a double advantage—­the privilege of sharing with God in His work of carrying out His purpose, and the opportunity of self-discipline and the helping of one’s fellow-men.’[1] ‘Industrial work,’ says Levasseur, ’in the times of antiquity had always had, in spite of the institutions of certain Emperors, a degrading character, because it had its roots in slavery; after the invasion, the grossness of the barbarians and the levelling of towns did not help to rehabilitate it.  It was the Church which, in proclaiming that Christ was the son of a carpenter, and the Apostles were simple workmen, made known to the world that work is honourable as well as necessary.  The monks proved this by their example, and thus helped to give to the working classes a certain consideration which ancient society had denied them.  Manual labour became a source of sanctification.’[2] The high esteem in which labour was held appears from the whole artistic output of the Middle Ages.  ’Many of the simple artists of the time represented the saints holding some instrument of work or engaged in some industrial pursuit; as, for instance, the Blessed Virgin spinning as she sat by the cradle of the divine Infant, and St. Joseph using a saw or carpenter’s tools.  “Since the Saints,” says the Christian Monitor, “have laboured, so shall the Christian learn that by honourable labour he can glorify God, do good, and save his own soul."’[3] Work was, alongside of prayer and inseparable from it, the perfection of Christian life.[4]

[Footnote 1:  Christianity and Economic Science, pp. 26-7.]

[Footnote 2:  Op. cit., vol. i. p. 187.]

[Footnote 3:  Janssen, op. cit., vol. ii. p. 9.]

[Footnote 4:  Wallon, op. cit., vol. i. p. 410.]