Book contents
- Frontmatter
- PREFACE
- FRONTISPIECE
- Contents
- LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
- SECTION I LAND AND FOLK
- SECTION II BIRTH AND NURTURE
- SECTION III AUTHORS, SCRIBES AND READERS
- SECTION IV CHURCH AND CHURCHMEN
- SECTION V KINGS, KNIGHTS AND WAR
- SECTION VI MANOR AND COTTAGE
- SECTION VII TOWN LIFE
- SECTION VIII RICH AND POOR
- SECTION IX HOUSE, DRESS AND MEALS
- SECTION X SPORTS AND PASTIMES
- SECTION XI WAYFARING AND FOREIGN TRAVEL
- SECTION XII WOMEN'S LIFE
- SECTION XIII ARCHITECTURE AND THE ARTS
- SECTION XIV MEDICINE AND JUSTICE
- SECTION XV SUPERSTITIONS AND MARVELS
- INDEX
- SOCIAL LIFE IN BRITAIN FROM THE CONQUEST TO THE REFORMATION
- Plate section
SECTION VIII - RICH AND POOR
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 September 2010
- Frontmatter
- PREFACE
- FRONTISPIECE
- Contents
- LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
- SECTION I LAND AND FOLK
- SECTION II BIRTH AND NURTURE
- SECTION III AUTHORS, SCRIBES AND READERS
- SECTION IV CHURCH AND CHURCHMEN
- SECTION V KINGS, KNIGHTS AND WAR
- SECTION VI MANOR AND COTTAGE
- SECTION VII TOWN LIFE
- SECTION VIII RICH AND POOR
- SECTION IX HOUSE, DRESS AND MEALS
- SECTION X SPORTS AND PASTIMES
- SECTION XI WAYFARING AND FOREIGN TRAVEL
- SECTION XII WOMEN'S LIFE
- SECTION XIII ARCHITECTURE AND THE ARTS
- SECTION XIV MEDICINE AND JUSTICE
- SECTION XV SUPERSTITIONS AND MARVELS
- INDEX
- SOCIAL LIFE IN BRITAIN FROM THE CONQUEST TO THE REFORMATION
- Plate section
Summary
The medieval Church often succeeded admirably in patriarchal government; but, in the later Middle Ages, two defects rendered her incapable of solving the social problem in any true sense. First, she justified servitude, both in theory and in practice. St Gregory the Great, in a letter often quoted by apologists (lib. VI. ep. 2), wrote in words of lofty generosity concerning two slaves whom he was setting free; but we must remember also that Gregory's papal estates were tilled by thousands of others whom he never attempted to liberate; and in a later letter (lib. IX. ep. 102) we find him actually exerting himself to recover a slave of his own brother, who had escaped with his wife and child and small belongings. St Thomas Aquinas expressly defends servitude as economically expedient (Summa Theol. 1a 2ae, quaest. 94. art. 5, iii.). Servitude was recognised and enforced by Canon Law; e.g. Gratian, Decretum, Causa X. Quaest. ii. c. 3 and Causa XII. Q. ii. c. 39, in which latter case bishops are severely condemned for freeing serfs of the Church. For churchmen, especially monks, were always among the richest holders of serfs; when Theodore of Tarsus came to the Archbishop of Canterbury, he noted that whereas “Greek monks keep no serfs, Roman monks possess them” (Poenitentiale, cap. viii.; Migne, P.L. vol. XCIX. col. 931 C). Nor were churchmen more willing than others to free their bondmen, except on business terms; see, for instance, Fournier's paper in Revue Historique, vol. XXI. (1883). […]
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- Social Life in Britain from the Conquest to the Reformation , pp. 336 - 370Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010First published in: 1918