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CHAPTER III.

ECONOMIC ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY AND THE SOCIAL TRADITIONS OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH.

Social Struggles in Judæa-Causes of these Struggles-Collective Property in Judæa-Rapid Transformation of Property-Mosaic Legislation on LabourThe Prophets of Israel and Anarchical Theories-Jewish Conception of Wealth The Religious Conflicts of Israel were Economic ConflictsSocial Theories of Jesus Christ and Modern Criticism-Renunciation of Goods-Riches Contrary to Religion and to the Prophets-The First Followers of Jesus-Communism of the Early Christians-Historical Transformation of the Economic Doctrines of Primitive Christianity The Christian Workman-Christianity an Economic Revolution-Early Apologists-Communistic Doctrines of the Fathers of the Church-Communism the Most Perfect Form of Social Organisation, according to Christian Ideas---Successive Modifications of the Social Theories of Christianity.

IN

N none of the states of antiquity, however, did social conflicts last so long, or produce such profound effects, as in that small nation of Syria, whose ardent genius was the means of spreading throughout the world the purest, greatest, and most assuredly the noblest of all the religions of which history has handed us down a record.

The Hebrews were late in abandoning the nomadic state.1 And, as with almost all peoples of Semitic race, during this first period of their social existence, they had naturally no inclination for agricultural labours or a sedentary life. However, unlike the Arabs and other Semitic races, who left the cultivation of the land to the nations they had subdued, the Hebrews, having exterminated the vanquished peoples, were constrained, though unwillingly, to attend themselves to the arduous labours of the fields.2

1 Renan, Histoire du peuple d'Israël, livre 1er, Les Beni Israël à l'état nomade.

• Letourneau, L'Évolution de la propriété, pp. 275-284.

2

During the period of their nomadic life, the Beni-Israel calculated their wealth by the number of their flocks. Nabal of Maon, who was considered an extremely rich man, possessed three thousand sheep and a thousand goats.1 Of the system of property adopted by the Jews, we know next to nothing. What is certain is, that when the Hebrew conquerors first began to cultivate the fertile land of Canaan, the development of agriculture was much impeded by a number of severe and minute regulations. Property, however, underwent a most rapid evolution; thus, there is already mention of family property in the Book of Genesis.3 When the land of Canaan was conquered it was very unequally divided; to some noble families were even allotted entire cities.* Family property, however, remained inalienable, and, when in default of male heirs, it was inherited by women, they could not marry out of the tribe. 5 The right of devising by will, which had been neither recognised nor admitted in primitive jurisprudence, was allowed later on only in case of the death of all the relatives, or the impossibility of tracing them out." Nevertheless, family or tribal property did not last over a very long period, and the Beni-Israel soon adopted the system of individual property. The religious spirit of the Beni-Israel, their ardent and thoughtful nature, led them to adopt, even after individual property had been established upon a solid basis, a great number of provisions in favour of the poor. The hireling was not unprotected, and received his daily wage before the setting of the sun. Weekly rest was assured to all, and the very soil had its Sabbath year, during which all that it produced belonged of right to the poor. Very frequently, in the course of the year, the rich made ready great feasts, to which they invited all their relatives and the poor of the neigh

1 1 Samuel, xxv., 2.

2 Compare Mesnil Marigny, Histoire de l'économie politique, vol. ii., p. 92. › Genesis, xxiii., 13, and following.

• Numbers, xxvi., 53-56; Joshua, xiv., 9.

"Numbers, xxxvi., 6-9.

Sir H. Sumner Maine, L'ancien droit, p. 187.

7 Deuteronomy, xxiii., 15; Exodus, xxxii., 13 and 14, and xxiii., 12.

bourhood. They were exhorted to gather in the harvest and vintage carelessly, remembering the poor and the stranger. "And when," said Jehovah, "thou reapest the corn of thy land, thou shalt not cut down all that is on the face of the earth to the very ground, nor shalt thou gather the ears that remain. Neither shalt thou gather the bunches and grapes that fall down in thy vineyard, but shalt leave them to the poor and the strangers to take."2 Lending at interest, which by all primitive legislations was considered as an absolute iniquity, and confounded with usury, was severely prohibited. Moreover, the creditor might not treat his poor debtor with excessive rigour, nor exact his debt without mercy. these prescriptions, while proving the existence of great solidarity, prove also that the premature establishment of the system of individual property had produced great social inequalities.

3

All

It was with deep sorrow that the greater part of the nation beheld the development of wealth and commerce, and the importation into Isracl of the ostentation of Tyre and Sidon.

The habits of luxury introduced by Solomon were considered as contrary to piety and dangerous to liberty. And, indeed, the strength of Israel, the very basis of its moral convictions, was profoundly shaken. This exterior splendour

The noble pride of the

was the fruit of excesses of iniquity. free man of former times was gone. All were slaves. There were the rich, but there were also the poor. The eternal struggle was beginning; the old patriarchal brotherliness had passed away. And what was the net profit of the revolution thus accomplished? Jerusalem beheld most gorgeous pageants, and in the quarries of Judæa, in the forests of Lebanon, in the

1 Mesnil Marigny, Histoire de l'économie politique, vol. ii., p. 78. 2 Leviticus, xix., 9 and 10.

Letourneau, L'Evolution de la propriété, pp. 272, 463, 465, 466.

Exodus, xxii., 25. Throughout the pages of the Old Testament we constantly meet the concept that Jahvé is the avenger of the poor and oppressed against the rich and mighty. See Renan, Vie de Jésus, p. 108 31me edition.

Renan, Histoire du peuple d'Israël, vol. ii., p. 181.

galleys of the Sea of Oman, thousands of men languished, only that a few contented people might be provided with commodious dwellings, and the bazaars of Jerusalem supplied with playthings for the harems.1 A longing to return to the old patriarchal life, to the system of collective property, seized upon the heart of the people, who keenly felt the want of a better constituted social organisation, in which rich and poor would no longer form two distinct classes. It was this pure and vigorous tendency, this strong, instinctive need of a nation that had been over hasty in adopting the system of individual property, which, during the space of several centuries, agitated Israel, and, preparing the way for the great Christian Revolution, rendered it possible. Beginning with the ninth century before Christ, there daily arose among the people prophets who preached social equality. "The prophets of Israel," wrote Renan, "are fiery publicists of the description we should now call socialists or anarchists. They are fanatical in their demands for social justice, and proclaim aloud that, if the world is not just, nor capable of becoming just, it were better it were destroyed; a most false, yet most fecund mode of

1 Renan, Histoire du peuple d'Israël, pp. 170, 171.

2 Renan, ibid, vol. i., p. 63. At the suggestion of M. Charles Gide, the Christian Association for the Study of Social Questions charged various writers to study the economic theories of the Bible. M. Babut undertook to examine the Pentateuch; M. Tarron, the historical books of the Book of Kings to that of Esther; M. Trial, Proverbs and Ecclesiasticus; M. Minault, all the remaining books of the Old Testament. However, many of the five hundred and fifty-four texts which they transcribed and studied are not of any notable importance in the history of Israelite economy, as for the most part they contain but the exhortations and invectives of the prophets. All the prophets entertained the greatest hatred of wealth; they speak of the rich as the enemies of society, stigmatising their luxury, their tyranny, the iniquities they committed against the poor, with expressions of the most violent severity. See also in the Association Catholique, revue mensuelle des questions sociales et ouvrières, vol. xxiii., p. 1, the article by G. de Pascal, “La propriété et la loi de Moïse," and in the same review, année xxiii., p. 134, the study, "Coup d'œil sur le mosaïsme et le Christianisme au point de vue social"; and Charles Périn, Les lois de la société chrétienne, book i., chap. ii., Paris: Lecoffre, 2nd edition, 1876. See also Varagnac, "Les origines juives du socialisme," in the Revue Bleue, 12th September, 1871.

viewing the matter, for like all desperate doctrines, as, for instance, Russian Nihilism at the present day, it produces heroism and a great awakening of human forces. The founders of Christianity, the direct continuers of the prophets, conclude by an incessant invocation of the end of the world, and, strange to say, they really do change it." The prophets of the time of Christ were also animated by this imperious need which attracted the whole people. St. John preached community of goods; he said that the poor man would have the first place in the Kingdom of God, and insisted on the obligation the rich were under of sharing their wealth. 2

In modern society wealth is a guarantee of honesty. Now, with the Jews it was quite the reverse. Omnes dives, says also St. Jerome, aut iniquus est, aut hæres iniqui, and, indeed, this was the conception of wealth held by the Jewish people and by their prophets. 3

Under the domination of the Seleucides the wealthy inhabitants of Jerusalem had for the most part embraced Hellenism. Luxury and worldly living spread even more with the Roman conquest, and the rich and the nobles openly sided with these rulers. The people, who had remained faithful to the old traditions, consequently included the wealthy, and all foreigners, in one common hate. The aspiration towards the old patriarchal life, taught and kept alive by their prophets, spread ever more and more among the poor, lowly, laborious people. Ebionism, which later on became the basis of a religious sect, was one of the fundamental doctrines taught by the prophets. Ebion (poor man) was synonymous with saint, friend of God, humble, good; whereas "rich" had almost the same meaning as impious, wicked, violent, extortioner.5 In Judæa the popular conception of the wicked man was a rich, opulent Sadducee, who drags the poor man before the judg

1 Renan, Histoire du peuple d'Israël, preface, p. iii. Renan, Vie de Jésus, pp. 53-54.

8 Renan, St. Paul, p. 511.

Renan, Vie de Jésus, p. 109.

Renan, St. Paul, p. 511; Vie de Jésus, p. 110; St. James, ii., 1, and following.