to an entire
reconstruction of the social framework.

Already too, within the Church this sense of brotherhood was making
itself felt on the industrial side as well as where more directly
spiritual duties were concerned. It seems to have been recognised in
the Christian Society that every brother could claim the right of being
maintained if he were unable to work. Equally it was emphasised that the
duty of work was paramount on all who were capable of it. "For those
able to work, provide work; to those incapable of work be charitable."
This aspect of the matter finds a singular emphasis in a second century
document known as "The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles," in which this
sense of industrial brotherhood finds very significant expression.
Speaking of visitors from other Churches it is directed that "if any
brother has a trade let him follow that trade and earn the bread he
eats. If he has no trade, exercise your discretion in arranging for him
to live among you as a Christian, but not in idleness. If he will not do
this, that is to say, to undertake the work which you provide for him,
he is trafficking with Christ. Beware of men like that."

On this side of its life therefore, the Church came very near to being a
vast Guild where with the highest sanction rights and duties were
intermingled in due proportion, and that true social unity established,
which while it refuses privileges bestows protection. On these
foundations the organisation was reared, which like some great Cathedral
dominated that stretch of centuries usually known as the Middle Ages. We
could all of us hold forth on its drawbacks and evils, yet its benefits
were tremendous. For one thing it created an aristocracy wholly
independent of any distinction of blood or property. Anyone might become
an Archbishop if only he had the necessary gifts. Still more anyone
might become a Saint. The charmed circle of the Church's nobility was
constantly recruited from every class, and was therefore a standing and
effectual protest against the flimsier measurements of Society and the
more ephemeral gradations of rank. Obviously this process found as great
a scope in England as elsewhere. It was the Church which was the most
potent instrument in bringing together Norman and Saxon as well as
master and slave. For, as Macaulay has said with perfect truth, it

creates an aristocracy altogether independent of race, inverts the
relation between the oppressor