. The
monasteries were passing rich in the Middle Ages, because their valves
opened only one way--they received much and paid out nothing. To save
the souls of men was a just equivalent for accepting their services for
the little time they were on earth.

The monasteries owned the land, and the rentals paid by the fiefs and
villeins went into the church treasuries. Sir Walter Scott has an abbot
say this: "I took the vow of poverty, and find myself with an income of
twenty thousand pounds a year."

But wealth did not burden the monks forever. Wealth changes hands--that
is one of its peculiarities. War came, red of tooth and claw, and the
soldiery, which heretofore had been used only to protect the religious
orders, now flushed with victory, turned against them. Charges were
trumped up against churchmen high in authority, and without doubt the
charges were often true, because a robe and a rope girdle, or the
reversal of haberdashery, do not change the nature of a man. Down under
the robe, you'll sometimes find a man frail of soul--grasping, sensual,
selfish.

The monasteries were looked upon as contraband of war. "To the victors
belong the spoils," was the motto of a certain man who was President of
the United States, so persistent was the war idea of acquiring wealth.

The property of the religious orders was confiscated, and as a reward
for heroic services, great soldiers were given great tracts of land. The
big estates in Europe all have their origin in this well-established
custom of dividing the spoils. The plan of taking the property of each
or all who were guilty of sedition, treason and contumacy was well
established by precedents that traced back to Cain. When George
Washington appropriated the estate of Roger Morris, forty centuries of
precedent looked down upon him.

Also, it might be added that if a man owned a particularly valuable
estate, and a soldier desired this estate, it was easy for this soldier
to massage his conscience by listening to and believing the report that
the owner had spoken ill of the king and given succor to the enemy.

Then the soldier felt it his "duty" to punish the recreant one by taking
his property. And so the Age of the Barons followed the Age of the
Monasteries. And now the Barons have given way to the Age of the
Merchant.

The Monks multiplied the poor by a monopoly on education. Superstition,
poverty and incompetence formed the portion of the many. "This world is
but a