r in his extreme need, even at
the risk of grave inconvenience to himself.

(II) A man is obliged to help another who, though not in extreme
need, is yet in considerable distress, but not at the risk of grave
inconvenience to himself.

(III) A man is not obliged to help another whose necessity is
slight, even though the risk to himself should be quite trifling.

In other words, the need of his fellow must be adjusted against the
inconvenience to himself. Where the need of the one is great, the
inconvenience to the other must at least be as great, if it is to excuse
him from the just debt of his alms. His possession of superfluities does
not compel him to part with them unless there is some real want which
they can be expected to supply. In fine, the mediaevalists would contend
that almsgiving, to be necessary, implies two conditions, both
concomitant:--

(_a_) That the giver should possess superfluities.

(_b_) That the receiver should be in need.

Where both these suppositions are fulfilled, the duty of almsgiving
becomes a matter not of charity, but of justice.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Among the original works by mediaeval writers on economic subjects,
which can be found in most of the greater libraries in England, we would
place the following:

_De Recuperatione Terre Sancte_, by Pierre du Bois. Edited by C. V.
Langlois in Paris. 1891.

_Commentarium in Politicos Aristotelis_, by Albertus Magnus. Vol.
iv. Lyons. 1651.

_Summa Theologica_, of St. Thomas Aquinas. This is being translated
by the English Dominicans, published by Washborne. London. 1911.
But the parts that deal with Aquinas' theories of property, &c.,
have not yet been published.

_De Regimine Principio_, probably by Ptolomeo de Lucca. It will be
found printed among the works of St. Thomas Aquinas, who wrote the
first chapters. The portion here to be consulted is in book iv.

_Tractatus de Civili Dominio_, by Wycliff, published in four vols.
in London. 1885-1904.

_Unprinted Works of John Wycliff_, edited at Oxford in three vols.
1869-1871.

_Fasciculus Zizaniorum_ and the _Chronicon Angliae_, both edited in
the Roll Series, help in elucidating the exact meaning of Wycliff,
and his relation to the insurgents of 1381.

_Monarchia_, edited by Goldast of Hanover in 1611, gives a
collection of f