neral
contradiction to communism which should be open to dispute, and in his
ever-constant memory of his own religious life as a Dominican friar,
Aquinas had to mark with precision to what extent and in what sense
private property could be justified. But at the same time he was forced
by the honesty of his logical training to concede what he could in
favour of the other side. He took up in this question, as in every
other, a middle course, in which neither extreme was admitted, but both
declared to contain an element of truth. It is clear, too, that his
scholastic followers, even to our own date, in their elaborate
commentaries can find no escape from the relentless logic of his
conclusions. Down the channel that he dug flowed the whole torrent of
mediaeval and modern scholasticism.[2] But for those whose minds were
practical rather than abstract, one or other proposition he advanced,
isolated from the context of his thought, could be quoted as of moment,
and backed by the greatness of his name. His assertion of the absolute
impracticable nature of socialistic organisation, as he knew it in his
own age, was too good a weapon to be neglected by those who sought about
for means of defence for their own individualistic theories; whereas
others, like the friars of whom Wycliff and Langland spoke, and who
headed bands of luckless peasants in the revolt of 1381 against the
oppression of an over-legalised feudalism, were blind to this remarkable
expression of Aquinas' opinion, and quoted him only when he declared
that "by nature all things were in common," and when he protested that
the socialist theory of itself contained nothing contrary to the
teaching of the gospel or the doctrines of the Church.

Truth is blinding in its brilliance. Half-truths are easy to see, and
still easier to explain. Hence the full and detailed theory elaborated
by the Schoolmen has been tortured to fit first one and then another
scheme of political reform. Yet all the while its perfect adjustment of
every step in the argument remains a wonderful monument of the
intellectual delicacy and hardihood of the Schoolmen.

FOOTNOTE:

[2] _Cf._ Coutenson, _Theologia Mentis et Cordis_, iii. 388-389, Paris,
1875; and Billnart, _De Justitia_, i. 123-124, Liege, 1746.

CHAPTER V

THE LAWYERS

Besides the Schoolmen, by whom the problems of life were viewed in the
refracted light of theology and philosophy, there was another important
class in med