he avaricious man not only
imperilled his own soul by attaching too much importance to temporal
gain, but he also injured the community by monopolising too large a
share of its wealth; the prodigal man, in addition to incurring
the occasion of various sins of intemperance, also impoverished the
community by wasting in reckless consumption wealth which might have
been devoted to productive or charitable purposes. He who neglected
the duty of munificence, either by refusing to make a great
expenditure when it was called for (_parvificentia_) or by making one
when it was unnecessary (_[Greek: banousia]_) was also deemed to have
done wrong, because in the one case he valued his money too highly,
and in the other not highly enough. In other words, he attached a
wrong value to wealth. Nothing could be further from the truth than
the suggestion that the schoolmen despised or belittled temporal
riches. Quite on the contrary, they esteemed it a sin to conduct
oneself in a manner which showed a defective appreciation of their
value[1]. Riches may have been the occasion of sin; but so was
poverty. 'The occasions of sin are to be avoided,' says Aquinas, 'but
poverty is an occasion of evil, because theft, perjury, and flattery
are frequently brought about by it.

[Footnote 1: 'Non videtur secundum humanam rationem esse boni et
perfecti divitias abjicere totaliter, sed eis uti bene et reficiendo
superfluas pauperibus subvenire et amicis' (Buridan, _Eth._, iv. 3).]

Therefore poverty should not be voluntarily undertaken, but rather
avoided.'[1] Buridan says: 'There is no doubt that it is much more
difficult to be virtuous in a state of poverty than in one of moderate
affluence;'[2] and Antoninus of Florence expresses the opinion that
poverty is in itself an evil thing, although out of it good may
come.[3] Even the ambition to rise in the world was laudable, because
every one may rightfully desire to place himself and his dependants in
a participation of the fullest human felicity of which man is capable,
and to rid himself of the necessity of corporal labour.[4] Avarice and
prodigality alike offended against liberality, because they tended to
deprive the community of the maximum benefit which it should derive
from the wealth with which it was endowed. Dr. Cunningham may be
quoted in support of this view. 'One of the gravest defects of the
Roman Empire lay in the fact that its system left little scope for
individual aims, and tended