Appendix: The Encyclical Rerum Novarum of Leo XIII

(May 15, 1891).¹

¹ P. Tiberghien published a French translation of this Encyclical, with annotations, Tourcoing, Duvivier, 1919.

The Encyclical Rerum novarum, often cited in this Treatise, which not only by Catholics, but also by outsiders is deservedly called the Great Charter of workers, we hand down here entire, adorned with summaries by which the principal arguments and logical divisions may be exhibited more lucidly.

1. The occasion was the miserable condition of workers arisen from those causes which we described n. 47-53.

(A) To this miserable condition liberal Economists assigned no other remedy except liberty in the contract of labor, in exchanges and industry, by force of which the production of goods is increased and therefore the condition of masters and workers together is made better, without any intervention of the State.

(B) But on the contrary Socialists contended that the one truly efficacious remedy was the intervention of the State, by force of which, private dominion first having been extinguished, the means of production would be handed over to the Government or municipality, and revenues would be distributed equally (above, n. 68 sq.).

(C) Between these two extremes certain Catholics proposed social doctrine, resting upon evangelical and theological principles, by which, the right of property being preserved, the condition of workers would be made better both by private associations and by the intervention of the State and the Church for restraining abuses introduced by industrialism. Among these there stood out: in Germany Em. von Ketteler, bishop of Mainz (an. 1860), and his disciples Lutze, Dasbach, and Kolping; in France A. de Mun, M. de la Tour du Pin, Freppel, bishop of Angers, C. Jamiet, H. Joly, Le Play, who after the year 1870 devoted work to religious and social restoration; among whom, however, the first two conceded more to State intervention, the rest less; in Switzerland Decurtins; in Austria von Vogelsang, Lichtenstein, Kuefstein; in England, Card. Manning, and in the United States Card. Gibbons, who, the bishops cooperating, asked the Holy See that the association of workers Knights of Labor (Chevaliers du Travail) not be numbered among secret societies.

All these things being rightly weighed, Leo XIII, who had kindly received delegates of Catholic workers at Rome, on May 15, 1891, published the Encyclical Rerum novarum, in which, the false theories of the Socialists having been refuted, he wisely explains the means by which the miserable condition of workers can be remedied by the united forces of the Church, the State, and private associations.

2. Confirmation. This Letter, kindly received not only by Catholics but also by experts in social matters of all nations, was the beginning of a social restoration which perseveres up to this point and advances day by day. Pius X entered upon the same way, who, in the Motu proprio of Sept. 18, 1903, published a summary not only of the Encyclical Rerum novarum but also of other documents published by his predecessor, which would be, as it were, the norm of Catholic doctrine and action in social matters. Benedict XV also declared several times that Leo XIII's Encyclicals on social matters are, as it were, the great charter according to which social questions ought to be solved.¹ Nor does Pius XI think otherwise, who, while he ruled the Milanese church, handed down the same principles concerning social matters as Leo XIII,² and, hardly raised to the Chair of Peter, not only praised associations which follow the doctrine of Leo XIII,¹ but, by the voice of Card. Gasparri, proposed the same Encyclical as a summary of Catholic doctrine concerning social matters.²

¹ Thus, on March 10, 1919, kindly receiving the Society of workers of St. Joachim, he commended the Encyclical Rerum novarum thus: "Time has neither weakened its force nor diminished its timeliness... We would desire that this admirable document were always before the eyes as the great charter, and that by its light problems related to the worker question were always examined and resolved."

² Cf. La Documentation Catholique, Feb. 25, 1922, p. 456-457.

¹ Thus he praised the Society called Action Populaire, which the Fathers of the Society of Jesus founded for promoting the application of the principles explained in the Encyclical Rerum novarum; and also La Semaine Sociale, which each year in the principal cities of France explains doctrine consonant with this Encyclical.

² La Croix, April 14, 1922.

Therefore various associations founded in the Catholic world embrace this doctrine and strive to apply it; thus in France L'Oeuvre des Cercles Catholiques, L'Association Catholique de la Jeunesse francaise, and also colleges of workers, but especially La Confederation francaise des Travailleurs chretiens, concerning which we treated in the Supplement for France, p. 251. Therefore to have the integral text of the Encyclical before the eyes, to read and meditate on it, will be no less pleasant than useful.

That the order followed in this Encyclical may be better perceived, we place below a synoptic table.

Exordium: motive for writing concerning the condition of workers (1-2).³

³ We refer the reader to the numbers which we have added to the text; moreover we print certain words in italics, so that the divisions may appear more clearly.

State of the question: three causes of the worse lot of workers (3).

First Part: The solution of Socialism overturning private dominion is:

1. inept or unequal to making the lot of workers better (4-5);

2. unjust toward individuals, whom it deprives of the natural right of possessing (6-10); toward families, which cannot be preserved without transmission of goods (11);

3. subversive, since it nourishes discords, idleness, misery (12).

Conclusion of the first part (13).

Second Part: the Christian religion brings the true remedy, by the united forces of the Church, the State, and Associations:

1. The Church furnishes doctrine, precepts, institutions: - Doctrine: concerning the inequality of men and the necessity of arduous labor (15); concerning the necessity of cooperation between masters and workers (16). - Precepts: of justice, whether for workers or for masters (17-18); of charity, by which fraternal relations between both are fostered (19-22). - Institutions, by which she enlightens and strengthens minds and renews societies (23), and provides for bodily necessities indirectly and directly (24-25).

2. The State fosters the general prosperity (26); takes care especially of workers (27-28); promotes good morals and religion (29-30); vindicates rights, especially those of the poor (31); protects the rights of those who possess, by preventing useless cessations from work (32-33); safeguards the spiritual rights of workers (34), and also their bodily rights, especially a just wage; does not impose burdensome taxes (36-37).

3. Associations of masters and workers: the right of association is natural, nor are religious associations to be kept from it (38-40); Catholic associations are most useful and to be praised (41-42); but they ought to be rightly ordered, especially in their end, namely the perfection of piety and morals (43-44).

Peroration.

Marginal summary: The contest concerning economic matters, arisen from a manifold source, moves the Pontiff to write concerning the condition of workers.

1. Once the desire for new things had been stirred up, which indeed for a long time has disturbed states, it was going to happen that zeal for changes would at some time flow down from political questions into the kindred genus of economic matters. - In reality, 1) new increases of industry and the arts going by new ways; 2) changed mutual relations of masters and wage-earners; 3) an abundance of riches in a small number, want in the multitude; 4) greater confidence of workers concerning themselves, and a closer union among themselves, and besides morals turned toward worse things, have caused the contest to break forth. How great the importance of the matters involved in this contest is appears from this, that it holds minds suspended in sharp expectation: finally it exercises the talents of the learned, the councils of the prudent, the assemblies of the people, the judgment of legislators, the counsels of princes, so that now no cause is found so great which holds the zeal of men more vehemently. - Therefore, the cause of the Church and the common safety having been proposed to Us, as we have been accustomed to do elsewhere, Venerable Brothers, by letters given to you concerning political rule, concerning human liberty, concerning the Christian constitution of states, and other matters of a not dissimilar kind, which seemed opportune for refuting the fallacies of opinions, so now for the same causes We have judged that the same thing must be done concerning the condition of workers.¹ - This kind of argument We have already touched upon more than once by occasion: nevertheless in these Letters the consciousness of the apostolic office warns Us to treat the whole question by set purpose, so that principles may stand out by whose help, as truth and equity demand, the conflict may be settled.

¹ Leo XIII here does not treat of all social questions, but only of relations between workers and masters.

Marginal summary: A difficult and at the same time dangerous matter.

2. The cause is difficult to untangle, nor is it empty of danger. For it is arduous to measure the rights and duties by which it is proper that the wealthy and proletarians, those who contribute capital and those who contribute labor, be held together among themselves. But the contention is dangerous, since it is commonly turned aside by turbulent and clever men for perverting the judgment of truth and stirring up the multitude seditiously. However it may be, We plainly see, as all agree, that men of the lowest lot must be consulted quickly and opportunely, since the greatest part dwell unworthily in a miserable and calamitous fortune.

Marginal summary: State of the question. Three causes of the worse lot of workers.

3. For the old guilds of craftsmen having been destroyed in the previous century, and no protection having been substituted in their place, 1) since public institutions and laws themselves had put off ancestral religion, it gradually came about that time handed workers over, solitary and defenseless, to the inhumanity of masters and the unbridled greed of competitors. 2) Voracious usury increased the evil, which, although condemned more than once by the judgment of the Church, nevertheless is exercised by greedy and gain-seeking men under another appearance; 3) to this are added both the hiring of works and almost all commerce of things reduced into the power of a few, so that a few wealthy and exceedingly rich men have imposed an almost servile yoke upon the infinite multitude of proletarians.

Marginal summary: The method of the Socialists is 1. inept, 2. unjust, 3. subversive.

4. For the healing of this evil, the Socialists indeed, having stirred up the envy of the needy against the wealthy, contend that private possessions of goods must be overturned, and in place of them the individual goods of all be made common, with men who either preside over the municipality or administer the whole republic procuring them. By a transfer of goods of this sort from private persons to the common, they think they can remedy the present evil by dividing things and advantages equally among citizens. But their plan is so unequal to settling the contention that it afflicts the very class of workers with inconvenience; and the same is besides very unjust, because it brings force upon legitimate possessors, perverts the duties of the republic, and thoroughly confuses states.

Marginal summary: 1. It is inept, for by abolishing the right of private dominion it removes the hope of acquiring a better lot.

5. Surely, as is easy to see, of the very labor which those undertake who are engaged in some gainful art, this of itself is the cause, and this is the end to which the craftsman most nearly looks: to acquire property for himself and possess it by private right as his own and proper. For if he lends his strength, if his industry, to another, he lends them for this cause, that he may obtain things necessary for livelihood and support; and therefore from the labor given he seeks for himself a true and perfect right not only of demanding wages, but also of placing them as he wills. Therefore if by frugality of expenses he himself has saved anything, and, so that its custody may be safer, has placed the fruit of his frugality in an estate, certainly an estate of this sort is nothing other than the wages themselves having put on another appearance; and therefore the land thus purchased by the worker will be in his power just as much as the wages gained by labor. But in this plainly, as is easily understood, consists dominion of things whether movable or solid. Therefore in this, that Socialists strive to transfer the goods of private persons to the common, they make the condition of all wage-earners worse, since, the liberty of investing wages having been taken away, by that very fact they despoil them of the hope and faculty of increasing family property and obtaining advantages for themselves.

Marginal summary: 2. It is unjust, for the right of private dominion is natural. This right is shown: a) to belong to individuals; 1) this difference exists between beasts and man, that the former enjoy only the use of corporeal things; but man, as a participant in reason, needs stable possession.

6. But, what is greater, they propose a remedy openly fighting with justice, because to possess things privately as one's own is a right given to man by nature. - In reality, in this matter also there is the greatest difference between man and the other kinds of living creatures. For beasts do not govern themselves, but are ruled and governed by a twofold instinct of nature: these keep watchful in them the faculty of acting and suitably unfold their powers, and also stir up and determine their individual movements. By one instinct they are led to defending themselves and life, by the other to the preservation of their kind. But they conveniently obtain each of these things by the use of those things which are present and are present to them; nor indeed could they advance further, because they are moved only by sense and by singular things perceived by sense. - Far different is the nature of man. In him there is at the same time the whole and perfect force of living nature, and therefore from this part it is granted to man, certainly no less than to every kind of living creatures, that he enjoy the goods of corporeal things. But living nature, however fully possessed, is so far from circumscribing human nature that it is much inferior to human nature, and is born to serve and obey this. What stands out and excels in us, what grants to man that he be man and differ from beasts by an entire genus, is mind or reason. And on account of this cause, because only this animal is participant in reason, it is necessary to attribute goods to man not only for use, which is common to all living creatures, but also to be possessed by stable and perpetual right, and not only those things which are consumed by use, but also those which remain while we use them.

7. This appears still more if the nature of men in itself is regarded more deeply. For since man by reason comprehends innumerable things, and joins present things to future things and connects them, and since he is himself master of his actions, therefore under the eternal law, under the power of God governing all things most providently, he governs himself by the providence of his own counsel: wherefore it is in his power to choose things which he judges most suitable for consulting for himself not only in the present, but also for the remaining time. From this it follows that in man there ought to be dominion not only of the fruits of the earth, but of the earth itself, because he sees that from the produce of the earth things necessary for himself for future time are supplied. The necessities of each man have, as it were, perpetual returns, so that when they have been fulfilled today, they command new things for tomorrow. Therefore nature ought to have given to man some thing stable and perpetually enduring, whence perpetuity of aid could be expected. But nothing can furnish perpetuity of that sort except the earth with its abundances.

8. Nor is there reason why the providence of the republic should be introduced: for man is older than the republic; wherefore he ought by nature to have had his own right to protect life and body before any state had come together. - But that God gave the earth to the universal race of men for use and enjoyment, this indeed can in no way be opposed to private possessions. For God is said to have given the earth to the human race in common, not because he willed promiscuous dominion of it among all, but because he assigned no part to anyone to possess, the description of private possessions being permitted to the industry of men and to the institutions of peoples. Moreover, however the earth is distributed among private persons, it does not cease to serve the common utility of all, since no mortal is without being nourished by that which fields bring forth. Those who lack property supply it by labor; so that it can truly be affirmed that the whole manner of obtaining livelihood and support consists in labor, which one spends either on his own land, or in some laborious art, whose wages are finally drawn from no other source than from the manifold produce of the earth and are exchanged with it.

Marginal summary: This pact no less makes the earth serve the universe.

9. From this matter it is again brought about that private possessions are plainly according to nature. For the earth indeed pours forth with great generosity those things which are required chiefly for preserving and perfecting life, but it could not pour them forth of itself without the cultivation and care of men. Now since in preparing the goods of nature man expends the industry of the mind and the powers of the body, by that very fact he applies to himself that part of corporeal nature which he himself has cultivated, in which he has left impressed, as it were, a certain form of his person; so that it ought to be altogether right that this part be possessed by him as his own, nor be licit for anyone in any way to violate his right.

So clear is the force of these arguments that it seems wonderful that certain restorers of obsolete opinions dissent: they indeed concede to the private man the use of soil and the various fruits of estates; but they plainly deny that there is a right for him to possess as owner either the soil on which he has built, or the estate which he has cultivated. When they deny this, they do not see that man will be defrauded of things obtained by his labor. For a field subdued by the hand and art of the cultivator greatly changes its condition: from wild it becomes fruitful, from barren fertile. But those things by which it has been made better so adhere to the soil and are thoroughly mingled with it that for the greatest part they can in no way be separated from the soil. But whether justice would suffer that anyone possess and enjoy that on which another has sweated? As effects follow the cause by which they have been effected, so it is right that the fruit of labor belong to those very ones who have furnished the labor.

Marginal summary: 3) The whole human race has recognized this; 4) civil laws confirm it; 5) divine laws confirm it.

10. Therefore deservedly the universality of the human race, scarcely moved at all by the dissenting opinions of a few, and studiously looking upon nature, has found in the very law of nature the foundation of the partition of goods and has consecrated private possessions, as most congruent with the nature of men and with peaceful and tranquil living together, by the practice of all centuries. - But civil laws, which, when they are just, draw their virtue from the natural law itself, confirm that right of which we speak and defend it even by employing force. - The authority of divine laws has sanctioned the same, which most gravely forbid even to desire another's goods. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife: not house, nor field, nor maid-servant, nor ox, nor ass, and all things which are his.¹

¹ Deut., V, 21.

Marginal summary: b) The right of possessing belongs to the domestic family. 1) The right of founding a family is older than the state.

11. But rights of this sort, which are in individual men, are understood to be much stronger if they are regarded as apt and connected with the duties of men in domestic life together. - In choosing a manner of life there is no doubt that it lies in the power and judgment of individuals to prefer either one, either to follow the counsel of Jesus Christ concerning virginity, or to bind oneself by the bond of marriage. No law of men can take away from man the natural and primitive right of marriage, or in any way circumscribe the principal cause of nuptials established at the beginning by the authority of God. Increase and multiply.¹ Behold therefore the family, or domestic society, a very small one indeed, but a true society, and the same older than every state; for which reason it is necessary that it have certain rights and duties of its own, which by no means depend upon the republic.

¹ Gen., I, 28.

Therefore what we have demonstrated, that the right of dominion is attributed by nature to individual persons, ought to be transferred to man insofar as he is head of the family: indeed that right is so much more valid as the human person comprehends more things in domestic life together. It is a most holy law of nature that the father of the family protect by food and every support those whom he himself has procreated: and the same is deduced from nature itself, that he should wish to acquire and prepare for his children, since they refer and in some way produce the person of the father, that from which they can honestly defend themselves in the doubtful course of life against miserable fortune. But he can accomplish this in no other way except by the possession of fruitful things, which he may transmit to his children by inheritance.

Marginal summary: 2) The father of a family protects children especially by hereditary transmission of goods. 3) The rights of the family are equal to, indeed greater than, the rights of civil society, because prior. Therefore the State ought not to disturb families by overturning property.

As we have recalled, in the same way as the state, the family is a society of true name, which is ruled by its own power, that is, paternal. Wherefore, while the limits prescribed by its proximate cause are surely preserved, in choosing and employing things necessary for its safety and just liberty, the family obtains at least rights equal to civil society. We have said at least equal, because since domestic life together is prior both in thought and in fact to civil union, it follows that its rights and duties are also prior and more natural. But if citizens, if families, having been made participants of human community and society, found in the republic offense instead of assistance, diminution of their right instead of protection, society would rather be something to be despised than desired.

Therefore to will that civil power should penetrate at its own judgment even to the inmost things of homes is a great and pernicious error. - Certainly if perhaps some family is placed in the greatest difficulty of affairs and destitution of counsel, so that it can in no way extricate itself, it is right that public aid be given to extreme matters: for individual families are a certain part of the state. And in like manner, if somewhere within domestic walls there has existed a grave disturbance of mutual rights, let the public power vindicate to each one his right; for this is not to seize to itself the rights of citizens, but to protect and strengthen them by just and due guardianship. Yet those who preside over public affairs must stand here: nature does not permit them to exceed these limits. Paternal power is of such a kind that it can neither be extinguished nor absorbed by the republic, because it has the same principle in common with human life itself. Children are something of the father, and, as it were, a certain amplification of the paternal person: and, if we wish to speak properly, not through themselves by themselves, but through the domestic community in which they were generated, they enter and participate in civil society. And on this very account, because children are naturally something of the father... before they have the use of free will, they are contained under the care of the parents.¹ Therefore what the Socialists introduce, the providence of the republic, after the providence of parents has been set aside, they do against natural justice and dissolve the structure of homes.

¹ St. Thomas, II-II, Question X, art. XII.

Marginal summary: 3. The plan of the Socialists is subversive of order: it nourishes discords, idleness, misery.

12. And besides injustice, it also appears too clearly what change and disturbance of all orders would be, and what hard and hateful servitude of citizens would follow. An approach would be opened to mutual envy, to detractions and discords: the stimuli of the talent and skill of individuals having been taken away, the very sources of riches would necessarily dry up: and that equality which they feign in thought would in reality be nothing other than the equally miserable and ignoble condition of all men, without distinction.

Marginal summary: Conclusion.

13. From all these things it is clear that that doctrine of Socialism concerning reducing possessions to common ownership must be altogether repudiated, because it harms those very ones whom it is to help, repugns to the natural rights of individuals, and disturbs the duties of the republic and the common tranquility. Therefore when relief of the people is sought, this must be held first as in the place of a foundation: private possessions must be preserved inviolate. With this posited, We shall explain whence the remedy which is sought is to be sought.

Marginal summary: Certainly the exertion of civil power and of each order is required; but, if the Church is set aside, the work of men will be empty.

14. We approach the argument confidently and plainly by Our right; for a cause is being treated for which no probable outcome indeed can be found unless religion and the Church are summoned. But since both the guardianship of religion and the dispensation of those things which are in the power of the Church are especially in Our hands, We would seem to have neglected Our duty by silence.

Certainly so great a cause desires the work and exertion of others also: We understand the princes of the republic, masters and the wealthy, and finally the proletarians themselves, for whom the contention is; yet without hesitation We affirm this, that the efforts of men will be empty if the Church is set aside. Namely, the Church is the one which brings forth from the Gospel teachings by whose virtue the contest can either be wholly settled, or certainly made milder by harshness having been taken away; the same is the one which strives not only to instruct the mind, but to rule the life and morals of individuals by her precepts; which promotes the very state of proletarians to better things by several most useful institutions; which wills and expedites that the counsels and powers of all orders be associated into this, that provision be made for the interests of workers as conveniently as possible; and thinks it proper that the very laws and authority of the republic be employed for this matter, yet with reason and measure.

Marginal summary: By doctrine, precepts, and institutions.

Marginal summary: A) Doctrine. For the Church teaches: a) that among men by nature itself there are various inequalities; b) bodily labor, pleasant in the state of innocence, became arduous after the fall; c) the remaining hardships cannot be wholly taken away.

15. Therefore let this be established in the first place: the human condition must be borne; the lowest cannot be made equal to the highest in civil society. Socialists indeed agitate this: but every contention against the nature of things is vain. For in men there are the greatest and very many natural dissimilarities; the talents of all are not equal, nor skill, nor health, nor strength: an unequal fortune follows spontaneously from the necessary difference of these things. And this is plainly adapted to the uses both of private persons and of the community; for common life needs varied faculty and diverse functions for managing affairs; and men are chiefly impelled to fulfilling these functions by the difference of each one's family property. - And as to bodily labor, in the very state of innocence man was not going to be wholly idle: but what the will would then have freely chosen for delight of the soul, the necessity of expiating fault afterward compelled it to undergo not without a sense of trouble. Cursed is the earth in thy work: in labors thou shalt eat from it all the days of thy life.¹ - And in like manner there will be no end of the remaining hardships on earth, because the consequences of sin are harsh to tolerate, hard, difficult: and they must accompany man even to the last of life. Therefore to suffer and endure is human, and although men may experience and try all things, by no force, by no art, will they be able utterly to tear inconveniences of this sort from human life together. If any profess that they can do this, if they promise to the miserable people a life free from all pain and trouble, and filled with rest and perpetual pleasures, indeed they impose upon the people and contrive a fraud, sometime to break forth into evils greater than the present. The best thing to be done is to look upon human affairs as they are, and at the same time, as We have said, to seek opportune relief for inconveniences from another source.

¹ Gen., III, 17.

Marginal summary: d) Each order is arranged by nature for harmonious cooperation.

16. In the cause of which We speak, that is the capital evil: to imagine by opinion that one order is of itself hostile to another, as though nature had prepared the wealthy and proletarians to fight among themselves in persistent duel. This so abhors reason and truth that, on the contrary, it is most true that in the same way as in the body diverse members agree among themselves, whence there exists that temperament of condition which you might rightly call symmetry, so in the same way nature has commanded in the state that those twin classes agree among themselves harmoniously, and answer to each other suitably for equilibrium. Altogether the one needs the other: capital cannot subsist without labor, nor labor without capital. Concord begets the beauty and order of things: on the contrary, from the perpetuity of contest there must arise confusion with wild savagery. But now for settling the contest and cutting away its very roots, there is a marvelous force of Christian institutions, and that a manifold one.

Marginal summary: B) By precepts: a) recommending duties of justice, 1) some to proletarians.

17. And first the whole discipline of religion, of which the Church is interpreter and guardian, can greatly compose and join the wealthy and proletarians to one another, namely by recalling each order to mutual duties, and especially to those which are drawn from justice. From these duties, those touch the proletarian and worker: to render wholly and faithfully that work which has been freely and equitably agreed upon; in no way to harm property, not to violate the person of masters; in defending their own interests to abstain from force, and never to put on sedition; nor to mix with shameful men, artfully tossing forth immoderate hopes and great promises, which generally has useless repentance and consequent ruins of fortunes.

Marginal summary: 2) Others to masters: a) the human and Christian dignity in the worker is to be reverenced; b) a just wage is to be paid in full, without any fraud; c) the savings of proletarians are to be fostered.

18. But these things regard the rich and masters: workers are not to be regarded in the place of slaves; it is equitable that in them the dignity of the person be reverenced, certainly ennobled by that which is called the Christian character. Gainful arts, if the reason of nature, if Christian philosophy is heard, are not a shame to man, but a dignity, because they furnish an honest power of sustaining life. That truly is shameful and inhuman, to abuse men as things for profit, and to make them of no more value than the amount by which they are strong in sinews and powers. Likewise it is prescribed that account must be had of religion and of the goods of the soul in proletarians. Wherefore it is the part of masters to effect that the worker have a suitable space of time for piety; not to give the man over to the seductions of corruptions and the enticements of sinning; nor in any way to lead him away from domestic care and the zeal of frugality. Likewise not to impose more work than his strength can bear, nor that kind which disagrees with age and sex. - But among the greatest duties of masters this stands out: to provide what is just to each one. Certainly for the measure of the wage to be established by equity, several causes must be considered; but generally let the wealthy and employers remember that neither divine nor human laws permit pressing the needy and miserable for the sake of one's own profit, and seizing gain from another's want. But to defraud anyone of the wage owed is a great crime, which by its cry calls down avenging wraths from heaven. Behold the hire of the laborers... which has been kept back by you, cries out: and the cry of them has entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.¹ - Finally the wealthy must religiously take care not to harm the savings of proletarians by force, deceit, or usurious arts: and this the more because they are not sufficiently fortified against injuries and powerlessness, and their property, the smaller it is, must be held the more sacred.

¹ James, V, 4.

Would not obedience to these laws be able, even by itself alone, to extinguish the force and causes of dissension?

Marginal summary: B) By precepts of charity the Church joins each order. For she teaches: 1) the present life will be succeeded by an eternal one; 2) for acquiring this, the legitimate use of earthly goods is useful; 3) likewise labors patiently tolerated after the example of Christ.

19. But the Church, with Jesus Christ as teacher and leader, nevertheless pursues greater things: namely, by prescribing something more perfect, she looks to this, that she join one order to the other by the nearest proximity and friendship. - We cannot understand and estimate mortal things according to truth unless the soul has looked down upon the other life, and that immortal one: and if this is taken away, the form and true notion of the honorable would immediately perish; indeed this whole universe of things would pass into a mystery accessible to no investigation of men. Therefore, what we learned by nature itself admonishing, the same is a Christian dogma, upon which the whole reason and constitution of religion rests as upon its principal foundation: when we have departed from this life, then truly we shall live. For God did not generate man for these fragile and passing things, but for heavenly and eternal things, and gave us earth as a place of exile, not as a seat for dwelling. Whether you abound in riches and other things which are called goods, or lack them, it is of no importance for eternal beatitude: but how you use them is of the greatest importance. By his abundant redemption Jesus Christ by no means took away the various hardships with which mortal life is almost woven, but he transformed them into incentives of virtues and material of meriting well: so plainly that no mortal can grasp eternal rewards unless he enters upon the bloody footsteps of Jesus Christ. If we suffer, we shall also reign.¹ By labors and torments voluntarily undertaken, he wonderfully softened the force of torments and labors: and not only by example, but by his grace and by the hope of perpetual reward proposed, he made the endurance of sorrows easier: for that which is at present momentary and light in our tribulation works above measure exceedingly an eternal weight of glory in us.²

¹ II Tim., II, 12.

² II Cor., IV, 17.

Marginal summary: The Church moreover teaches the rich: a) that wealth more often hinders than helps the acquiring of eternal happiness; b) that goods, although justly possessed, are to be communicated for the use of the needy.

Therefore the fortunate are warned that freedom from sorrow does not bring anything, nor do riches profit anything toward the happiness of the eternal age, but rather they hinder;³ that the unusual threats of Jesus Christ ought to be a terror to the wealthy;⁴ that an account concerning the use of fortunes will someday have to be rendered most strictly to God the Judge.

³ Matt., XIX, 23-24.

⁴ Luke, VI, 24-25.

20. Concerning the use of wealth itself there is an excellent and most important doctrine, which philosophy began, but the Church has handed down plainly perfected, and the same causes to be held not only in knowledge but in morals. The foundation of this doctrine is placed in this, that the just possession of money is distinguished from the just use of money. To possess goods privately, as we saw a little before, is a natural right for man: and to use that right, especially in the society of life, is not only lawful, but plainly necessary. It is licit that man possess his own things. And it is also necessary for human life.¹ But if this is asked, what kind of use of goods is necessary, the Church indeed without any doubt responds: as to this, man ought not to have exterior things as his own, but as common, so that namely he may easily communicate them in the necessity of others. Whence the Apostle says: Command the rich of this world... to give easily, to communicate.²

¹ II-II, Question LXVI, a. II.

² II-II, Question LXV, a. 11.

Marginal summary: that is, the surplus must be communicated with the poor from charity, from love of Christ.

21. Certainly no one is commanded to help others from that which pertains to the necessary uses both of himself and of his own; indeed not even to hand over to others that which he himself needs for preserving that which befits and becomes his person: for no one ought to live unbecomingly.³ But where enough has been given to necessity and decorum, it is a duty to gratify the needy from that which remains. What remains, give as alms.⁴ These are not duties of justice, except in extreme matters, but of Christian charity, which certainly there is no right of seeking by legal action. But the law and judgment of Christ God precedes the laws and judgments of men, who in many ways counsels the custom of giving: it is more blessed to give than to receive;⁵ and he will judge beneficence conferred upon or denied to the poor just as if conferred upon or denied to himself. As long as you did it to one of these least of my brethren, you did it to me.⁶

³ II-II, Question XXXII, VI.

⁴ Luke, XI, 41.

⁵ Acts, XX, 35.

⁶ Matt., XXV, 40.

The sum of these things is this: whoever has received a greater abundance of goods by the gift of God, whether they are of the body and external, or of the soul, has received it for this cause, that he may employ it for his own perfection and likewise, as a minister of divine providence, for the utilities of others. Therefore he who has talent should take care altogether that he is not silent: he who has abundance of things, let him watch that he does not grow torpid from the largeness of mercy: he who has an art by which he is ruled, let him greatly strive to share its use and utility with his neighbor.⁷

⁷ St. Gregory the Great, in Evang. Hom. X, n. 7.

Marginal summary: The Church finally teaches those lacking goods of fortune: a) that poverty is a permanent state which the Son of God embraced; that riches are placed in virtues; c) that the heart of God has a more propense will toward the poor. By this doctrine the souls of each order are joined.

22. But those who lack goods of fortune are thoroughly taught by the Church that poverty is not held as a disgrace, in God's judgment, nor is it to be shameful that livelihood is sought by labor. And Christ the Lord confirmed this by deed and fact, who for the salvation of men became poor, although he was rich;⁸ and although he was the Son of God and God himself, nevertheless he wished to seem and be thought the son of a craftsman: indeed he did not refuse to consume a great part of his life in the work of a craftsman. Is not this the craftsman, the son of Mary?⁹ To those looking upon the divinity of this example, these things are more easily understood: that the true dignity and excellence of man is placed in morals, that is, in virtue; but that virtue is the common patrimony of mortals, equally obtainable by the lowest and the highest, by the rich and proletarians; nor will anything else than virtues and merits, wherever they are found, be followed by the reward of eternal beatitude. Indeed the will of God himself seems more inclined toward the class of the calamitous: for Jesus Christ calls the poor blessed;¹ he lovingly invites to himself, for the sake of solace, whoever are in labor and mourning;² he embraces the weak and those vexed by injury with particular charity. By knowledge of these things the swelling soul in the fortunate is easily depressed, in those in distress the dejected soul is lifted up: the former are bent to facility, the latter to modesty. Thus the desired interval of pride is made shorter, nor will it be obtained with difficulty that the wills of each order, with hands joined in friendship, be joined together.

⁸ II Cor., VIII, 9.

⁹ Mark, VI, 3.

¹ Matt., V, 3: Blessed are the poor in spirit.

² Matt., XI, 28: Come to me all you who labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you.

Marginal summary: Nor only justice: Christian precepts beget fraternal love, since there is one Creator, one Redeemer, one end, one treasury of graces.

Yet, if they obey Christian precepts, it is too little for friendship; even fraternal love will join them to one another. For they will feel and understand that plainly all men were created by God as a common parent: that all tend to the same end of goods, who is God himself, who alone can affect both men and Angels with perfect and absolute beatitude; likewise that individuals have equally been redeemed by the benefit of Jesus Christ and vindicated into the dignity of children of God, so that they are contained by a plainly fraternal bond both among themselves and also with Christ the Lord, the firstborn among many brothers. Likewise the goods of nature and the gifts of divine grace belong commonly and promiscuously to the universal race of men, nor is anyone made disinherited of heavenly goods except one unworthy. But if sons, also heirs: heirs indeed of God, and co-heirs with Christ.³

³ Rom., VIII, 17.

Such is the form of duties and rights which Christian philosophy professes. Would not every contest seem about to be quieted in a very short time, if that prevailed in civil life together?

Marginal summary: C) The Church applies the remedy by her institutions. a) She instructs souls by directing the intellect and the will.

23. Finally, the Church does not have it enough to show the way of finding a cure, but applies medicine by her own hand. For she is wholly intent upon this, that she cultivate and instruct men according to her discipline and doctrine: and she takes care that the most salutary streams of this doctrine be brought down as widely as possible through the work of Bishops and the Clergy. Then she strives to penetrate into souls and bend wills, so that they allow themselves to be ruled and governed by the discipline of divine precepts. And in this part, which is principal and of very great moment, because the sum of utilities and the whole cause consists in it, the Church indeed alone can do the most. For the instruments which she uses for moving souls were handed down to her by Jesus Christ for this very cause, and have a divinely implanted power. Instruments of this sort alone are those which can aptly touch the innermost depths of the heart, and lead man to show himself obedient to duty, to rule the movements of the desiring soul, to love God and neighbors by a singular and supreme charity, and courageously to break through all things which impede the course of virtue.

It is enough in this kind to recall briefly in thought the examples of the ancients. We commemorate matters and facts which have no doubt: namely, that the civil community of men was fundamentally renewed by Christian institutions; and that by the virtue of this renewal the human race was advanced to better things, indeed recalled from destruction to life, and increased with so great a perfection that none greater had existed before, nor will any greater exist in all following ages. Finally, Jesus Christ is the principle and also the end of these benefits: as they set out from him, so all things are to be referred to him. Namely, once the light of the Gospel had been received, when the world had learned the great mystery of the Incarnate Word and of the redemption of men, the life of Jesus Christ, God and man, penetrated states and imbued them entirely with his faith, precepts, and laws. Wherefore if a remedy is to be applied to the society of the human race, restoration of Christian life and institutions alone will remedy it. For concerning societies falling apart this is most rightly prescribed, that they must be recalled to their origins when they wish to be restored. For this is the perfection of all associations, to labor for and obtain that for the sake of which they were instituted: so that the same cause gives birth to social movements and acts which gave birth to the society. Wherefore to decline from the institution is corruption: to return to the institution is healing. And we say this most truly in the same way concerning the whole body of the republic and concerning that order of citizens who sustain life by labor, which is by far the greatest multitude.

Marginal summary: In Christ, societies once restored must return to him when falling apart.

Marginal summary: b) Nor has the Church neglected bodily life, especially of proletarians. 1) Indirectly, by ruling morals.

24. Nor however is it to be thought that the cares of the Church are so wholly fixed on cultivating souls that she neglects those things which pertain to mortal and earthly life. Concerning proletarians by name, she wills and contends that they emerge from a most miserable state and obtain better fortune. And to this she brings no middling work by this very fact, that she calls and instructs men to virtue. For Christian morals, where they are preserved intact, of themselves produce some part of prosperity in external affairs, because they reconcile God, the principle and source of all goods; they restrain the twin plagues of life, which too often make man miserable in the very abundance of resources, namely excessive desire for things and thirst for pleasures;¹ finally, content with frugal support and livelihood, they supply revenue by thrift, far from vices which not only exhaust small sums of money, but even the greatest abundances, and dissipate splendid patrimonies. But besides, so that proletarians may be well, she provides directly, by instituting and fostering things which she understands to conduce to relieving their want.

¹ I Tim., VI, 10: Desire is the root of all evils.

Marginal summary: 2) Directly, by fostering institutions of every kind for relieving want.

Indeed, even in this kind of benefits, she has always so excelled that she is raised up in praise even by enemies themselves. So great was the force of mutual charity among the most ancient Christians that richer persons very often deprived themselves of their property for the sake of helping: wherefore neither... was there anyone needy among them.¹ To Deacons, instituted in order specifically for this, the Apostles gave the business of exercising the duties of daily beneficence: and Paul the Apostle, although divided by the solicitude of all the Churches, nevertheless did not hesitate to give himself to laborious journeys, so that he might personally bring alms to poorer Christians. Money of this kind, voluntarily collected by Christians in each assembly, Tertullian calls deposits of piety, because namely they were spent for feeding and burying the needy, and for boys and girls destitute of property and parents, and also for elderly household members, likewise for the shipwrecked.²

¹ Acts, IV, 34.

² Apol., II, XXXIX.

Hence that patrimony gradually arose, which the Church guarded with religious care as the family property of the needy. Indeed she procured aid for the miserable people, with shame at asking removed. For as the common parent of both the wealthy and the needy, charity having everywhere been stirred up to excellent magnitude, she founded colleges of religious associates and very many other institutions usefully, by whose help there would be almost no kind of miseries which lacked consolation.

Marginal summary: In place of this, they strive in vain to substitute legal beneficence; but the cooperation of all will profit much.

25. Today indeed many, as the heathen formerly did in the same way, pass over to accusing the Church even of this so excellent charity: in whose place it has seemed good to substitute beneficence constituted by public laws. But no human arts will be found which can supply for Christian charity, which stretches itself wholly toward the utilities of others. That virtue belongs to the Church alone, because unless it is drawn from the most sacred heart of Jesus Christ, it exists nowhere: but whoever has departed from the Church wanders farther from Christ.

But in reality there can be no doubt that, for that which has been proposed, those aids also which are in the power of men are required. Altogether all to whom the cause pertains must tend to the same thing and labor for the same thing according to their proportionate part. This has a certain likeness with the providence which moderates the world: for generally we see that outcomes of things proceed from the conspiracy of all those causes on which they depend.

26. Now it is fitting to inquire what part of the remedy is to be expected from the republic. - By republic in this place We understand not the one or other form which a people uses, but the one which right reason, congruent with nature, wills, and which the documents of divine wisdom approve, which We ourselves by name have explained in the Encyclical Letters concerning the Christian constitution of states.

Marginal summary: a) It belongs to civil power to foster public prosperity, and therefore to consult for the good of proletarians.

Therefore those through whom the state is governed ought first to contribute work generally and universally by the whole plan of laws and institutions, namely by effecting that from the very conformation and administration of the republic prosperity, both of the community and of private persons, spontaneously flourish. For this is the function of civil prudence and the proper office of those who preside. But now these things especially make states prosperous: honesty of morals, families rightly and orderly constituted, guardianship of religion and justice, both moderate imposition and equitable partition of public burdens, increases of arts and commerce, flourishing cultivation of fields, and any other things of the same kind, which the more they are advanced with greater zeal, the better and more happily citizens will live. - Therefore by the virtue of these things it lies in the power of the rulers of the state, as to profit the other orders, so also very greatly to help the condition of proletarians: and this by their own best right, and with no suspicion of importunity: for the republic ought, from the law of its office, to consult for the common good. But the greater the abundance of advantages that will have come from this general providence, the less need there will be to try other ways for the safety of workers.

Marginal summary: b) The republic should have special care of proletarians, since they are greater in number; since they contribute no less to the common good than those who govern.

27. But this besides must be considered, which touches the matter more deeply, that the reason of the state is one, common to the highest and the lowest. For proletarians are citizens by natural right equally with the wealthy, that is, true parts, living with life, from which, families intervening, the body of the republic consists: and let this not be added, that in every city they are by far the greatest in number. Since therefore it would be utterly absurd to consult one part of citizens and neglect a part, it follows that due cares must be placed publicly in protecting the safety and advantages of the order of proletarians: if this is not done, justice prescribing to render to each his own will be violated. Concerning which matter St. Thomas wisely says: as a part and the whole are in a certain way the same, so that which belongs to the whole in a certain way belongs to the part.¹ Therefore among not a few and not light duties of princes consulting well for the people, that stands out first, that they protect each order of citizens equally, namely by preserving inviolate that justice which is called distributive.

¹ II-II, Question LXI, a. I ad 2.

28. But although all citizens, no one excepted, must contribute something to the sum of common goods, some virile part of which spontaneously falls back upon individuals, nevertheless they can by no means contribute the same and equally. Whatever the changes may be in forms of rule, those differences in the condition of citizens will be perpetual, without which no society could exist or be thought. It is altogether necessary that certain men be found who devote themselves to the republic, who enact laws, who speak right, finally by whose counsel and authority civil businesses and military affairs are administered. Everyone sees that the parts of these men are prior and that they are to be held as primary in every people, because they devote work to the common good most nearly and in an excellent manner. But on the contrary those who are exercised in some art do not profit the state in that way, nor by the same functions: yet they too serve public utility very greatly, although less directly. Indeed since the social good ought to be of such a kind that men become better by obtaining it, it must certainly be placed chiefly in virtue.

Nevertheless to a well-constituted state belongs also the supply of bodily and external goods, whose use is necessary for the act of virtue.¹ But for producing these goods the labor of proletarians is especially efficacious and necessary, whether they exercise art and hand in fields, or in workshops. Indeed their force and efficacy in this kind is so great that it is most true that the riches of states are begotten from no other source than from the labor of workers. Equity therefore commands that care be publicly borne for the proletarian, so that from that which he brings to the common utility, he himself may receive something, so that sheltered, clothed, and safe, he may be able to endure life less grievously. Whence it follows that favor is to be shown to all things which seem in any way about to profit the condition of workers. This care is so far from harming anyone that it will rather be profitable to all, because it is entirely in the interest of the republic that those from whom such necessary goods proceed not be miserable in every way.

¹ St. Thom., De reg. Princ., I, c. XV.

Marginal summary: c) Moreover, those who preside over the republic ought to prevent or heal what otherwise cannot be healed.

29. It is not right, as We have said, that the citizen, or the family, be absorbed by the republic: it is equitable that to each be permitted his own faculty of acting with liberty, as far as can be done with the common good unharmed and without injury to anyone. Nevertheless those who command must see that they protect the community and its parts. The community indeed, since nature committed it to the supreme power to be preserved to such an extent that guardianship of public safety is not only the supreme law, but the whole cause and reason of principality; but the parts, because philosophy and likewise Christian faith agree that the administration of the republic by nature pertains not to the utility of those to whom it is committed, but to those who have been committed. And since the faculty of commanding proceeds from God and is a certain communication of his supreme principality, it must be carried on after the example of the divine power, consulting with paternal care for individual things no less than for universal ones. Therefore if any detriment has been brought or threatens common affairs, or the interests of individual orders, which cannot be healed or prohibited in another way, it is necessary that public authority meet it.

30. But it is of interest for both public and private safety that matters be peaceful and composed: likewise that every discipline of domestic life together be directed according to the commands of God and the principles of nature; that religion be observed and cultivated; that morals flourish intact privately and publicly; that justice be held sacred, nor some be violated by others with impunity; that citizens grow strong, fit for helping and protecting the state, if the matter demands. Wherefore if at any time it happens that some disturbance threatens because of the secession of workers or works interrupted by agreement; that natural bonds of the family among proletarians are relaxed; that religion is violated in workers by not imparting sufficient convenience for duties of piety; if danger threatens in workshops to integrity of morals from mixed sex, or other pernicious invitations to sinning; or if the employer order oppresses the order of workers with unjust burdens, or afflicts them with conditions foreign to the person and human dignity; if health is harmed by immoderate work, not accommodated to sex or age, in these causes plainly the force and authority of laws must be employed within certain limits. Those limits are determined by the same cause which asks the help of the laws: namely, laws must not undertake more, nor proceed farther, than the healing of inconveniences or the repelling of danger requires.

Marginal summary: 2) Rights indeed, especially of the weak and needy, ought to be vindicated.

31. Rights indeed, in whomever they are, must be sacredly preserved, and that individuals hold what is their own, the public power ought to provide, by repelling and avenging injuries. Except that in protecting private rights themselves, account must be had chiefly of the lowest and needy. For the nation of the rich, fenced by its own protections, needs public guardianship less: the miserable common people, safe by no resources of their own, rely especially on the patronage of the republic. Wherefore the republic ought to embrace wage-earners, since they are numbered among the needy multitude, with singular care and providence.

Marginal summary: a) That civil power may protect the rights of possessors: 1) it will restrain perverse agitators.

32. But it is fitting by name to touch upon certain things of greater moment. - The head, however, is that private possessions ought to be protected by the rule and defense of laws. And especially, amid so great an ardor of desires, the people must be contained in duty: for if to contend for better things has been granted without justice repugning, yet justice forbids taking away from another what is his, and invading the fortunes of others under the appearance of a certain absurd equality; nor does the reason of common utility itself permit it. Certainly by far the greatest part of workers prefer to acquire better things by honest labor without injury to anyone; nevertheless not a few are numbered who, imbued with depraved opinions and desirous of new things, do this in every way, that they move disturbances and impel the rest to force. Therefore let the authority of the republic intervene, and, a bridle having been cast upon agitators, restrain corrupting arts from the morals of workers and the danger of robberies from legitimate masters.

Marginal summary: 2) it will remedy, especially by forestalling causes, collective cessation from work (strike).

33. Longer or more laborious work, and the opinion of scanty wages, not rarely give cause to craftsmen why they free themselves from work by agreement and give themselves to voluntary leisure. Publicly this common and grave inconvenience must be remedied, because this kind of cessation afflicts with damage not only employers and the workers themselves, but harms commerce and the utilities of the republic: and since it is not far from force and disturbances, it very often brings public tranquility into danger. In this matter that is more efficacious and salutary: to forestall the evil by the authority of laws, and to prohibit it from being able to break forth, with the causes removed in good time whence a conflict of masters and workers would seem about to arise.

34. In a similar way there are many things in the worker to be fortified by the protection of the republic: and first the goods of the soul. For mortal life, however good and desirable, is nevertheless not itself that last thing for which we are born; but only the way and instrument for completing the life of the soul by the seeing of truth and the love of good. The soul is what bears the expressed image and likeness of God, and in it resides that principality by which man was commanded to dominate inferior natures, and to effect that all lands and seas serve his utility. Fill the earth and subdue it: and rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and all living creatures which move upon the earth.¹ All men are equal in this matter, nor is there anything by which the rich and the poor, masters and servants, princes and private persons differ: for the same Lord is of all.² It is licit for no one with impunity to violate the dignity of man, concerning which God himself disposes with great reverence, nor to impede the course to that perfection which is consonant with eternal life in heaven. Indeed, not even of his own accord can man in this kind be treated in a way not befitting his nature, or will to serve the servitude of the soul: for there is no question of rights concerning which it is free to man, but of duties toward God, which must be sacredly preserved.

¹ Gen., I, 28.

² Rom., X, 12.

Hence follows rest from works and labors through feast days as necessary. Yet let no one understand this as some greater use of inert leisure, much less of cessation such as many desire, favorable to vices and an aid to outpourings of money, but altogether of rest from works consecrated by religion. Rest joined with religion calls man away from the labors and businesses of daily life so that it recalls him to thinking on heavenly goods, and to rendering to the eternal divinity just and due worship. This especially is the nature and this the cause of rest to be taken on feast days: which God both sanctioned in the Old Testament by a principal law: Remember that thou keep holy the sabbath day;³ and taught by his own deed, by a mysterious rest taken immediately after he had made man: He rested on the seventh day from all the work which he had done.⁴

³ Exod., XX, 8.

⁴ Gen., II, 2.

Marginal summary: 2) It will protect bodily goods.

35. With regard to the protection of the goods of the body and of external goods, first of all it is necessary to snatch miserable workers from the cruelty of greedy men, who intemperately abuse persons as things for gain. Namely, neither justice nor humanity permits that so much work be demanded that the mind become dulled by excessive labor, and at the same time the body succumb to weariness. In man, as his whole nature, so also his effective force, is circumscribed by fixed limits, beyond which it cannot go.

Marginal summary: a) by watching that, in labor, account be kept of strength and time: the more burdensome the work is, the more productive should be the rest.

That force indeed is sharpened by exercise and use, but nevertheless under this law, that it should cease acting from time to time and rest. Therefore concerning daily work, care must be taken that it not be drawn out into more hours than strength permits. But how great the intervals for resting ought to be must be judged from the various kind of work, from circumstances of times and places, and from the very health of the workers. Those whose work is to cut stone from the earth, or to dig out iron, bronze, and other things of that kind deeply hidden, their labor, because it is much greater and also burdensome to health, must be compensated by shortness of time. The seasons of the year also must be considered: because not rarely the same kind of work is easy to bear at one time, but at another either cannot be borne in any way, or cannot be borne without the greatest difficulty.

Marginal summary: b) by watching that boys do not work too early, nor women to the harm of their sex or of the home.

Finally, what a man of mature age and well strong can do and attempt, it is not equitable to demand from a woman or a boy. Indeed, concerning boys, one must take great care that the workshop not seize them before age has sufficiently strengthened body, character, and soul. For the forces breaking forth in childhood, like the greening vigor of grass, are crushed by premature agitation: from which thing all childish training will perish. Thus certain crafts are less suitably fitting for women, born for domestic works: which works indeed greatly protect modesty in the female sex, and by nature answer to the education of children and the prosperity of the family. But universally let it be established that so much leisure is to be granted to workers as may compensate for the strength consumed by labor; because cessation ought to restore strength worn down by use. In every obligation which is mutually contracted by masters and craftsmen, this condition is always either written in or tacit, that provision be made for both kinds of rest; for it is not honest to agree otherwise, because it is lawful neither to demand from anyone, nor to promise, neglect of the duties which bind man either to God or to himself.

Marginal summary: c) by watching that labor not be deprived of just wage.

36. Here We touch upon a matter of sufficiently great importance: it is necessary that it be rightly understood, lest one sin toward either side. Namely the measure of wage is defined by free consent: and thus the master of the thing, once the wage agreed upon has been paid, would seem to have freed his pledge and to owe nothing further. Then only would it be done unjustly, if either the master refused to pay the full price, or the craftsman refused to render the whole of the pledged works: for these causes it can be right for political power to intervene, that each one have his right unharmed, but for no other causes. - A fair judge of things will not easily, nor wholly, assent to this argument, because it is not absolute in all its parts: a certain moment of reason of greatest weight is lacking. For to work is this: to exercise oneself for the sake of acquiring things which are for the various uses of life, and especially necessary for the protection of oneself. In the sweat of thy face thou shalt eat bread.¹

¹ Gen., III, 19.

Marginal summary: Labor, instituted for procuring sustenance for life, includes a twofold note: one of personality; another of necessity, whereby labor is necessary for sustaining life itself.

And therefore labor has, as it were, two marks naturally implanted in man: namely that it is personal, because the acting force inheres in the person, and is altogether proper to him by whom it is exercised, and for whose utility it is born; then, that it is necessary, for this cause, that the fruit of labors is needed by man for preserving life: but nature commands most of all that life itself be preserved. Now, if labor is considered only from that part by which it is personal, there is no doubt that it is within the worker's power to define the measure of the agreed wage more narrowly; for just as he gives his work by will, so also by will he can be content with a slender wage for his work, or even with none at all.

But a far different judgment must be made if, with the reason of personality, there is joined the reason of necessity, separable from it in thought indeed, but not in reality. In fact, to remain in life is a common duty for individuals, and it is a crime to fail in it. Hence there necessarily arises the right of finding things by which life is sustained: and for each person, nothing supplies the faculty of these things except wages obtained by labor. Therefore let it be granted that worker and employer freely consent to the same agreement, and particularly to the measure of wage; nevertheless there is always something underlying it from natural justice, and this is greater and older than the free will of the contracting parties, namely, that the wage ought not to be unequal to supporting a worker who is frugal indeed and well-moraled. But if the worker, compelled by necessity or moved by fear of a worse evil, accepts a harsher condition which, even if he does not will it, must be accepted, because it is imposed by the master or by the contractor of works, this indeed is to undergo force, against which justice cries out.

Nevertheless in these and similar causes, such as how many hours must be worked in each kind of craft, by what protections health must chiefly be guarded in workshops, lest the magistrate thrust himself in too importunately, especially since circumstances of things, times, and places are so varied, it will be better to reserve these matters to the judgment of the associations, of which We shall speak below, or to enter upon another way by which the interests of wage-earners may be safe, as is proper, with the protection and defense of the republic added if the matter demands.

Marginal summary: 3) By procuring that workers, studying thrift, may arrive at moderate property.

37. If the worker receives a wage sufficiently ample that by it he can conveniently protect himself, his wife, and his children, he will easily study thrift, if he is wise, and will effect what nature itself seems to advise, that, expenses being deducted, something may also remain, by which it may be permitted him to arrive at a moderate property. For we have seen that the cause which is being treated cannot be settled by an efficacious reason unless this is assumed and established: that the right of private goods ought to be sacred. Wherefore the laws ought to favor this right, and, so far as possible, provide that very many from the multitude should prefer to have property. - When this has been done, excellent advantages will follow.

Marginal summary: From this several goods will follow: a more equitable distribution of goods;

And first, certainly, a more equitable distribution of goods. For the force of civil changes has divided cities into two classes of citizens, with an immense difference interposed between each. On one side is a faction most powerful because very rich: since it alone possesses the whole kind of works and commerce, it draws every productive faculty of resources to its own advantages and interests, and has no little power in the very administration of the republic. On the other side is a needy and weak multitude, with an embittered mind and always ready for disturbances. Now if the industry of the people is aroused toward the hope of acquiring something which is contained in land, it will gradually happen that one order becomes close to the other, with the difference between the greatest riches and the greatest poverty removed.

Marginal summary: a greater abundance of things which the earth produces;

Besides, there will be a greater abundance of the things which the earth brings forth. For men, when they know that they are laboring on what is their own, apply eagerness and far greater zeal: indeed they learn altogether to love the land cultivated by their own hand, whence they expect not only food, but also a certain abundance both for themselves and for their own. No one fails to see how greatly this eagerness of will contributes to the fertility of fruits, and to increasing the riches of the state.

Marginal summary: the faculty for citizens of leading a happy life in their fatherland.

From this a third advantage will flow, that men may easily be retained in the state in which they were born and received into the light: for they would not exchange their fatherland for a foreign region, if the fatherland gave them a tolerable faculty of spending life.

Marginal summary: To obtain these things, public authority should be moderate in determining taxes.

Yet these advantages cannot be reached except on this condition, that private property not be exhausted by the enormity of taxes and imposts. For since the right of possessing goods privately has not been given by the law of men but by nature, public authority cannot abolish it, but only moderate its use and compose it with the common good. Therefore it will act unjustly and inhumanely if it draws from the goods of private persons, under the name of taxes, more than is fair.

38. Finally, masters and the workers themselves can do much in this cause, namely by those institutions by whose help both timely relief is brought to the needy, and one order approaches more closely to the other.

Marginal summary: By associations of workers, adapted to the present time, whether composed of one order or of both.

In this kind are to be numbered associations for mutual aid: various things constituted by private providence for protecting the worker, and likewise the widowhood of wife and children, if some sudden thing should fall upon him, if weakness should afflict him, if anything human should happen; institutions of patronage, for protecting boys, girls, adolescents, and older persons. But the principal place is held by associations of craftsmen, within whose embrace nearly all the others are contained. Among our ancestors the benefits of incorporated artisans stood firm for a long time. In truth they brought forth not only excellent utilities for craftsmen, but also honor and increase for the arts themselves, as very many monuments testify. In this more learned age, with new customs, and with those things also increased which daily life desires, it is certainly necessary that associations of workers be bent to present use.

It is pleasing that societies of this kind commonly be formed, whether composed wholly of workers, or mixed from both orders; but it is to be desired that they grow in number and active virtue. Although indeed We have spoken of them more than once, nevertheless it pleases Us in this place to show that they are very opportune, and that they coalesce by their own right: likewise what discipline they ought to use, and what they ought to do.

Marginal summary: These associations are legitimate, A) from the natural right of coming together for mutual assistance.

39. The proved slightness of his own powers impels man and exhorts him to wish to join another's help to himself. That sentence belongs to Sacred Scripture: It is better that two be together than one: for they have the advantage of their society. If one falls, he shall be supported by the other. Woe to him who is alone: because when he falls, he has none to lift him up.¹ And also that other: A brother who is aided by a brother is like a strong city.² By this natural propensity man is led to civil union and congregation, and so also it is expedient for him to enter upon other societies with citizens, small indeed and imperfect, but societies nevertheless. Between these and that great society there is very much difference because of different proximate causes. For the end proposed to civil society pertains to all, since it is contained in the common good: it is right for all and each to be sharers of it according to their proportion. Therefore it is called public, because through it men communicate with one another in constituting one republic.³ On the other hand, societies which are joined as if in its bosom are held to be private and are such, because namely that toward which they look proximately is private utility, pertaining to the associates alone.

¹ Eccl., IV, 9, 12.

² Prov., XXIII, 19.

³ St. Thom., Contra impugnantes Dei cultum et religionem, ch. II.

But a private society is that which is joined together for carrying on some private business, as when two or three enter into society in order to trade together.⁴

⁴ Ibid.

Marginal summary: Therefore the state cannot violate the right of coming together, from which it itself also arose, unless the institution fights with justice, with equity, with public order.

Now although private societies exist in the state, and are, as it were, just so many parts of it, nevertheless universally and of itself it is not in the power of the republic to forbid that they exist. For to enter into private societies has been granted to man by the right of nature: but the state was instituted for the defense of natural right, not for its destruction; and if it forbids assemblies of citizens to associate, it acts plainly in contradiction with itself, because both it itself and private assemblies are born from this one principle, that men are by nature capable of congregation.

Times sometimes occur when it is right for the laws to oppose this kind of communities: namely, if from their institution they pursue anything which openly disagrees with probity, with justice, or with the safety of the republic. In these causes, indeed, public power will rightly prevent those societies from coalescing: and rightly also dissolve those already formed; yet it is necessary that it employ the greatest caution, lest it appear to violate the rights of citizens, or establish anything under the appearance of public utility which reason does not approve. For laws are to be obeyed to the extent that they agree with right reason, and therefore with the eternal law of God.¹

¹ Human law has the nature of law to the extent that it is according to right reason, and according to this it is manifest that it is derived from the eternal law. But to the extent that it departs from reason, it is called an unjust law, and thus it does not have the nature of law, but rather of a certain violence. (St. Thom., Sum. Theol., I-II, Question XIII, a. III.)

Marginal summary: Among these institutions the first place is held by religious orders, most useful to the common good, which, as they are associations, it is equitable should enjoy from public power the greatest liberty, the right of moral person, and fortunes truly their own.

40. Here We consider in mind various associations, and colleges, and religious orders, which the authority of the Church and the pious will of Christians had generated: with how great safety of the human race history speaks, even to our memory. Societies of this kind, if reason alone judges, since they were entered upon for an honest cause, appear to have been entered upon by natural right. But in that part by which they touch religion, the Church alone is the one to which they justly obey. Therefore those who preside over the state cannot rightly arrogate any right to themselves over them, nor transfer their administration to themselves: rather it is the office of the republic to revere them, preserve them, and, when circumstances have demanded, protect them from injury. Yet We have seen this done far otherwise, especially in this time. In many places the republic has violated communities of this kind, and indeed with manifold injury: since it has both bound them by the bond of civil laws, and stripped them of the legitimate right of a moral person, and despoiled them of their fortunes. In those fortunes the Church had her right, individual members had theirs, likewise those who had assigned them to certain causes and for whose advantage and consolation they had been assigned. Wherefore We cannot restrain Our mind from lamenting spoliations of this kind, so unjust and pernicious, and this all the more because We see the way closed to societies of Catholic men, peaceful indeed and useful in every respect, at the very time when it is decreed that to come together in society is indeed permitted by the laws: and in reality that faculty is widely permitted to men who agitate counsels pernicious at once to religion and to the republic.

Marginal summary: B) These Catholic associations are very opportune.

41. Certainly the frequency of the most diverse associations, especially from workers, is now far greater than at other times. It does not belong to this place to inquire whence many of them draw their origin, what they will, or by what path they proceed. Yet there is an opinion, confirmed by many facts, that more hidden authors preside over most of them, and that they employ a discipline consonant neither with the Christian name nor with the safety of states: and, having occupied the universality of producing works, they act so that those who refuse to associate with them are compelled to pay penalties by poverty. - In this state of affairs, Christian craftsmen ought to choose one of two things: either to give their name to associations from which danger to religion is to be feared, or to found their own associations among themselves, and in this way to join forces, by which they may manfully redeem themselves from that unjust and intolerable oppression. That this second thing must be desired altogether - what doubt can this have among those who do not wish to cast the highest good of man into the most present danger?

Marginal summary: Hence they are greatly to be praised, who strive to lead workers to better things; a) those who labor by word, b) those who labor by work, c) those who labor by apostolic zeal, d) those who labor by money toward this greatly to be desired end.

42. Indeed very many from among Our own are greatly to be praised, who, having well perceived what the times demand of them, make trial and attempt by what manner they can lead proletarians to better things by honest arts. Having taken up their patronage, they study to increase the prosperity both of households and of individuals: likewise to moderate with equity the bonds by which craftsmen and masters are mutually contained; to nourish and confirm in both the memory of duty and the custody of evangelical precepts; which precepts indeed, by recalling man from intemperance, forbid him to exceed measure, and, in a state of persons and things most dissimilar, preserve harmony in the state. For this cause We often see excellent men come together into one place, that they may communicate counsels with one another, join forces, and consult what seems chiefly expedient. Others strive to bind a various kind of craftsmen together in opportune society, they help by counsel and deed, they provide that honest and fruitful work not be lacking. Bishops add zeal and impart patronage: under whose authority and auspices many from each order of clergy diligently care for those things which pertain to cultivating the soul in the associates. Finally Catholics are not lacking who are rich in abundant wealth, but voluntary partners, as it were, of wage-earners, who strive to establish and broadly spread associations with great money: by whose help the worker may easily seek for himself by labor not only present advantages, but also the confidence of future honorable rest. How much good so manifold and so eager an industry has brought to common affairs is more known than needs to be said. Hence now We take auspices of hoping well concerning the remaining time, provided societies of this kind constantly take increases and are constituted by prudent moderation. Let the republic protect these assemblies of citizens lawfully associated: yet let it not thrust itself into their intimate order and manner of life; for vital movement is stirred by an interior principle, and is very easily crushed by an external impulse.

Marginal summary: C) The state ought to watch that these associations be rightly ordered, namely:

43. Certainly a prudent moderation and discipline is necessary for this matter, so that there may be agreement in acting and a conspiracy of wills. Therefore if there is a free faculty for citizens to associate, as indeed there is, it is also right that they may freely choose that discipline and those laws which they judge to conduce most to that which has been proposed. We do not think it possible to determine by fixed and definite rules what that moderation and discipline of associations ought to be in each of its individual parts, since this must rather be established from the character of each people, from trial and use, from the kind and efficiency of works, from the breadth of commerce, and from other circumstances of things and times, which must be prudently weighed.

from the kind and efficiency of works, from the breadth of commerce, and from other circumstances of things and times, which must be prudently weighed. As to the sum of the matter, let this be sanctioned as a general and perpetual law: that associations of workers ought to be so constituted and so governed that they supply instruments most apt and especially expeditious for that which has been proposed, and which consists in this, that individuals from the society may attain an increase of the goods of body, soul, and family estate, so far as possible.

Marginal summary: a) That they have as their end the perfection of piety and morals.

But it is clear that one must look to the perfection of piety and morals as to the principal cause: and that social discipline must be directed chiefly by this cause. Otherwise they would degenerate into another form, and would not by much surpass that kind of associations in which no account of religion is usually had. Besides, what does it profit the worker to have sought an abundance of things by society, if, through want of his own food, his soul is in danger concerning salvation? What doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, but suffer the loss of his own soul?¹ Christ the Lord teaches that this indeed is to be held as a mark by which the Christian man is distinguished from the heathen: For after all these things do the Gentiles seek... seek ye therefore first the kingdom of God and his justice, and all these things shall be added unto you.² Therefore, principles having been taken from God, let very much place be given to religious instruction, so that individuals may know their duties toward God: what they ought to believe, what they ought to hope and do for the sake of eternal salvation, let them know well: and by special care let them be fortified against errors of opinions and various corruptions. Let the worker be stirred up to the worship of God and the pursuit of piety, by name to cultivating religion on feast days. Let him learn to revere and love the Church, the common parent of all; likewise to obey her precepts and frequent the sacraments, which are divine instruments for expiating the stains of the soul and acquiring sanctity.

¹ Matt., XVI, 26.

² Matt., VI, 32, 33.

Marginal summary: b) As regards the rest, offices are to be well divided; the common property is to be administered integrally; there should be an upright arbiter for settling disputes of masters and workers; a supply of work is to be procured for members, and helps are to be supplied for necessities.

With the foundation of social laws placed in religion, the way is easy for establishing the mutual relations of members, so that quiet living together and flourishing affairs may follow. The duties of associations are to be distributed suitably to common interests, and indeed in such a way that difference does not lessen agreement. It is of great importance for this cause that offices be divided intelligently and defined clearly, lest injury be done to anyone. Let the common property be administered integrally, so that the measure of helping be determined from the need of individuals; let the rights and duties of masters suitably agree with the rights and duties of workers. If anyone from either order should think himself violated in any matter, nothing is more to be desired than that prudent and upright men of the same body be present, by whose judgment the very social laws command the dispute to be settled. This also must be greatly provided, that a supply of work at no time be lacking to the worker, and that a revenue be supplied from which the necessity of individuals may be relieved, not only in sudden and accidental cases of industry, but also when health, or old age, or misfortune has oppressed anyone.

Marginal summary: D) Abundant fruits will follow thence for the republic and for workers, as history teaches.

44. With these laws, provided they are accepted by will, enough will have been consulted for the advantages and safety of the poorer; and associations of Catholics will be about to have no small moment for prosperity in the state. From past events We not rashly provide for the future. For age is driven out by age, but there are marvelous likenesses of accomplished things, because they are ruled by the providence of God, who moderates and bends the continuation and series of things to that cause which he set before himself in the procreation of the human race. - We have received that, in the ancient age of the infant Church, it was given as a reproach to Christians that the greatest part of them lived by precarious alms or by doing work. But destitute of wealth and power, nevertheless they prevailed so that they joined to themselves the favor of the wealthy and the patronage of the powerful. It was permitted to see them active, laborious, peaceful, preserving justice and especially charity as an example. At the spectacle of a life and morals of this kind, every prejudiced opinion vanished, the detraction of the malicious was silenced, and the fictions of inveterate superstition gradually yielded to Christian truth.

The condition of workers is being contested at present: it is of very great interest to the republic on either side whether this contest is settled by reason or otherwise. But it will easily be settled by reason by Christian craftsmen if, joined in society and using prudent authors, they enter upon the same way which their fathers and ancestors held with singular safety both their own and public.

Marginal summary: a) Thus workers will conciliate to themselves the benevolence of citizens, b) they will foster the hope of a better life, c) other workers also, burdened by the bonds of depraved associations, will give their names to Christian associations.

For however great the force of prejudiced opinions and desires may be in man, nevertheless, unless a depraved will has stupefied the sense of the honorable, the benevolence of citizens will spontaneously be more inclined toward those whom they have known to be industrious and modest, whom it has been established place equity before gain, religion of duty before all things. From this there will follow also that advantage, that hope and a faculty of safety, not the least, will be supplied to those workers who either have wholly despised the Christian faith, or live by morals alien from their profession. These men indeed generally understand that they have been deceived by false hope and by a feigned appearance of things. For they feel that they are treated very inhumanely by greedy masters, and that they are not valued much more than the amount of gain which they produce by working: but in those associations in which they are entangled, instead of charity and love, there exist internal discords, perpetual companions of petulant and unbelieving poverty. Broken in soul, weakened in body, how greatly many would wish to vindicate themselves from so low a servitude: and yet they do not dare, whether because the shame before men, or the fear of want, prohibits them. Now to all these, Catholic associations can be of wondrous profit for salvation, if they invite the wavering to their bosom by disentangling difficulties, and if they receive the repentant into their faith and protection.

Marginal summary: 1) Let public power and each order enter upon this way without delay.

45. You have, Venerable Brethren, who must labor in this most difficult cause, and by what means. - Each one must gird himself to his own parts, and indeed very promptly, lest the inconvenience of so great a mass already become more incurable by delay of medicine. Let those who manage republics employ the providence of laws and institutions: let the wealthy and masters remember their duties: let the proletarians, whose matter is at stake, strive by reason: and since religion, as We said at the beginning, alone can thoroughly drive away the evil, let all consider this: Christian morals must above all be restored, without which those very arms of prudence which are thought most suitable will have little strength for safety.

Marginal summary: 2) But the Church, the greater liberty it obtains, will labor the more efficaciously.

As regards the Church, she will at no time and in no way allow her work to be lacking, and she will bring so much more help, the greater the liberty in acting which falls to her: and let those in particular understand this whose office it is to consult for public safety. Let the ministers of sacred things stretch forth all the forces of soul and industry: and with you, Venerable Brethren, leading by authority and example, let them not cease to inculcate in men of every order the documents of life taken from the Gospel: by every help they can, let them strive for the safety of peoples, and especially let them study both to guard in themselves and to excite in others, in the highest and the lowest alike, charity, the mistress and queen of all virtues.

Marginal summary: 3) Let bishops and clergy teach each order the precepts of the Gospel, especially divine charity.

For the desired safety is to be expected chiefly from a great outpouring of charity: We mean Christian charity, which is the summary law of the whole Gospel, and which, always ready to devote itself for the advantages of others, is for man the most certain antidote against the insolence of the age and the immoderate love of self: the parts and lineaments of which virtue the divine Apostle Paul expressed in these words: Charity is patient, is kind: seeketh not her own: beareth all things: endureth all things.¹

¹ I Cor., XIII, 4-7.

As a pledge of divine gifts and a witness of Our benevolence, We most lovingly impart in the Lord the apostolic blessing to each of you, Venerable Brethren, and to your Clergy and people.

Given at Rome, at St. Peter's, on the 15th day of May, in the year 1891, the fourteenth of Our Pontificate.

LEO PP. XIII.

Printed by the Society of St. John the Evangelist, Desclee, De Brouwer and Company.

MADE IN BELGIUM