The Just Wage, 1750–1890: A Study of Moralists from Saint Alphonsus to Leo XIII

523 Pages·1966·15.809 MB·English

by  James Healy S.J. (auth.)

THE JUST WAGE, 1750-1890
THE JUST WAGE, 1750-1890
A STUDY OF MORALISTS
FROM
SAINT ALPHONSUS
TO
LEO XIII
by
JAMES HEALY, S.J.
Facultas Theologica S.].
Milltown Park, Dublin
•
Springer-Science+Business Media, B.V. 1966
Copyright 1966 by Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
Originally published by Martinus NijhoJ!, The Hague, Netherlands in 1966
AU rights reserved, including the rights to translate or to
reproduce this book or parts thereof in any form
ISBN 978-94-017-6733-0 ISBN 978-94-017-6830-6 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-94-017-6830-6
Vidimus et approbamus ad nonnam Statutorum Universitatis
Romae, ex Pontijicia Universitate Gregoriana
die 20 mensis Januarii anni 1965
R.P. Josephus Diez-Alegria, S.J.
R.P. Eduardus Hamei, S.J.
Nihil Obstat: Michael O'Connell, Inprimi Potest: + Johannes Carolus,
Censor. Theol. Deput. Archiep. Dublinen.,
Dublini, Hiberniae Primas
die 20 Maii, 1966
PREFACE
I wrote this book in order to qualify for a doctorate in theology at the Gre
gorian University in Rome. The Publishers very kindly accepted the work
as it stood. Here it is. No revision of mine has intervened; by now I could
write a different book with the same material, and I would dearly like to
meddle with many details of the presentation; but selective amendments
result in poor patchwork and the leisure for a total revision was blessedly
unavailable. Here, then, is my unimproved work; it has been enhanced by
the printers' crafsmanship and layout; it has been ennobled by association
with the renowned Publisher - I thank these people with all my heart, though
they deserve more praise and thanks than I can bestow.
I am very grateful to Father M. Diez Alegria, S.]., who directed this
academic exercise. He was very generous with encouragement and advice.
Since I was unable to incorporate into the present work all the rich sugges
tions which he offered, my regret is that it does less than justice to his in
spiring guidance. I can only hope that my future labours will embody some
of his spirit.
The many librarians who helped me are too numerous to mention indi
vidually; to each and all of them I am sincerely grateful.
The original manuscript was typed for me by Signorina Eva Gabrielli
in Rome. Anyone who sees her work knows that it needs no praise; anyone
who has worked with her knows that her professional skill is rivalled by her
her gracious helpfulness and personal charm.
Among all the others to whom I am indebted for assistance with the
present work, and whom I thank sincerely, I would like to pay special tri
bute to a number of my colleagues who at various stages encouraged my
efforts: by seeing merits even in illegible first drafts, by arranging material
for the typist, by suggestions and advice concerning the conclusions, the
indices and the proofs, they helped me greatly and proved themselves true
friends.
Beannacht De ortha.
J. HEALY, S.].
Miltown Park,
Dublin.
INTRODUCTION
In 1891 Leo XIII published Rerum Novarum.1 He taught principles for
the solution of the Social Question, and his arguments appealed to the Scrip
tures - and to St. Thomas. Six hundred years had passed since St. Thomas
wrote; they were centuries of enormous development in economic structures
and doctrines. Had the teachers in the Church been silent, concerning man's
right to property and the Labourer's right to a just wage, during all this
period? If there had been no Conciliar documents, no Papal encyclicals, had
the Bishops been silent too? and the preachers? and the Professors of Theo
logy?
The questions have been asked before, and many of the answers given.
I was particularly interested in finding out the general teaching of theolo
gians about wages. Andrade 2 supplied a summary view on Work and Wages
from the Fathers to Rerum Novarum; Rocha 3 selected representative theo
logians from St. Thomas to the late scholastics and reviewed their contribu
tions to the establishment of the doctrine of a living wage; Murphy
4
examined more thoroughly the subject of Work and Wages in the moralists
of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth century. There the story seemed to end.
Perhaps there would be no point in examining later moralists? The period
between 1750 and 1890 has frequently been referred to as "theologically
1 Rerum Novarum, ASS., XXIII, (1890--91), pp. 641-670. Unless otherwise stated, the
English quotations are given from the version published by the London Catholic Truth
Society: "The Condition of the Working Classes. The Encyclical Rerum Novarum of Leo
XIII."
2 "La enciclica 'Rerum Novarum' y su preparaci6n hist6rica. Trabajo y salario desde
los Santos Padres hasta Le6n XIII". Vicente Andrade S.]. Bogota, 1941; 135p.
3 Manuel Rocha, Les Origines de 'Quadragesimo Anno'; Travail et Salaire A Travers
La Scolastique. Preface du R. P. Rutten O.P. Ed. 2. (Desclee) Paris, 1933. xii, 205p.
4 I1lavoro e il salario nella Teologia Morale del XVII e XVIII secolo, di Orlando Mari
Murphy. P.U.G. Facolta di Teologia. Roma. 1962. xxvii, 391 pp. (An unpublished thesis;
I am grateful to the Secretariate of the University, and to the Director of the thesis, Prof.
P. G.]arlot, S.]., for permission to consult this work.)
Some of the articles in the Encyclopedias might also be mentioned in this context, but
the above three are the most pertinent to the present work.
VIII INTRODUCTION
decadent", and if any author had produced valuable teaching about wages
his name would have been established among historians long ago.
But if the authors did not say anything "valuable", surely they must have
said something? And who were these men? In Murphy's thesis the evidence
for the second half of the Eigtheenth Century is drawn from a handful of
authors: I wondered how many others had written at that time and whether
these unexamined sources had continued to defend the objectivity of the
just wage, or had allowed wages to be determined merely by the wills of the
competing and contracting parties. This division of opinion had been illu
strated by Rocha and Murphy; was it verified in the other authors before
1800, and which were the authors who chose the side of the angels?
Besides, I wanted to know what the moralists of the succeeding hundred
years had taught. Which of the old manuals did they reprint? Could new
authors of the Ninetheenth Century have treated wages without any refe
rences to the classical economists? without any awareness of the Industrial
Revolution? without any echos of contemporary social questions?
Hurter's Nomenclator listed an alarming number of Moral Theologies for
the period between 1750 and 1890; there were also quite a few Treatises
on Justice. To limit the number in some way, while securing as catholic a
selection as possible, I confined myself, in the search for the actual publica
tions, to those written in Latin. Such works were more likely to have spread
beyond the original area of publication, unhampered by language barriers,
also, they were more likely to give a fair idea of the general opinions held
by catholics throughout the world. Individual bishops or preachers might
have been conspicuous for their social teaching, but the doctrine taught in
seminaries is surely a more accurate indication of the prevailing consensus of
priests and people.5 Whatever about the relationship between a cleric's
education and popular opinions, the purpose of this study is to show which
authors of Latin Theologies and Justice Treatises taught a wage doctrine,
and to assess such doctrine as was taught.
A difficulty arose; Hurter had supplied the names of about 150 works.
Where was one to find copies? The library of the Gregorian University in
Rome yielded over fifty works, representative of the whole period. Other
Roman libraries supplied each a few of the missing volumes: the Vittorio
Emanuele in the old Roman College, the library of the Lateran University,
the Alphonsianum, Antonianum, the former Oratorian-Vallicelliana - the
former Dominican-Casanatense and those of the national colleges, the North
5 ••• "the instruction and spiritual formation of the faithful and of religious depend so
largely on the fonnation their priests have received." - De Ecumenismo, chap. II, 11;
Decree of Second Vatican Council, 21/11/1964.
INTRODUCTION IX
American, English, Irish, Spanish, and German. Outside Rome a second
large number of works came to light in the Jesuit House of Studies at
Chantilly, near Paris; with another few from the National Library in Paris
itself. A third large selection became available at Louvain; principally at the
two Jesuit Houses of Study (Eegenhoven, and Heverlee), but another few
in the library of the Catholic University of Louvain. To the Librarians and
officials in all these places lowe my sincere thanks for their generous
assistance.
In the Bibliography I have listed the source material collected in those
libraries; for the whole period under review there are about 150 authors or
editors, responsible for about 200 works or different editions.
To give some idea of the relative importance of each author I have en
deavoured to supply notes outlining briefly his career, and the number of
editions of his works. This involved the consultation of innumerable tiny
articles in many Reference Works, and thus presented a problem for that
section of my Bibliography: To have listed separately the authors of several
five-line dictionary articles on each of my 150 source writers, would have
enlarged a work already long; instead, my Bibliography lists the Reference
Works consulted, and the individual notes indicate the precise authorities for
the information gathered on each author and work. Together the authorities
frequently provided all that was needed, but too often their information was
limited to what can be read on the title pages of the works I had examined.
After the bibliography, Table I gives the sources in chronological order;
the Table's simplicity is spoilt by many brackets, since it was necessary to
show both the historical sequence of first editions and to indicate which
editions had actually been examined - a note at the top of the Table guides
the reader through such intricacies.
The various nationalities and religious Institutes are unevenly represented
by the sources for this study. There are 56 Italian, 41 Central European,
25 French, 16 Low Country, 7 American, 2 Spanish (both writers published
in Italy), 1 Irish. The same writers are divided between 21 Jesuits, 9 Fran
ciscans, 8 Capuchins, 7 Redemptorists, 4 Carmelites, 4 Benedictines, 3 Do
minicans, 3 Vincentians, 2 Sulpicians, 2 Augustinians, 2 Canons Regular, as
well as one representative from each of several other religious bodies; the
remainder of the writers are secular priests. However, the divisions according
to both nationality and religious institute are rather different if the authors
are separated into two groups, as in fact the bibliography presents them,
with Sources I covering the Eighteenth Century, and Sources II listing the
works after 1800.
Sources I, 1750-1800, lists 51 authors and editors of 66 editions and
x
INTRODUCTION
works. The writers can be divided nationally: 1 Mexican, 2 Spaniards, 3
French, 4 Belgian, 12 Italian, 28 Gennan or central European. And the
same men represent various religious bodies: 1 Augustinian, and Cistercian,
and Jeromite, and Redemptorist; 2 Canons regular, 3 Capuchins, 3 Domini
cans, 4 Benedictines, 4 Carmelites, 7 Franciscans, 11 Jesuits; the 12 secular
priests who make up the remainder fonn less than one quarter of the total
number of the sources examined for this period.
Sources II, 1800-1890, lists 100 authors and editors of roughly 130 works
and editions. Nationally, the division gives: 1 Irish, 6 U.S.A., 10 Belgian and
2 Dutch, 17 Central European, 22 French, 44 Italian publications. And ac
cording to Religious Institutes the figures are: 10 Jesuits, 6 Redemptorists,
5 Capuchins, 3 Vincentians, 2 Franciscans and 2 Sulpicians, one represen
tative from each of several other religious bodies, but none from the Bene
dictines, the Cannelites and the Dominicans. In this second group, therefore,
the majority of writers belong to the secular clergy; they fonn two-thirds of
the total, in comparison with less than one-quarter for the earlier period.
Some questions are suggested by these figures. Why are there so many
Jesuits, in both periods? Being ignorant of the number of Jesuit publications
in relation to the total output of other moralists, I can suggest only why the
proportion of Jesuits should be so great in relation to the other sources here
studied: a) Hurter was probably more fully infonned on Jesuit publications,
and he provided the starting point for this investigation; b) it was princi
pally in Jesuit libraries that my search was conducted.
Why are there so many Germans in the first period? Perhaps because
Gennany could boast of so many Universities: the professors would have
been stimulated by the theological traditions, the philosophical movements,
and the publications which won reputations for their lay colleagues. The
small number of Gennans in the second period is probably partly due to the
fact that so many of the old Universities had fallen on evil days, but the
chief reason may be found in the growing use of the vernacular for theolo
gical publications; the works in Gennan simply fell outside the limits of this
study.
At first the proportion of French sources is very small. This reflects, I
think, a relative scarcity of French theological works in the second half of
the Eighteenth Century. The general temper of the times would explain
this, but the fewness of Moral Theologies may also be due to the popularity
of some of the older publications; LaCroix and Antoine, for example, were
much in use, and prospective authors may well have felt themselves incapa
ble of producing anything which could supplant the old masters. In the
Nineteenth Century there is a huge increase in the number of the French
INTRODUCTION XI
sources; apart from the fact that my investigations were pursued in a num
ber of French and Belgian libraries, the increase may also be explained by
the fact that so few French authors used the vernacular in this period, and
by the multiplication of seminary text books. Each seminary seems to have
aimed at having its own Theology. Besides, especially from around the
middle of the century, the influence of Alphonsus discredited a number of
the more severe Theologies previously in vogue, so that a need was felt to
produce new works.
The Italians, too, are very numerous among the sources used for the Nine
teenth Century. Again, they wrote in Latin; the seminaries liked to have
their own Theologies; the publications were available in the libraries in
Rome.
The reader will have noticed that the sources for this study do not re
present every country where Latin works on Moral Theology were publish
ed between 1750 and 1890, and in the listed sources he will fail to find some
authors whom one might have expected to see, since their countries are
otherwise well represented. These omissions were not deliberate. In fact I
still have a list of over fifty works (covering the whole period), none of
which were to be found in the libraries consulted; and my experience of
finding in those same libraries other works not listed in the Reference Books,
has convinced me that there must be many unrecorded Theologies on the
shelves of libraries in seminaries around the world. Very few of the sources
actually studied make any references to works which I was unable to con
sult; for an example of one of the few, the reader is referred to Joseph
Kovats, who published at Budapest in 1855, and who is treated in Chapter
VIII (p. 389; n. 217). The missing works are mostly from German lands,
and they do not seem to have been known to most of the writers in Southern
and Western Europe.
Among the sources studied are almost no works from the Iberian Penin
sula and from Latin America. Again, the omissions were not deliberate, but
they require an added word of explanation. Apart from the limitations of
the libraries consulted, one must acknowledge the limited output of theolo
gical works from such regions during the whole of the period under review.
This, anyway, seems to be a reasonable conclusion from a glance at Hurter's
Geographical Tables and from a consultation of a Spanish Ecclesiastical
History; neither book mentions any works whose absence from the present
study would seem to be really significant.6
My method of investigating the wage doctrine of the available sources
6 Cf. Montalban et al. Histaria t. IV, Madrid, 1953. also Grabmann's Staria; Haring
Vereecke La Thealagie, and Hocedez Histaire, as listed in the bibliography.