[105] See e.g. Chaucer, The Persone’s Tale, §§ 64-6. The parson expresses the orthodox view that “the condicioun of thraldom and the firste cause of thraldom is for sinne.” But he insists that serfs and lords are spiritually equal: “Thilke that thou clepest thy thralles been goddes peple; for humble folk been Cristes freendes.”
[106] Gratian, Decretum, pt. ii, causa x, Q. ii, c. iii, and causa xii, Q. ii, c. xxxix.
[107] Summa Theol., 1a 2ae, Q. xciv, art. v, § 3.
[108] An article of the German Peasants’ program in 1525 declared: “For men to hold us as their own property ... is pitiable enough, considering that Christ has delivered and redeemed us all, the lowly as well as the great, without exception, by the shedding of His precious blood. Accordingly it is consistent with Scripture that we should be free.” (The program is printed in J. S. Schapiro, Social Reform and the Reformation, 1909, pp. 137-42.) The rebels under Ket prayed “that all bondmen may be made free, for God freed them all with His precious blood-shedding” (printed in Bland, Brown, and Tawney, English Economic History, Select Documents, pt. ii, sect. i, no. 8).
CHAPTER II
[1] A Lecture on the Study of History, delivered at Cambridge, June 11, 1895, by Lord Acton, p. 9.
[2] W. Sombart (Der moderne Kapitalismus, 1916, vol. i, pp. 524-6) gives facts and figures. See also J. Strieder, Studien zur Geschichte kapitalistischer Organisationsformen, 1914, kap. i, ii.
[3] E. R. Daenell, Die Blütezeit der Deutschen Hanse, 1905; Schanz, Englische Handelspolitik gegen die Ende des Mittelalters, vol. i; N. S. B. Gras, The Early English Customs System, 1918, pp. 452-514.
[4] E.g., The Fugger News-Letters, 1568-1605, ed. V. von Klarwill, trans. P. de Chary, 1924.
[5] E. Albèri, Le Relazione degli Ambasciatori Veneti al Senato, serie I, vol. iii, 1853, p. 357 (Relazione di Filippo II Re di Spagna da Michele Soriano nel 1559): “Questi sono li tesori del re di Spagna, queste le miniere, queste l’Indie che hanno sostentato l’imprese dell’ Imperatore tanti anni.”