se it is directed to worldly
gain, which clerics should despise, and because trading is open to so
many vices, since "a merchant is hardly free from sins of the lips."
[1] There is also another reason, because trading engages the mind too
much with worldly cares, and consequently withdraws it from spiritual
cares; wherefore the Apostle says:[2] "No man being a soldier to God
entangleth himself with secular business." Nevertheless it is lawful
for clerics to engage in the first-mentioned kind of exchange, which
is directed to supply the necessaries of life, either by buying or by
selling.'[3] The rule of St. Benedict contains a strong admonition to
those who may be entrusted with the sale of any of the products of the
monastery, to avoid all fraud and avarice.[4]

[Footnote 1: Eccles. xxvi. 28.]

[Footnote 2: 2 Tim. ii. 4.]

[Footnote 3: _Summa_, II. ii. 77, 4, ad. 3.]

[Footnote 4: _Beg. St. Ben._, 57.]

On the whole, the attitude towards commerce seems to have grown more
liberal in the course of the Middle Ages. At first all commerce was
condemned as sinful; at a later period it was said to be justifiable
provided it was influenced by good motives; while at a still later
date the method of treatment was rather to regard it as a colourless
act in itself which might be rendered harmful by the presence of bad
motives. This gradual broadening of the justification of commerce is
probably a reflection of the necessities of the age, which witnessed a
very great expansion of commerce, especially of foreign trade. In the
earlier centuries remuneration for undertaking risk was prohibited on
the authority of a passage in the Gregorian Decretals, but the later
writers refused to disallow it.[1] The following passage from Dr.
Cunningham's _Growth of English Industry and Commerce_ correctly
represents the attitude of the Church towards commerce at the end
of the Middle Ages: 'The ecclesiastic who regarded the merchant as
exposed to temptations in all his dealings would not condemn him as
sinful unless it were clear that a transaction were entered on
solely for greed, and hence it was the tendency for moralists to draw
additional distinctions, and refuse to pronounce against business
practices where common sense did not give the benefit of the
doubt.'[2] We have seen that one motive which would justify the
carrying on of trade was the desire to support one's self and one's
family. Of course this motive was capable of bearing a