f the natural
social utility of marriage from the point of view of increasing the
population of the world, and of securing that the new generation
shall be brought up as good and valuable citizens.[1] While voluntary
virginity is recommended as a virtue, it is nevertheless distinctly
recognised that the precept of virginity is one which by its very
nature can be practised by only a small proportion of the human race,
and that it should only be practised by those who seek by detachment
from earthly pleasures to regard divine things.[2] Aquinas further
says that large families help to increase the power of the State, and
deserve well of the commonwealth,[3] and quotes with approbation the
Biblical injunction to 'increase and multiply.'[4] AEgidius Romanus
demonstrates at length the advantages of large families in the
interests of the family and the future of the nation.[5]

[Footnote 1: _Summa Cont. Gent._, iii. 123, 136.]

[Footnote 2: _Summa_, II. ii. 151 and 152.]

[Footnote 3: _De Reg. Prin._, iv. 9.]

[Footnote 4: Gen. i. 28.]

[Footnote 5: _De Reg. Prin._, ii. 1, 6.]

The growth of a healthy population was made possible by the
reformation of family life, which was one of the greatest achievements
of Christianity in the social sphere. In the early days of the Church
the institution of the family had been reconstituted by moderating the
harshness of the Roman domestic rule (_patria potestas_), by raising
the moral and social position of women, and by reforming the system of
testamentary and intestate successions; and the great importance which
the early Church attached to the family as the basic unit of social
life remained unaltered throughout the Middle Ages.[5]

[Footnote 5: Troplong, _De l'Influence du Christianisme sur le Droit
civil des Romains_; Cossa, _Guide_, p. 99; Devas, _Political Economy_,
p. 168; Perin, _La Richesse dans les Societes chretiennes_, i. 541 _et
seq._; Hettinger, _Apologie du Christianisme_, v. 230 _et seq._]

The Middle Ages were therefore a period when the production of wealth
was looked upon as a salutary and honourable vocation. The wonderful
artistic monuments of that era, which have survived the intervening
centuries of decay and vandalism, are a striking testimony to
the perfection of production in a civilisation in which work was
considered to be but a form of prayer, and the manufacturer was
prompted to be, not a drudge, but an artist.

In the Middle Ages, however, as we