licals of Leo XIII. In these there were two chief points which entered into the Catholic position. The first was that man by nature has a right to possess private property, and that the right as natural and vested in the individual lies at the root of all social economy. The second is that the labourer has a right to a " living wage," and by this is distinctly meant a wage " sufficient to enable him to maintain himself, his wife, and children in reasonable comfort" and put by sufficient sav- ings " to secure a small income." The noteworthy feature of this second point is that the living wage is taken as the fundamental postulate rooted in reason and justice, and not as something left at the mercy of the open market and the physical law of supply and demand. Sweating and abuses of child and female labour are condemned, and ownership, especially in land, by " as many as possible of the humbler classes " is commended and encouraged (Rerum Novarum, De conditione opijicum, May 1 5 1891). To this was added a plea for shortening the hours of the labourer, especially in the mining industry, so that he might have sufficient leisure for his mental and religious development. These principles had been already set forth in more elaborate form by a Catholic society known as the Union of Fribourg, established for the study of social questions, and its annual reports and papers had been studied with interest and approval by Leo XIII.
In France the Encyclical exercised a notable influence on the direction of the leading Catholic organizations, the Jeunesse Catholique Francaise and the Society of Catholic Workmen founded by the Comte de Mun. It led to the formation of an important and popular organization known as the " Sillon," under the inspiration and leadership of M. Marc Sangnier. It had for its object the defence of the rights and the betterment of the condition of the labouring population based on the teaching of the Catholic Church. Circles for the study and diffusion of sound social principles were formed in all parts of France, and met with the encouragement of several of the leading bishops, notably Mgr. Mignon, Archbishop of Albi. As its following increased, its organization assumed a national or extra-diocesan importance, and large numbers of men who were not Catholics or merely nominal Catholics were attracted to its membership. In this way, from the original stage in which its members were frankly Catholics, it came to be in great measure composed of those who were content to pledge themselves as " not anti-Catholic." In this, the " Gros Sillon," the aim was to unite the workmen of all nations and all parties and all creeds in a movement of democratic progress. Its evolution of thought and teaching went to emphasize strongly not only the rights, but in many ways the autonomy of the individual, and, in the opinion of Cardinal Andrieu and several of the bishops, it had begun to verge into what seemed to be a species of modernism applied to social economy, thus com- mitting the Church to what many deemed to be an ultra- democratic and, therefore, a party programme. In response to many and repeated complaints made in this sense to the Holy See, Pius X. in Aug. 1910 finally addressed a letter to the French episcopate (Notre charge Apostolique) pointing out the aspects of the later Sillonist movement which had departed from the lines laid down by Leo XIII., and requiring that the asso- ciation should be brought back to its former Catholic basis, and placed under diocesan direction.
In Germany, some years before the issue of the papal Encyc- lical on labour in 1891, Herr Windthorst, the leader of the Centrum, had founded the great organization of German Catholics known as the Volksverein. It was followed in 1910 by the Congress of Christian Syndicates at Cologne which represented 360,000 workmen in Germany and 100,000 in Belgium and 100,000 in Italy. Associations for promoting the welfare of the labouring classes (Arbeiterwohl) and Catholic working-men's unions (Arbeitervereine) throughout Germany marked the growing interest and importance of the labour movement. At the same time societies were instituted on an international basis for the study of social problems, and circles were formed to encourage the reading and discussion of popular
Catholic social textbooks and literature. In eastern Germany, Cardinal Kopp, Prince Bishop of Breslau, on the occasion of his jubilee, was met by a vast concourse of Catholic workmen, marshalled in their unions, to thank him for the work he had achieved for their organization. In the west Cardinal Fischer, Archbishop of Cologne, had encouraged the same movement, albeit on more general lines. The unions in the east were of distinctively Catholic membership, while in the west Catholic workmen were often included in unions of a non-denominational kind. This difference of policy led to a considerable amount of discussion, and comparisons between what was known as the " Cologne influence " and the " Breslau influence " were much in circulation amongst German Catholics. On the one hand it was thought that the membership of Catholics would exercise a moderating influence on non-denominational associations. On the other it was felt that the strength and zeal of the Catholic unions would be best consulted by keeping them upon their own lines. In 1912 this matter was laid before the Holy See, and Pius X. addressed a brief (Singulari quadam) to Cardinal Kopp and the bishops of Germany in which he speaks in terms of the highest praise of the workmen's unions, and then, dealing with the point in dispute, lays it down that the Catholic unions are to be encouraged, as fostering the spirit and development of the members in harmony with their religious convictions (as at Breslau). At the same time the association of Catholics in non-denominational unions (as at Cologne) is not to be condemned, provided that due precautions are taken to safe- guard their teaching by their enrolment as well in the Catholic societies.
The Church and Canon Law. Pius X., a few months after his accession to the papacy, took in hand the codification of the Canon Law, a work of monumental importance to the Church, but one so difficult that many had deemed it to be impossible.
The ordinary sources of Canon Law are the canons of Church councils and the decrees of the popes, and during the ages these had accumulated to such an extent that their assortment became a task which would require many minds and many years to accomplish (see 5.192). In 1151 Gratian, the monk of Bologna, had gathered together in his Decretum (which was not official) many of the or- dinances of the Church, doing for her law something of the same ser- vice that Peter Lombard had done for her theology. Other collec- tions of canons followed by Balbo, Gilbert, Allain, Bernard the Great, Innocent III. and Honorius III., and these materials served as the base of the great work of Gregory IX. in 1234, known as the five books of Decretals. To it were added the Decretals of Boniface VIII. (the Sextus) and of Clement V. (Clementines) and of John XXII. (the Extravagantes), and these, with later enactments, formed the Corpus Juris, which throughout the Middle Ages and to our own time has been the standard groundwork of the voluminous treatises and textbooks of Canon Law in the Catholic Church.
The Council of Trent in the i6th century, and the Council of the Vatican in the i9th, had urged the need of bringing codification of the Canon Law up to date, and several collec- tions had been attempted by individual authors like Mgr. Martinucci and M. Wolf von Glanwell, but ah 1 of these had fallen short of what was required. On March 19 1904 Pius X. issued a M otu Proprio authorizing the inception of this difficult undertaking " arduum sane munus " and entrusting it to a commission of which the president was to be the Pope himself. The commission consisted of 16 cardinals, with 17 consultors.
Before the completion of the work the consultors numbered nearly 80, and were chosen as distinguished canonists or theologians from the various nations. A few days after the publication of the Motu Proprio, Cardinal Merry del Val, the Secretary of State, addressed a letter to the Catholic bishops in all parts of the world, explaining the nature of the enterprise, asking their cooperation by suggesting new points of reform or legislation, and requesting them to consult those in their dioceses who might have expert knowledge of the sub- ject, or even to send them to Rome to help in, the project. As a result voluminous communications were received from all parts of the Church, in the shape of suggestions or practical recommenda- tions. These were duly sifted, arranged" and discussed, and as far as possible adopted, and proofs and revises were transmitted to their proponents. In this way, at the cost of much labour and time, the whole episcopate throughout the world was consulted no less than three times over as to the matter and form of the forthcoming volume.
Its main characteristic was that, unlike the Corpus Juris, it would be not a series of collections of canons under various pontificates and
