Religion and the Rise of Capitalism · Chapter
III: The Church of England explained
This chapter examines the collision between the Church of England's inherited medieval social ethics and the new economic realities of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
What happens
This chapter examines the collision between the Church of England's inherited medieval social ethics and the new economic realities of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It focuses on the controversy over usury and economic morality, the Church's failure to adapt its teachings to a commercial and capitalist society, and the resulting decline of religious influence over economic conduct.
Themes in this chapter
Conflict Between Ethics and Economics
The chapter centers on the struggle between the Church's moral teachings and the new economic realities, particularly over usury and fair bargaining.
Transformation of Social Ethics
The Church's traditional social doctrines are shown as ineffective in the face of commercial capitalism, leading to their theoretical abandonment.
The Role of the Church in Society
The Church's failure to adapt its teachings to modern economic conditions is highlighted, resulting in its declining influence over economic conduct.
Characters to notice
- The Church
The Church of England is depicted as clinging to medieval social theory and struggling to respond to the rise of commercial civilization.
- William Laud
Quoted at the chapter's opening, emphasizing the connection between private interest and the commonwealth and the Church.
- Thomas Aquinas
Referenced for the medieval doctrine that a fair contract benefits both parties equally.
- Niccolò Machiavelli
Mentioned as representing the argument that there is one rule for business and another for private life.
- Francis Bacon
Quoted on the social ideal that wealth should be in many hands rather than few.
Key passages
“Treasure doth then advance greatness, when the wealth of the subject be rather in many hands than few.”
Wealth contributes to national power when it is widely distributed among many people rather than concentrated in a few.
Bacon's ideal of a distributive state, where property ownership is widespread.
“If any man be so addicted to his private, that he neglect the common, state, he is void of the sense of piety, and wisheth peace and happiness to himself in vain.”
Anyone who prioritizes personal interest over the common good lacks true piety and cannot find genuine peace or happiness.
Laud's sermon emphasizing the interdependence of individual and community within the Church and commonwealth.
“To argue, in the manner of Machiavelli, that there is one rule for business and another for private life, is to open a door to an orgy of unscrupulousness before which the mind recoils.”
Claiming that business ethics differ from personal ethics, as Machiavelli did, invites rampant immorality that is horrifying to contemplate.
The author critiques the separation of economic and personal morality.