The Big Idea
Staring at the 'dreadful political signs' of 1840s England, the narrative rejects the modern gospel of supply-and-demand as a viable law for human society. It resurrects the twelve-century chronicle of Abbot Samson, a man who inherited a monastery of 'lazy farmers' and 'refractory monks' and beat it into organic order through sheer moral gravity. By comparing the purposeful poverty of the medieval monk to the 'Midas-eared Mammonism' of the industrial present, the work argues that society cannot survive on 'Cash-payment' alone. It calls for a transition from temporary 'nomadic' labor to a permanent 'Chivalry of Labour' led by a genuine Aristocracy of Talent rather than idle dilettantes.
Who's named
- Abbot Samson
A russet-bearded 12th-century reformer who rescued St. Edmundsbury from ruin.
- Jocelin
The monk whose 'Boswellean' notebook recorded the daily life of the abbey.
- Mammon
The deity of greed representing the 'Midas-eared' pursuit of pure profit.
- Henry II
The English King who seized abbey revenues during the interregnum.
What it's really about
- Hero-Worship
- The necessity of being led by the wisest 'royal souls'.
- Gospel of Mammonism
- The soul-crushing results of treating cash as the only social bond.
- Permanence
- The civilizing power of lifelong contracts over daily nomadic hiring.
Why it's memorable
- The ruddy glow of St. Edmund's Shrine shining through seven centuries of darkness.
- Abbot Samson struggling to put the 'saddle on the right horse' during monastery reform.
What it concludes
True greatness lies in calming tumultuous anarchy into fruitful sovereignty by making a nook of creation wiser and happier.
For your book club
- Is an 'Aristocracy of Talent' actually possible without slipping into simple tyranny?
- Does the modern preference for 'nomadic' flexibility destroy the 'Permanence' required for human fertility?