Quiz: Rerum Novarum

All 30 questions. A perfect score earns the gold medal; 80% earns silver.

1. 1. Which of these is not among the duties Religion teaches employers?

   To respect the worker’s dignity as a man and a Christian To share the profits of the business with the workers Not to employ him in work unsuited to sex or age To give him time for the duties of piety
2. 2. What kind of duty is giving to the poor out of what remains once one’s needs and position are provided for?

   A duty of strict justice enforced by law A duty of charity, not of justice except in extreme cases A duty owed to the State through taxation and enforced by law A counsel only for priests and religious
3. 3. What does Leo call his “first and most fundamental principle” for alleviating the condition of the masses?

   The just wage The freedom of the Church The inviolability of private property The restoration of the medieval guilds
4. 4. What does Leo call “the great mistake” in the matter under consideration?

   The idea that private property is a natural and sacred right The idea that the Church should keep out of economics The idea that class is naturally hostile to class The idea that the poor are to blame for their own poverty
5. 5. Which early Christian writer does Leo cite on the contributions used to feed the needy, bury the dead and help orphans and the shipwrecked?

   St Jerome Origen Tertullian St Ambrose
6. 6. Which workers does Leo say should have shorter hours because their labour is more severe?

   Domestic servants Agricultural labourers at harvest Those who labour in mines and quarries Clerks and shop assistants in towns
7. 7. Why, according to Leo, must we not have recourse to the State in deriving the right of property?

   The State is ordained only to make war The State already owns the land The State is founded on violence Man is older than the State
8. 8. What two characters does Leo ascribe to a man’s labour?

   It is free and it is paid It is bodily and it is mental It is useful and it is honourable It is personal and it is necessary
9. 9. What does Leo advise Christian workmen who face associations run on principles hostile to Christianity?

   Join them and try to convert them from within Petition the State to dissolve them Form associations among themselves Avoid all associations and rely on their employers
10. 10. What example does Leo give to show that there is no shame in seeking one’s bread by labour?

    The monks of the Middle Ages St Paul, who worked as a tentmaker at Corinth The apostles, who were fishermen Christ, a carpenter Himself
11. 11. Which of these is not among the benefits Leo expects from spreading ownership of land?

    A greater abundance of the fruits of the earth Men clinging to the country of their birth A more equitable division of property Lower taxes for the rich
12. 12. Which subjects does Leo say his earlier letters had addressed?

    Political power, human liberty and the Christian constitution of the State Slavery in Africa, the missions and the Eastern Churches The Immaculate Conception, papal infallibility and the Roman Question since 1870 Usury, the guilds and the just price
13. 13. Whom does Leo quote for the view that a child, before the use of free will, is in the power and care of its parents?

    St Augustine St Thomas Aquinas Tertullian St Gregory the Great
14. 14. What does Leo say of efforts to make men equal?

    Equality can be reached by charity alone The State should equalise fortunes gradually through taxation It is impossible to reduce human society to a level Equality will come in the next century
15. 15. What do the Church’s critics want to substitute for its charity?

    Workers’ mutual-aid societies A system of State-organized relief Private philanthropy by the rich Higher wages
16. 16. From what source does Leo quote to show man’s natural impulse to call in help from others?

    Aristotle’s Politics Holy Scripture The rules of the medieval guilds The Roman law
17. 17. According to Leo, by whom would the Socialists have common property administered?

    The Church The State or municipal bodies Cooperative societies of producers The workers’ guilds
18. 18. What standard does Leo set for wages, as a dictate of nature older than any bargain?

    Enough to keep the wage earner in reasonable and frugal comfort A fixed share of the employer’s profits The wage set by the guild Whatever employer and workman freely agree
19. 19. To what does Leo compare the effect of hard work too early in life on a child?

    A flood washing away a field Rough weather destroying the buds of spring A frost killing the harvest Rust eating iron
20. 20. How does Leo describe the family in relation to the State?

    A creation of civil law A true society anterior to every kind of State A temporary association ended by the child’s majority A part of the State with no rights of its own
21. 21. On what does Leo ground man’s natural right to stable possession, as distinct from the animals?

    Man’s greater physical strength and skill in labour The law of the State Man’s descent from Adam Man’s reason, by which he provides for the future
22. 22. To what does Leo compare the harmony of the two classes in a State?

    The voices of a choir The stories of a building resting on one another The gears of a machine The symmetry of the members of the human body
23. 23. According to Leo, what happened to the workmen’s guilds?

    They survived only in Catholic countries, under the bishops’ protection They were absorbed by the State They became the modern trade unions They were destroyed last century and nothing took their place
24. 24. What does Leo say makes States grow rich?

    The discoveries of science Trade with foreign nations The labour of the workingman The savings of the wealthy
25. 25. According to Leo, why do workers frequently strike?

    Because the State encourages it Because agitators pay them to Because they wish to seize the factories and divide the profits Because hours are too long, work too hard or wages too low
26. 26. How does Leo describe what a small number of very rich men have laid on the poor?

    A cross to be borne with patience A burden lighter than in former ages A debt that charity must repay A yoke little better than slavery itself
27. 27. What kind of justice must rulers exercise towards each and every class?

    Commutative justice Legal justice Distributive justice Retributive justice
28. 28. What does Leo say of land bought by a workman from his savings?

    It belongs in part to the community It is only his wages in another form It may be taxed away for the common good It should be held in trust for his guild
29. 29. What does a man leave on the portion of nature he cultivates, making it his own?

    The mark of his family’s name and lineage The impress of his own personality A share of his wages A title granted by the State
30. 30. What do the “obsolete opinions” Leo criticises hold?

    That interest on loans is lawful That land should be divided equally among families That private persons may use the soil but not own it That the Church should own all land