ABSTRACT
The medieval agrarian context was by definition an ideal world, an agricultural system with moral purpose and direction, where economic life reflected a Godly idea. In practice too, medieval communalism seemed to create a series of perfect balances among the farmers and between them and the land. But in terms of the basic need for subsistence, those relationships left something to be desired. We may eulogize the open equilibrium where the farmers occupied the fields by their working presence rather than by possessive command, but it was in one respect a sign of weakness. The expulsion of the universal church, the all-enveloping unity of Christ was deprived of its actual, practical location. The corporate ideal was dismembered, the world could be seen in the light of differentiation, and significant scope was created for the emergence of the self-possessed individual.
