ABSTRACT
The disappearance of the architectural substance of the universal church, along with the patterns of communal and devotional mobility that revolved around it, constituted the most sudden and dramatic transformation in the character of the physical environment. At the same time, a more gradual but equally fundamental change was taking place in the shape of landholding and agrarian practice. Robert Crowley illuminates the essential features of the conditional view of property that was a characteristic part of the moral dictates of the medieval period. One crucial facet is that land and property is held as a trust or stewardship from God to be employed in line with the common good, and the individual is not at liberty to use it for excessive gain to the detriment of others. Importantly, Crowley also noted the other principal restraint that the conditional view of property placed on the rights of the individual.
