ABSTRACT
This chapter proposes to qualify the use of the label Commonwealth-men because it tends to mislead more than it informs. In reality, the Commonwealth-men came out strongly against voluntary poverty position they shared with social humanists and in favor of full employment. Commonwealth attitudes were not peculiar to four men whose attitudes and influence were limited to the mid-century period. It may be true that the authors did not constitute an organized party with a coherent program, but those criteria are of dubious relevance to the Tudor period. In sum, there is no denying there were numerous writers committed to a traditional theory of society, and that they were articulate, insightful, and courageous, bringing, as they intended, great moral pressure on their contemporaries, including governments. Hugh Latimer has been seen as the standard-bearer of the Commonwealth-men, even occupying a place of primacy as a champion of the poor.
