David and Goliath. "While God could have made all men strong...he was unwilling to do so."
While God could have made all men strong, wise, and rich, he was unwilling to do so. He wished instead that these men should be strong, those weak; these wise, those foolish; these rich and those poor.
Pharaoh's Daughter Finding the Infant Moses. "He wished instead that these men should be ... rich and those poor."
For if all were strong, wise and wealthy, one would not be in need of the other.
The Judgement of Solomon. "...these wise, those foolish."
The Dominican Giordano of Pisa, preaching in Florence in 1304, intimated that without the poor, the salvation of the rich was impossible: “Why are the poor given their station in life? So that the rich might earn eternal life through them.”
"Ave Maria" Painting by Ludwig Richter
Diana Wood, Medieval Economic Thought (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2002), p. 43.
