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common; the hcnodochiir, for strangers; the noso-
comice. for the sick; the orphanotrophice and brepho-
trophice for orphans and foundlings; the geronlo-
comiw for the aged. Of special importance was the
hospital BoiTiWas erected bj- St. Basil in Csesarea about
369 for all classes of the needy. At the end of the
sixth century hospitals and poorhouses existed in
great numbers in all the divisions of the ecclesiastical
territories. They were all under the bishop, and
managed by a special spiritual director. The sick
were nursed by deaconesses, widows, and attendants
under them (see Hospitals).
(7) After Gregory the Great (d. 604), who or- ganized poor-relief on a model basis in Rome and urged bishops and secular rulers to rational works of jiro- vision for the needy, the spread of Christianitj' to the country parts and to the Germanic and Anglo- Saxon nomadic tribes led to the gradual extension of the parish sj-stem, which dates from the fourth century; this movement was accompanied by the decentralization of poor-relief. The bishop retained the direction of the poor-relief of his city, and the dealing with special crises of need in his diocese; on the other hand, first in Gaul and afterwards in wider circles, the parishes were, in accordance with the decrees of the Council of Tours (567), to maintain their poor at their own cost, in order that these might not wander into other communities. Since the early Middle Ages new centres of ecclesiastical poor-relief were found in the monasteries, first those of the Benedictines, later those of the Cistercians, Pra>mon- stratensians etc. These constituted the main factor in the preventive and curative poor-relief; gave an example of work; taught the uncivilized peoples agriculture, handicrafts, and the arts; trained the youth; erected and maintained hospices for strangers and hospitals for the sick. A mighty spur to eccle- siastical and private poor-relief was supplied by the replacing of canonical penances by prayer, fasting, and the devoting of whole or part of one's fortune to the poor, pious legacies for one's own soul or for that of another.
(8) From the days of Constantine civil legislation supported ecclesiastical poor-relief by granting privileges in favour of pious foundations, legacies, hospitals etc. The State also adopted from the time of Emperors Gratian, Valentinian II, and Justinian, measures against lazy beggars. The later Merovin- gians diverted to some extent church property from its proper objects and disorganized poor-relief. In his capitularies Charlemagne created a state-eccle- siastical organization for providing for the poor, and strictly forbade vagabondage (806). His or- ganization was revived by King St. Louis (d. 1270), who sought to make the communities responsible for the support of parochial poor-relief.
(9) During the Kliddle Ages properly so-called there is an important distinction between poor- relief in the city and in the country. The feudal system, which had become established in the tenth century, threw the care of impoverished servants and serfs, and thus of the greater number of the poor of the countrj' districts, on the lord of the manor. In addition the parish priest worked for the poor of his flock, and the monasteries and foundations for strangers and the sick.
(10) Provision f or t he poor was splendidly developed in the cities of the Middle Ages. Its administrators were — in addition to the parish clerg>', the monas- teries, and the hospitals — the guilds (q. v.), corpora- tions, and confraternities. The Hospitallers cared for the sick, the poor in their houses, and travellers; the guild.s, for sick and impoverished members and their families; the distress guilds, for pilgrims and travellers. SiH'i-inl niigious congregations cared for the sick and ])r('pared iniMlicincs — e. g. the Humiliati, the Jesuati, the Brothers of the Holy Ghost, the
Beguines and Beghards, and, since the thirteenth
century, the mendicant orders, especially the Fran-
ciscans. The pawn -offices {monies pietatis) estab-
lished in Italy, and the loan societies founded by
Bishop Giberti of Verona (152S), served as repressive,
poor-relief. \
It is false to assert that municipal regulations in aid of the poor were a fruit of the Reformation; the medieval municipal magistrates, in conjunction with the clergy, already made extensive provision for the poor, endeavoured to stop begging by ordinances and police-regulations, supported the real poor and municipal institutions, and fostered the education of orphans, in so far as this was not provided for by relations and the guilds. In general, medieval poor- relief was in no way lacking in organization; in the country districts the organization was indeed per- fect; in the towns the clergj% monasteries, magis- trates, guilds, confraternities, and private individuals vied with one another in providing for the poor with such discrimination and practical adaptability that in normal times the provision satisfied all demands, extraordinary calamities alone overtaxing it. The frightful growth of beggary at the close of the Middle Ages arose, not from the failure of ecclesiastical poor- relief, but from the relative over-population of the European civilized countries and other economical conditions of the time. The lack of a central ad- ministration exercised by the bishop, after the model of the early Christian relief, constituted indeed a defect in organization.
(11) The Reformation destroyed the monasteries and ecclesiastical foundations, which were for the most part applied to secular objects. The terrible wars of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries ag- gravated the misery caused by the secularization of the property which had maintained poor-relief to such an extent that poverty, begging, crime, want, and public insecurity grew unchecked. The poor- regulations of the towns were almost entirely in- effectual, and the State governments entered on a warfare with poverty and vagabondage by inflicting severe punishments, and, in England and France, the penalty of death. In opposition to the Christian tradition, the Reformers championed public relief of the poor, administered by the secular community and the State, and substituted for the principle of charitable institutions the home principle. In Ger- many the secularization of poor-relief began with the imperial police regulations of 1.530; in France Francis II extended the compulsory obligation of the community to give and the right of the poor to claim support, decreed by Francis I for Paris, to all hia territories. It was but to be expected that poor- reUef should be secularized also in England (1536); this provision was followed in 1575 by the legal in- stitution of poorhouses, and in 1601 by the celebrated Poor Law of Queen Elizabeth. This state continued until 1834, when the reform which had been found absolutely indispensable was effected.
(12) The Council of Trent renewed the ancient precepts concerning the obligations of the bishops to provide for the poor, especially to supervise the hospitals (Se.ss. VII de Ref., cap. xv; Sess. XXV de Ref., cap. viii) and the employment of the income from ecclesiastical prebends (Sess. XXV de Ref., cap. i). In accordance with the.se decrees, numerous provincial synods laboured to improve ecclesiastical poor-relief. St. Charles Borromeo, Archbishop of Milan (d. 1584), worked with special zeal and great ability. Simultaneously there arose especially for the care of the poor and the sick and for the training of poor children a number of new orders and congre- gations — e. g.: the Order of Brothers of Mercy, the Clerics Regular of St. Camillus of Lelli-s, the Somaschans, the Order of St. Hippolytus in Mexico, the Bethlemites, the Hospitaller Sisters, the Piarista.
