Indications of the provision made by the community for relief of the poor are found in the Capitularies of Charles the Great, indeed even in the 6th century in the canons of a Council held at Tours in 567. Corporate relief of the poor, later on carried out by means of the guilds, and the care of the needy in each particular district undertaken by unions of the parishes, were of a public and organised character. It has been justly remarked concerning the working of the mediæval institutions: “The results achieved by our insurance system were then attained by means of family support, corporations, village clubs and unions of the lords of the manors.… Such organised relief of the poor made any State relief unnecessary. The State authorities concerned themselves only negatively, viz. by prohibiting mendicancy and vagabondage.”[132] Private benevolence occupied the first place, since the very nature of Christian charity involves love of our neighbour. Its work was mainly done by means of the ecclesiastical institutions and the monasteries. Special arrangements also were made, under the direction of the Church, to meet the various needs, and such were to be found in considerable numbers both in large places and in small; all, moreover, was carried out on the lines of a careful selection of deserving cases and a wise control of expenditure.
The share taken by the Church in the whole work of charity was, generally speaking, a guarantee that the work was managed conscientiously.
Though among both monks and clergy scandalous instances of greed and self-seeking were not wanting, yet there were many who lived up to their profession and were zealous in assisting in the development of works of charity. The mendicant Orders, by the very example of the poverty prescribed by their rule, helped to combat all excessive avarice; their voluntary privations taught people how to endure the trials of poverty and they showed their gratitude for the alms bestowed on them by their labours for souls in the pulpit and in the school, and by doing their utmost to promote learning.
Every Order was exhorted by its Rule to fly idleness and to perform works of neighbourly charity.
There are plentiful sermons and works of piety dating from the close of the Middle Ages which prove how the faithful were not only urged to be charitable to the needy, but also to obey God’s command and to labour, this exhortation referring particularly to the poor themselves, who were not unnecessarily to become a burden to others. Again and again are the words of the Bible emphasised: “In the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat thy bread,” and “Whoever will not work neither let him eat” (Gen. iii. 19; 2 Thes. iii. 10).
In spite of this, lack of industrial occupation, the difficulty and even sometimes the entire absence of public supervision, and, in part also, the ease with which alms were to be had, bred a large crop of beggars, who moved about from place to place and who, in late mediæval times, became a perfect plague throughout the whole of Germany. Hence all the greater towns in the 15th century and early years of the 16th issued special regulations to deal with the poor. In the matter of these laws for the regulation of charity the city-fathers acted independently, strong in the growing consciousness of their standing and duties. Lay Guardians of the Poor were appointed by the magistrates and poor-boxes were established, the management of which devolved on the municipal authorities. The Catholic Netherlands set an excellent example in this respect by utilising the old hospital regulations and, with their help, drawing up new and independent organisations. Antwerp, Brussels, Louvain, Mechlin, Ghent, Bruges, Namur and other towns already possessed a well-developed system of poor relief.
“The admirable regulations for the relief of the poor at Ypres” (1525), to which reference is so often made, “a work of social reform of the first rank” (Feuchtwanger), sprang from such institutions, and these, in turn, were by Charles V in 1531 made the basis of his new Poor Law for the whole of the Netherlands. The Ypres regulations declared, that, according to the divine command, everyone is obliged to gain his living as far as he can. All begging was strictly prohibited, charitable institutions and private almsgiving were not allowed to have their way unchecked, admission of strangers was made difficult and other salutary restrictions were enforced, yet, on the other hand, Christian charity towards those unable to earn a living was warmly welcomed and set in the right channels.[133]
In the Netherlands, Humanism, which had made great progress in Erasmus’s native land, co-operated in the measures taken, and it was here that the important “De subventione pauperum” of Juan Ludovico de Vives, a friend of Erasmus, of Pope Hadrian IV and of Sir Thomas More, and a zealous opponent of Lutheranism, was published in 1526.
In the Catholic towns of Germany, particularly in the south, it was not merely the stimulus of Humanism but still more the economic and political development which, towards the end of the Middle Ages and during the transition to modern times, led to constant fresh efforts in the domain of the public relief of the poor. The assistance of the poor was, in fact, at that time “one of the principal social questions, poor relief being identical with social politics. To provide for the sick members of the guilds, for the serf incapable of work, for the beggar in the street, for the guest in the hostel, for the poor artisan to whom the city magistrates gave a loan free of interest, for the burgher who received cheap grain from the council, all this was, to give freely, to bestow alms and to perform works well pleasing to God.”[134]
The gaping rift in the German lands and the chaotic conditions which accompanied the transition from the agrarian to the commercial system of economy were naturally not favourable to the peaceful work of alleviating poverty. It was, however, eventually to the advantage of the towns to form themselves into separate administrations, able to safeguard their own charitable institutions by means of an efficient police system. Thus the town councils took over what had been formerly to a great extent the function of the Church, but this they did without any animosity towards her. They felt themselves to be acting as beseemed “Christian authorities.” They were encouraged in this by that interference, in what had once been the domain of the Church, of the territorial princes and the cities, which had become the rule in the 15th century. The more or less extensive suzerainty in Church matters which had prevailed even previous to the religious schism in Saxony, Brandenburg and many of the Imperial cities may be called to mind. In towns such as Augsburg, Nuremberg, Strasburg and Ratisbon the overwhelming increase which had taken place in the class which lived from hand to mouth, called for the prohibitive measures against beggary and the other regulations spoken of above.