In the canons enacted under Eádgár, but which are at least founded upon an ancient work of Cummianus, there is this entry:—“We enjoin that the priests so distribute the people’s alms, that they do both give pleasure to God, and accustom the people to alms[[1016]];” to which however there is an addition which can scarcely well be understood of anything but tithe: “and it is right that one part be delivered to the priests, a second part for the need of the church, and a third part for the poor.”
The Canons of Ælfríc have the same entry, and the same mode of distribution as those of Ecgberht: “The holy fathers have also appointed that men shall pay their tithes into God’s church. And let the priest go thither, and divide them into three: one part for the repair of the church; the second for the poor; the third for God’s servants who attend to the church[[1017]].”
Thus according to the view of the Anglosaxon church, ratified by the express enactment of the witan, a third of the tithe was the absolute property of the poor. But other means were found to increase this fund: not only was the duty of almsgiving strenuously enforced, but even the fasts and penances recommended or imposed by the clergy were made subservient to the same charitable purpose. The canons enacted under Eádgár provide[[1018]], that “when a man fasts, then let the dishes that would have been eaten be all distributed to God’s poor.” And again the Ecclesiastical Institutes declare[[1019]]: “It is daily needful for every man that he give his alms to poor men; but yet when we fast, then ought we to give greater alms than on other days; because the meat and the drink, which we should then use if we did not fast, we ought to distribute to the poor.”
So in certain cases where circumstances rendered the strict performance of penance difficult or impossible, a kind of tariff seems to have been devised, the application of which was left to the discretion of the confessor. The proceeds of this commutation were for the benefit of the poor. Thus Theodore teaches[[1020]]:—“But let him that through infirmity cannot fast, give alms to the poor according to his means; that is, for every day a penny or two or three.... For a year let him give thirty shillings in alms; the second year, twenty; the third, fifteen.”
Again[[1021]]:—“He that knows not the psalms and cannot fast, must give twenty-two shillings in alms for the poor, as commutation for a year’s fasting on bread and water; and let him fast every Friday on bread and water, and three forties; that is, forty days before Easter, forty before the festival of St. John the Baptist, and forty before Christmas-day. And in these three forties let him estimate the value or possible value of whatsoever is prepared for his use, in food, in drink or whatever it may be, and let him distribute the half of that value in alms to the poor,” etc.
When we consider the almost innumerable cases in which penance must have been submitted to by conscientious believers, and the frequent hindrances which public or private business and illness must have thrown in the way of strict performance, we may conclude that no slight addition accrued from this source to the fund at the disposal of the church for the benefit of the poor. Even the follies and vices of men were made to contribute their quota in a more direct form. Ecgberht requires that a portion of the spoil gained in war shall be applied to charitable purposes[[1022]]; and he estimates the amount at no less than a third of the whole booty. Again, it is positively enacted by Æðelred and his witan that a portion of the fines paid by offenders to the church should be applied in a similar manner: they say[[1023]], that such money “belongs lawfully, by the direction of the bishops, to the buying of prayers, to the behoof of the poor, to the reparation of churches, to the instruction, clothing and feeding of those who minister to God, for books, bells and vestments, but never for idle pomp of this world.”
More questionable is a command inculcated by archbishop Ecgberht, that the over-wealthy should punish themselves for their folly by large contributions to the poor[[1024]]: “Let him that collecteth immoderate wealth, for his want of wisdom, give the third part to the poor.”
Upon the bishops and clergy was especially imposed the duty of attending to this branch of Christian charity, which they were commanded to exemplify in their own persons: thus the bishops are admonished to feed and clothe the poor[[1025]], the clerk who possessed a superfluity was to be excommunicated if he did not distribute it to the poor[[1026]], nay the clergy were admonished to learn and practise handicrafts, not only in order to keep themselves out of mischief and avoid the temptations of idleness, but that they might earn funds wherewith to relieve the necessities of their brethren[[1027]]. Those who are acquainted with the MSS. and other remains of Anglosaxon art are well-aware how great eminence was attained by some of these clerical workmen, and how valuable their skill may have been in the eyes of the wealthy and liberal[[1028]].
Another source of relief remains to be noticed: I mean the eleemosynary foundations. It is of course well known that every church and monastery comprised among its necessary buildings a xenodochium, hospitium or similar establishment, a kind of hospital for the reception and refection of the poor, the houseless and the wayfarer. But I allude more particularly to the foundations which the piety of the clergy or laics established without the walls of the churches or monasteries. Æðelstán commanded the royal reeves throughout his realm to feed and clothe one poor man each: the allowance was to be, from every two farms, an amber of meal, a shank of bacon, or a ram worth fourpence, monthly, and clothing for the whole year. The reeves here intended must have been the bailiffs (villici, praepositi, túngeréfan) of the royal vills; and, if they could not find a poor man in their vill, they were to seek him in another[[1029]]. In the churches which were especially favoured with the patronage of the wealthy and powerful, it was usual for the anniversary of the patron to be celebrated with religious services, a feast to the brotherhood and a distribution of food to the poor, which was occasionally a very liberal one. In the year 832 we learn incidentally what were the charitable foundations of archbishop Wulfred. He commanded twenty-six poor men to be daily fed on different manors, he gave each of them yearly twenty-six pence to purchase clothing, and further ordered that on his anniversary twelve hundred poor men should receive each a loaf of bread and a cheese, or bacon and one penny[[1030]].
Oswulf, who was duke of East Kent at the commencement of the ninth century, left lands to Canterbury charging the canons with doles upon his anniversary: twenty ploughlands or about twelve hundred acres at Stanstead were to supply the canons and the poor on that day with one hundred and twenty wheaten loaves, thirty of pure wheat, one fat ox, four sheep, two flitches, five geese, ten hens, ten pounds of cheese (or if it happened to be a fastday, a weigh of cheese, fish, butter and eggs ad libitum), thirty measures of good Welsh ale, and a tub of honey or two of wine. From the lands of the brotherhood were to issue one hundred and twenty sufl loaves, apparently a kind of cake; while his lands at Bourn were to supply a thousand loaves of bread and a thousand sufls[[1031]]. Towards the end of the tenth century Wulfwaru devised her lands to various relatives, and charged them with the support of twenty poor men[[1032]]. About the same period Æðelstán the æðeling gave lands to Ely on condition that they fed one hundred poor men on his anniversary, at the expense of his heirs.