Cultures of Care

the long version

"Charity, kindness and neighbourliness were central parts of Christian life in late medieval and early modern Europe. Despite the theological and social upheavals of the Reformation, the practice and necessity of giving remained widespread. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, civil magistrates developed complex systems to distribute alms to paupers aimed at separating the deserving poor from the feckless, idle or otherwise undeserving among them. Pulpits across Europe echoed with the same message: give generously and support pious causes. The appeals worked: centralised systems of charity distributed significant amounts of money across the period reflected in the increasingly complex accounts that they left behind. Away from the institutional perspective, however, we know little about domestic forms of charity or where they sat in relation to these newly- developed poor relief structures"--