Overview

The essays in this collection attempt to show how Roman Catholic communities in early modern Europe (particularly the great cities of italy, and Venice above all) treated poor people and organized poor relief. Some essays discuss the principal groupings of poor, from the genteel, shamefaced poor to orphans and foundlings, and from working folk to idle rogues. Others examine the motives and functions of the principal types of organization that dealt with poor people, either incidentally or as their main concern: religious brotherhoods, hospitals, conservatories, public loan banks, houses for the conversion of Jews and Muslims to Christianity. One main argument is that, although Catholics and Protestants shared a dislike and fear of vagrancy and reacted in similar ways to economic crises, Catholic charity was, in many respects, quite different from Protestant charity.

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9780860784463

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Reviews

'This book is a welcome collection of Pullan's work, making many of his most important studies available in one volume.' Sixteenth Century Journal

Author Information

Brian Pullan, University of Manchester, UK

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