ii. 117) the shares of the (1) clergy and papal officers, (2) churches

and monasteries, and (3) "hospitals, deaconries and ecclesiastical wards for the poor," were calculated in money and distributed; and the first day in every month St Gregory distributed to the poor in kind corn, wine, cheese, vegetables, bacon, meal, fish and oil. The sick and infirm were superintended by persons appointed to inspect every street. Before the pope sat down to his own meal a portion was separated and sent out to the hungry at his door. The Roman _plebs_ had thus become the poor of Christ (_pauperes Christi_), and under that title were being fed by _civica annona_ and _sportula_ as their ancestors had been; and the deaconries had superseded the "regions" and the "steps" from which the corn had been distributed. The _hospitium_ was now part of a common organization of relief, and the sick were visited according to Jewish and early Christian precedent. How far kindly Romans visited the sick of their day we do not know. Alms and the _annona_ were now, it would seem, administered concurrently; and there was a system of poor relief independent of the churches and their alms (unless these, organized, as in Scottish towns, on the ancient ecclesiastical lines, were paid wholly or in part to a central diaconate fund). Much had changed, but in much Roman thought still prevailed.

On lines similar to these the organization of poor relief in the middle ages was developed. In the provinces in the later empire the senate or _ordo decurionum_ were responsible for the public provisioning of the towns (Fustel de Coulanges, _La Gaule romaine_, p. 251), and no doubt the care of the poor would thus in some measure devolve on them in times of scarcity or distress. On the religious side, on the other hand, the churches would probably be constant centres of almsgiving and relief; and then, further, when the Roman municipal system had decayed, each citizen (as in Charlemagne's time, 742-814) was required to support his own dependants--a step suggestive of much after-history.

The change in sentiment and method could hardly be more strongly marked than by a comparison of "the _Teaching_" with St Ambrose's (334-397) "Duties of the Clergy" (_De Officiis Ministrorum_). For the old instinctive obedience to a command there is now an endeavour to find a reasoned basis for charitable action. Pauperism is recognized. "Never was the greed of beggars greater than it is now.... They want to empty the purses of the poor, to deprive them of the means of support. Not content with a little, they ask for more.... With lies about their lives they ask for further sums of money." "A method in giving is necessary." But in the suggestions made there is little consistency. Liberality is urged as a means of gaining the love of the people; a new and a false issue is thus raised. The relief is neither to be "too freely given to those who are unsuitable, nor too sparingly bestowed upon the needy." Everywhere there is a doctrine of the mean reflected through Cicero's _De Officiis_, the doctrine insufficiently stated, as though it were a mean of quantity, and not that rightly tempered mean which is the harmony of opposing moods. The poor are not to be sent away empty. Those rejected by the church are not to be left to the "outer darkness" of an earlier Christianity. They must be supplied if they are in want. The methodic giver is "hard towards none, but is free towards all." Consequently none are refused, and no account is taken of the regeneration that may spring up in a man from the effort towards self-help which refusal may originate. Thus after all it appears that method means no more than this--to give sometimes more, sometimes less, to all needy people. In the small congregational church of early Christianity, each member of which was admitted on the conditions of strictest discipline, the common alms of the faithful could hardly have done much harm within the body, even though outside they created and kept alive a horde of vagrant alms-seekers and pretenders. Now in this department at least the church had become the state, and discipline and a close knowledge of one's fellow-Christians no longer safeguarded the alms. From Cicero is borrowed the thought of "active help," which "is often grander and more noble," but the thought is not worked out. From the social side the problem is not understood or even stated, and hence no principle of charity or of charitable administration is brought to light in the investigation. Still there are rudiments of the economics of charity in the praise of Joseph, who made the people _buy_ the corn, for otherwise "they would have given up cultivating the soil; for he who has the use of what is another's often neglects his own." Perhaps, as St Augustine inspired the theology of the middle ages, we may say that St Ambrose, in the mingled motives, indefiniteness, and kindliness of this book, stands for the charity of the middle ages, except in so far as the movement which culminated in the brotherhood of St Francis awakened the intelligence of the world to wider issues.

In Constantinople the pauperism seems to have been extreme. The corn supplies of Africa were diverted there in great part when it became the capital of the empire. This must have left to Rome a larger scope for the development of the civic-religious administration of relief. St Chrysostom's sermons give no impression of the rise of any new administrative force, alike sagacious and dominant. The appeal to give alms is constant, but the positive counsel on charitable work is _nil_. The people had the _annona civica_, and imperial gifts, corn, allowances (_salaria_) from the treasury granted for the poor and needy, and an annual gift of 50 gold pounds (rather more than L1400) for funerals. Besides these there were many institutions, and the begging and the almsgiving at the church doors. "The land could not support the lazy and valiant beggars." There were public works provided for them; if they refused to work on them they were to be driven away. The sick might visit the capital, but must be registered and sent back (A.D. 382); the sturdy beggar was condemned to slavery. So little did alms effect. And in the East monasticism seems to have produced no firmness of purpose such as led to the organization of the church and of charitable relief under St Gregory.

Another movement of the Byzantine period was the establishment of the endowed charity. The Jewish synagogue long served as a place for the reception of strangers--a religious [Greek: xenodocheion]. Probably the strangers referred to in "the _Teaching_" were so entertained. The table of the bishop and a room in his house served as the guest-chamber, for which afterwards a separate building was instituted. In the East the Jewish charitable inn first appears, and there took place the earliest extension of institutions. There was probably a demand for an elaboration of institutions as social changes made themselves felt in the churches. We have seen this in the case of the [Greek: agape]. Similar changes would affect other branches of charitable work. The hospital (_hospitalium_, [Greek: xenodocheion]) is defined as a "house of God in which strangers who lack hospitality are received" (Suicerus, _Thesaur._), a home separated from the church; and round the church, out of the primitive [Greek: xenodocheion] of early Christian times and the entertainment of strangers at the houses of members of the community, would grow up other similar charities. In A.D. 321 licence was given by Constantine to leave property to the Church. The churches were thus placed in the same position as pagan temples, and though subsequently Valentinian (A.D. 379) withdrew the permission on account of the shameless legacy-hunting of the clergy, in that period much must have been done to endow church and charitable institutions. In the same period grew to its height the passion for monasticism. This affected the parish and the endowed charity alike. Under its influence the deacon as an almoner tends to disappear, except where, as in Rome, there is an elaborate system of relief. Nor does it seem that deaconesses, widows, and virgins continued to occupy their old position as church workers and alms-receivers. Naturally when marriage was considered "in itself an evil, perhaps to be tolerated, but still degrading to human nature," and (A.D. 385) the marriage of the clergy was prohibited, men, except those in charge of parishes, and women would join regular monastic bodies; the deacon, as almoner, would disappear, and the "widows" and virgins would become nuns. Thus there would grow up a large body of men and women living segregated in institutions, and forming a leisured class able to superintend institutional charities. And now two new officers appear, the _eleemosynarius_ or almoner and the _oeconomus_ or steward (already an assistant treasurer to the bishop), who superintend and distribute the alms and manage the property of the institution. (In the first six books of the _Apost. Constit._, A.D. 300, these officers are not mentioned.) In these circumstances the _hospitium_ or hospital ([Greek: xenon], [Greek: katagogion]) assumes a new character. It becomes in St Basil's hands (A.D. 330-379) a resort not only for those who "visit it from time to time as they pass by, but also for those who need some treatment in illness." And round St Basil at Caesarea there springs up a colony of institutions. Four kinds principally are mentioned in the Theodosian code: (i) the guest-houses ([Greek: xenodocheia]); (2) the poor-houses ([Greek: ptocheia]), where the poor (_mendici_) were housed and maintained (the [Greek: ptocheion] was a general term also applied to all houses for the poor, the aged, orphans and sick); (3) there were orphanages ([Greek: orphanotropheia]) for orphans and wards; and (4) there were houses for infant children ([Greek: brephotropheia]). Thus a large number of endowed charities had grown up. This new movement it is necessary to consider in connexion with the law relating to religious property and bequests, in its bearing on the rule of the monasteries, and in its effect on the family.

The sacred property (_res sacra_) of Roman law consisted of things dedicated to the gods by the pontiff with the approval of the civil authority, in turn, the people, the senate and the emperor. Things so consecrated were inalienable. Apart from this in the empire, the municipalities as they grew up were considered "juristic persons" who were entitled to receive and hold property. In a similar position were authorized _collegia_, amongst which were the mutual aid societies referred to above. Christians associated in these societies would leave legacies to them. Thus (W.M. Ramsay, _Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia_, I. i. 119) an inscription mentions a bequest (possibly by a Christian) to the council ([Greek: synhedrion]) of the presidents of the dyers in purple for a ceremonial, on the condition that, if the ceremony be neglected, the legacy shall become the property of the gild for the care of nurslings; and in the same way a bequest is left in Rome (Orelli 4420) for a memorial sacrifice, on the condition that, if it be not performed, double the cost be paid to the treasury of the corn-supply (_fisco stationis annonae_). No unauthorized _collegia_ could receive a legacy. "The law recognized no freedom of association." Nor could any private individual create a foundation with separate property of its own. Property could only be left to an authorized juristic person, being a municipality or a _collegium_. But as the problem of poverty was considered from a broader standpoint, there was a desire to deal with it in a more permanent manner than by the _annona civica_. The _pueri alimentarii_ (see above) were considered to hold their property as part of the _fiscus_ or property of the state. Pliny (_Ep._ vii. 18), seeking a method of endowment, transferred property in land to the steward of public property, and then took it back again subject to a permanent charge for the aid of children of freemen. By the law of Constantine and subsequent laws no such devices were necessary. Widows or deaconesses, or virgins dedicated to God, or nuns (A.D. 455), could leave bequests to a church or memorial church (_martyrum_), or to a priest or a monk, or to the poor in any shape or form, in writing or without it. Later (A.D. 475) donations of every kind, "to the person of any martyr, or apostle, or prophet, or the holy angels," for building an oratory were made valid, even if the building were promised only and not begun; and the same rule applied to infirmaries ([Greek: nosokomoeia]) and poor-houses ([Greek: ptocheia])--the bishop or steward being competent to appear as plaintiff in such cases. Later, again (A.D. 528), contributions of 50 solidi (say about L19, 10s.) to a church, hostel ([Greek: xenodocheion]), &c., were made legal, though not registered; while larger sums, if registered, were also legalized. So (A.D. 529) property might be given for "churches, hostels, poor-houses, infant and orphan homes, and homes for the aged, or any such community" (_consortium_), even though not registered, and such property was free from taxation. The next year (530) it was enacted that prescription even for 100 years did not alienate church and charitable property. The broadest interpretation was allowed. If by will a share of an estate was left "to Christ our Lord," the church of the city or other locality might receive it as heir; "let these, the law says, belong to the holy churches, so that they may become the alimony of the poor." It was sufficient to leave property to the poor (_Corpus Juris Civilis_, ed. Krueger, 1877, ii. 25). The bequest was legal. It went to the legal representative of the poor--the church. Charitable property was thus church property. The word "alms" covered both. It was given to pious uses, and as a kind of public institution "shared that corporate capacity which belonged to all ecclesiastical institutions by virtue of a general rule of law." On a _pia causa_ it was not necessary to confer a juristic personality. Other laws preserved or regulated alienation (A.D. 477, A.D. 530), and checked negligence or fraud in management. The clergy had thus become the owners of large properties, with the _coloni_ and slaves upon the estates and the allowances of civic corn (_annona civica_); and (A.D. 357) it was stipulated that whatever they acquired by thrift or trading should be used for the service of the poor and needy, though what they acquired from the labour of their slaves in the labour houses (_ergastula_) or inns (_tabernae_) might be considered a profit of religion (_religionis lucrum_).

Thus grew up the system of endowed charities, which with certain modifications continued throughout the middle ages, and, though it assumed different forms in connexion with gilds and municipalities, in England it still retains, partially at least, its relation to the church. It remained the system of institutional relief parallel to the more personal almsgiving of the parish.

Monasticism, in acting on men of strong character, endowed them with a double strength of will, and to men like St Gregory it seemed to give back with administrative power the relentless firmness of the Roman. In the East it produced the turbulent soldiery of the church, in the West its missionaries; and each mission-monastery was a centre of relief. But whatever the services monasticism rendered, it can hardly be said to have furthered true charity from the social standpoint, though out of regard to some of its institutional work we may to a certain degree qualify this judgment. The movement was almost of necessity in large measure anti-parochial, and thus out of sympathy with the charities of the parish, where personal relations with the poor at their homes count for most.

The good and evil of it may be weighed. Monasticism working through St Augustine helped the world to realize the mood of love as the real or eternal life. Of the natural life of the world and its responsibilities, through which that mood would have borne its completest fruit, it took but little heed, except in so far as, by creating a class possessed of leisure, it created able scholars, lawyers and administrators, and disciplined the will of strong men. It had no power to stay the social evils of the day. Unlike the friars, at their best the monks were a class apart, not a class mixed up with the people. So were their charities. The belief in poverty as a fixed condition--irretrievable and ever to be alleviated without any regard to science or observation, subjected charity to a perpetual stagnation. Charity requires belief in growth, in the sharing of life, in the utility and nobility of what is done here and now for the hereafter of this present world. Monasticism had no thought of this. It was based on a belief in the evil of matter; and from that root could spring no social charity. Economic difficulties also fostered monasticism. Gold was appreciated in value, and necessaries were expensive, and the cost of maintaining a family was great. It was an economy to force a son or a brother into the church. The population was decreasing; and in spite of church feeling Marjorian (A.D. 461) had to forbid women from taking the veil before forty, and to require the remarriage of widows, subject to a large forfeit of property (Hodgkin, _Italy and her Invaders_, ii. 420). Monasticism was inconsistent with the social good. As to the family--like the moderns who depreciate thrift and are careless of the life of the family, the monks, believing that marriage was a lower form of morality, if not indeed, as would at times appear, hardly moral at all, could feel but little enthusiasm for what is socially a chief source of health to the community and a well-spring of spontaneous charitable feeling. By the sacerdotal-monastic movement the moralizing force of Christianity was denaturalized. Among the secular clergy the falsity of the position as between men and women revealed itself in relations which being unhallowed and unrecognized became also degrading. But worse than all, it pushed charity from its pivot. For this no monasteries or institutions, no domination of religious belief, could atone. The church that with so fine an intensity of purpose had fostered chastity and marriage was betraying its trust. It was out of touch with the primal unit of social life, the child-school of dawning habits and the loving economy of the home. It produced no treatise on economy in the older Greek sense of the word. The home and its associations no longer retained their pre-eminence. In the extreme advocacy of the celibate state, the honourable development of the married life and its duties were depreciated and sometimes, one would think, quite forgotten.

We may ask, then, What were the results of charity at the close of the period which ends with St Gregory and the founding of the medieval church?--for if the charity is reflected in the social good the results should be manifest. Economic and social conditions were adverse. With lessened trade the middle class was decaying (Dill, _Roman Society in the Last Century of the Western Empire_, p. 204) and a selfish aristocracy rising up. Municipal responsibility had been taxed to extinction. The public service was corrupt. The rich evaded taxation, the poor were oppressed by it. There were laws upon laws, endeavours to underpin the framework of a decaying society. Society was bankrupt of skill--and the skill of a generation has a close bearing on its charitable administration. While hospitals increased, medicine was unprogressive. There were miserable years of famine and pestilence, and constant wars. The care of the poorer classes, and ultimately of the people, was the charge of the church. The church strengthened the feeling of kindness for those in want, widows, orphans and the sick. It lessened the degradation of the "actresses," and, co-operating with Stoic opinion, abolished the slaughter of the gladiatorial shows. It created a popular "dogmatic system and moral discipline," which paganism failed to do; but it produced no prophet of charity, such as enlarged the moral imagination of the Jews. It ransomed slaves, as did paganism also, but it did not abolish slavery. Large economic causes produced that great reform. The serf attached to the soil took the place of the slave. The almsgiving of the church by degrees took the place of _annona_ and _sportula_, and it may have created pauperism. But dependence on almsgiving was at least an advance on dependence founded on a civic and hereditary right to relief. As the _colonus_ stood higher than the slave, so did the pauper, socially at any rate, free to support himself, exceed the _colonus_. Bad economic conditions and traditions, and a bad system of almsgiving, might enthral him. But the way, at least, was open; and thus it became possible that charity, working in alliance with good economic traditions, should in the end accomplish the self-support of society, the independence of the whole people.