were regarded (as also among the Jews and Mohammedans) as the chief works of piety; the last
was put highest. For the sake of charity it is right to break the fast or to interrupt devotion.
Pope Gregory the Great best represents the mediaeval charity with its ascetic self-denial,
its pious superstitions and utilitarian ingredients. He lived in that miserable transition period when
the old Roman civilization was crumbling to pieces and the new civilization was not yet built up
on its ruins. "We see nothing but sorrow," he says, "we hear nothing but complaints. Ah, Rome!
once the mistress of the world, where is the senate? where the people? The buildings are in ruins,
the walls are falling. Everywhere the sword! Everywhere death! I am weary of life! "But charity
remained as an angel of comfort. It could not prevent the general collapse, but it dried the tears and
soothed the sorrows of individuals. Gregory was a father to the poor. He distributed every month
cart-loads of corn, oil, wine, and meat among them. What the Roman emperors did from policy to
keep down insurrection, this pope did from love to Christ and the poor. He felt personally guilty
when a man died of starvation in Rome. He set careful and conscientious men over the Roman
hospitals, and required them to submit regular accounts of the management of funds. He furnished
the means for the founding of a Xenodochium in Jerusalem. He was the chief promoter of the
custom of dividing the income of the church into four equal parts, one for the bishop, one for the
rest of the clergy, one for the church buildings, one for the poor. At the same time he was a strong
believer in the meritorious efficacy of almsgiving for the living and the dead. He popularized
Augustin’s notion of purgatory, supported it by monkish fables, and introduced masses for the
departed (without the so-called thirties, i.e. thirty days after death). He held that God remits the
guilt and eternal punishment, but not the temporal punishment of sin, which must be atoned for in
this life, or in purgatory. Thus be explained the passage about the fire (1 Cor. 3:11) which consumes
wood, hay, and stubble, i.e. light and trifling sins such as useless talk, immoderate laughter,
mismanagement of property. Hence, the more alms the better, both for our own salvation and for
the relief of our departed relatives and friends. Almsgiving is the wing of repentance, and paves
the way to heaven. This idea ruled supreme during the middle ages.
Among the barbarians in the West charitable institutions were introduced by missionaries
in connection with convents, which were expected to exercise hospitality to strangers and give help
to the poor. The Irish missionaries cared for the bodies as well as for the souls of the heathen to
whom they preached the gospel, and founded "Hospitalia Scotorum." The Council of Orleans, 549,
shows acquaintance with Xenodochia in the towns. There was a large one at Lyons. Chrodegang
of Metz and Alcuin exhort the bishops to found institutions of charity, or at least to keep a guest-room
for the care of the sick and the stranger. A Synod at Aix in 815 ordered that an infirmary should
be built near the church and in every convent. The Capitularies of Charlemagne extend to charitable
institutions the same privileges as to churches and monasteries, and order that "strangers, pilgrims,
and paupers" be duly entertained according to the canons.
The hospitals were under the immediate supervision of the bishop or a superintendent
appointed by him. They were usually dedicated to the Holy Spirit, who was represented in the form
of a dove in some conspicuous place of the building. They received donations and legacies, and
were made the trustees of landed estates. The church of the middle ages was the largest
property-holder, but her very wealth and prosperity became a source of temptation and corruption,
which in the course of time loudly called for a reformation.
After we have made all reasonable deduction for a large amount of selfish charity which
looked to the donor rather than the recipient, and for an injudicious profusion of alms which
rick simeone
(Rick Simeone)
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