CHARITY
602
CHARITY
cial, and municipal. Municipal poor-relief did not,
however, originate with the Reformation. As noted
above, it had been quite general in the fifteenth cen-
tury. In the first half of the sixteenth it underwent
important developments in the cities of Belgium,
beginning with Ypres (1524). The new ordinances
of this city were, it seems, chiefly due to the ideas of
tin Spanish theologian and humanist, Vives. His work,
"De Subventione Pauperum", was written while he
resided at the court of Henry VIII, and was published
at Bruges in 1526 (cf. Ratzinger, op. eit., pp. 438
sq.). It was soon translated into Spanish, Italian,
and French. In the second part, which deals with
public charity, Vives declares that it is the duty of the
civic authorities to care for the needy, and lays down
provisions by which the work can best be accom-
plished. His most important recommendations are:
that a census be taken of the indigent; that all who
are able be compelled to work; that the authorities,
if necessary, provide employment; and that begging
be prohibited. These proposals aroused considerable
opposition on the ground that they savoured of
Lutheranism, denied the natural right of man to beg,
and were too harsh upon the deserving poor. The
faculty of the Sorborme, to which the controversy
was referred for adjudication, decided that the recom-
mendations of Vives were contrary neither to the
Gospel nor the Fathers, but made the reservation
that begging should not be prohibited unless the
public resources were sufficient to relieve all the dis-
tressed. In the w"ork of Vives, says Ratzinger, we
find all the fundamental principles of every sound
system of relief that has ever existed. And we
might add that, as they were not due to the Reforma-
tion, but to the intellectual revival winch preceded it,
they would have been much more fruitful had their
application not been hindered by the social, political,
and religious disturbances for which the Reformation
was responsible. In 1531 the proposals of Vives
were embodied in a general law of the Emperor
Charles V, with the proviso that the local authorities
should have discretionary power to license certain
persons to beg. The means of caring for distress
under t he new ordinances were to be provided by t he
hospitals and other foundations, and by voluntary
contributions.
The Council of Trent laid down minute regulations concerning the administration of hospitals and hos- pital funds, and reaffirmed the duty of the bishops not only to enforce these regulations, but to examine and oversee all measures for the relief of the poor (De Reformation, Sess. VII, XXII, XXV). In many portions of the Catholic world these ordinances soon bore considerable fruit, especially in connexion with tin 1 re-establishment of the system of parish relief. The greatest name identified with this work is that of St. Charles Borromeo, Bishop of Milan. As a result of his boundless zeal and tireless activity, his diocese before long possessed a complete organization nt y u hich was worthy of comparison with that ■ it the early I hurch, and surpassed any system of his own time. One of the must important features of the period now under consideration has been the rise of religious communities and other associations to re- lieve various kinds of i list ress. The Unit hers of Char- ity, founded by St. John of the Cross in Granada, 1534, to rare fur the sick, soon spread over Spain.
Portugal, Italy. France, ami Germany. In North America appeared the hospital orders of the Brothers of St. Hippolytus (Mexico, 1585) and the Bethlehem- ites (Guatemala, 1660). A. congregation whose mem- bers are at once priests and physicians arose in Turkey under the name of "fathers of the Pesti- lence". The Daughters, or Sisters, of Charity.
founded by St. Vincent de Paul about the year 1633 have become celebrated for their manifold works of mercy in every part of the world. St. Vincent's
work on behalf of foundlings, galley-slaves, and the
wretched of all descriptions, makes him the most
remarkable worker in the field of charity that the
world has ever known. The Piarists whose object is
the instruction and care of poor children were in-
stituted in 1597 by Joseph of Calasanza, and have
become very numerous in Austria, Italy, Spain, and
Poland. The Institute of the Blessed Virgin, the
"English Ladies", founded by Mary Ward in 1611,
was intended to be chiefly a teaching order, though
it also has orphan asylums, chiefly in Bucharest
and Bavaria. The Sisters of the Good Shepherd de-
vote themselves to the reformation of wayward girls.
Their founder was a Frenchman, Father Eudes
(1642). The Little Sisters of the Poor had their
origin in the charitable work of a French servant
girl, Jeanne Jugan, and received the approbation of
the Holy See in 1854. Their splendid work on behalf
of the aged, as also the rescue work of the Sisters
of the Good Shepherd, is recognized by all classes in
all civilized countries. Although the congregations
just mentioned are among the most important that
have been established for the relief of distress since
the Reformation, they are in reality only a small
part of the whole number (cf. Ratzinger, op. cit.,
pp. 508-536). By far the greatest lay association
that has arisen during this period is the Society of
St. Vincent de Paul. It was originated in 1833 by
Frerleric Ozanam and seven other Catholic students
in Paris. At present, branches of the society, called
conferences, are to be found in almost every country
of Europe, North and South America, and in many
parts of Asia, Africa, and Australasia. In 190o the
whole number of conferences throughout the world
was estimated at six thousand, with a combined
membership of one hundred thousand, or two hun-
dred thousand, including the honorary members.
The individual conferences of each city are usually
combined into a particular council, the particular
councils of a large locality, province, or country, are
federated into a central or a superior council, while
the superior councils of all the countries are repre-
sented in the council-general in Paris. The society
does not confine its ministrations to direct mate-
rial assistance, but in many places maintains nurser-
ies, libraries, orphanages, schools, and employment
bureaus, and strives everywhere to extend moral and
religious aid and encouragement to those in need of
these forms of charity. Owing to its religious spirit,
its centralized organization, and its method of per-
sonal contact with the needy, the St. Vincent de Paul
Society is, relatively to its resources, probably the
most effective of all existing associations for the
relief of distress.
To-day the characteristic agencies of Catholic char- ity are: institutions in charge of religious communi- ties, as monasteries, hospitals, reformatories, and asylums for homeless infants, for orphans, for the deaf, dumb, blind, aged, crippled, and insane; the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, and other associations of the same general character; and the parish, through the informal and unorganized, yet very important, work of the parochial clergy. In conformity with the regulations of the Council (if Trent, all these arc under the supreme direction of the bishop. Some statistics pertaining to France and the United States may be tak.n as fairly representative. In 1901 the number of persons assisted bv Catholic societies in the former countrv was 107.100, or S3.0U0 children. Too girls and women in refuges, 17.000 aged, and 6.70(1 insane
persons. The total number of Catholic charitable societies exceeded 4000 (Henderson, Modern Methods
of Charity, p. 527). In the preceding year the 1 100 French conferences of the St . Vincent de Paul Society expended 440,000 dollars in relief work. According to the Catholic Directory for 1908, there were in the
United States 272 orphan asylums with 42,597 in-
