Quote of the Week: Michael Mollat, The Poor in the Middle Ages: An Essay in Social History
What proved crucial in the Middle Ages was the fact that ever since late antiquity the Christian concept of charity, which is prior to the concept of poverty, had been enunciated and put into practice by bishops and monks in both the East and the West: The Christian view transformed spiritual humility into an active striving toward God and aimed at alleviating the physical and social humiliation of the poor.
If we accept this interpretation, it is easy to perceive the historic milestone in the education of the Christian people, both Greek and Latin, by teachers both mystical and pastoral, monastic and Episcopal. It is not by chance that the names of the Greek Fathers are associated with large cities in which poverty was rampant. Their homilies were commentaries, some unprecedented in their force, upon such passages from the Gospels as the parables of the young rich man and Lazarus and the Sermon on the Mount. Clement of Alexandria’s condemnation of lust as the root of all evil prefigures the condemnation of avarice that was a constant feature of the Middle Ages. Also worth mentioning are Saint John Chrysostom’s invectives (at Constantinople and Antioch) against those who shirked the duty to give alms, thereby offending directly against Christ, of whom the pauper was an image. The saint demanded that one tenth of the income of the wealthy should be confiscated on behalf of the poor. In Caesarea Saint Basil organized a hospice and a people’s soup kitchen. And it was again Chrysostom who expressed himself in lapidary phrases that might easily be mistaken for those of Saint Bernard: “To give a glass of water is to give a chalice …. Honor not the host with garments of silk … It is mockery to honor God in sumptuous churches while reviling him in the poor.”
“Let us feed and clothe Christ” were the words spoken in the meantime by Gregory of Nyssa. In Milan Saint Ambrose found words that have often been repeated since: “To revile the poor is to commit murder. Naboth did not kill just one pauper. Each day he reviled one, he killed another.” The African Church was no less assiduous in affirming the evangelical meaning of charity in response to misery. Leaving aside Tertullian’s commentary on the Sermon of the Mount, let me single out for special notice among Augustine’s writings, which were so widely influential in the Middle Ages, his fundamental definition of the rich man’s superfluity as the poor man’s necessity.
Michael Mollat, The Poor in the Middle Ages: An Essay in Social History. Trans. Arthur Goldhammer (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1986), 21-2.
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An excellent book: it has been on my shelf for ages, but I have only read bits and pieces. Thank you!
In thinking about the fathers of the Church on charity towards the poor, I want to point out a radical change brought about by St. Francis: charity as radical identification with the poor. This is best seen in art. Prior to St. Francis, the saint most closely identified with charity to the poor was St. Martin of Tours, whose most famous act of charity was giving half his cloak to a poor man. In art he is always portrayed as still seated on his horse with the beggar at his stirrups: he is reaching down (socially as well as physically) to give this gift.
Contrast this with St. Francis’s famous meeting with the leper. He again is on horse back: the charitable (and socially appropriate) act would have been to toss down alms, either onto the ground or into the leper’s hands. Instead, Francis dismounted (descending both physically and socially) and embraced the beggar. In this gesture he declared an equality and solidarity that was missing from earlier discussions of charity.
This insight was taken up many years later by Dorothy Day, with her insistence on voluntary poverty. As Peter Maurin put it, if we all become poor, then no one will have to be poor.
David
Yes, I am slowly going through the book right now (I’m 1/2 through it) as I read it and Bulgakov’s Jacob’s Ladder. Your point on St Francis itself gets a significant discussion in the book. Of course, I do think, as this quote shows, there are Fathers who also see the radical association of Christ with a poor, at least when they discuss the universal judgment and reflect on Christ’s words ” You fed me. You clothed me.” Knowing it, and reflecting on it, is one thing, living it out is another. The book points out that the increase in poverty because of famine and plague and speculation also created more outcasts allowing for this to happen. I myself think there is much to associate a Robin Hood with Francis of Assisi, and not just Friar Tuck. The early legends have a high Marian appeal to them, and Robin’s men seem to be like Francis’ band of merry friars.
I don’t remember the literature well enough to draw a firm conclusion, but I do remember that many, many of the stories about St. Francis deal with his interaction with robbers and thieves. Living on the edges of civilization it would not be surprising that this was the case, but the stories I think need to be explored further to see what they tell us about the relationship between Francis and the “Robin Hoods” of central Italy.
It is something I plan to explore sometime; the idea came to me as I was reading up on the history of the Robin Hood legend, and saw the similarity between Robin Hood and the Franciscans. The problem is that reading the early tales can be slow — the forms of English involved are not modern. I have the most exhaustive collection of these tales in print (Robin Hood and Other Outlaw Tales edited by Stephen Knight and Thomas Ohlgren), but I have to wait to get through it and take notes. I would, of course, have to take notes from the three volumes of Franciscan Legends, and look at and explore other stories of forests and paupers. But I think there is fruit to be had here.
Speaking of robbers, I know some have speculated the original “Francis and the Wolf” story was one such story. I don’t, but I understand how it could come to be (“Wolf’s Head” and all).
I could get behind a 10% tax on the rich for the purpose of using that money to help the poor. Although I would prefer letting the rich voluntarily give 10% of their income to the charity (or church) of their choice in lieu of such a tax. (Say! Don’t we already have a similar policy in place, known as a charitable deduction?)