Abstract

Catholics and Protestants in early modern Europe, despite theological differences concerning the role of good works in salvation, administered forms of poor relief along similar lines. Most Protestant and some Catholic reformers were determined to control begging and vagrancy and to introduce more rational methods of almsgiving. Catholics, however, were more inclined to tolerate, even to license, such questionable practices as child abandonment, prostitution, and lending at interest on pledges, believing that they helped to avoid greater evils and promoted the common good. This principle contributed to a distinctive institutional structure in Catholic cities, which were more likely to maintain foundling hospitals, homes for repentant Magdalens, and public pawn offices designed to serve the poor.

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