Mercy and/oder Justice: Almsgiving in the Catholic Thought, the 16th–17th Centuries

Approaches to almsgiving in the Catholic tradition of the Early Modern Times largely fol­lowed the ideas, developed in the previous period: surplus and need are taking into account, and only a certain correlation of them turns alms from pious counsel to an obli­gation, gives the poor certain rights as well; important is a distinction between different categories of needy recipients (by criterion of moral dignity, place in the hierarchy of the so-called “or­dered love”, etc.). At the same time, approaches to almsgiving slightly vary in the “high” theology and in writings addressed to the laity. In the first case, there is a noticeable depar­ture from the medieval understanding of alms as mainly spiritual practice, or an act of char­ity directed at the benefactor himself; the understanding of alms as a form of redistribution of goods, or an act of justice directed at another comes to the fore. This is also reflected in the development of practical criteria for distribution of alms: to whom, on what grounds, how much is due. These trends are less pronounced in the “popular” theology: as before, the reasoning on almsgiving in the 16th and 17th centuries focuses on the person of a benefactor and his merits – lifetime and posthumous. In this context, almsgiving acts primarily as an act of charity. At the same time, the focus in the “high” and “popular” theo­logy is not so much on the problem of poverty as a social phenomenon and of opportunities to eradicate it, as the question of opposing its specific manifestations.