medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Ann Ball wrote:
> But wouldn't mendicant orders all be religious, so their beggins
> would not be of the common type of person who was just a poor person,
> widow, leper, etc.?
I think that's a bit too much of a generalization.
I agree with you that (humanly speaking) groups or communities tend to
favour their own; but it's hard to be in a religious community, exposed
to a yearly cycle of readings in the divine office and the mass, and
totally miss out on the message of the Good Samaritan (that *anyone* who
needs help should be given it; likewise, from the Prodigal Son, that
mistakes should be forgiven -- though Paul Chandler's contra-example
from here in Melbourne may give us pause; exceptio probat regulum).
Historiographically speaking, I seem to find myself among the
revisionists: forget the "story" that's been told, where's the evidence?
How does it run? I suspect the answer is various. So the next
questions have to be: time? place? orders (since we mentioned
mendicants)? persons? For half the "medieval" period, mendicant orders
didn't exist. Did they make a difference?
As for the "city gates" aspect, my general idea of medieval towns is
that there was a market square, or the like, from which at times beggars
may have been hunted out pretty smartly; but the city jurisdiction ended
at the gates. Therefore, outside the gates was a safer place for
beggars; besides, by definition, gates were points where traffic of
people coming into and going out from the town was concentrated.
Hal Cain
Joint Theological Library
Parkville, Victoria, Australia
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