The Land BiLvdens of the Era. 245 



lation are brought to light. In the codes of both kings, Edgar 

 and Alfred, there are laws enacting that the priests and people 

 should distribute alms, in order to sustain the poor. It is, 

 however, far more likely that such legislation was directed 

 against impious individuals who withheld their tithe, than 

 that it was a fresh Poor Law provision. The regular and 

 national poor funds, derivable out of the tithe, were of course 

 largely supplemented, just as they are to-day, by private alms. 

 The king, who was a large benefactor, was termed the advo- 

 cate and kinsman of the poor ; there was frequent resort to 

 the King's Brief in times of pressure, like the necessity for 

 rebuilding the church of a poor parish ; then there were the 

 Gild charities, to which men constantly demised lands or 

 bequeathed personal property, for the purpose of being admin- 

 istered for the relief of the poor. The confiscation of the 

 property belonging to such corporations by Henry, robbed the 

 poor only one degree less than his previous confiscation of 

 the monastic lands. 



In early times before the establishment of monasteries, and 

 perhaps for some time after, it is difficult to see how there 

 could have been able-bodied poverty. The impossibility of a 

 lordless man is grimly provided for by the Cone. Greatanlea 

 of Athelstan. The whole pauper population of a district was 

 composed of the slaves and the villeinage, both of which 

 classes were legitimately entitled to their lord's support for a 

 livelihood. Apart from the tithe question, the monastic houses, 

 by reason of their seignorial status, were liable for the support 

 of the local poor. Here therefore the peculiar relationship of 

 lord, land, and people solves the mysteries of early pauper relief. 



But apart from this view of the case, the term " alms '' 

 implies a voluntary and indefinite payment, not the fixed and 

 compulsory rate of a Poor Law. Later on, when monasteries 

 had been founded and churches came to be appropriated 

 by such religious bodies, it was usual for the vicar officiating 

 in the appropriated church to retain one-third of the tithe, 

 while the other two-thirds were applied by the monks for their 

 own maintenance, the entertainment of the stranger and the 

 relief of the poor. 



