De cura populorum et pauperum: Attending to the Needs of the Poor in the Gallic and Hispano – Roman/Suevic – Visigothic Councils

Abstract

Abstract The councils from Hispania and Gallia are a rich depository that addressed the poor and poverty in the Gallic and Hispano-Roman/Suevic-Visigothic Councils, a topic that has not been explored adequately. For the first time a full consideration of the abundant conciliar evidence about caring for the needs of the poor is executed here. This essay analyzes all of the instances where the councils mention the poor and almsgiving to ameliorate their plight. One of the marks of holiness of Christians, clergy, and laity alike, is the care of the poor. Christ many times referred to the poor and the obligation of others to help them in his teaching and the Church did not lose sight of the obligation to care for those in poverty through individual or collective acts of charity. Paul did so as well and we find the same in some of the non-Pauline epistles of the New Testament. Overall, in the abundant collection of councils there are references to the concerns of the poor. The number of times that the poor are mentioned in the councils is not as numerous as we might expect; there are enough of them that merit our attention, however. The circumstances, moreover, that elicited attention to the poor is diverse and quite revealing. The poor although abundant – we do not know the percentages – in that society could potentially be treated, as in any age, as outcasts that were marginalized or forgotten. This explains why the Church was ever busy admonishing the faithful who did not suffer poverty to remember the poor and be generous to them.