The Medieval Economy of Salvation by Adam J. Davis

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Medieval Economy of Salvation by Adam J. Davis Luca Ughetti Adam J. Davis, The Medieval Economy of Salvation (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2019), 317 pp., 6 ills. During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, at the time of the greatest development of the trade fair system, the French region of Champagne saw the birth of a dense network of hospitals. The connection between the commercial revolution and the new approach to poverty found one of its most representative expressions in these welfare institutions. Davis explores the impact of hospitals on society as a whole and sheds light on the complexity of this relationship, which went beyond providing care to the weakest. In support of this new form of charity, figures of holiness spread an active commitment to the poor, as in the case of St. Elizabeth of Hungary, who was personally engaged in hospital care. When Mendicant preachers began to describe salvation in market terms, even a small donor became a creditor in a spiritual sense. God would multiply the treasures given to charity with heavenly rewards, if the gift were performed with sincerity of heart, given to those who deserved it and not offered only at the end of the life, when most people feared for the fate of their own soul. The hospital was a privileged recipient of offers, because it immediately assigned them to the assistance practices and the common good. Not least, it provided an accommodation to merchants during the fair period. Counts directed part of the wealth created by fairs to support hospitals through direct donations [End Page 244] or the granting of privileges. Donations could then be inserted into the dynamics of local conflicts, as was the case with the Hôtel-Dieu-le-Comte and Saint-Nicolas in Troyes, the first supported by the count and the second by the authority of the cathedral. Their dispute over the respective area of influence took shape in 1222 in a quarrel for the water level of the Trévois Canal. The hospital however did not just receive the attention of the aristocracy; it was at the center of many interactions with citizens. The analysis of the donors allows the reader to overcome the historiographical conviction that sees the economy of profit supplanting the economy of the gift in that period. The base of donors, in fact, widened and their number increased, with higher percentages coming from the urban bourgeoisie. In some cases, the alms showed a specific destination among the needs of the hospital: wine to celebrate mass, food donations for the conversae, or more frequently gifts, annual rents or houses "for the use of the poor" (139). In this democratization of charity were also found women acting independently of their husbands with the support of the authority of theologians. The distribution shows that donors seemed to follow a special attachment to a particular institution, and seldom in life did they leave gifts to several hospitals. The donation was part of a system of even informal exchanges, where the gift could be a sign of gratitude for a previously received favor or directed to a family member working for the institution. The hospital in turn acted in the field of social exchanges through the assignment of counter-gifts, sometimes in the form of annual rents or as a lump sum in recognition of the generosity received. The hospital economic activity was marked by a careful awareness of the dynamics of exchange: tithes as a profitable investment, the management of stalls at fairs, as well as attention to selling when prices increased, and buying at the lowest possible price. Some financial transactions were comparable to those carried out by noncharitable institutions. The need for liquidity could sometimes be satisfied by selling annual rents at a price considered unfavorable in the long run, in a way similar to that employed by medieval city governments with public debt. Analysis of hospital accounting shows an extreme variety of business relationships and economic networks. Charitable action was not just material help to the poor and the sick but also involved different types of exchanges and included several people. The book offers a precise and detailed casuistry of...