rule applied to infirmaries ([Greek: nosokomoeia]) and poor-houses
([Greek: ptocheia])--the bishop or steward being competent to appear
as plaintiff in such cases. Later, again (A.D. 528), contributions of
50 solidi (say about L19, 10s.) to a church, hostel ([Greek:
xenodocheion]), &c., were made legal, though not registered; while
larger sums, if registered, were also legalized. So (A.D. 529)
property might be given for "churches, hostels, poor-houses, infant
and orphan homes, and homes for the aged, or any such community"
(_consortium_), even though not registered, and such property was free
from taxation. The next year (530) it was enacted that prescription
even for 100 years did not alienate church and charitable property.
The broadest interpretation was allowed. If by will a share of an
estate was left "to Christ our Lord," the church of the city or other
locality might receive it as heir; "let these, the law says, belong to
the holy churches, so that they may become the alimony of the poor."
It was sufficient to leave property to the poor (_Corpus Juris
Civilis_, ed. Krueger, 1877, ii. 25). The bequest was legal. It went
to the legal representative of the poor--the church. Charitable
property was thus church property. The word "alms" covered both. It
was given to pious uses, and as a kind of public institution "shared
that corporate capacity which belonged to all ecclesiastical
institutions by virtue of a general rule of law." On a _pia causa_ it
was not necessary to confer a juristic personality. Other laws
preserved or regulated alienation (A.D. 477, A.D. 530), and checked
negligence or fraud in management. The clergy had thus become the
owners of large properties, with the _coloni_ and slaves upon the
estates and the allowances of civic corn (_annona civica_); and (A.D.
357) it was stipulated that whatever they acquired by thrift or
trading should be used for the service of the poor and needy, though
what they acquired from the labour of their slaves in the labour
houses (_ergastula_) or inns (_tabernae_) might be considered a profit
of religion (_religionis lucrum_).

Thus grew up the system of endowed charities, which with certain
modifications continued throughout the middle ages, and, though it
assumed different forms in connexion with gilds and municipalities, in
England it still retains, partially at least, its relation to the
church. It re