it land ... to
repair the public roads ... "to distribute," to help poor widows,
orphans and strangers, redeem slaves, fast, &c.--a combination of
"good deeds" which suggests a line of thought such as ultimately found
expression in the definition of charities in the Charitable Uses Act
of Queen Elizabeth. The confessor, too, was "_spiritualis medicus_,"
and much that from the point of view of counsel would now be the work
of charity would in his hands be dealt with in that capacity. For
lesser sins (cf. Bede (673-735), _Hom._ 34, quoted by Ratzinger) the
penalty was prayer, fasting and alms; for the greater sins--murder,
adultery and idolatry--to give up all. Thus while half-converted
barbarians were kept in moral subjection by material penances, the
church was enriched by their gifts; and these tended to support the
monastic and institutional methods which were in favour, and to which,
on the revival of religious earnestness in the 11th century, the world
looked for the reform of social life.

Medieval revision of the theory of charity.

To understand medieval charity it is necessary to return to St
Augustine. According to him, the motive of man in his legitimate effort
to assert himself in life was love or desire (_amor_ or _cupido_). "All
impulses were only evolutions of this typical characteristic" (Harnack,
_History of Dogma_ (trans.), v. iii.); and this was so alike in the
spiritual and the sensuous life. Happiness thus depended on desire; and
desire in turn depended on the regulation of the will; but the will was
regulated only by grace. God was the _spiritualis substantia_; and
freedom was the identity of the will with the omnipotent unchanging
nature. This highest Being was "holiness working on the will in the form
of omnipotent love." This love was grace--"grace imparting itself in
love." Love (_caritas_--charity) is identified with justice; and the
will, the goodwill, is love. The identity of the will with the will of
God was attained by communion with Him. The after-life consummated by
sight this communion, which was here reached only by faith. Such a
method of thought was entirely introspective, and it turned the mind
"wholly to hope, asceticism and the contemplation of God in worship."
"Where St Augustine indulges in the exposition of practical piety he has
no theory at all of Christ's work." To charity on that side he added
nothing. In the 11th century there was a reviva