source of solid good to the whole community.

Municipal laws for the suppression of the mendicity of the able-bodied
and the organization of relief on behalf of the infirm were common in
England and on the continent (Colmar, 1362; Nuremberg, 1478;
Strassburg, 1523; London, 1514). Vives (Ehrle, _Beitrage zur
Geschichte und Reform der Armenpflege_, p. 26), a Spaniard, who had
been at the court of Henry VIII., in a book translated into several
languages and widely read, seems to have summed up the thought of the
time in regard to the management of the poor. He divided them into
three classes: those in hospitals and poor-houses, the public homeless
beggars and the poor at home. He would have a census taken of the
number of each class in the town, and information obtained as to the
causes of their distress. Then he would establish a central
organization of relief under the magistrates. Work was to be supplied
for all, while begging was strictly forbidden. Non-settled poor who
were able-bodied were to be sent to their homes. Able-bodied settled
poor who knew no craft were to be put on some public work--the
undeserving being set to hard labour. For others work was to be found,
or they were to be assisted to become self-supporting. The hospitals
provided with medical advice and necessaries were to be classified to
meet the needs of the sick, the blind and lunatics. The poor living at
home were to work with a view to their self-support. What they earned,
if insufficient, might be supplemented. If a citizen found a case of
distress he was not to help it, but to send it for inquiry to the
magistrate. Children were to be taught. Private relief was to be
obtained from the rich. The funds of endowed charities were to be the
chief source of income; if more was wanted, bequests and church
collections would suffice. The scheme was put in force in Ypres in
1524. The Sorbonne approved it, and similar plans were adopted in
Paris and elsewhere. It is in outline the scheme of London municipal
charity promoted by Edward VI., by which the poor were classified, St
Bartholomew's and St Thomas's hospitals appropriated for the sick,
Christ's hospital for the children of the poor, and Bridewell for the
correction of the able-bodied. Less the institutional arrangements and
plus the compulsory rate, the methods are those of the Poor Relief Act
of Queen Elizabeth of 1601. At first t