Poor Relief and Protestantism: The Evolution of Social Welfare in Sixteenth-Century Emden (St. Andrews Studies in Reformation History)

This book traces the dramatic evolution of poor relief institutions in an important centre of the German and Calvinist Reformation. During the middle of the sixteenth century, Emden was hurled from sleepy obscurity into the center of European affairs. In the face of traumatic religious developments and massive demographic, social, and economic upheaval, a more extensive and sophisticated system of poor relief was needed to keep city institutions intact. Fehler depicts the extraordinarily sophisticated system that the city developed for providing for the poor. He also carefully examines the care of the poor of religious and ethnic minority groups in Emden and the disciplinary methods used to en sure proper behavior and belief among poor relief recipients.

Emden's intriguing response to the needs of the poor combines many currents: the need to preserve good order in urban space, the new theoretical and theological view of the indigent inspired by religious developments, and the authorities' application of practical good sense to pressing problems. Deeply embedded in local sources, Poor Relief and Protestantism tells a remarkable story of the relationship between poor relief and the Reformation.