16世纪威尼斯的贫困与济贫问题

Poverty and Poor Relief in the Sixteenth Century Venice

16世纪的欧洲经历了一场普遍的贫困危机,欧洲各国政府纷纷采取了各种济贫措施,以缓解贫困问题对社会造成的压力,天主教城市共和国威尼斯也不例外。通过颁布济贫法和改革"大兄弟会"等旧式救济组织,威尼斯引导宗教慈善组织朝着世俗化方向发展,从而建立起行之有效的近代济贫制度,有效地缓解了贫困问题造成的压力。威尼斯的经验表明,在推动近代早期欧洲济贫活动世俗化的诸因素中,最重要的因素是社会环境,而非传统上认为的宗教因素。

In the sixteenth century, most parts of Europe had faced a serious poor crisis. In order to solve this problem, many countries used administrative and social policies to deal with it, including the Catholic City-state, the Republic of Venice. There had been established a rational ＇ modem＇ system of poor relief by issuing poor law and controlling the philanthropic institutions, especially ＇ Scuole Grandi ＇. The poor - relief experience of Venice shows that for the elements that pushing the activities of poor - relief ＇ secularized＇ , the most important one is not the religion from the traditional view but the social environment.