ABSTRACT
The great, the good, and the super-rich of antiquity naturally took considerable pleasure in scattering coins in the dirt for the poor to scrabble after. When Oswald, saintly king of remote Northumbria, ordered his steward to tear up a silver dish and give the pieces to the poor, he was probably unaware that he was following in the footsteps of Frankish kings and Byzantine emperors.1 Christians, however, added a few wrinkles to enhance the pleasure. They redefined gifts for the poor as demonstrations of their love for God, mostly using a special term, Latin caritas, to distinguish it from the earthier forms of love, which the more devout sought to despise.2
