From Personal Charity to Centralised Poor Relief: The Evolution of Responses to the Poor in Paris, c. 1250–1600

In the thirteenth century, Parisian charitable assistance for the involuntary poor, and for those who were considered ‘poor’ by virtue of their physical or social debilities, ¹ was delivered through a confusing hodgepodge of charitable institutions and individual acts of piety. By the end of the century, the city was dotted with at least sixteen charitable institutions addressing the needs of various categories of poor people. At least seven of those institutions provided food and shelter to poor people who were suffering from short term illness; the largest and oldest of those institutions, the main hospital, or Hôtel-Dieu, provided shelter, meals, palliative nursing care and spiritual assistance to as many as 800 sick people, women in labour and orphaned children. ² Two other hospitals offered temporary lodging to pilgrims; and seven hospices, shelters, convents and leprosaria provided permanent shelter for people with various needs and disabilities – lepers, blind people, reformed prostitutes and widows. ³