ABSTRACT
The Bible in the vernacular provided models of directness and clarity of expression among the working classes. Once the common people could read the Bible in their own speech, they could see for themselves that the Bible, unlike much Poor Law, was on their side. There were particular laws and customs, relating to tithes and agriculture, which directly affected them. In England, for example, 'Old Testament precedent had much to do with the adoption of tithes. By the end of the seventh century a tenth of the corn produce was regarded as a reasonable contribution to the Church'. Biblical laws on the poor transformed the sense of being outcast into universal sympathy: the orphan would feel less vulnerable; the widow less grief, the stranger less of an alien; and all would worry less about going to bed hungry. Human charity is the faint shadow of imitatio dei alongside the mighty divine charity of life.
