Transformation of an Aristotelian Private Virtue into a Social Question in 16th Century

Abstract

In the 16th century, poverty become a dramatic phenomenon. However, the fate of the poor is not only an economical problem: it means the difference between medieval charity (as a religious virtue) and modern wel­fare, and between the spirit of a feudal world and the spirit of pre-capitalism. At Salamanca (Spain), polemic arose between Domingo de Soto and Juan de Robles (following Juan Luis Vives and Ypres laws of poor). Vives and Robles wanted to transform mendicity into a social problem with a social and political solution: public assistance and poor’s confinement in their houses or in hospi­tals. In contrast: Domingo de Soto ask for solutions which respect natural law and virtue of liberality as a social virtue.