Yaacov Lev

Almsgiving, Donatio Pro Anima and Eucharistic Offering in the Early Middle Ages of Western Europe (4th–9th century)

During the early Middle Ages in Western Europe, charity practice, the pro anima donations and alms given to churches and monasteries, had at its heart a complex system of historically defined representations in which the Eucharistic offering stood for a model of the exchanges between men and God. This system of representation evolved in three discrete periods of time, as we see through an exploration of writings on the doctrine of almsgiving and of epigraphic inscriptions and diplomatic acts from the fourth through the ninth centuries. From the fourth to the sixth century, the doctrine of almsgiving developed as a result of the creation of the social category of the poor, an evolution that affected the behaviour of the aristocracy. Following this development, in the seventh and eighth centuries, as the amount of alms and gifts made to churches and monasteries increased, the clergy progressively established itself as the mediator in the exchanges between men and God. Finally, the Carolingian shift of the ninth century heralded the expansion of the seigniorial age, when the relation between the earth and heaven began to be seen as a mystery similar to that of the Eucharist.