Health Care and Poor Relief in Counter-Reformation Europe

The role of religion was of paramount importance in the change of attitudes and approaches to health care and charity which took place in the centuries following the Council of Trent.Health Care and Poor Relief in Counter-Reformation Europeexamines the effects of the Counter-Reformation on health care and poor relief in Southern Catholic Europe in the period between 1540 and 1700. As well as a comprehensive introduction discussing issues of the nature of the Catholic or Counter-Reformation and the welfare provisions of the period,Health Care andPoor Reliefsets the period in its social, economic, religious and ideological context. The book draws on the practices in different localities in Southern Europe, ranging from the Republic of Venice and the Kingdom of Naples to Germany and Austria. These examples establish how and why a revitalized and strengthened post-Tridentine Catholic Church managed to reshape and reinvigorate welfare provisions in Southern Europe.

Jon Arrizabalaga, C.S.I.C., Barcelona, Spain Andrew Cunningham, Wellcome Unit for the History of Medicine, University of Cambridge Silvia De Renzi, Wellcome Unit for the History of Medicine, University of Cambridge Martin Dinges, Institut fur Geschichte der Medizin der Robert Bosch Stiftung, Stuttgart, Germany Isabel M.R. Mendes Drumond Braga, University of Lisbon, Portugal David Gentilcore, Leicester University Ole Peter Grell, Wellcome Unit for the History of Medicine, University of Cambridge John Henderson, Wellcome Unit for the History of Medicine, University of Cambridge Jonathan I. Israel, Department of History, University College, London Colin Jones, Warwick University Maria Luz Lopez Terrada, University of Valencia, Spain Richard Palmer, Lambeth Palace Library, London Brian Pullan, Manchester University Bernd Roeck, Rheinischen Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universitat, Bonn, Germany