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Becoming Poor: Situations of Poverty in the Early Medieval West
No full textWhile there are numerous studies of poverty in the Middle Ages, there has not yet been a study of early medieval poverty in practice: that is, how it was perceived and judged by those in positions to distribute alms, and how those who found themselves in situations of downward social and economic mobility were able to manage or survive in the early medieval West. Poverty in the early Middle Ages was nuanced and complicated, with no clear definition and a variety of depictions. This dissertation offers a new manner of studying the poor, both in that it provides a closer look into those who became poor, rather than a singular discussion of those who were already poor, and also highlights the highly consequential differences between voluntary and involuntary poverty.
This dissertation will focus primarily on the Merovingian kingdoms and Carolingian empire, and argue that while certain trends remained relatively unchanged from Merovingian to Carolingian rule, such as opinions that the poor were both deserving of charity and suspicion; many of the situations that could cause poverty were dependent on the region in and governance under which one lived. The majority of sources that I shall discuss were written by elites who were voluntarily poor. Their writings, however, provide insights into how early medieval society viewed poverty and those who experienced it, and can offer glimpses into specific events that could cause someone or a number of people to fall into poverty. These sources will allow me to examine relationships between poverty, the church, the ability to work, large-scale crises, and gender. By doing so, I shall demonstrate how those in the early medieval West imagined an ideal poor, along with the realities of how those who became poor were able to manage the new socioeconomic status in which they found themselves
