MENDICANCY (from mendicant, from Lat. in end ira ns, pre:. part. of m en d ice re, to beg. from mcndicus, poor). The practice of begging. A beggar is one who seeks to get his living, in whole or in part, by soliciting alms. The word beggar is probably derived from the Beghards, a religious order of the Middle Ages corresponding to a similar order among women, the BPguines (q.v.). Small communities of the B6guines still exist in Belgium.
In primitive societies beggars have little ehanee for existence. Whenever and wherever a sur plus results from labor, there appears a class of the economieally unfit ready and anxious to live as parasites on the of others. If. through the influence of religion or other causes. almsgiving conies to he looked upon as a virtue, mendicants will rapidly increase. Such a condi tion exited in Europe in the Middle Ages, and beggars became so numerous that they threatened to overrun tile Continent. The Church inculcated almsgiving and emphasized it as a means of obtaining future happiness. The great success of the orders of the 'begging friars,' the Francis cans, Dominicans, Carmelites, and Augustinians encouraged begging among the laity. Meantime there was a gradual development of monasteries, hospitals, guilds, and private benevolence, entirely independent of each other, yet all giving alms, and this without any thought of investigation as to the worthiness of the recipient.
In 1349 England began to forbid begging. France followed in 1350, and later some of the German towns, as Esslingen (1384) and Bruns wick (1400). Such legislation was of little effect. During the fifteenth century the idea gradually gained ground that the able-bodied poor must be set at work. The adoption of this view in volved the overthrow of the old theory of alms giving, and it was steadily opposed by the Church.
The sixteenth century marks a great change. Luther said that one of the most crying needs of Christian counties was the prohibition of begging. and measures to this effect introduced in the 'Regulation of a Common Chest' became the basis for subsequent reforms. Linder the in
fluence of Zwingli, Zurich prohibited begging in 1525. The Catholic Lives wrote Dr Subrentione Pauperum (Bruges. 1526), which led to the breakdown of the old system in Catholie Europe. in the North at least, for in Spain, through the influence of the Dominican monk Soto, the pro hibition was not decreed, and Italy has only partially forbidden the custom.
Germany after the Thirty Years' War made more stringent regulations, but the various States were not in harmony, and the root of the evil was not readied. Frankfort (1620), Anhalt 1770), Hesse (1777), forbade begging entirely. Hamburg followed in 1788 and forbade also gifts to beggars. Here was introduced more effective investigation of the individual eases, and other cities copied the plan. By 1791 it is re ported that open begging had been stopped. The general German law is that vagabonds ( Land streicher, best translated tramps) may be im prisoned. Beggars, those who ask alms either in person or through letters, may be put to hard work. In some of the States appeals for assist ance may not be published in the papers without special permission. Bavaria made a statistical investigation of mendicancy between 1870 and 18S0 which showed that some 20.000 persons were convicted each year. In Saxony between 1880 and 1887 of those convicted 47 per cent. were Saxons, 42.7 from other German States, and 10.3 foreigners. to many towns there is a Verein gegen Verarmung und Bettelei.
France forbade mendieancy in 1566, but the efforts made to enforce the law were ineffective. In 1627 it was ordered that beggars be impressed into the navy. Later. beggars were commanded to leave Paris under penalty of being sent to the galleys. After the Revolution. however. penal colonies, &Wits de mendieit.C., were established.
Italy prohibited begging in 1865, but local authorities may issue permits (permissi di men dieare), and begging. lieensed or not. abounds, particularly in the southern provinces.