here were also many hospital orders in England and on the
continent. They sprang up beside the monastic orders, and for a time
were very popular: brothers and sisters of the Holy Ghost (1198),
sisters of St Elizabeth (1207-1231), Beguines and Beghards (see
BEGUINES), knights of St John and others.

_The Mendicant Orders._--The Franciscans tended the sick and poor in
the slums of the towns with great devotion--indeed, the whole movement
tells of a splendid self-abandonment and an intensity of effort in the
early spring of its enthusiasm, and with the aid of reform councils
and reformations it lengthened out its usefulness for two centuries.

Medieval endowed charities.

As in the pre-medieval church, the system of relief is that of
charitable endowments--a marked contrast to the modern method of
voluntary associations or rate-supported institutions.

(1) _The Church as Legatee._--The church building among the Teutonic
races was not held by the bishop as part of what was originally the
charitable property of the church. It was assigned to the patron saint
of the church by the donor, who retained the right of administration,
of which his own patronage or right of presentation is a relic.
Subsequently, with the study of Roman law, the conception of the
church as a _persona ficta_ prevailed; and till the larger growth of
the gilds and corporations it was the only general legatee for
charitable gifts. As these arise a large number of charitable trusts
are created and held by lay corporations; and "alms" include gifts for
social as well as religious or eleemosynary purposes. (2) _Freedom
from Taxation and Service._--Gifts to the church for charitable or
other purposes were made in free, pure and perpetual alms ("_ad
tenendum in puram et perpetuam eleemosynam sine omni temporali
servicio et consuetudine_"). Land held under this _frankalmoigne_ was
given "in perpetual alms," therefore the donor could not retract it;
in free alms, therefore he could exact no services in regard to it;
and in pure alms as being free from secular jurisdiction (cf. Pollock
and Maitland). (3) _Alienation and Mortmain._--To prevent alienation
of property to religious houses, with the consequent loss of service
to the superior or chief lords, a licence from the chief lord was
required to legalize the alienation (Magna Carta, and Edw. I., _De
viris religiosis_). Other statutes (Edw. I