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Nibbe,Tristan
Per 5
Euro History
DBQThe throughout the ages there has been much disagreement in
Europe over the issue of poverty.
How much ,if any, support should be issued to those in need. The
opinions of various groups on this
subject can be seen quite clearly in this documents written or
spoken by various members of the
church, the wealthy , the government itself ,and the various
publications reflecting popular opinion
among the publishing middle class.
Documents 1 ,8 and 10 reflect the opinions of various members of
the clergy. Doc 1 refers to
how god treats those who help the poor while they still can and
offers an interesting and unique out
look on it. Doc 8 is spoken by an angry royal councilor who is
referring to those people who would
attempt to steal money from the poor by pretending to be needy
while in actuality being perfectly
healthy. Doc 10 is spoken by Vincent de Paul to his peers , he
speaks of how priests who perform kind
acts for the poor have a better chance to be elevated to
sainthood. This document is biased for this
specific reason, if Vincent believes that his priests can attain
saint hood by simply helping the poor then
he would most certainly be named a saint for convincing the
priests to begin their chain of kind acts.
Docs 4 ,6 ,and 11 show the opinions of various wealthy people
usually also in positions of
power and influence thus making their opinions, while biased ,
also worth more in terms of affecting
change. Doc 1 speaks again of how idleness is indeed the root of
all evil and how horrible wicked
people insist on stealing money that should be used by the poor.
Doc 6 is a report by a doctor
describing how all of the beggars he has encountered refused his
services to heal him. This is an
obvious reflect of one or two bad experiences among the beggars
and a mistaken assumption on
Williams part that all beggars are wicked, making this doc
largely biased. Doc 11 is a letter from a
merchant describing the behavior that he claims to hear is
rampant among the lower class, He claims in
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a round-a-bout way to have over heard two beggars talking about
how they never wish to work again
he , similar to doc 6, extrapolates this to the rest of the
beggar population.
Doc 2 ,5 ,and 7 are government proclamations showing their
stance on the issue of poverty.
Doc 2 is a simple order by the town council laying out terms for
the help of those who cannot afford toclothe and feed themselves.
Doc 5 is a conversation form a town council meeting describing
the
intricacies of why the issue of poverty strikes deep. The biased
nature of the council meeting are
revealed when the issue is discussed that they will need every
able bodied man rich or poor if they are
attacked from an outside force. Doc 7 are the regulations for a
poor house in England showing how
harshly and cruelty the poor are treated in what are supposed to
be their safe havens.
The publication shown in Docs 3 ,6 ,and 9 reflect the opinions
of the relatively middle class on
the issue of poverty. Doc 3 is the work of a Spanish Humanist
who pleads with those who have it
within their power to help the poor in whatever way they can.
Doc 6 is written by a doctor and would
most likely reflect instead of his own opinion, that of his
lords who were all fairly wealthy. Doc 9 is a
simple drawing showing some beggars receiving alms at the door
of a priest, while it is hard to discern
the opinion of the artist on the issue itself. It can be
imagined that the artist perhaps tried to refrain from
placing his opinion into the drawing, making it an observation
that would reflect that of the admirer of
the artwork instead of the artist, this would make his painting
appeal to a larger audience making his
refusal to choose a side biased.
The opinions of most of the classes are reflected in these docs
what is never spoken of is the
opinions of the poor which they are all concerning. While of
course they would be biased in favor of
the support for them it would be interesting to hear some of the
opinions of the wicked people who
would abuse the system.
