Thread by @Philliteracy

Have you ever wondered where the structures we use in civil society come from?

What is their history? And what might this tell us about their strengths and limitations?

No?

Never mind- since it’s one of my favourite topics, it’s still time for a VERY!
BIG!
THREAD!

So strap in for a 2000-year long tale of:

Power!
Greed!
Lust!*
and Public Benefit Legal Forms!

(*I may be over-selling the amount of lust tbh)

Our story starts in Ancient Rome, where in 150 B.C. organisations (including charitable foundation-like ones) were given legal personhood for the first time (though at this point only during the life of the founder).

Then in the 1st century AD Emperor Marcus Aurelius cranked things up a notch by allowing private groups to receive bequests

Lo, the perpetually endowed foundation was born.

And no-one has ever criticised the idea since.

<ahem>.

Foundations endowed by bequest continued to be a feature of Roman life until around the 4th century A.D., but as Christianity took hold (and mismanagement of endowments got quite bad), the idea somewhat died out.

Not in the East though!

As the Byzantine empire took the baton from the Romans, they also embraced the foundation idea. (Sort of).

Emperors like Justinian were quite keen on endowed assets, but wanted to bring them under the control of the church:

Interestingly, whilst Justinian sought to impose severe restrictions on private religious institutions, he took a more sympathetic view of founders’ rights in the case of philanthropic endowments:

There’s obviously something of a definitional issue here, as the Byzantines clearly weren’t talking about “foundations”, but many scholars argue that there’s enough evidence to be confident in the claim that they had foundation-like structures:

In fact, according to some, the Byzantine world was positively rank with foundations...

At the same time in the Islamic world another major development was taking place, with the development of the “Waqf”: a form of endowed charitable structure within Islamic law that survives to this day.

It is a matter of some controversy whether the development of the waqf was influenced by earlier Roman foundations, or arose separately (though most scholars now seem to think the latter):

However, some scholars do argue that the waqf was a clear influence in turn on the development of charitable foundations in the medieval Western world:

Indeed, it has even been argued that the founding of Oxford’s Merton College in 1274 was directly influenced by the Islamic law of waqf:

Which brings us to the situation in England.

In the medieval period (before the actual development of trusts), structure for philanthropy was provided mostly by the church, but there were also a few other key players (which all involved a healthy dose of religion too, tbh.)

Universities were one of these players, as were schools. In fact, the King’s School in Canterbury can lay claim to being the oldest charity in the UK- tracing its roots back (somewhat tenuously it has to be said) to 597 and the arrival of St Augustine in England.

Hospitals were another important form of structure (“hospital” being understood in a more general sense of “place of hospitality” rather than any medical connection).

And they had historical roots going back a long way:

In England, these hospitals often took the form of almshouses.

The Hospital of St Cross, in Winchester, for example, traces its origins back to 1132.

And the Hospital of St John the Baptist in Malmesbury, which was built in the C13th, was reportedly on the site of an earlier institution founded on the basis of the Charter of Athelstan in 931.

The point being: these things are just very old.

The church also provided other structures for giving.

E.g. Chantries (where you could give to endow a chapel where priests would say prayers for you and your family)

Or Parish Tithes (Where you could give 10% of your earnings to pay for the Church).

There were other structures that hint at a different line of evolution more focussed on mutualism such as guilds (membership groups defined by trade) or confraternities (membership groups defined by religious affiliation).

There were also other structures that emerged in continental Europe, such as monte di pieta, which combined social & financial return.

These briefly made an appearance in England, but never took hold (for reasons dealt with in this other thread👇)

But sticking to foundation-like structures for now, the C13th saw the first charitable trusts as we might understand them today.

Some of which are still around- e.g. Bridge House Estates: est 1282 to look after London bridges and still going strong in form of City Bridge Trust.

There were also many, many (MANY) much smaller charitable doles around the country.

Established by bequests, these were structures administered by various bodies, which made grants based on often somewhat, erm, “particular” criteria.

E.g. (Bit later on, but still...)

Oops. Think we've hit the thread limit there. (Again...)

Let's maybe break off there and I'll come back with a part 2 (cos there's still plenty more, don't worry!)

And here's the exciting conclusion in Part Deux of the thread: