# The New Medicine for Poverty explained — Religion and the Rise of Capitalism > Chapter companion for Religion and the Rise of Capitalism by R. H. Tawney. ## What happens This chapter examines how Puritan ethics, while promoting economic virtues, inadvertently shifted social attitudes away from communal obligations toward individualism. It contrasts medieval and early modern views on poverty, showing how the religious emphasis on personal responsibility and character led to a harsher stance on poor relief. The chapter traces the evolution from a society that saw poverty as a spiritual opportunity and the rich as stewards obligated to give alms, to one that viewed distress as a mark of demerit and economic efficiency as paramount. It highlights the influence of commercial interests and the rise of political arithmetic in shaping a new, less compassionate social policy. ## Themes in this chapter ### Transformation of Social Ethics The chapter details the shift from a medieval ethic of communal obligation and charity to a Puritan-influenced individualism that emphasized personal character and disparaged social responsibility for poverty. ### Conflict Between Ethics and Economics Explores the tension between religious moral teachings on charity and the emerging economic doctrines that prioritized efficiency, low wages, and minimal poor relief. ### Religion and Economic Individualism Shows how Puritan religious individualism in the private soul led to an individualist morality that downplayed the significance of the social fabric and collective responsibility. ### The Role of the Church in Society Contrasts the medieval Church's active role in advocating for the poor and enforcing charity with the Puritan tendency to abdicate social responsibility in favor of personal piety. ## Character check-ins ### Hugh Latimer Quoted for his assertion that the poor have a title to the rich man's goods, representing the traditional medieval view of social obligation. ### Richard Baxter Mentioned as a writer who continued to insist on the wickedness of extortionate prices and unconscionable interest, though rarely applying these principles to wages. ### John Bunyan Noted alongside Baxter as a religious writer who adhered to older moral categories in an age of capitalist industry. ### Adam Smith Referenced as the philosopher who later propounded the individualism that became the rule of English public life a century earlier. ### Karl Marx Quoted from the Communist Manifesto regarding the bourgeoisie's replacement of feudal ties with naked self-interest and cash payment. ### St. Thomas Cited as typical of medieval writers who insisted that property is stewardship and that withholding alms in urgent necessity is mortal sin. ### William Laud Mentioned as a figure in the early seventeenth century who continued the tradition of religious condemnation of enclosure and depopulation. ## Key lines > To urge that the Christian life must be lived in a zealous discharge of private duties—how necessary! Yet how readily perverted to the suggestion that there are no vital social obligations beyond and above them! Emphasizing personal religious duties can easily lead to the mistaken belief that there are no important social responsibilities beyond individual conduct. _Highlights the central tension in Puritan ethics between personal piety and social obligation._ > The demonstration that distress is a proof of demerit, though a singular commentary on the lives of Christian saints and sages, has always been popular with the prosperous. The idea that poverty is a sign of moral failure has always been favored by the wealthy, despite being contradicted by the lives of many holy figures. _Critiques the self-serving nature of blaming the poor for their condition._ > The Poor Law is the mother of idleness, 'men and women growing so idle and proud that they will not work, but lie upon the parish wherein they dwell for maintenance.' Critics argued that the Poor Law encouraged laziness and dependency, making people unwilling to work. _Reflects the economic argument against poor relief that gained traction in the period._ > If ever thou gavest hosen and shoon, Everie nighte and alle, Sit thee down and put them on, And Christe receive thy saule. If you ever gave shoes and stockings to the poor, you will be rewarded in the afterlife; if not, you will suffer torment. _Illustrates the medieval belief in the spiritual efficacy of almsgiving and the dire consequences of neglecting it._ ## Links - HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/religion_and_the_rise_of_capitalism_se/chapters/iv-the-new-medicine-for-poverty - Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/religion_and_the_rise_of_capitalism_se - All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/religion_and_the_rise_of_capitalism_se/chapters