Policing the Poor: J. L. Vives and the Sixteenth-Century Origins of Modern Social Administration

A crucial episode in the history of social work and social administration was the sixteenth-century reform of poor relief in both Catholic and Protestant European towns. The writings of the Catholic humanist Juan Luis Vives in particular played an important part in the subsequent development of sixteenth-century poor relief. This article analyzes his ideas, the changes of the period, the ways in which the new arrangements differed from medieval poor relief, and the ways in which they formed the foundations of modern social administration.