These excerpts from Scriftboc concern almsgiving and should lead you to several discoveries concerning the importance of alms as cash in this society. Remember that this evidence will not necessarily pertain to later periods of English history.
b03.03.2 That is that he must with singing the psalms and almsgiving do penance for a very long time at first;
b03.07.0 And he who must do penance for a year, then let him give six hundred twenty shillings in alms and in every week fast two days, as it is said above, and consider during the three fasting periods what his sustenance should be and give half of it in alms.
b03.09.0 And he who is not able to do his penance for his sins as it is said above, in the first year let him distribute twenty-six shillings in alms, and in the second year twenty shillings, and in the third year eighteen, that is sixty-four shillings.
b04.03.0 The third [remission of sin] is almsgiving.
A01.01.0 If a bishop commits fornication secretly, according to the canon's judgment he must fast for twelve winters and give alms generously and with tears of remorse ask God's mercy for himself; some desire that he also be divested of holy orders.
A09.05.0 In the first marriage of men and women the priest should sing Mass and bless both of them, and they afterwards must absent themselves (from church) and they go to the church (only) with alms; and on the final night (of a thirty-day period), they shall pray, and fast for forty nights and after that go to communion.
A26.09.0 If someone wishes to relieve a day's fast with alms, he must give alms to two or three poor men for one day's food, or sing the (whole) psalter, if it is summer; if it is Fall (harvest) or Lent (spring), he must sing one hundred psalms; if it is winter, fifty.
Why do you think the church included almsgiving as a form of penance? Is this a way of simply letting people "pay for" their sins without any real sacrifice? Use the New Catholic Encyclopedia and the Dictionary of the Middle Ages to find out how significant alms could be and to whom they were given. Try to formulate an argument to justify the substitution of money for physical penance. What are some of the difficulties with this argument?
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