It is the year 1492, it is the era of the Renaissance. Now work has a value of religious redemption. There is no space for healthy men living as parasites relying on the charitable spirit of others.
The Church had it clear for two hundred years. With canon 32 of the Council of Lyons II, it had even established the suppression of mendicant Orders with the sole exception of Dominicans and Franciscan Friars Minor.
Now the problem is urgent to be solved.
The masses of the new poor, the landowners ousted by the rising bourgeoisie, have to pull up their sleeves and find an honest occupation.
There is only one inconvenience: how to distinguish the pilgrim from the vagabond?
It is the Confraternity of pilgrims of Rome to give the answer: ”The true pilgrim is the one who will have an official license, issued by a confessor”.
Another clear example of how the Church is in control of absolutely everything…
