RELIGIOUS REFORM AND CHARITY: FROM JUAN DE AVILA TO CRISTOBAL PEREZ DE HERRERA

This paper examines the forms proposed by Saint John of Avila and the physician Cristobal Perez de Herrera for organising assistance to the poor. To this end, we analyse the "Reform Treatises" written by the master Avila in the mid-16th century and the treatises on the poor published by Perez de Herrera at the end of that century, pointing out the similarities between the models of charitable assistance that they both defended. Using the example of the Misericordia de San Martin (Madrid, 1594), a brotherhood dedicated to the care of the poor in which Perez de Herrera played a prominent role, we discover the influence that Juan de Avila had on the social reformers of the 1600s.