Almoner is the name given originally to that member of a religious order who had the distribution of the money and other things set apart for alms, which, by canonical law, was to amount to at least a tenth of the revenues of the establishment. After-
AlmnnJ Branch.
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ward, those ecclesiastics also received this name who were appointed by princes to the same office in their households. The Grand Almoner of France was one of the principal officers of the court and of the king- dom, usually a cardinal, and, in right of his office, commander of all the orders, and also chief director of the great hospital for the blind. Queens, princes, and princesses had also their almoners, and bishops were usually appointed to this office. In England the office of hereditary grand almoner is now a sinecure, his only duty being to distribute the coronation medals among the assembled spectators. The lord high almoner, who is usually a bishop, distributes twice a year the queen's bounty, which consists in giving a silver penny each to as many poor persons as the queen is years of age. See Alms.
Alms (tXstjfioavvT], mercifidness, i. e. an act of charity, Matt, vi, 1-4 ; Luke xi, 41 ; xii, 23 ; Acts iii, 2, 3, 10; x, 2, 4, 31; xxiv, 17; "almsdeeds," Acts ix, 36), beneficence toward the poor, from Anglo-Sax. almesse, probably, as well as Germ, almoscn, from the corresponding Greek word t\et]ftocivi>7); Vulg. eleemo- syna (but see Bos worth, Anglo-Saxon Diet.). The word "alms" is not found in our version of the canonical books of the O.T., but it occurs repeatedly in the N. T., and in the Apocryphal books of Tobit and Ecclesiasti- cus. The Heb. fip"!X, tsedakah', righteousness, the usu- al equivalent for alms in the 0. T., is rendered by the Sept. in Deut. xxiv, 13, and elsewhere, i\erj[io(Tvvt], while the best MSS., with the Vulg. and Khem. Test., read in Matt.vi, 1, Sikcuouiivi), righteousness. See Poor. I. Jewish Alms-giving. — The regulations of the Mo- saic law respecting property, and the enjoining of a general spirit of tender-heartedness, sought to prevent destitution and its evil consequences. The law in this matter is found in Lev. xxv, 35 : " And if thy brother be waxen poor, and fallen into decay with thee, then shalt thou relieve him ;" and it is liberally added, "yea, though he be a stranger or a sojourner, that he maj' live with thee." The consideration by which this merciful enactment is recommended has pe- culiar force : " I am the Lord your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan, and to be your God." The spirit of the He- brew legislator on this point is forcibly exhibited in Deut xv, 7 sq. : " If there be among you a poor man .... thou shalt open thine hand wide unto him .... Beware that thine eye be not evil against thy poor brother, and thou givest him naught; and he cry unto the Lord against thee, and it be sin unto thee. Thou shalt surely give him, and thine heart shall not be grieved when thou givest unto him : because that for this the Lord thy God shall bless thee in all thy works." The great antiquity of the practice of benev- olence toward the poor is shown in Job xxix, 13 sq. How high the esteem was in which this virtue contin- ued to be held in the time of the Hebrew monarchy may be learnt from Psa. xli, 1: "Blessed is he that considereth the poor; the Lord will remember him in time of trouble" (comp. Psa. cxii, 9 ; Prov. xiv, 31). The progress of social corruption, however, led to the oppression of the poor, which the prophets, after their manner, faithfully reprobated (Isa. lviii, 3) ; where, among other neglected duties, the Israelites are re- quired to deal their bread to the hungry, and to bring the outcast poor to their house (comp. Isa. x, 2 ; Amos ii, 7 ; Jer. v, 28 ; Ezek. xxii, 20). However favora- ble to the poor the Mosaic institutions were, they do not appear to have wholly prevented beggary ; for the imprecation found in Psa. cix, 10, " Let his children be vagabonds and beg," implies the existence of beg- gary as a known social condition (comp. generally Carpzov, Eleemosynm Judceor. ex antiquitate Jud. de- lineates, Lips. 1728). Begging naturally led to alms- giving, though the language of the Bible does not pre- sent us with a term for "alms" till the period of the Babylonish captivity, during the calamities attendant