The Library
1577 works catalogued century by century, from the literature the Bible was written among to the present — each with a note on what it is, why it lasted, and where to read it.
101–200
1 work
c. 150–200
Greek, surviving in Coptic
Anonymous
The apostles reach an island city and meet a pearl merchant named Lithargoel whom the poor crowd around and the rich avoid. He turns out to be Christ, and sends them back to heal bodies as well as souls, and to judge no one by appearances.
201–300
1 work
c. 253
Latin
De Opere et Eleemosynis
Cyprian of Carthage · c. 210–258
An appeal for generosity to the poor, arguing that alms cleanse sins committed after baptism and answering wealthy Christians who plead that they have children to provide for.
301–400
2 works
c. 388–389
Greek
John Chrysostom · c. 347–407
Seven sermons on the rich man and Lazarus, arguing that not sharing surplus wealth is a form of theft from the poor.
c. 390
Greek
John Chrysostom · c. 347–407
Ninety sermons working through the whole gospel, insisting on the plain sense of the text and turning relentlessly to the poor at the church door.
601–700
1 work
c. 641–642
Greek
Leontius of Neapolis · 7th century
The life of a patriarch of Alexandria who kept a register of the city's poor, called them his lords and masters, and ran hospitals and hostels from church funds.
1101–1200
1 work
c. 1125
Latin
Bernard of Clairvaux · 1090–1153
An attack on monastic luxury that turns on carved cloisters: what are these ridiculous monsters doing where the brothers read, and would the money not be better given to the poor?
1201–1300
8 works
1221
Latin
Regula Non Bullata
Francis of Assisi · 1181/82–1226
The unapproved rule: a patchwork of gospel texts and instructions on begging, on working with one's hands, on going among the Saracens, and on owning nothing whatever.
1223
Latin
Regula Bullata
Francis of Assisi · 1181/82–1226
The rule approved by the pope, shorter and more governable, binding the friars to live without property of any kind, individually or in common.
1226
Latin
Francis of Assisi · 1181/82–1226
Dictated weeks before his death: how the Lord led him among lepers, his reverence for priests however unworthy, and a command that the rule not be glossed or explained away.
c. 1237–1250
Latin
Sacrum Commercium
Anonymous
Francis climbs a mountain to court Lady Poverty, who recounts her history from Eden through the desert fathers and is finally given a meal of scraps on the bare ground.
1234–1253
Latin
Clare of Assisi · 1194–1253
Four letters to a king's daughter who left the court for a convent, urging her to gaze into the mirror of the cross and to refuse any endowment offered to her house.
approved 1253
Latin
Clare of Assisi · 1194–1253
A rule for her own community insisting on the privilege of poverty — the right to own nothing at all — approved two days before she died.
c. 1279–1283
Latin
Peter John Olivi · 1248–1298
An argument that renouncing ownership means nothing unless it is joined to restricted use — that a friar who owns nothing but lives comfortably has kept the letter and lost the vow.
1297
Latin
Lectura super Apocalipsim
Peter John Olivi · 1248–1298
Revelation read through Joachim's scheme, identifying the coming crisis with the persecution of those who keep Francis's rule strictly, and the carnal church with Babylon.
1301–1400
3 works
1305
Latin
Arbor Vitae Crucifixae Iesu
Ubertino da Casale · 1259–c. 1329
A life of Christ that turns into an apocalyptic indictment, identifying two recent popes with the beasts of Revelation and the church that persecutes the Spirituals with Babylon.
12 November 1323
Latin
Pope John XXII · c. 1244–1334
A bull declaring it heretical to assert that Christ and the apostles owned nothing whatever, overturning what the Franciscans had been taught to believe for a century.
c. 1332–1334
Latin
Opus Nonaginta Dierum
William of Ockham · c. 1287–1347
A line-by-line refutation of the papal bulls on Franciscan poverty, written in three months, arguing that a pope who teaches heresy forfeits his office.
1401–1500
1 work
c. 1490–1508
Old Church Slavonic
Ustav
Nil Sorsky · c. 1433–1508
A rule for small skete communities built on hesychast prayer of the heart, on the analysis of the passions, and on monasteries owning no villages or serfs.
1501–1600
1 work
c. 1548–1552
English
Hugh Latimer · c. 1487–1555
Plain, funny, furious preaching before the king and at Paul's Cross about enclosures, bribery, absentee clergy, and the poverty of English farmers.
1601–1700
1 work
c. 1630–1660
French
Vincent de Paul · 1581–1660
Talks to priests and to the Daughters of Charity on serving the galley slaves, the foundlings, and the rural poor, insisting that the poor are the masters.
1901–2000
1 work
1971
Spanish
Teología de la liberación
Gustavo Gutiérrez · 1928–2024
Theology reframed as critical reflection on Christian practice in the light of the word, written from Peru and arguing that God's preferential option for the poor is not an application of the gospel but part of its content.
21 of 1577 works