List of tables; Acknowledgements; List of abbreviations; Map; 1. Introduction; 2. The economic background: supply and demand for charity; 3. The idea of charity between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries; 4. The charitable houses of medieval Cambridge and its surroundings; 5. Life in a medieval hospital: the hospital of St John, Cambridge; 6. The religious and economic functions of the hospital of St John; 7. Corporate and individual acts of charity; 8. Epilogue; Appendices; Bibliography; Index.