Matthew's description of the Last Judgment and Boccaccio's tale of the Trevisan response to the charlatan Martellino's deception introduce us to the major themes of this chapter: the desire to give charity to needy persons, tempered by the necessity of deciding who truly deserved help; the types of aid to provide; and the ways of administering the assistance. Charitable institutions bound communities together with a network of gifts and support systems. John Bossy argues that “the state of charity, meaning social integration, was the principal end of the Christian life, and any people that claimed to be Christian must embody it somehow, at some time, in this world.”1 An investigation of Santa Maria dei Battuti's works of charity will reveal how the Trevisan community reconciled Christian ideals and social realities. The confraternity provided charity designed to relieve the sufferings of the poor: ad hoc relief, annual almsgiving, assistance to prisoners, and debt remission. The care of foundlings and orphans also constituted a large part of the brotherhood's charitable activities, which included nursing, training, and ultimately reintroducing the child into society. The universal Christian community also benefited from the confraternity's gifts to support religious rites, ecclesiastical houses, newly converted Christians, and pilgrims. In all of its activities, the confraternity desired to assist those worthy of aid and avoid abuse or overuse of its generosity.