It is the particular purpose of this study to examine in detail the practical working of the Poor Law in Cambridgeshire during the centuries which followed its final codification under Elizabeth, but it would seem desirable to preface this account by a preliminary survey of the methods adopted in this county for the relief or the repression of the poverty-stricken during medieval and early Tudor days. From the dawn of the Christian era the care of the sick and needy was recognised as an important duty of the Church as a body as well as of its individual members. The institutions of religion grew up, moreover, during the Middle Ages in a society of which the fundamental organisation necessitated consideration for its weaker members—the prevention of destitution, says Miss Page, was the “central thread of manorial land-law” on the Cambridgeshire manors of Oakington, Cottenham and Drayton. In the towns the regulation of economic conditions, especially during the hey-day of the gilds, did much to prevent or to mitigate want. Whilst it seems to be true that a good deal of poverty did nevertheless exist, continuous economic precariousness was not characteristic of medieval England, and the network of voluntary associations, together with the charity of individuals, met the needs of the day so long as no great strain was placed upon it.