“In pauperes misericordiam exercēre”. Algunas notas sobre la calificación de los hospitales como lugares píos en el derecho común

Considering the recent pandemic, which imposed a necessary reconsideration of the principle of solidarity, this essay reconstructs the reflection of the scientia iuris of ius commune on the qualification of care structures (hospitals, but also institutes for poor and needy people); a reflection through which said principle was declined in the medieval and modern experience. Using the Justinian and canonical texts, the jurists, both in the role of teachers and consiliatores, justify the privileges of pious places, precisely by virtue of a propensity for solidarity on the part of the Church, called to fulfill the precept of the charity.