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<blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 7817212" data-attributes="member: 4937">Rather late into the Renaissance, yes, certain Catholic lay orders began building schools specifically to house and care for orphans. Prior to that, the usual practice was that if no suitable family member could be found (relatives had a legal obligation to care for children), to apprentice out orphans to whomever would be willing to take them in, which amounted to foster parentage. In the middle ages, various orders of nuns acted much like social services today - removing endangered children from abusive homes and trying to place them in homes that would care for them. If that couldn't be arranged, they were basically reliant on the rather sparse infrastructure available to the poor in the form of hospitals, almhouses, and so forth.Of course all of this rarely worked as well in practice as intended, something that was probably only abetted by the fact that so many children even in well-to-do homes died young of contagious diseases that society developed a fairly high indifference to death of children. It was normal.The Black Death absolutely overwhelmed the limited social services of the Middle Ages. It also created a stigma around those social services that was lasting. For example, prior to the Black Death most large towns ran public bathhouses after the Roman model to ensure cleanliness of the population.&nbsp; The Middle Ages were actually a relatively clean period.&nbsp; But after the Black Death, public places became stigmatized as the source of disease, so they closed the baths and even convinced themselves that bathing was unhealthy.&nbsp; The Early Modern period stank quite literally.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Celebrim, post: 7817212, member: 4937"] Rather late into the Renaissance, yes, certain Catholic lay orders began building schools specifically to house and care for orphans. Prior to that, the usual practice was that if no suitable family member could be found (relatives had a legal obligation to care for children), to apprentice out orphans to whomever would be willing to take them in, which amounted to foster parentage. In the middle ages, various orders of nuns acted much like social services today - removing endangered children from abusive homes and trying to place them in homes that would care for them. If that couldn't be arranged, they were basically reliant on the rather sparse infrastructure available to the poor in the form of hospitals, almhouses, and so forth. Of course all of this rarely worked as well in practice as intended, something that was probably only abetted by the fact that so many children even in well-to-do homes died young of contagious diseases that society developed a fairly high indifference to death of children. It was normal. The Black Death absolutely overwhelmed the limited social services of the Middle Ages. It also created a stigma around those social services that was lasting. For example, prior to the Black Death most large towns ran public bathhouses after the Roman model to ensure cleanliness of the population. The Middle Ages were actually a relatively clean period. But after the Black Death, public places became stigmatized as the source of disease, so they closed the baths and even convinced themselves that bathing was unhealthy. The Early Modern period stank quite literally. [/QUOTE]

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