比韦斯是16世纪西班牙著名的人文主义者。他一生著述丰富，思想广博。《论对穷人的支持》一书是比韦斯阐述其社会济贫思想的第一部重要专著，反映了他对当时西欧各城镇开展济贫改革的深刻思考。15世纪末16世纪初的西欧城镇普遍面临着严重的贫困危机。贫困危机的产生是这一时期欧洲社会经济结构转型的产物。西欧城镇商品经济的发展改变了人们的社会关系及交往方式，建立在商品经济基础之上的社会关系又决定了人们济贫观念的变化。穷人被视为社会不和谐的根源及秩序混乱的威胁。在消除贫困危机愿望的驱使下，西欧在16世纪初普遍开展了济贫改革。比韦斯是这一时期较早关注贫困危机和济贫改革的人文主义者。他针对布鲁日市的社会现状，积极倡导建立新的济贫体制，并专门撰写《论对穷人的支持》一书阐述其济贫改革方案。在《论对穷人的支持》一书中，比韦斯的济贫思想可以归纳为以下四个基本内涵：济贫管理世俗化、济贫资金集中化、济贫运作合理化与济贫管理人员职业化。他对穷人群体进行合理化区分的倡导、对国家应尽济贫职能的强调、对济贫运作规范化的建议、对特殊穷人群体进行特殊照顾的考虑，均反映出比韦斯对济贫问题的深入思考和他作为一个人文主义者的文化特质。书中具体的济贫举措不仅为16世纪西欧其它城镇开展济贫改革提供了理论依据，而且对近代以来英美济贫体系的建立产生了影响深远。因此，该书是研究近代早期人文主义者济贫改革思想的一个优秀范本。比韦斯的济贫思想在此后欧洲许多城镇的济贫实践中都有所体现。济贫改革的实施使西欧城镇在近代化的社会管理中迈出了举足轻重的一步。他的著作也从侧面印证了20世纪以来西方学者关于济贫改革运动本质的修正。但不可否认的是，比韦斯的济贫思想始终难以摆脱中世纪神学教义的束缚，其济贫思想的旨归在于维护中世纪社会的等级秩序。比韦斯济贫思想的局限性呼唤着西欧济贫体制的改革向着更为法制化、近代化和人道主义的方向转变。

Juan Luis Vives is the famous Spanish humanist of the 16th century. During his lifetime, he wrote many works and put forward important theories and suggestions for social problems. His work On Assistance to The Poor is the first important monograph in which Vives has described his thought and plan of poor relief in society, and his ideas about poor relief reform in various towns of Western Europe during this period have been presented in this book.Western European towns generally faced severe poverty crisis in the late 15th and early 16th century. The making of poverty crisis could be viewed as a product of social and economic restructuring in Europe during this period. The development of commodity economy in Western European towns has changed social relationship and communication pattern, and then social environment based on commodity economy has moulded people's attitudes towards poor relief. The poor has been considered as the root causes of the social disharmony and disorder. To eliminate the poverty crisis, Western European countries generally carried out poor relief reform in the 16th century. Vives is the humanist who has an early focus on poverty crisis and poor relief reform during this period. In face of the social situation of Bruges, he actively advocated the establishment of new poor relief system, and specifically wrote the book On Assistance to The Poor to describes his programs on poor relief reform.In the book On Assistance to The Poor, Vives’ thought of poor relief could be summarized into the following four basic contents: the secularization of poor-relief management, the centralization of poor-relief funds, the rationalization of poor-relief function, and the professionalization of poor relief. His ideas about problems of poor relief and his cultural image as a humanist have been reflected in his advocacy on reasonable distinction between poor groups, his emphasis on the due responsibility of the State, his recommendations on the standardization of poor relief operation, and his consideration about special care for the special poor groups. The specific poor relief measures he put forward in his book not only have provided the basis for the poor relief reform in Western European towns in the 16th century, but also has had a profound impact on the establishment of modern poor relief system in Britain and the U.S. Therefore, this book is an excellent model to study the thought of poor relief reform of early modern humanists. Vives’ ideas have been reflected in the poor relief practices in many European towns since then. By the implementation of poor relief, Western European towns have taken a decisive step on modern social administration. However, there is no doubt that there have been the shackles of medieval theology doctrines on Vives’ mind and his thinking has been still aimed at maintaining the level of order in medieval society. Therefore, there have been apparent differences between Vives' thought of poor relief and the modern poor-relief system.