At Florence he met with still more opposition; for the rich Jews bribed the members of the government, who wished in appearance to favour the establishment of the lending-house, to which they had consented eighteen years before, while they secretly thwarted it; and some boys having once proceeded, after hearing a sermon, to attack the houses of the Jews, the Minorites were ordered to abstain from preaching and to quit the city[18]. It was however completely established; but by the Dominican Hieronymus Savonarola[19]. In the year 1488 Bernardinus established a lending-house at Parma, and procured for it the pope’s sanction, as well as for one at Cesena, where the interest was defined to be “pro salariis officialium et aliis montis oneribus perferendis.” About the conclusion of this year he was at the other end of Italy, where he re-established the lending-house at Aquila in the kingdom of Naples[20]. In the year following he established one at Chieti (_Theate_) in the same kingdom, another at Rieti (_Reate_) in the territories of the Church, a third at Narni (_Narnia_)[21]; and a fourth at Lucca, which was confirmed by the bishop, notwithstanding the opposition of the Jews, who did every thing in their power to prevent it. In the year 1490 a lending-house was established at Piacenza (_Placentia_) by Bernardinus, who at the same time found one at Genoa which had been established by the before-mentioned Angelus a Clavasio[22]. At this period also a lending-house was established at Verona[23], and another at Milan by the Minorite Michael de Aquis. In 1491 a lending-house was established at Padua, which was confirmed by Pope Alexander VI. in 1493[24]; and another was established at Ravenna[25]. In 1492 Bernardinus reformed the lending-house at Vicenza, where, in order to avoid the reproach of usury, the artifice was employed of not demanding any interest, but admonishing the borrowers that they should give a remuneration according to their piety and ability. As people were by these means induced to pay more interest than what was legally required at other lending-houses, Bernardinus caused this method to be abolished[26]. He established a lending-house also the same year in the small town of Campo S. Pietro, not far from Padua, and expelled the Jews who had lent upon pledges. At this period there were lending-houses at Bassano, a village in the county of Trevisi, and also at Feltri, which he inspected and improved[27]. In the year 1493 Bernardinus caused a lending-house to be established at Crema, in the Venetian dominions; another at Pavia, where he requested the opinion of the jurists, whom he was happy to find favourable to his design; and likewise a third at Gubbio, in the territories of the Church. At the same time another Franciscan established at Cremona a _mons frumenti pietatis_, from which corn was lent out on interest to necessitous persons; and it appears that there had been an institution of the like kind before at Parma[28].