Mediæval London, Volume 1: Historical & SocialBesant, Walter
History
Mediæval London, Volume 1: Historical & Social
Besant, Walter
London (England) -- History -- To 1500; London (England) -- Social life and customs -- To 1500
and their heirs, until the full payment of all the aforesaid; which
goods we hereby recognise that we possess from them by a precarious
tenure. And we consent on all the aforesaid to be convened in all
places, and before any tribunal, and do renounce, for all the aforesaid
for ourselves and our successors, all the aid of law, both canon and
civil, the privilege both of clerkship and of court, the letter of
Saint Adrian, every custom and statute, all letters, indulgences, and
privileges obtained, or to be hereafter obtained from the Apostolic
See for the King of England and all the people of his kingdom, the
constitution _De duabus dietis_, the benefit of full repayment, the
benefit of appeal and of recusation, the inhibitory letters of the
King of England, and all other exception, real and personal, which
might be objected against this instrument or deed. All these things we
promise faithfully shall be observed. In testimony of which matter we
have thought it right to affix our seals to this present writing. Done
on the fifth day of Elphege, in the year of grace MCCXXXV.”—(Matthew
Paris, Giles’s translation, pp. 2-4.)
The rate of interest, it will be seen, was 60 per cent per annum.
In that same year—1235—the Bishop of London “perceiving that the
Caursines openly multiplied their usury without shame and led a most
filthy life, harassing the Religious with various injuries and amassing
heaps of riches from the numbers who were forced to submit to their
yoke,” arose and admonished them to desist from their practices and to
do penance for their misdeeds. But what is a Bishop of London compared
with the Pope of Rome? The Caursini laughed at the Bishop; they
appealed to Rome; they procured an order that the Bishop, then old and
ill, should repair to Rome with his complaints. The Bishop, therefore,
said no more.
In the year 1251, proceedings were taken against some of them. They
have the air of being a concession to popular prejudice, and also as a
means of raising money for the King.
Again, to quote Matthew Paris:—
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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