charity and confraternities 427
and the Provveditori di Comun. in examining these administrative records,
however, richard Mackenney found that Venetian oversight of the scuole
piccole was remarkably lax. he argues that the inconsistent records and
great variety of scuole piccole reflect a genuine popular devotion, thriving
and declining with the fervor of individual members’ devotional zeal. one
should view the confraternities as “socially constructed rather than politi-
cally imposed.”21 this is an important caveat when considering the scuole,
grandi and piccole, of Venice. the scuole, with their fixed membership,
regulated statutes, and charitable activities, constituted the stable reli-
gious and charitable associations that the Venetian government desired,
but the creation of new confraternities and devotional associations dem-
onstrates the vitality of a popular piety often autonomous from Venetian
authorities.
Cheap Credit, the Monte di Pietà, and the Jewsthe Venetian government encouraged the scuole to provide food, cloth-
ing, and shelter to those in need, but the poor also required consumer
credit to survive normal economic cycles and extreme times of crisis. the
Venetian debate about how best to provide for this system of cheap credit
puts into dramatic relief the principles and process of Venetian charity.
the scuole were not the only groups and the Bianchi not the only religious
movement to be regulated. the Venetian state would also stifle a move-
ment to provide cheap credit to the poor and would regulate another
group, the Jews, to provide the same service.
Loaning money to the poor was fraught with theological complexity,
centered on the problematic passage in deuteronomy 23,22 yet the moral
condemnations of money-lending did not eliminate the very real economic
need of poor Christians for temporary credit. Communities regularly
chartered pawnbrokers, often Jews.23 the dependence on contracts with
Jews to provide loans to Christians created an atmosphere of anti-Jewish
21 Mackenney, “scuole piccole of Venice,” p. 175.
22 Giacomo todeschini, “franciscan economics and Jews in the Middle ages: from a
theological to an economic Lexicon,” in steven McMichael and susan Myers, eds., Friars
and Jews in the Middle Ages and Renaissance (Leiden, 2004), pp. 99–117.
23 on money-lending, usury, and the status of Jews, see John t. noonan, The Scholastic
Analysis of Usury (Cambridge, Mass., 1957); Lester Little, Religious Poverty and the Profit
Economy in Medieval Europe (ithaca, 1978); robert Bonfil, Jewish Life in Renaissance Italy,
trans. anthony oldcorn (Berkeley, 1994); and steven McMichael and susan Myers, eds.,
Friars and Jews in the Middle Ages and Renaissance (Leiden, 2004).