Urban V. Urbain V(1362–1370): lettres communes, ed. Marie-Hyacinthe Laurent and members of
the École Française de Rome. 12 vols. Paris: Boccard, 1954–89.
——. Urbain V(1362–1370): lettres secrètes et curiales du Pape Urbain V(1362–1370): se
rapportant a France, ed. Paul C.N.M.J.Lecacheux et al. 4 vols. Paris: Fontemoing, 1902–55.
de Lanouvelle, Edgar. Le bienheureux Urbain V et la Chrétienté au milieu du XIVe siècle. Paris:
Letouzy et Ané, 1911.
USURY
. Medieval jurists and moralists defined usury as any predetermined charge for a loan
of money or goods. The taking of usury was a canonical offense punishable by
excommunication. In France, usurers were subject to banishment and their property to
confiscation by the crown. The ban on usury did not apply to ordinary business profits or
to penalties for overdue loans.
The usury prohibition originated in the early church but was not applied to the laity
until Charlemagne forbade lending at interest to all subjects of the empire at the Council
of Aix-la-Chapelle (789). The increase in moneylending generated by the growth of trade
after 1100 provoked a series of papal and conciliar decrees between 1179 (Third Lateran
Council) and 1311 (Council of Vienne) that reiterated the traditional ban and
strengthened the canonical penalties for usurers. Local councils in most regions of France
followed suit and adopted antiusury canons in the course of the 13th century.
Although lending at interest was strictly forbidden by Louis IX in decrees of 1230 and
1254, political and fiscal considerations generally dictated French royal policy on usury.
Philip IV effectively legalized usury in 1311, when he abolished penalties for lenders
who charged annual rates of less than 20 percent. The crown frequently granted ad hoc
exemptions from the usury ban. Exemptions conceded to Châteauneuf (1181) and Poitiers
(1222) favored towns in the royal domain; similar concessions to the fairs of Champagne
and Brie (1349) and to Lyon (1419) were designed to encourage international trade. As
early as the last quarter of the 12th century, the crown and local authorities permitted
Jewish and foreign, usually Italian, moneylenders to lend at annual rates as high as 43
percent a year (two deniers per livre per week) on payment of an annual fine.
Nevertheless, the position of such public usurers was precarious. Jewish moneylenders
were subjected to frequent expulsions and expropriations throughout the 13th and 14th
centuries. Italian moneylenders and financiers, many of whom were creditors of the
crown, were banished and their assets seized in 1277, 1291, 1311, and 1331.
From the reign of Charles V, the economic effects of the Hundred Years’ War dictated
a less erratic policy on usury, and moneylenders were authorized by letters patent to lend
in most French cities at an annual rate of 16 percent. Licensed usury became a virtual
monopoly of Italian moneylenders after 1394, when Charles VI revoked privileges
previously granted to Jewish lenders. The later Middle Ages also saw a moderation of the
ecclesiastical position on usury as a result of the development of titles to compensatory
interest by canonists and theologians.
Lawrin D.Armstrong
The Encyclopedia 1781