486 menorah
The Friars in Medieval France: A Catalogue of French
Mendicant Convents, 1200–1550 (New York: Columbia
University Press, 1962); Herbert Grundmann, Religious
Movements in the Middle Ages: The Historical Links
between Heresy, the Mendicant Orders, and the Women’s
Religious Movement in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Century,
with the Historical Foundations of German Mysticism,
trans. Steven Rowan (Notre Dame, Ind.: University of
Notre Dame Press, 1995); C. H. Lawrence, The Friars:
The Impact of the Early Mendicant Movement on Western
Society(London: Longman, 1994).
menorah The menorah is a seven-branched cande-
labrum, the most common symbol of JUDAISM. It was
the ancestor of the sanctuary light used by Christianity
to indicate the presence of Christ in the tabernacle. It
was based on the seven-branched candlestick or lamp
described in the Old Testament or Hebrew BIBLE in
Exodus 25:31–38.
See alsoJEWS ANDJUDAISM.
Further reading:Joseph Gutmann, Jewish Ceremonial
Art (New York: T. Yoseloff, 1964); Joseph Gutmann,
Hebrew Manuscript Painting(London: Chatto and Win-
dus, 1979).
mercenaries SeeCONDOTTIERI, COMPANIES, AND
MERCENARIES.
merchants Merchants, those in the business of buy-
ing and selling, in the Middle Ages were considered a
suspicious group who engaged in questionable activi-
ties. Canonical legislation forbade USURY. Profiting from
any kind of monetary transaction was also suspicious.
Only a just price for a service or commodity was licit.
Despite this, commercial activities did not stop during
the Middle Ages. Theologians rationalized ways of
making such activities less sinful by not questioning the
creative commercial techniques employed by merchants
to cover their collection of interest. It should be
remembered that many practices in the late medieval
church were also illicit but widespread, such as SIMONY
and the promotion of clerics based on their kinship ties
(nepotism).
COMMERCIAL REVOLUTIONThere was a veritable commercial revolution in the 12th
and 13th centuries. Merchants became ubiquitous in
medieval society, especially in the cities, doing business at
the local as well as international level. Alongside these
merchants was the great merchant, who controlled capital
and was often the confidential agent of kings, popes, or
princes. The popes especially needed BANKSand mer-
chants to assist them in moving the greatly expanding
income of the Holy See in the 13th century.
COMPANIES
Powerful companies arose. Their capital was based on fam-
ily assets and the deposits of clients in search of lucrative
profits, especially at the inland Italian cities of Piacenza,
SIENA,LUCCA, and FLORENCE. Merchant bankers circulated
money and merchandise. They established branches with
representatives in all the great commercial localities of the
time. They often combined commercial traffic, banking
activities, and industrial enterprise, especially in wool and
cloth. The earlier companies all failed around 1300. New
ones arose that managed risk better by avoiding loans to
monarchs and investing in a wider variety of activities.
They also improved their accounting methods, in particu-
lar double-entry, which made easily accessible the statistics
on exactly where and how their business was going. These
newer techniques decreased their required mobility while
maintaining their knowledge and control. As a group, mer-
chants often left the profession to return to the land and
marry into more noble social classes.
See also BANKS AND BANKING; BRUGES; COEUR,
JACQUES; DATINI, FRANCESCO; ECONOMIC THOUGHT AND
JUSTICE; HANSEATICLEAGUE; MEDICI FAMILY; NOBILITY AND
NOBLES; SOCIAL STATUS AND STRUCTURE.
Further reading:Robert S. Lopez and Irving W. Ray-
mond, eds., Medieval Trade in the Mediterranean World:
Illustrative Documents with Introductions and Notes(New
York: Columbia University Press, 1955); James Mass-
chaele, Peasants, Merchants, and Markets: Inland Trade in
Medieval England, 1150–1350 (New York: St. Martin’s
Press, 1997); Timothy O’Neill, Merchants and Mariners in
Medieval Ireland(Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 1987);
Armando Sapori, The Italian Merchant in the Middle Ages,
trans. Patricia Ann Kennen (New York: W. W. Norton,
1970); Peter Spufford, Power and Profit: The Merchant in
Medieval Europe(London: Thames & Hudson, 2002).Merinids (Marinids, Banu Marin) The Merinids were a
BERBERdynasty who reigned over the far al-MAGHRIBor
MOROCCO from the mid-13th to the mid-15th century,
having divided up the territory of the ALMOHADSwith the
HAFSIDSof Tunisia. The Merinid state pursued an ambition
to unify al-Maghrib and for a while subjugated the sul-
tanate of Tlemcen and the Hafsid sultanate of TUNIS. They
dreamed of taking back the lands that the Muslims had
earlier lost in SPAINbut were defeated in a battle in 1340
and never again tried to interfere in Iberia again. Instead,
they settled at FEZ, built a new town (Fas al-Jadid), and
made it the capital of a kingdom that became prosperous
through their partial control of the Sudanese gold route.
From the late 14th century, however their difficulties
increased. Their dynastic instability was exploited by
ambitions court officials, leading to internal civil wars.
The Portuguese captured the town of Ceuta in 1415 and
sought possession of the trade in Sudanese gold. A branch
of the dynasty, the Wattasids, attempted to restore the