Note 71 — Chapter I · THE MEDIEVAL BACKGROUND

Raimundi de Penna-forti Summa Pastoralis (Ravaisson, Catalogue Général des MSS. des Bibliothèques publiques des Departements, 1849, vol. i, pp. 592 seqq.). The archdeacon is to inquire: “Whether [the priest] feeds his flock, assisting those who are in need and above all those who are sick. Works of mercy also are to be suggested by the archdeacon, to be done by him for their assistance. If he cannot fully accomplish them out of his own resources, he ought, according to his power, to use his personal influence to get from others the means of carrying them out.... Inquiries concerning the parishioners are to be made, both from the priest and from others among them worthy of credence, who, if necessary, are to be summoned for the purpose to the presence of the archdeacon, as well as from the neighbours, with regard to matters which appear to need correction. First, inquiry is to be made whether there are notorious usurers, or persons reputed to be usurers, and what sort of usury they practise, whether any one, that is to say, lends money or anything else ... on condition that he receive anything above the principal, or holds any pledge and takes profits from it in excess of the principal, or receives pledges and uses them in the meantime for his own gain; ... whether he holds horses in pledge and reckons in the cost of their fodder more than they can eat ... or whether he buys anything at a much lower price than it is worth, on condition that the seller can take it back at a fixed term on paying the price, though the buyer knows that he (the seller) will not be able to do so; or whether he buys anything for a less price than it is worth, because he pays before receiving the article, for example, standing corn; or whether any one, as a matter of custom and without express contract, is wont to take payment above the principal, as the Cahorsines do.... Further, it is to be inquired whether he practises usury cloaked under the guise of a partnership (nomine societatis palliatam), as when a man lends money to a merchant, on condition that he be a partner in the gains, but not in the losses.... Further, whether he practises usury cloaked under the guise of a penalty, that is to say, when his intention in imposing a penalty [for non-payment at a given date] is not that he may be paid more quickly, but that he may be paid more. Further, whether he practises usury in kind, as when a rich man, who has lent money, will not receive from a poor man any money above the principal, but agrees that he shall work two days in his vineyard, or something of the kind. Further, whether he practises usury cloaked by reference to a third party, as when a man will not lend himself, but has a friend whom he induces to lend. When it has been ascertained how many persons in that parish are notorious for usury of this kind, their names are to be reduced to writing, and the archdeacon is to proceed against them in virtue of his office, causing them to be cited to his court on a day fixed, either before himself or his responsible official, even if there is no accuser, on the ground that they are accused by common report. If they are convicted, either because their offence is evident, or by their own confession, or by witnesses, he is to punish them as he thinks best.... If they cannot be directly convicted, by reason of their manifold shifts and stratagems, nevertheless their ill fame as usurers can easily be established.... If the archdeacon proceed with caution and diligence against their wicked doings, they will hardly be able to hold their own or to escape—if, that is ... he vex them with trouble and expense, and humiliate them, by frequently serving citations on them and assigning several different days for their trial, so that by trouble, expense, loss of time, and all manner of confusion they may be induced to repent and submit themselves to the discipline of the Church.”