2015 HUMANITIES FREE-RESPONSE QUESTIONS

Document 3 Geo.

Source: Matthew of Paris, benedictine monk, English History 1235

The following is an excerpt from a journal concerning social restructure in 1224 Florence

The Caursines  (or Cahorsins) derived their name from the city of Cahors but the term is usually applied to money-lenders. The real Caursines were capitalist Christian bankers whose clients were the rich and powerful in society. In England their unpopularity was due to their officiating as papal brokers, and to the heavy rates of interest they charged.  In these days prevailed the horrible nuisance of the Caursines, to such a degree that there was hardly any one in all England, especially among the bishops, who was not caught in their net. Even the king himself was held indebted to them in an incalculable sum of money. For they circumvented the needy in their necessities, cloaking their usury under the show of trade, and pretending not to know that whatever is added to the principal is usury, under whatever name it may be called.   “The Usury of the Cahorsins” by Matthew Paris

SUMMARY: Matthew Paris scorns the Caursines for usury(interest rates in excess of those which law permits). The Caursines are vilified do to their greed. A response could state how greed was apparent in society, angering Dante.

DOC-REF: In Matthew Paris’s English History, the Cahorsin money lenders are denounced. (Doc 3)

POV: As a monk, Matthew found greed to be very unholy, thus potentially leading to a misuse of the term usury, this is due to many religious peoples seeing usury as simply an interest at all on money lending.