400 A. D. 1 25 1. 



they are accufed of taking moil unmerciful advantages of the neceffitles 

 of thofe who were obliged to apply to them for the loan of money *. 

 In the year 1235, when the king and moft of the prelates of England 

 were indebted to them, the bifhop of London made an attempt to drive 

 them out of the city : but the pope fupported his own merchants (fo 

 they are called) againft the bifliop, who, thinking himfelf ill ufed by 

 the fucceflbr of S'. Peter, recommended his caufe to S'. Paul, his own 

 patron. But he, having faid that the labourer is worthy of his reward, 

 ought, in confiftency, alfo to decide againfl him, as money, the price of 

 labour, is equally worthy of a compenfation for the ufe of it. 



At length in the year 1251 the Cauriini were accufed before the 

 judges, by an agent for the king, of fchifm, heref}% and treafon. Some 

 of them were imprifoned, and others concealed themfelves. One of 

 them told Mathew Paris the hiftorian, that, if they had not purchafed" 

 fumptuous houfes in London, fcarcely one of them would have remain- 

 ed in England f . The neceflary confequence of the clamour and per- 

 fecution raifed againfl thofe who took interefl for the ufe of money, 

 was that they were obliged to charge it much higher than the natural, 

 price, which, if it had been let alone, would have found its proper le- 

 vel, in order to compenfate for the opprobrium, and frequently the 

 plunder, which they fuffered : and thence the ufual rate of, intereft was- 

 what we fhould now call mofl exorbitant and fcandalous ufury %, , 



The marriage of Alexander III, king of Scotland, to Margaret, the 

 daughter of Henry III king of England, both infants of ten years of 

 age, occafioned a difplay of magnificence, which feems to have exceed- 

 ed any thing ever feen in England before. Befides the kings of Eng- 

 land and Scotland with their retinues, the queen dowager of Scotland, 

 who refided in France, joined the company with a fplendid train of the 

 nobles of that country. Notwithllanding the rapine of the popes and the 

 folly of the crufades, the nobles of England could afford to make a mofl 



* Do£\or Henrj', generally a careful and accur- with the money-lenders called Caurfini. He even 



ate writer, feems to be miftaken In faying [K vlii, endeavours to clear his native country, Italy, ftjtl 



/'• 335' "^- '7^^] ^''^^ ^'"T t-ook fixly per cent, further from the reproach, attending their opprefl'- 



The condition in tlie obligation exemplified by ive ufury, by fixing them at the city ot Cahors in 



Matiiew Paris, [/>. 418] which feems to have mif- France, the general rendezvous, as he fays, of 



led him, was apparently the common form, (fee thofe traders, whether French or Italian*, whence 



Fadera, V. f, p. 6.J3, for fuch another) and finii- they were called Caorfmi, Caturcini, &c. For this 



iar to the modern praftice of making !)c;ids for he quotes Benevcnuto of Iniola who wrote in the 



double the debt, in order to cover the damages year 1380, and Du Cange the learned French 



and expcnfes. glofiarilt. Pcrliaps it may alfo bo confidcted as a 



f Some of them foon after obtained a bull from mark of the fuperior fcicnce oi the people of that 



the pope, dcfiring the king to treat them favour- place in money matters, that John of Cahors (* de 



.ibly. \_Fadera, V. i, /. 467.] Caturco') was employed in the bufmcfs of coming 



5, The fafts in this account of the tra<lc in mo- by Edward I. \_Mjdoxs Hijl. of the excheq. c. 22,^ 



ney are taken from M. Paris \_pp. 417-419, 822] ^ 4.] It would throw confiderablc light on the 



and Muratori. S^/]uliq. V. i, d'iff. l6.j Muratoii difpntc, if we euuld certainly know, which fide of 



Krcuuoufly denies, that the Corlini, a noble family the Alps Mathew Paris \p. 822] calls lianfalp'me. 



of Florence, who, like the other nobles of that On othei oscafions he clearly applies that terra to 



itatt", were engaged in trade, had any coniicflion the Italians. I 



