L O M 



L O M 



finally, the great number of perfons among them, whofe 

 faiiClity and eminent virtues have been acknowledged by tl e 

 popes themfelves, mud convince every impartial reader, that 

 the Lombards were not fuch a favage, barbarous, and inhu- 

 man nation, as they are defcribed by fome of the popes, ef- 

 jx'cially by Adrian, the chief author of the ruin ot their 

 kingdom. They were the only power in Italy capable of 

 defeating the ambitious views of the bifliops of Rome, whom 

 they would not fuftcr to enrich themfelves with the fpoils of 

 the enyierors, but confidcred them as theii- own by right of 

 conqueft ; and hence arofe the inveterate liatred which the 

 popes bore them, and could not help betrayiag in all their 

 writings. But their laws arc convincing proofs of their juf- 

 tice, hnmanitv, and wifdom, and, at the fame time, a full 

 confutation of the many calumnies, with which "ht popes, 

 and their partifans, have endeavoured to afperfe them. Their 

 laws were found fo jnll and equitable, that they were re- 

 tained in Italy, and obferved fome ages after their kingdom 

 vas at an end. 



Lombards, a name given in the Netherlands, France, 

 and England, to lending-houfes. (See I.o.w-iaiils.) It is 

 »'ell known that in the thirteenth and following centuries 

 many opulent merchants of Italy, which at thofe periods 

 was'almoll the only part of Europe that carried on an ex- 

 tenlivc trade, were invited to thele countries, where there 

 were few mercantile people able to engage deeply in com- 

 merce. For this reafon they were favoured by governments 

 in moft of the large cities ; but in the courfe of time they 

 became objeds of univerfal hatred, becaufe they exercifed 

 the moil oppreffive ufury, by lending at intereft and on 

 pledges. They were called LutignlariH or Lombarili, as 

 whole nations are often named after a part of their country, 

 in the fame manner as all the Helvetians are called Swifs, 

 and the Ruffians fometimes Mofcovitcs. They were, how- 

 ever, calletf frequently alfo Caorcini, Caturcini, Caurhni, 

 Cawarfmi, Cawartini, Bardi, and Amanati ; names which, 

 in all probability, arofe from fome of their greatelt houfes or 

 "banks. We know, at any rate, that about thofe periods 

 the family of the Corfuii were in great confideration at Flo- 

 rence. They had banks in the principal towns for lending 

 money ; they demanded exorbitant intereft ; and they re- 

 <:eived pledges at a low value, and retained them as their 

 «wn property if not redeemed at the ftated time. They 

 eluded the prohibition of the church againft intereft when 

 thev found it noceffary, by caufmg the intereft to be pre- 

 ■rioufly paid as a prefent or premium ; and it appears that 

 fome fovereigns borrowed money from them on thele con- 

 <ditinns. In this manner did Edward III., king of Eng- 

 land, when travelling through France, in the year i py, re- 

 ceive jcoo marks from the bank of the Bardi, and give them 

 in return, by way of acknowledgment, a bond for 7000. 

 When complaints agaiuft the usurious praftices of tliefe 

 ChriiHan .lews became too loud to be difregarded, tliey were 

 threatened with expulfion from the country, and thofe who 

 had rendered themfelves moft obnoxious on that account, 

 were often banifiied, fo tlu-.t thofe who remained were obhged 

 to conduct their employment with more prudence and mo- 

 <leration. It is probable that the commerce of thefe coun- 

 tries was then in too infant a ilate to difpenfe altogether with 

 the affiftance of thefe foreigners. In tliis manner were they 

 treated by Louis IX. in 1268, and hkewife by Philip the 

 Bold ; and fometimes the popes, who would not authorife 

 interell, lent their affillance by prohibitions, as was the cafe 

 an regard to Henry III. of England in 1240. 



In the fourteenth century, the Lombards, in the Nether- 

 lands, paid to government rent for the houfes in which they 

 «arrkd oa their u^oney tranfaitions, and fomething beiides 



for a permiflion. Of this we have inftances at Delft in 1 3is, 

 and at Dordrecht in 1342. As in the courfe of time the 

 original Lombards became extinft, thefe houfes were let, 

 with the fame permiflion, for the like employment ; but go- 

 vernments at length fixed the rale of intereft wliich they 

 ought to receive, and eftablilhed regulations for them, by 

 which ufurious pradlices were reilrained. Of leafes granted 

 on fuch conditions, an inftance occurs at Delft in the year 

 1655. In 1578, WiUiam prince of Orange recommended to 

 the magiilrates of Amfterdam Francis Mafafia, one of the 

 Lombards, as they were then called, in order that he might 

 obtain for him permiffion to eltablifti a lending-houfe ; as 

 many obtained permiifion to keep billiard-tables, and .lews 

 letters of proteflion. In the year 161 1, the proprietor of 

 fnch a hmife at Amfterdam, who in the latter years of his 

 leafe had gained by his capital at leaft thirty-three and a 

 half per cent, offered a very large fum for a renewal of 

 his permiflion ; but, in 1614, the city rcfolved to take the 

 lombard or lending-houfe into their own hands, or to efta- 

 blifli one of the fame kind. However deteftcd this plan 

 might be, a difpute arofe refpedling the legality of it, which 

 Marets and Claude Saumaifeendeavoitred to fupport. The 

 pubhc lending-houfe or lombard at Brulfels was ellablifiied 

 in 1619; that at Antwerp in 1620, and that at Ghent in 

 1622. All thefe were eftabliflied by the archduke Albert, 

 when he entered on the governorrtiip, with the advice of the 

 archbifhop of Mechhn ; and on this occaflon the architect 

 Wenceflaus Coberger was employed, and appointed infpec- 

 tor-general of all the lending-houfes in the Spanifti Nether- 

 lands. Some Italians aflert, that the Flemings were the 

 firft people who borrowed money on intereft for their lending- 

 houfes ; and they tell us that this praftice began in the 

 year 1619. Weareaffured alfo, that, after long delibera- 

 tion at Bruflels, it was at length refolved to receive money 

 on intereft at the lending-houfes. It however appears cer- 

 tain, that in Italy this was never done, or at leall not done 

 till a late period, and that the capitals of the lending-houfes 

 there were amaiTed without giving intereft. 



This beneficial inftitution was always oppofed in France; 

 chiefly, becaufe the doftors of the Sorbonne could not divell 

 themfelves of the prejudice againft intereft ; and fome in mo- 

 dern times who undertook there to accommodate people 

 with money on the like terms, were puniftied by government. 

 A lending-houfe, however, was eftabliftied at Paris, under 

 Louis XIIL, in 1626 ; but the managers next year were 

 obliged to abandon it. In 1695, l^me perfons formed a 

 capital at Marfeilles for the purpofe of eftabli/liing one 

 there according to the plan of thofe in Italy. The mont de 

 p'icti at Paris, which has had fometimes in its pofleflion forty 

 calks filled with gold watches that have been pledged, was, 

 by royal command, ^\r[\ ettabhlhed in 1777. Becknjann's- 

 Hift. of Inventions,' vol. iii. 



LOMBARDY, \n Geography/, a country in the northern, 

 part of Italy, very much correiponding with the Cifalpine 

 Gaul of the Romans. It derived its name from the Lombards, 

 (fee the article Lombards,.) who founded the kingdom in 

 the middle of the fixth century. This country was divided, 

 into feveral ilates, fubjeft to the houfe of Auftria, the re-, 

 public of Venice, and the king of Sardinia ; fuch as the. • 

 duchies of Milan and Mantua, called Aullrian Lombardy ;. 

 the Paduan, Ver.jnefe, Vicentin, Breflan, Comafco, Berga- 

 mafco, belonging to Venice : — Montferra: and Nice, an-, 

 nexed to Piedmont, fubjctl to the king of Sardinia ; to- 

 gether with many others, as the duchies of Modena, Reo-gio, 

 Parma, Piacenza, Mirandola, and feveral fmaller princi- 

 palities and ilates. The viciflltudcs which Lombardy ha^, 

 undergone, and more efpecially thofe which have occurred 



to 



