Your Money or Your Life: Economy and Religion in the Middle Ages [Paperback]

Jacques Le Goff (Author), Patricia Ranum (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 24, 1990

In this intriguing study, Jacques Le Goff, one of the most esteemed contemporary French historians of the Middle Ages, presents a concise investigation of the problem that usury posed for the medieval Church, which had long condemned the lending of money for interest. Le Goff describes how, as the structure of economic life inevitably began to include financial loans, the Church refashioned its theology in order to condemn the usurer not to hell but merely to purgatory.Jacques Le Goff is Director of Studies at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris, and the author of The Birth of Purgatory.Patricia Ranum is the translator of Afterthoughts on Material Civilization and Capitalism by Fernand Braudel.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...lucid and surprisingly engaging." Eric Gelman , The New York Times Book Review

Language Notes

Text: English, French (translation) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 127 pages
• Publisher: Zone (January 24, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0942299159
• ISBN-13: 978-0942299151
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #176,669 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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4.0 out of 5 stars Usury at its core, January 6, 2010

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This review is from: Your Money or Your Life: Economy and Religion in the Middle Ages (Paperback)

I purchased this book for a class on medieval cathedral architect for my second year college studies. My professor had us read this book over the weekend as prep for our final test. It's a very easy digestible book in terms of language, though one may need to look up and infer certain terminologies used in medieval times as Le Goff references them in his book.

This book details the medieval history and treatment of usurers and their impact and relationship to the medieval economy. Usury is the lending of money at interest. Le Goff details the religious implications of practicing usury and how usurers were an "evil necessity," as placated by the Christian Church.
Usurers, in the kindest words of the Church, had their own place in hell. This was due to how usurers violated several Christian mortal sins by charging interest for lending money. According to the Church, they made money by selling God's resource - time. In comparison to other workers, usurers made money even when they were asleep and were compared to as oxes, lions, and other foul comparisons in terms of how they survived.

Le Goff also goes into slight detail on how the Church turned a blind eye towards the usurers and even gives them respite for their sins if they confessed and returned the money they "stole."

However, a good chunk of this book is spent in detailing how vilified usurers were at that time and that they played a significant role in the birth of capitalism.

This book was a short and informational read and I applaud the Le Goff for doing all the research for this book.