Your Money or Your Life: Economy and Religion in the Middle Ages by Jacques Le Goff (PDF)

Description

In this book, one of the most esteemed contemporary historians of the Middle Ages presents a concise examination of the problem that usury posed for the medieval Church, which had long denounced the lending of money for interest. Jacques Le Goff describes how, as the structure of economic life inevitably began to include financial loans, the Church refashioned its ideology in order to condemn the usurer not to hell but merely to purgatory. Le Goff is in the forefront of a history that studies “the deeply rooted and the slowly changing.” As one keenly aware of the inertia of older societies, he is all the more able to delineate for us the disruptive forces of change.

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: Review “Le Goff’s provocative essay … is much more than an explanation of Church views on usury; it aims at dissecting the nature of economic thought in an age that condemned a crucial [economic] function as immoral and unnatural. The exposition is evocative and fun to read…. It offers a guide to understanding how economics and social values interacted.” ― Journal of Economic History Review …lucid and surprisingly engaging.―Eric Gelman, The New York Times Book Review About the Author acques Le Goff is director of the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Science Sociales, Paris, and codirector of the Annales – Economies, Sociétés, Civilisations. He is the author of The Birth of Purgatory and Time, Work, and Culture. Read more

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐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.

⭐The acclaimed French historian Mr. Jacques Le Goff (1924 – 2014), member of the Annales School of History, has published a volume entitled ”Your money or Your life” on the business of medieval usurers, and on the attitude that was expressed towards them by contemporary clerical and secular authorities, theologians, and other members of society, with particular emphasis on Romance Countries of Western Europe. The development of money economy in the historical period known as the High Middle Ages evidently had aided an increase of the numbers of persons making a (very often rather opulent) living from lending money to other people. Such situation urgently required adopting a new approach towards people living from what at the time was called usury.And with people in the times of the Middle Ages being rather pragmatic, solutions for the ”problem” of people lending money on a high interest rate to other people, and making quite some profit from it, were readily found. This is the main message Mr. Le Goff wants to convey to his readers. In particular in context with the very interesting connection between the issue of the practice of usury and the introduction of the concept of Purgatory in the Catholic theology. The author points in particular to the outstanding flexibility of the contemporary medieval Christian clerics, whom he describes as ”in short, tolerant”, and their sort of profound understanding for the sins of their secular ”sheep” (comprising the vast majority of the population), which made it easy for them to adapt to ongoing socio-economical changes.To sum up, I conclude that the reviewed book is an interesting as well as well-researched work giving more profound insights into the issues of the medieval period that was not after all limited only to armed conflicts and theology.

⭐This short book by Jacque le Goff examines the concept of usury with a knowledge of texts and of everyday life in the middle ages that brings out the concerns over usury, the role of canon law and the emerging law of the state, blended with a deep understanding of the economy of medieval Europe (well, France). Highly recommend it.

Keywords

Free Download Your Money or Your Life: Economy and Religion in the Middle Ages in PDF format
Your Money or Your Life: Economy and Religion in the Middle Ages PDF Free Download
Download Your Money or Your Life: Economy and Religion in the Middle Ages 1990 PDF Free
Your Money or Your Life: Economy and Religion in the Middle Ages 1990 PDF Free Download
Download Your Money or Your Life: Economy and Religion in the Middle Ages PDF
Free Download Ebook Your Money or Your Life: Economy and Religion in the Middle Ages