Abstract

The exceptions to the prohibition of "usury" make clear that "usury", in thirteenth century Canon Law, is a less evident object than licit credit. A close analysis of the text devoted by Cardinal Hostiensis to the practice of "usury" and to the circumstances transforming usury in a well defined and equitable economic way of reimbursement, elucidate the central role played in medieval economic discourse by the social position of those who participated in the market as lenders or borrowers. The long-established historiographical idea of an absolute medieval condemnation of usury can then be reconsidered.