THE MERCHANT IN THE CONFESSIONAL Odd Langholm BRILL THE MERCHANT IN THE CONFESSIONAL STUDIES IN MEDIEVAL AND REFORMATION THOUGHT FOUNDED BY HEIKO A. OBERMAN † EDITED BY ANDREW COLIN GOW, Edmonton, Alberta IN COOPERATION WITH THOMAS A. BRADY, Jr., Berkeley, California SUSAN C. KARANT-NUNN, Tucson, Arizona JÜRGEN MIETHKE, Heidelberg M. E. H. NICOLETTE MOUT, Leiden ANDREW PETTEGREE, St. Andrews MANFRED SCHULZE, Wuppertal VOLUME XCIII ODD LANGHOLM THE MERCHANT IN THE CONFESSIONAL SMRT-93-lang.qxd 7-11-2002 15:05 Page iii THE MERCHANT IN THE CONFESSIONAL TRADE AND PRICE IN THE PRE-REFORMATION PENITENTIAL HANBOOKS BY ODD LANGHOLM BRILL LEIDEN • BOSTON 2003 SMRT-93-lang.qxd 7-11-2002 15:05 Page iv This book is printed on acid-free paper. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Langholm, Odd, 1928- The merchant in the confessional : trade and price in the pre-Reformation penitential handbooks / by Odd Langholm. p. cm. -- (Studies in medieval and Reformation thought ; v. 93) Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. ISBN 9004129049 (hard cover) 1. Penitentials--History--To 1500. 2. Business--Religious aspects--Christianity--History of doctrines--Middle Ages, 600-1500. I. Title. II. Series. BX2266.B87 L36 2003 264'.020862--dc21 2002034384 Die Deutsche Bibliothek - CIP-Einheitsaufnahme Langholm, Odd : The Merchant in the Confessional : Trade and Price in the Pre-Reformation Penitential Handbooks -- Leiden ; Boston : Brill 2003 (Studies in Medieval and Reformation Thought ; Vol. 93) ISBN 9004 129 049 ISSN 0585-6914 ISBN 90 04 12904 9 © Copyright 2003 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Brill provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910 Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change printed in the netherlands v CONTENTS Preface ........................................................................................ vii Introduction ................................................................................ 1 PART ONE TRANSALPINE AND IBERIAN AUTHORS Chapter One The libri poentitentiales and their early successors ................................................................................ 15 Chapter Two The Dominican tradition from Raymond of Peñafort .............................................................................. 32 Chapter Three The Dominican tradition from John of Freiburg .............................................................................. 49 Chapter Four The Franciscan tradition ................................ 66 Chapter Five Miscellaneous works ........................................ 83 PART TWO ITALIAN AUTHORS Chapter Six The Franciscan tradition to Bernardino of Siena .................................................................................. 103 Chapter Seven The Dominican tradition to Savonarola .... 122 Chapter Eight The Franciscan tradition: Nicolò of Osimo, Bartolomeo Caimi, Pacifico of Cerano ................................ 138 Chapter Nine The Franciscan tradition: Angelo Carletti .... 158 Chapter Ten The Franciscan tradition: Battista Trovamala .............................................................................. 175 Chapter Eleven The Franciscan tradition: minor and later works ............................................................................ 191 Chapter Twelve Miscellaneous works .................................... 204 Chapter Thirteen The Dominican tradition in the sixteenth century .................................................................... 214 langhom f1_prelims 11/6/02 11:52 AM Page vi vi PART THREE DOCTRINAL AND HISTORICAL OVERVIEW Chapter Fourteen The pitfalls of trade ................................ 233 Chapter Fifteen The benchmarks of price ............................ 244 Chapter Sixteen The fortunes of avarice .............................. 256 Bibiliography .............................................................................. 273 Index of Names .......................................................................... 285 PREFACE Current knowledge of medieval economic thought is based on pri- mary sources in which economic activity is examined from many different points of view. This study deals with a literary tradition that examines economic activity from the point of view of sin and penance as taught by the medieval Church. It is a broad study in terms of the size of its source material. The penitential handbook as a genre spans many centuries and comprises works varying greatly in size and complexity. The numerous minor works, briefly presented and quoted together in some of the chapters of this book, are as relevant for a true picture of the tradition as the major works granted a chapter of their own or a large part of a chapter. The study is a narrow one, however, in that it focuses on a subset (albeit a central one) of economic subjects. It is narrow also in that it largely disre- gards the different circumstances of time and place in which these many books were written. Intellectual history cannot be told without regard to material and institutional history, but considerations of space in the monograph format hopefully justify this restriction of scope. Some fine critical editions of penitential handbooks have appeared in recent decades, but the large majority of works included in the study are available only in early printed editions or remain still in manuscript. Some of the printed versions proved to be cor- rupt and called for recourse to the manuscript traditions. Some of the manuscripts are rare, unreliable, or in poor condition. A certain amount of collation was required. For financing the search for ser- viceable texts I thank the Norwegian Research Council. Special thanks are due to Elisabeth Stiegler, who produced the printable form of this book from my succession of drafts. Most of all I thank my wife, Grethe, for companionship and encouragement on yet another expedition into medieval Europe. langhom f2_1-12 11/6/02 11:53 AM Page 1 1 INTRODUCTION Most studies of economic thought in Europe in the centuries prior to the Reformation are based on academic texts, composed by and for professionals in the fields of philosophy, theology, and law. Less attention has been paid to pastoral and other religious literature of a more popular nature. The source material of the present study is one branch of pre-Reformation religious literature, namely, the hand- books for confessors or, more widely defined, the penitential hand- books. In these books, individual believers, including merchants, are examined and instructed regarding sin in general and with reference to their particular states and professions. The focus of the study is on trade and price, because price is the principal economic parameter. Adjacent subjects, like moneylending and usury, or labour relations and wages, are reported on only insofar as they shed light on price doctrine. The original intention was to limit the study to the large Italian penitential summas composed on the eve of the Reformation. It soon became evident, however, that these works could not be properly evaluated and their message communicated to the reader unless they were seen as end products of a long and complex liter- ary tradition. Hence the decision to chart the whole tradition from its origins, rather than bring it in piecemeal and ad hoc. Books I and II can then be read as a history of the pre-Reformation penitential handbook as a literary genre, with emphasis on the han- dling of sins related to trade and price. Some works less concerned with these subjects are included because they indicate different trends in the material or because they may be useful for scholars intent on studying some other subjects, not necessarily an economic one, in the same sources. The authors whose works are examined are pre- sented in the table on the following pages, according to a combined geographical, denominational, and chronological classification. An attempt was made to mirror this threefold classification in the analysis of the texts. Works by transalpine and Iberian authors are analyzed in Part I and works by Italian authors in Part II.1 Members of the 1 “Transalpine and Iberian” was preferred to the negative sounding “non-Italian”. There are only a handful of Iberian authors in the material examined, most of langhom f2_1-1211/6/0211:53AMPage2 2 PRE-REFORMATION AUTHORS OF PENITENTIAL HANDBOOKS Miscellaneous authors Dominican authors Franciscan authors Transalpine and Italian Transalpine and Italian Transalpine and Italian Iberian Iberian Iberian Bartholomew of Exeter Alan of Lille Peter the Chanter 1200 1200 Robert of Courson Paul of Hungary William de Montibus Raymond of Peñafort Robert of Flamborough Conrad of Höxter Peter of Poitiers William of Rennes John of Kent Thomas of Chobham Robert Grosseteste Odo of Cheriton Jacques of Vitry Alexander Stavensby Walter of Cantilupe Johannes de Deo 1250 1250 Robert of Sorbon Burchard of Strasbourg Albert of Brescia Peter Quesnel Monaldus of Capodistria Peter of Sampsona John of Freiburg Chiaro of Florence Servasanto of Faenza 1300 1300 Bérengar Frédol William of Cayeux Bart. of S. Concordio John of Erfurt