From 4th to 6th of May 2023 the Cluster of Excellence “Religion and Politics“ at the University of Münster invited to an international conference about “Religion and Economy in the Middle Ages“ which was organised by Colin Arnaud and Christian Scholl. Thirteen experts from all over Europe followed the call and discussed the relationship between medieval religion and economy from a global perspective.

The conference started with a theoretical introduction which was given by the organisers: CHRISTIAN SCHOLL (Münster) presented an overview of the first researchers who dealt with the question of the link between religion and economy. He referred to Max Weber´s works about the spirit of capitalism in protestant ethics and the economic ethic of the world religions, as well as to Werner Sombart´s study about the Jews and their connection to modern capitalism, and to Karl Marx´s essay “On the Jewish Question“. COLIN ARNAUD (Münster) took these explanations further with references to more current works, for instance to Francesca Ersilia´s elaborations about the “protestant ethics“ of sufis, or to Lester Knox Little´s research on the connection between economic changes and religious poverty. Finally, referring to Jacques Le Goff, Étienne Doublier and other scholars, he pointed out that time can be measured and therefore religion cannot be understood without considering economy.

The first session covered questions of religious moral economy. TOMMASO VIDAL (Parma) talked about the role of religion in the economic behaviour of the hospital St. Mary in Udine, Northern Italy. He reported that the hospital sold cereals when the demand and the prices had reached a high level in order to finance its debts and investments. So the hospital could become almost independent from the financial market and could lease its estates or give loans to peasants. Religious arguments were used to justify these working relationships. They were fixed by contracts, but giving assistance was never meant to tackle the poverty itself, which burdened the Friulian people due to continuous warfare at the beginning of the 15th century.

ANA CLÁUDIA SILVEIRA (Lisbon) presented on the role of the Franciscan order on the economic practice of a medieval city, using the Portuguese port town Setúbal as a case study. In Setúbal, which had a privileged location nearby Lisbon and a flourishing economy due to the production of salt, the capture of fish and its trade with hanseatic cities, two Franciscan monasteries were founded during the 15th century. Both conventions, the monastery of S. Francisco and the monastery of Jesus which was led by Poor Clares, had strong relationships with the rulers of the town. Because of this, the Franciscan idea of social concord influenced the establishment of the concept of fair price concept. Furthermore, it was shown that the presence of the Franciscans allowed profit-oriented business transactions which made the profession of the merchants an honourable one.

In his keynote lecture JAMES DAVIS (Belfast) summarized the various relations between the church and the market. He reflected the enormous influence of the church as leading cultural power prevailing the view on retail trade, behavioural norms and market morality on the one hand and the church´s important role in the market as landowner, seller, buyer and market holder on the other. While the church in general had a very critical view on retail trade, always associating it with fraud and extortion, the market practice – as Davies pointed out – was dominated by a far wider scale of pragmatism and modes of conduct depending on trust. With his talk Davies drew a picture of an interwoven system in which ecclesiastical discourse and economical thinking influenced rather than fought each other.

Section two dealt with the economic aspects of religion. In this context TIM WEITZEL (Regensburg) discussed the “capitalization” of prayer. Looking at the commandment to clerks to pray for the other groups within the estates of the realm he asked how far the medieval prayer could be understood as an immaterial trading good and as ‘religious’ capital referring to Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of capital. In an attempt to answer the question Weitzel points out the possibilities to transform prayers into other forms of capital within the well-established practice of gift and regift. The institutionalisation of religious exchange in form of prayer-communities can be seen as a reaction to the need to prevent the failure of the transaction and the loss of capital. Finally, the question remains if medieval prayer really refers to trading goods or is better described as religious currency to buy the highest good: salvation of the soul from eternal redemption.

THOMAS FRANK (Pavia) focused on the economy of the miracle, combining commerce with transcendent power. In order to examine how the economy of miracles worked, he created a typology of economic miracles including different leading motive saving from economic hardship, achievement of personal wealth, improving the supply of scare goods, primarily food, labour regulation, transportation of goods, predication of economic success, social retribution and charity. Frank pointed out, that the economic miracles did not change the social reality of inequality among different estates. But they were supposed to give hope, especially in times of crisis. In addition to that, they should remind the members of the wealthy upper-class about the needs of the poor people, rousing them to show mercy in acts of Christian charity.

The third section treated the interplay of religion and economy in the European expansion, highlighting the global aspect of the conference´s effort. DIETER FRIEDRICHS (Duisburg-Essen) examined the role of the church in the Spanish conquista of the New World with a special focus on the economic exploitation of the indigenous population within the encomienda-system. He emphasized that the Christian religion was used as the main legitimization for the economic exploitation of the indigenas, following the idea to spread the Christian belief among them. But while the Christian religion was fundamental for the legitimization of economic exploitation, the influence of the pope in the affairs of the Spanish colonies was very low, likewise the effective control of the crown. The mayor players were the conquistadores, who referred to Christianity but consequently overrode Christian values.

FRANCESCO GUSELLA (Münster) investigated the depiction of the motives for the Portuguese maritime expansion in the Indo-Portuguese Art of the 19th and 20th centuries, focusing on the two – real or alleged – main factors of the Portuguese colonial expansion in Africa and South-East Asia: commerce and the messianic mission of spreading the Christian religion. He pointed out, that the Indo-Portuguese Art referred to the great era of Portugal´s colonial expansion and therefore was used in exhibition to legitimize the Portuguese interest and engagement in the former colonial regions in the age of imperialism.

The afternoon of the second day was devoted to interreligious exchange. JASID ABDUL KADER (Vienna) showed the regulation of economic interactions by Islamic norms between Muslims and non-Muslims in the Maghreb from the 9th to the 15th century. Kader focused on the various interpretations, especially of the Malikite school of law, and showed that there were indeed situations in which remaining in Territories of Unbelief was acceptable. Although this was not, or hardly, permitted for economic purposes, Kader presented some practical examples in which Muslim merchants were nevertheless active in Christian countries.

The direct interaction between members of different religions also played a crucial role in the paper by DANNY GRABE (Jena), who focused on the interaction between Jews and Christians in the 11th century. Jewish scholars had an important role in helping to organise everyday life in the countryside in harmony with the religious beliefs. Grabe presented impressive examples that prove the cooperation between Jews and Christians in agriculture and crafts. They were not only dealing with the division of labour in agriculture and reciprocal labour services on each other's holy day. Everyday problems such as the consumption of cheese made by Christians or wine filtered by non-Jews also show how differentiated scholars in the 11th century were in addressing everyday problems in rural society. A related everyday problem, often associated with excessive consumption, was certainly indebtedness.

CHRISTOPH CLUSE (Trier) concluded the day by outlining how ecclesiastical courts were used for debt enforcement in many German dioceses. For the churches, these debt enforcements were a considerable source of income. The court proceedings, which were also used for this purpose by Jews on a fairly broad scale, were comparatively cheap and efficient and are documented from numerous places in southern Germany, but also Brandenburg, Cologne and Switzerland. Cluse emphasised that the practice was a central feature in the relationships between towns and the surrounding countryside, civic investment and peasant indebtedness. Cluse emphasised that the practice was a central feature in the relationships between towns and the surrounding countryside, civic investment and peasant indebtedness. His examples of interaction between Jews and Christians in these church courts brought the panel on interreligious exchange to a fruitful close.

The last session was concerned with an area of religious influence on economic practices that has featured prominently in economic historical research, namely the question to what degree it was ethical to charge interest. LAURA RIGHI (Reggio-Emilia) pointed out that the history of the debate should not be depicted as a linear development from a total ban in the High Middle Ages to complete permission in the modern times. In canon law, a concept of interest emerged that defined it as something that “is in between” (interest), namely between the original sum and an enhancement of capital. Since interest did not count as the latter, it could be justified to charge interest, for example in order to counterbalance the risk that one was taking by lending money. Civic legislation in Italian towns in the first half of the 13th century typically just fixed interest rates somewhere between two and 20 percent. Since the Council of Vienne took a critical stance towards charging interest rates, these paragraphs disappeared from the statutes in the second half of the 13th century. In a way, Righi argued, we should keep in mind that interest was not only an economic concept, but also belongs to the legal and administrative vocabulary.

NORBERT OBERAUER (Münster) presented one special strategy to disguise the payment of interest in the Islamic world that is still in use today, the bayʿ al-thunya: A sells a property to B on the condition that B will offer to rescind the sale at some point in the future. In the meantime, B leases the property to A and A pays B rent. In effect, then, B lends a sum to A and A pays interest, but this is framed as a purchasing price and the payment of rent. During the 9th century, discussion raged between scholars whether this was a legitimate practice or not. The question disappeared from the scholarly debate, but remained for practitioners: Handbooks for scribes from the 11th century gave useful tips how to draw up the contract in a way that would be regarded as valid, but these tricks were in turn again criticized by more rigorous thinkers. It resembled, Oberauer concluded, a cat-and-mouse game, and to a degree still remains so today.

TANJA SKAMBRAKS (Mannheim) sketched a model for grasping the complex dynamics of a moral economy in the Middle Ages. To build the model she used the Franciscan Monti di Pietà, pawn broking institutions that were set up in order to crowd out Jewish money lenders who were accused of charging excessively high interest rates. She identified three areas that interacted and thereby caused the three types of dynamics of the moral economy: The interplay of canon law, economic practice and economic ethics created embeddedness, innovations and feedback effects. Skambraks gave examples for all three types of dynamics from her case study of Franciscans: the embeddedness of the economy in Christina rituals, the innovative idea of a utopia of an apostolic community where all things are held in common property and the feedback effect sermons had on merchants’ practices. Skambraks thus showed how the vague term “moral economy” can be operationalized to enhance and deepen our understanding of the functioning of the medieval economy.

CHRISTIAN SCHOLL (Münster) sparked a lively discussion with his concluding remarks that identified two overwhelming questions that could bind the different presentations together: How were economic practices influenced and influencing moral debates, and how did the norms of the premodern economy differ from today’s economic morals? In sum, it became again clear that to adequately grasp the premodern economy, it is important to consider the multifold interrelations between norms and practices, and this can even give us a deeper understanding of the workings of today’s economy.

Overview

Christian Scholl (Münster) / Colin Arnaud (Münster): Introduction

Tommaso Vidal (Parma): Farming religion: Praxis and Ideology of Late-Medieval Assistance (North-eastern Italy, c. 1350-1450)

Ana Cláudia Silveira (Lisbon): The Franciscan Presence in a Medieval Port Town: Setúbal in the 15th and 16th Centuries

James Davis (Belfast): A Pulpit in the Marketplace? The Influence of the Church on Medieval Retail Trade

Tim Weitzel (Regensburg): Prayers as Capital

Thomas Frank (Pavia): The Economy of the Miracle (Christian Middle Ages)

Dietrich Friedrichs (Duisburg-Essen): Ecclesia und Encomienda. Economic exploitation under religious legitimation in the Conquista of Mexico-Tenochtitlan

Francesco Gusella (Münster): The “Spices and Christians” Dilemma: Economistic and Messianic Views on Indo-Portuguese Art (1890s-1990s)

Jasid Abdul Kader (Vienna): Examples of Islamic norms for economic activities, Maghreb 9th to 15th c.

Danny Grabe (Jena): What about the Cheese? Jewish-Christian Cooperation in Agriculture and Crafts in the 11th Century

Christoph Cluse (Trier): Excommunication for Debt in the Middle Ages – Traces from the Dioceses of the Empire

Laura Righi (Reggio-Emilia): Administering usury: Credit and interest rates between Canon law and civic legislation (12th-14th c.)

Norbert Oberauer (Münster): The Islamic prohibition of interest and its "circumvention": On the history of a legal stratagem

Tanja Skambraks (Mannheim): The relationship between economic ethics, law and practice with a focus on late medieval microcredit