Money and the Church in Medieval Europe, 1000-1200: Practice, Morality and Thought ed. by Giles E. M. Gasper and Svein H. Gullbekk

Abstract

Reviewed by: Money and the Church in Medieval Europe, 1000-1200: Practice, Morality and Thought ed. by Giles E. M. Gasper and Svein H. Gullbekk Joel Kaye Money and the Church in Medieval Europe, 1000-1200: Practice, Morality and Thought. Edited by Giles E. M. Gasper and Svein H. Gullbekk. (Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing Company. 2015. Pp. xii, 292. $124.95. ISBN 9781-4724-2099-2.) We have come a long way in the last half-century in our understanding of the Church’s involvement in and influence on medieval economic life and thought. The thirteen essays in this volume present excellent examples of this sophisticated understanding. The contributors come from a range of disciplinary backgrounds: economic history, economic theory, numismatics, religion, and literature. Although the collection is admirably focused on the subject announced in its title, the presentations are decidedly heterogeneous. Some provide bibliography for the kind of general information useful to college students, some provide only technical monographs on their particular subject, some no secondary sources at all. Some essays provide extensive citations from primary sources, with the Latin in the footnotes, and some, whether citing directly or paraphrasing, provide no Latin in the notes. Some are clearly pointed toward a general introduction of use in college classes, while others, [End Page 115] primarily those with a numismatic focus, assume a background in the subject. Some essays are three or more times longer than others. As the Introduction notes, the focus is entirely on Northern Europe, with Scandinavian studies well represented and none venturing south of Normandy. This is fine, and it serves as a balance to the more common southerly focus, but it would have been helpful, and I think advisable, to have included the word “Northern” in the book’s title. Given the period that the essays cover, it is not surprising that most are directed toward the active role of the Church in the momentous process of European monetization. As virtually all the authors are aware, this theme sits somewhat awkwardly beside a parallel development, which saw churchmen expressing a growing suspicion (often shading into a fierce critique) of the ever-expanding place and power of money in their world. Recognition of the awkward balance between these dual (and dueling) processes is one of the strengths of recent work in medieval economic history, and it adds a level of intriguing complexity to many of the essays in this collection. A few examples can illustrate the place of this theme in the collection overall. At a number of points in the book’s final chapter, “The Church and Money in Norway c. 1050-1250,” Svein Gullbekk describes the Church as the “driving force” in the process of monetization, providing evidence to support the claim that in this process, “a commodification of religion, monetization of vocabulary, and an increasing awareness of financial matters from an ecclesiastical and vernacular perspective can all be observed” (p. 238). Rory Naismith’s contribution, “TurpeLucrum: Wealth, Money and Coinage in the Millennial Church,” makes use of a wide range of source—miracle stories, saint’s lives, chronicles—to provide evidence that a profound fear in church circles of money’s power grew right alongside the ever-increasing rationalization of monetary management and collection on the part of ecclesiastical institutions of all kinds. Giles E. M. Casper illustrates other aspects of this theme in his essay, “Contemplating Money and Wealth in Monastic Writing c. 1060-1160.” His investigation of a half-dozen monastic chronicles reveals their author’s increasing concern with and consciousness of the economic changes affecting their institutions, leading to their evolving attempts to anticipate and “navigate market fluctuations” to the benefit of their houses. But he goes one step further when he writes (p. 42) that monastic writing of this period “highlights not only the monetisation of the economy, but also of contemporary conceptual frameworks. …” Greti Dincova-Bruun’s essay, “Nummusfalsus: The Perception of Counterfeit Money in the Eleventh and Early Twelfth Century,” takes this insight yet further by tracing sharp shifts in the metaphorical uses of the coin in theological writings. In “A Herald of Scholasticism: Alan of Lille on Economic Value,” Odd Langholm gleans evidence of Alan’s...