Aaron of Lincoln

In the pipe rolls (the records of royal finances in Medieval England) for 1166 is a mention of £616 12s 8d owed to Aaron of Lincoln by King Henry II, who borrowed from him for projects in nine counties.

Aaron was born about 1123 in Lincoln, although it is thought that he spent part of his early life in France. Later he owned a plot of land near Lincoln Castle which is probably where his house was. A building called the Norman House in Lincoln (seen here)—probably the oldest stone dwelling in England—was once (but no more) believed to have been Aaron's house.

He became a financier, working through different agents and a partner, Isaac son of Josce. He built up a financial base for himself that is believed to have surpassed the wealth of the king, making him the wealthiest individual in England.

Much of his wealth came from the repayment of loans he made for the building or renovation of abbeys and monasteries. Nine Cistercian abbeys were built on money borrowed from Aaron, as well as Peterborough Abbey, Lincoln Minster, and the Abbey of St. Albans.

When he died in 1186, Henry II claimed that his estate reverted to the Crown by escheat (a legal move that transfers to the Crown the estate of a person who dies without heirs; recall the recent post about David of Oxford trying to get an heir). The Crown therefore inherited all Aaron's debts, and was able to collect on them. The cash that Aaron was holding at the time of his death was immediately sent to France to be used in Henry's wars against Philip Augustus. (Unfortunately, the ship carrying the money sank in the English Channel.) His debts were so numerous and so large that a separate division was created in the Exchequer solely to deal with Aaron's finances.

It was called Aaron's Exchequer and existed for 15 years while the Crown collected on his debts and assumed the money into the royal coffers. Even then, an amount of about £7,500 was still outstanding. There was one change made in the debt process after Aaron's death: interest stopped accruing, since Christians did not indulge in usury.

At one point, Aaron had made a deal with the abbot of Meaux to drop a debt from 1800 marks to 1260 marks. After Aaron's death, the Crown discovered the original paperwork on the 1800 marks and demanded the difference of 540 marks from the abbey! Still, there was plenty of money involved: 430 separate debts to smaller barons and knights amounted to £15,000, now to be collected by the king.

The Massacre of Jews at York was brought about by a man who was heavily indebted to Aaron and wanted to destroy the records of his debt. By this time Henry's son Richard was king. Richard created the separate Exchequer of the Jews afterward.

But now for something completely different: tomorrow let's talk about Lincoln, and the castle therein.

Race and Ethnicity: Canon 67

Today we look specifically at the institutional racism against Jews established by Pope Innocent III in the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215. Of the 70 canons of the council proceedings, the final four were about Jews. It is worth looking at these in their entirety.

Canon 67 blames Jews for the poor planning of the Gentiles who became indebted to Jewish money-lenders and could not repay the debt. This is blamed on the ability of Jews to charge interest, called usury by the Church and considered sinful and un-Christian.

The more the Christians are restrained from the practice of usury, the more are they oppressed in this matter by the treachery of the Jews, so that in a short time they exhaust the resources of the Christians. Wishing, therefore, in this matter to protect the Christians against cruel oppression by the Jews, we ordain in this decree that if in the future under any pretext Jews extort from Christians oppressive and immoderate interest, the partnership of the Christians shall be denied them till they have made suitable satisfaction for their excesses. The Christians also, every appeal being set aside, shall, if necessary, be compelled by ecclesiastical censure to abstain from all commercial intercourse with them. We command the princes not to be hostile to the Christians on this account, but rather to strive to hinder the Jews from practicing such excesses. Lastly, we decree that the Jews be compelled by the same punishment (avoidance of commercial intercourse) to make satisfaction for the tithes and offerings due to the churches, which the Christians were accustomed to supply from their houses and other possessions before these properties, under whatever title, fell into the hands of the Jews, that thus the churches may be safeguarded against loss.

There were several reasons why usury was condemned in the Middle Ages.

Aristotle and Aquinas thought of money as "sterile" in that it was just a thing that did not reproduce or grow. Making money "grow" by charging a fee was considered unnatural and inappropriate.

A loan was not something one did to buy a car or get a mortgage: it was used in time of serious need. In this situation, making the desperate person pay back more when they are financially disadvantaged was considered to be taking advantage of someone at a vulnerable time in their life.

Paying interest was all about tying money to time, making money "worth more" simply because time has passed. Your money does not expand just because time goes by. Usury was seen as "selling time" or taking advantage of time, which was created by and managed by and belonged to God.

Also, quite simply, asking for more money back showed the sin of Avarice, and gaining more money than loaned out could lead to not needing to work, and therefore promote idleness/sloth.

We'll continue with the other canons tomorrow.