num_pages: 268
description: "In this stimulating and important book Lester Little advances the original thesis that, paradoxically, it was the leading practitioners of voluntary poverty, Franciscan and Dominican friars, who finally formulated a Christian ethic which justified the activities of merchants, moneylenders, and other urban professionals, and created a Christian spirituality suitable for townsmen. Little has synthesized a vast body of specialized literature in Italian, German, French, and English to write an interpretive essay which provides a new perspective on the interaction between economic and social forces and the religious movements advocating the apostolic ideal of voluntary poverty...Little's book is a major contribution, not only to the history of the religious movement of voluntary poverty, but also to the interdisciplinary study of the middle ages." ― Journal of Social History
language: English
title: Religious Poverty and the Profit Economy in Medieval Europe
titlecomplete: Religious Poverty and the Profit Economy in Medieval Europe
genres: Academic, Medieval History, Nonfiction, Economics, Medieval, Church History, History
ratings_count: 64
publisher: Cornell University Press