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A Christian prohibition on profit from money 'without working' made [[banking]] sinful. Though [[Pope Leo I|Pope Leo the Great]] forbade charging [[usury|interest on loans]] by [[canon law]], it was not forbidden to take collateral on loans. Pawn shops thus operate on the basis of a contract that fixes in advance the 'fine' for not respecting the nominal term of the 'interest free' loan, or alternatively, may structure a [[Repurchase_agreement|sale-repurchase]] by the 'borrower' where the interest is implicit in the repurchase price. Similar conventions exist in modern [[Islamic banking]]. Various ways around the prohibition were devised, so that the lowly pawnshop contractors could bundle their risk and investment for larger undertakings. Christianity and Judaism generally ban usury, but allow usury towards [[Heresy|heretics]]. Thus Christians could lend to Jews and vice versa. The only real necessity for a young man who desired a future in the financial world of the Middle Ages was the ability to read and write; the methods used for bookkeeping were carefully kept within families and slowly spread along trade routes. Therefore, this knowledge was available most readily to Jesuits and Jews, who consequently played a major role in European finance. Generally the Jesuits took the role of go-between with heads of state, while the Jews manned the low-end pawnshops.{{Citation needed|reason=There's nothing on the page [[Society of Jesus]] about the Jesuits being involved in moneylending or pawnbroking, and in any case they weren't founded until the middle of the fifteenth century.|date=March 2012}} This explains the disproportionately large share of Jews in the goldsmith trade and early diamond market (diamonds being a lightweight alternative to gold).
It comes as no surprise that the pawn shops of Rome were the most prosperous of all, especially in the 15th century under Popes [[Pius IV]] and [[Sixtus V]]. This Italian 'Lombard' pawn shop method became famous. The use of the term 'Lombard' for pawn shop grew slowly from city to city, and became prevalent in [[Cahors]], southern [[France]], {{Citation needed|reason= Cahorsins late XII - Lombard XIV .|date= september 2012}}from where the Christian ''Cahorsins'' moved as far North as London<ref>[http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/1235cahorsins.html [[Mathew Paris|Matthew of Paris]]: ''The Usury of the Cahorsins'', 1235], [[Medieval Sourcebook]]. "In these days prevailed the horrible nuisance of the Caursines, to such a degree that there was hardly any one in all England, especially among the bishops, who was not caught in their net. Even the king himself was held indebted to them in an incalculable sum of money. For they circumvented the needy in their necessities, cloaking their usury under the show of trade, and pretending not to know that whatever is added to the principal is usury, under whatever name it may be called.... " The sourcebook itself notes: "The Caursines (or Cahorsins) derived their name from the city of Cahors but the term is usually applied to money-lenders. The real Caursines were capitalist Christian bankers whose clients were the rich and powerful in society. In England their unpopularity was due to their officiating as papal brokers, and to the heavy rates of interest they charged."</ref> and Amsterdam in the 13th century; at the latter, they were called ''Cahorsijnen'', ''Cawarsini'' or ''Coarsini''.<ref>[http://www.groene.nl/1995/12_20/lomm.html Historical Archive] [[De Groene Amsterdammer]], 1877</ref>
==15th and 16th centuries==
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