Early Franciscans and Money: Reflections Between Its Use and Theory

This volume explores the relationship between the early Franciscan movement and money across three complementary perspectives. The opening essay situates the friars' renunciation of pecunia in its socio-economic context — currency debasement and exploitation of the poor in thirteenth-century central Italy — tracing how key terms evolved through successive institutional interpretations of the Rule. The afterword then examines, first, the papal documents that progressively redefined Franciscan poverty in juridical terms, and second, the contemporary relevance of the medieval Franciscan distinction between pecunia and capitale for an economy oriented toward human dignity and the common good.