ABSTRACT
On wealth and poverty, medieval culture was racked by a profound contradiction, a real rending between reality and ideals. This deep-seated trauma was present in the hearts and minds of the scholastics, the ascetics and churchmen of the late medieval period, but also of professional figures and merchants. The ancients despised wealth-getting because they felt contempt for activities aimed at production and trade. The Christian Fathers had replaced this contempt with distrust of wealth and commerce. Medieval thinkers did not despise wealth;1 rather, they feared it.
