Caursines (Bankers)

     "In these days prevailed the horrible nuisance of the Caursines (bankers), 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..."   Matthew of Paris, English History (1255)