<P>In this intriguing study, Jacques Le Goff, one of the most esteemed contemporaryFrench historians of the Middle Ages, presents a concise investigation of the problem that usuryposed for the medieval Church, which had long condemned the lending of money for interest. Le Goffdescribes how, as the structure of economic life inevitably began to include financial loans, theChurch refashioned its theology in order to condemn the usurer not to hell but merely topurgatory.Jacques Le Goff is Director of Studies at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en SciencesSociales, Paris, and the author of The Birth of Purgatory.Patricia Ranum is the translator ofAfterthoughts on Material Civilization and Capitalism by Fernand Braudel.</P>