Le Jeu de saint Nicolas

Money in Jean Bodel's Jeu de saint Nicolas has many functions. This quality of Saint Nicholas is in part used in the process of conversion, when it becomes an asset of the very young and the very old and can convert the Saracens at a time when sacrificing warriors has proved ineffective - wherever Nicholas is, wherever God and his angels are, money multiplies and saves lives. In symmetry, in an Arras tavern, where the game of dice is king - a game of chance in which God has no say - money comes and goes and only brings ruin and deception. The Jeu must be seen as a work inviting the people of Arras to participate in the crusading effort, to garner a different profit from money than that of the game and usury and to turn it into an instrument of salvation

Usury