In the middle of the 13th century, groups of Christians, particularly the Italian Lombards and French Cahorsins, invented legal loopholes to get around the ban on Christian usury;Jewish Encyclopedia for example, one method of effecting a loan with interest was to offer money without interest, but also require that the loan be insured against possible loss or injury, and/or delays in repayment (see contractum trinius). The Christians utilizing these legal loopholes became known as the pope's usurers, and reduced the importance of the Jews to European monarchs. Later in the Middle Ages, a distinction evolved between things that were consumable (such as food and fuel) and those that were not, with usury permitted on loans that involved the latter.
