nobility were already burning with desire, and the middle-level
knights were bursting to set out, when lo the poor also were aflame
with desire, without any consideration for the scarcity of their
resources, and without worrying about suitably disposing of their
homes, vineyards, and fields. Instead, each sold his assets at a
price much lower than he would have received if he had been shut up
in a painful prison and needed to pay an immediate ransom. At this
time there was a general famine, with great poverty even among the
very wealthy, since when even though there were enough things, here
and there, for sale for some people, they had nothing or scarcely
anything with which those things could be bought. Masses of poor
people learned to feed often on the roots of wild plants, since they
were compelled by the scarcity of bread to search everywhere for some
possible substitute. The misery that everyone was crying out about
was clearly threatening to the powerful people as they watched, and,
while each man, considering the anguish of the starving mob to be of
little importance, became fastidiously parsimonious, fearing that he
might squander the wealth for which he had worked hard by spending
money too easily. The thirsty hearts of the avaricious, who rejoiced
that the times smiled upon their brutal rates of interest, thought of
the bushels of grain they had stored through the fertile years, and
calculated how much their sale would add to their accumulating
mountains of money. Thus, while some suffer terribly, and others
swiftly go about their business, Christ, "breaking the ships of
Tarshish with a powerful wind,"[94] resounded in everyone's ears, and
he "who freed those who were in adamantine chains" broke[95] the
shackles of those desperate men whose hearts were ensnared by greed.
Although, as I just said, hard times reduced everyone's wealth,
nevertheless, when the hard times provoked everyone to spontaneous
exile, the wealth of many men came out into the open, and what had