The Medieval Meaning of “Mortgage” In its medieval sense, the word mortgage literally meant a “deadly grip.” Mortgages were never intended as a way to acquire property. Rather, they were a means of raising money against property one already owned. When someone found themselves in financial distress, taking out a mortgage was a last resort — pledging their land or home in exchange for cash. People regarded mortgages with deep suspicion. They were often offered by goldsmiths, who used them not out of generosity but as a tool for profit — hoping either for large interest gains or for the chance to seize the borrower’s property altogether. In the Middle Ages, two types of mortgages existed: Vivum vadium – the “living pledge,” where repayment of the loan was realistically expected. Mortuum vadium – the “dead pledge,” or “pledge of death,” which Christian law explicitly forbade. The historian Thomas Littleton wrote: “The reason it is called a mort-gage (dead pledge) seems to be that it is uncertain whether the lord will pay the sum on the day appointed. If he does not pay, then the land pledged is taken from him forever.” The modern mortgage has its roots in a practice once considered so dishonest and immoral that those who engaged in it risked eternal damnation. Today, however, in our so-called market economy, few people stop to think that mortgages are, in fact, a reflection of the financial poverty of a nation. #mortgage