Was the merchant class looked down upon in pre-Rennaisance and Rennaisance Europe?

The pre-Renaissance era was dominated by the Catholic Church. The Church was the one constant power over all European kingdoms. The Church was greatly opposed to money lending and the merchant classes for multiple reasons. Yes, on the surface the ideology of business disturbed the morals of the church in a similar way that it disturbed ancient Asia. But more important than that was the fear of the merchant class becoming more powerful than the Monarchies and the Church itself. And ultimately that is what happened!

Moneylenders certainly had a low status in Medieval Europe. The Church taught that it was wrong for Christians to make money by charging interests on loans. Of course, the Jews didn't much worry that the Church said they were going to hell for lending money, since the Church said they were going to hell anyway, so many of the moneylenders of that time were Jewish.

I'm not so sure about the later Renaissance, but generally speaking, earning money from a carefully managed estate, or through the spoils of war were regarded as being respectable sources of wealth. Moneylending and trade were not as respectable.

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they had not yet become the dominant ruling class - the nobility or ancien regime was still the ruling class