 The doctors of the once powerful Sorbonne could not reconcile themselves to the lawfulness of interest, and when a pawnshop was opened in Paris in 1626, it had to be closed within a year.Then it was that Jean Boucher published his "Défense des monts de piété" in favor of pawnbroking.Marseilles obtained one in 1695, but it was not until 1777 that the first mont de pit was founded in Paris by royal patent.