Yeah, I guess it has to be something like that, David75. A cancellation of a single ceremony can't be the whole answer.

The episode name included the word conspiracy, so I don't think we yet learned the whole picture in this episode. Normally a merchant would lend money to another if it generates interest with a reasonable risk (all aspect considered, legality, trust, etc) and he has some extra capital to lend. Something tells me this point has been invalidated by something, and it's not simply that they would disapprove of Lawrence travelling alone with a woman yet not being married to her. The first guess would be the church but I don't know why they would resort to such indirect means when they could just snatch Horo from the streets and nobody would complain. So, the church should have no need to make Lawrence hand over Horo. Yet I don't really see any profit for anybody to get Lawrence simply out of the market, financially thinking. He's not a specialized merchant, after all.