taking of interest; the law of Moses, while it allowed usury in dealing with strangers, forbade it in dealing with Jews. In the New Testament stood the text in St. Luke, "Lend, hoping for nothing again." These texts seemed to harmonize with the Sermon on the Mount, and with the most beautiful characteristic of primitive Christianity; its tender care for the poor and oppressed: hence we find, from the earliest period, the whole weight of the Church brought to bear against the taking of interest for money.[1]
The great fathers of the Eastern Church, and among them St. Basil, St. Chrysostom, and St. Gregory of Nyssa; the fathers of the Western Church, and among them Tertullian, St. Ambrose, St. Augustine, and St. Jerome joined most earnestly in this condemnation. St. Basil denounces money at interest as a "fecund monster," and says, "The divine law declares expressly, 'Thou shalt not lend on usury to thy brother or thy neighbor.'" St. Gregory of Nyssa calls down on him who lends money at interest the vengeance of the Almighty. St. Chrysostom says: "What can be more unreasonable than to sow without land, without rain, without plows? All those who give themselves up to this damnable culture shall reap only tares. Let us cut off these monstrous births of gold and silver; let us stop this execrable fecundity." Lactantius called the taking of interest "robbery." St. Ambrose declared it as bad as murder. St. Jerome threw the argument into the form of a dilemma, which was used as a weapon against money-lenders for centuries. St. Anselm proved from the Scriptures that the taking of interest is a breach of the Ten Commandments. Pope Leo the Great solemnly adjudged the same offense to be a sin worthy of severe punishment.[2]
- ↑ On the general allowance of interest for money in Greece, even at high rates, see Böckh, Public Economy of the Athenians, translated by Lamb, Boston, 1857, especially chaps, xxii, xxiii, and xxiv of Book I. For view of usury taken by Aristotle, see his Politics and Economics, translated by Walford, p. 27; also Grote, History of Greece, vol. iii, chap. xi. For summary of opinions in Greece and Rome, and their relation to Christian thought, see Böhm-Bawerk, Capital and Interest, translated by Smart, London, 1890, chap, i. For a very full list of Scripture texts against the taking of interest, see Pearson, The Theories of Usury in Europe, 1100-1400, Cambridge (England), 1876, p. 6. The texts most frequently cited were: Leviticus, xxv, 36, 37; Deuteronomy, xxiii, 19 and 26; Psalms, XV, 5; Ezekiel, xviii, 8 and 17; St. Luke, vi, 35. For a curious modern use of them, see D. S. Dickinson's speech in the Senate of New York in vol. i of his collected writings. See also Lecky, History of Rationalism in Europe, vol. ii, chap, vi; and, above all, as the most recent historical summary by a leading historian of political economy, Böhm-Bawerk as above.
- ↑ For St. Basil and St. Gregory of Nyssa, see French translation of these diatribes in Homelies contre les Usuriers, Paris, Hachette, 1861-'62, especially p. 30 of St. Basil. For some doubtful reservations by St. Augustine, see Murray, History of Usury. For St. Ambrose, see the De Officiis, lib. iii, cap. ii, in Migne, Patrologia, tome xvi; also the De Tobia, in Migne, tome xiv. For St. Augustine, see De Bapt. contra Donat, lib. iv, cap.
