must be found. It was seen even by the most devoted theologians that mere denunciations and use of theological arguments or scriptural texts against the scientific idea were futile.
To this feeling it was due that, even in the first years of the century, the Jesuit casuists had come to the rescue. With exquisite subtlety some of their acutest intellects devoted themseves to explaining away the utterances on this subject of saints, fathers, doctors, popes, and councils. These explanations were wonderfully ingenious, but many of the older churchmen continued to insist upon the orthodox view, and at last the Pope himself intervened. Fortunately for the world, the seat of St. Peter was then occupied by Benedict XIV, certainly one of the most gifted, morally and intellectually, in the whole line of Roman pontiffs: tolerant and sympathetic for the oppressed, he saw the necessity of taking up the question, and he grappled with it effectually. While severe against exorbitant usury, he rendered to Catholicism a service like that which Calvin had rendered to Protestantism, by quietly but vigorously cutting a way through the theological barrier. In 1745 he issued his encyclical, Vix pervenit, which declared that the doctrine of the Church remained consistent with itself; that usury is indeed a sin, and that it consists in demanding any amount beyond the exact amount lent, but that there are occasions when on special grounds the lender may obtain such additional sum.
What these "occasions" and "special grounds" might be, was left very vague; but this action was sufficient.
At the same time no new restrictions upon books advocating the taking of interest for money were imposed, and the Pope openly accepted the dedication of one of them.
Like the casuistry of Boscovich in using the Copernican theory for "convenience in argument," while acquiescing in its condemnation by the Church authorities, this encyclical of Pope Benedict broke the spell. Turgot, Quesnay, Adam Smith, Hume, Bentham, and their disciples pressed on, and science won for mankind another great victory.[1]
- ↑ For Quesnay, see his Observations sur l'Intérét de l'Argent, in his Œuvres, Frankfort and Paris, 1888, pp. 399 et seq. For Turgot, see the Collection des Économistes, Paris, 1844, vols, iii and iv; also, Blanqui, Histoire de l'Économie Politique, English translation, p. 373. For an excellent though brief summary of the efforts of the Jesuits to explain away the old action of the Church, see Lecky, vol. ii, pp. 256, 257. For the action of Benedict XIV, see Reusch, Der Index der Verbotener Bücher, Bonn, 1885, vol. ii, pp. 847, 848. For a comical picture of the "quagmire" into which the hierarchy brought itself in the squaring of its practice with its theory, see Döllinger as above, pp. 227, 228. For cunningly vague statements of the action of Benedict XIV, see Mastrofini, Sur l'Usure, French translation, Lyons, 1834, pp. 125 and 255. The abbé, as will be seen, has not the slightest hesitation in telling an untruth, in order to preserve the consistency of papal action m the matter of usury; e. g., pp. 93, 94, 96, and elsewhere.
