Usury

Two editions of this little book, one in New York, in the summer of 1824, and the other in. London, in the spring of 1825, are gone by; though it had to run against the laws and institutions of both the new and old worlds; against the strongest adversaries, ambition and avarice, the root of all evils: though it went to eradicate deep rooted and long-standing abuses, it has passed on without any reply or open opposition from any quarter. Nay, I have often heard from learned priests and lawyers, Catholics and Protestants, that "a reply was impossible." Hollow murmur, it must be confessed, always came from the persons whose errors and abuses it went to expose; but they thought proper to confine their discontent within the narrow limits of private conversation; never, never, giving it vent in print or in publication. What cause to me for gratulation! This book written almost two centuries ago is even more pertinent today in a world economy that runs on OPM (other people's money), which is lent at interest. Let us consider some excerpts from this work Aristotle says, "It is optional to every person to acquire gain by fruit or animals, but the mode of reaping money by money is justly to be reprehended, as being inconsistent with nature. Money is invented as a circulating medium, but usury goes to increase and multiply it." ST. AUGUSTINE, on Psalm xxxvi. 26, "If you lend your money to a man from whom you expect more than you gave, not money alone, but any thing else, whether it be wheat, wine, oil, or any other article, if you expect to receive any more then you gave, you are an usurer, and in that respect reprehensible, not praiseworthy." ST. JEROME says, "Some persons imagine that usury obtains only in money; but the scriptures, foreseeing this, have exploded every increase, so that you cannot receive more than you gave. Others, likewise, have the habit of receiving gifts of various descriptions for the usurious loans, not understanding that the scriptures calls usury also increase whatever that be, if they receive any thing more than they had given." The Council of Lateran says, "As the crime of usury is detested in both Testaments" we do not see that any dispensation could obtain on the measure; because the Scriptures forbid telling a lie, even to save a man's life, much more is man forbidden to involve himself in the crime of usury, even to redeem the life of a captive." Hence, the school divines have branded the practice of taking interest, as being contrary to the Divine Law, both natural and revealed; and the Canon Law has Proscribed the taking any, even the least increase for the loan of money, as mortal sin.