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. Pope Leo the Great solemnly adjudged it a sin worthy of
severe punishment.[[266]]
This unanimity of the fathers of the Church brought about a
crystallization of hostility to interest-bearing loans into
numberless decrees of popes and councils and kings and legislatures
throughout Christendom during more than fifteen hundred years,
and the canon law was shaped in accordance with these. At first
these were more especially directed against the clergy, but we soon
find them extending to the laity. These prohibitions were enforced
by the Council of Arles in 314, and a modern Church apologist
insists that every great assembly of the Church, from the Council
of Elvira in 306 to that of Vienne in 1311, inclusive, solemnly
condemned lending money at interest.
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