[[271]]
Another mode of obtaining relief was tried. Subtle theologians
devised evasions of various sorts. Two among these inventions of
the schoolmen obtained much notoriety.
The first was the doctrine of " _damnum emergens_": if a lender
suffered loss by the failure of the borrower to return a loan at a
date named, compensation might be made. Thus it was that, if the
nominal date of payment was made to follow quickly after the real
date of the loan, the compensation for the anticipated delay in
payment had a very strong resemblance to interest. Equally cogent
was the doctrine of "_lucrum cessans_": if a man, in order to lend
money, was obliged to diminish his income from productive
enterprises, it was claimed that he might receive in return, in
addition to his money, an amount exactly equal to this diminution
in his income.
But such evasions were looked upon with little favour by the great
body of theologians, and the name of St. Thomas Aquinas was
triumphantly cited against them.
Opposition on scriptural grounds to the taking of interest was not
confined to the older Church.
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