In his _Magnalia_ he
argues against the whole theological view with a boldness,
acuteness, and good sense which cause us to wonder that this can be
the same man who was so infatuated regarding witchcraft. After an
argument so conclusive as his, there could have been little left of
the old anti-economic doctrine in New England.[[277]]
But while the retreat of the Protestant Church from the old
doctrine regarding the taking of interest was henceforth easy, in
the Catholic Church it was far more difficult. Infallible popes and
councils, with saints, fathers, and doctors, had so constantly
declared the taking of any interest at all to be contrary to
Scripture, that the more exact though less fortunate interpretation
of the sacred text relating to interest continued in Catholic
countries. When it was attempted in France in the seventeenth
century to argue that usury "means oppressive interest," the
Theological Faculty of the Sorbonne declared that usury is the
taking of any interest at all, no matter how little; and the
eighteenth chapter of Ezekiel was cited to clinch this argument.
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