Another attempt to ease the burden of industry and commerce was
made by declaring that "usury means interest demanded not as a
matter of favour but as a matter of right." This, too, was solemnly
condemned by Pope innocent XI.
Again an attempt was made to find a way out of the difficulty by
declaring that "usury is interest greater than the law allows."
This, too, was condemned, and so also was the declaration that
"usury is interest on loans not for a fixed time."
Still the forces of right reason pressed on, and among them, in the
seventeenth century, in France, was Richard Simon. He attempted to
gloss over the declarations of Scripture against lending at
interest, in an elaborate treatise, but was immediately confronted
by Bossuet. Just as Bossuet had mingled Scripture with astronomy
and opposed the Copernican theory, so now he mingled Scripture
with political economy and denounced the lending of money at
interest. He called attention to the fact that the Scriptures, the
councils of the Church from the beginning, the popes, the fathers,
had all interpreted the prohibition of "usury" to be a prohibition
of any lending at interest; and he demonstrated this interpretation
to be the true one.
Pages:
1187
1188
1189
1190
1191
1192
1193
1194
1195
1196
1197
1198
1199
1200
1201
1202
1203
1204
1205
1206
1207
1208
1209
1210
1211