to sow without land, without rain, without
ploughs? All those who give themselves up to this damnable culture
shall reap only tares. 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.(449)

(449) For St. Basil and St. Gregory of Nyssa, see French translation
of their diatribes in Homelies contre les Usuriers, Paris, Hachette,
1861-'62, especially p. 30 of St. Basil. For some doubtful reservations
by St. Augustine, see Murray, History of Usury. For St. Ambrose, see De
Officiis, lib. iii, cap. ii, in Migne, Patr. Lat., vol. xvi; also the De
Tobia, in Migne, vol. xiv. For St. Augustine, see De Bapt. contr Donat.,
lib. iv, cap. ix, in Migne, vol. xliii. For Lactantius, see his Opera,
Leyden, 1660, p. 608. For Cyprian, see his Testimonies against the Jews,
translated by Wallis, book iii, article 48. For St. Jerome, see his Com.
in Ezekiel, xviii, 8, in Migne, vol. xxv, pp. 170 et seq. For Leo the
Great, see his letter to the bishops of various provinces of Italy,
cited in the Jus. Can., cap. vii, can. xiv, qu. 4. For very fair
statements of the attitude of the fathers on this question, see Addis
and Arnold, Catholic Dictionary, London, 1884, and Smith and Cheetham,
Dictionary of Christian Antiquities, London, 1875-'80; in each, under
article Usury.

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. The greatest
rulers under the sway of the Church--Justinian, in the Empire of the
East; Charlemagne, in the Empire of the West; Alfred, in England; St.
Louis, in France-