usury, see Liegeois, p. 77. For Gregory X and the Council of Lyons, see
Sextus Decretalium liber, pp. 669 et. seq. For Peter Lombard, see his
Lib. Sententiarum, III, dist. xxxvii, 3. For St. Thomas Aquinas, see his
works, Migne, vol. iii, Paris 1889, quaestio 78, pp. 587 et seq., citing
the Scriptures and Aristotle, and especially developing Aristotle's
metaphysical idea regarding the "barrenness" of money. For a very good
summary of St. Thomas's ideas, see Pearson. pp. 30 et seq. For Dante,
see in canto xi of the Inferno a revelation of the amazing depth of the
hostility to the taking of interest. For the London law of 1390 and the
petition to the king, see Cunningham, Growth of English Industry and
Commerce, pp. 210, 326; also the Abridgment of the Records in the Tower
of London, p. 339. For the theory that Jews, being damned already, might
be allowed to practice usury, see Liegeois, Histoire de l'Usure, p. 82.
For St. Bernard's view, see Epist. CCCLXIII, in Migne, vol. clxxxii,
p. 567. For ideas and anecdotes for preachers' use, see Joannes a San
Geminiano, Summa de Exemplis, Antwerp, 1629, fol. 493, a; also the
edition of Venice, 1584, ff. 132, 159; but especially, for multitudes
of examples, see the Exempla of Jacques de Vitry, edited by Prof. T.
F. Crane, of Cornell University, London, 1890, pp. 203 et seq. For the
canon law in regard to interest, see a long line of authorities cited in
Die Wucherfrage, St. Louis, 1869, pp. 92 et seq., and especially Decret.
Gregor., lib v, lit. 19, cap. iii, and Clementin., lib. v, lit. 5, sec.
2; see also the Corpus Juris Canonici, Paris, 1618, pp. 227, 228.
For the position of the English Church, see Gibson's Corpus Juris
Ecclesiastici Anglicani, pp. 1070, 1071, 1106.

This theological hostility to the taking of interest was imbedded firmly
in the canon law. Again and again it defined usury to be the taking of
anything of value beyond the exact original amount of a loan; and
under sanction of the universal Church it denounced this as a crime
and declared all persons defending it to be guilty of heresy. What this
meant the world knows but too well.

The whole evolution of European civilization was greatly hindered by
this conscientious policy. Money could only be loaned in most countries
at the risk of incurring odium in this world and damnation in the
next; hence there was but little capital and few lenders. The rates of
interest became at times enormous; as high as forty pe