ertheless the gain itself may be lawfully intended, not as a last
end, but for the sake of some other end which is necessary or
virtuous, as stated above.

Reply Obj. 2: Not everyone that sells at a higher price than he
bought is a tradesman, but only he who buys that he may sell at a
profit. If, on the contrary, he buys not for sale but for possession,
and afterwards, for some reason wishes to sell, it is not a trade
transaction even if he sell at a profit. For he may lawfully do this,
either because he has bettered the thing, or because the value of the
thing has changed with the change of place or time, or on account of
the danger he incurs in transferring the thing from one place to
another, or again in having it carried by another. In this sense
neither buying nor selling is unjust.

Reply Obj. 3: Clerics should abstain not only from things that are
evil in themselves, but even from those that have an appearance of
evil. This happens in trading, both because it is directed to worldly
gain, which clerics should despise, and because trading is open to so
many vices, since "a merchant is hardly free from sins of the lips"
[*'A merchant is hardly free from negligence, and a huckster shall
not be justified from the sins of the lips'] (Ecclus. 26:28). There
is also another reason, because trading engages the mind too much
with worldly cares, and consequently withdraws it from spiritual
cares; wherefore the Apostle says (2 Tim. 2:4): "No man being a
soldier to God entangleth himself with secular businesses."
Nevertheless it is lawful for clerics to engage in the first
mentioned kind of exchange, which is directed to supply the
necessaries of life, either by buying or by selling.
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QUESTION 78

OF THE SIN OF USURY
(In Four Articles)

We must now consider the sin of usury, which is committed in loans:
and under this head there are four points of inquiry:

(1) Whether it is a sin to take money as a price for money lent,
which is to receive usury?

(2) Whether it is lawful to lend money for any other kind of
consideration, by way of payment for the loan?

(3) Whether a man is bound to restore just gains derived from money
taken in usury?

(4) Whether it is lawful to borrow money under a condition of usury?
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FIRST ARTICLE [II-II, Q. 78, Art. 1]

Whether It Is a Sin to Take Usury for Money Lent?

Objection 1: It would seem that it is not a sin to take usury for
m