ith the practice of usury by the clergy; still, there is
sufficient evidence to show that in those days it was reprobated even
for the Christian laity, for the _Didache_ and Tertullian clearly
teach or presuppose its prohibition, while the oecumenical Council
of Nice certainly presupposed its illegality for the laity, though
it failed to sustain its doctrinal presuppositions with corresponding
ecclesiastical penalties. With the exception of some very vague
statements by Cyprian and Clement of Alexandria, we find no attempt to
state the nature of the resulting obligation--that is to say, we are
not told whether there is an obligation of obedience, of justice, or
of charity. The prohibition indeed seems to be regarded as universal;
and it may very well be contended that for the cases the Fathers
consider it was in fact universal--for the loans with which they are
concerned, being necessitous, should be, in accordance with Christian
charity, gratuitous--even if speculatively usurious loans in general
were not unjust.'[1]

[Footnote 1: _Op. cit._, pp. 48-9.]

The middle of the fourth century marked the opening of a new
period--'a period when oratorical denunciations are profuse, and when
consequently philosophical speculation, though fairly active, is
of too imaginative a character to be sufficiently definite.'[1]
St. Basil's _Homilies on the Fourteenth Psalm_ contain a violent
denunciation of usury, the reasoning of which was repeated by St.
Gregory of Nyssa[2] and St. Ambrose.[3] These three Fathers draw a
terrible picture of the state of the poor debtor, who, harassed by
his creditors, falls deeper and deeper into despair, until he finally
commits suicide, or has to sell his children into slavery. Usury was
therefore condemned by these Fathers as a sin against charity; the
passage from St. Luke was looked on merely as a counsel in so far as
it related to the repayment of the principal, but as a precept so
far as it related to usury; but the notion that usury was in its very
essence a sin against justice does not appear to have arisen. The
natural sterility of money is referred to, but not developed; and it
is suggested, though not categorically stated, that usury may be taken
from wealthy debtors.[4]

[Footnote 1: Cleary, _op. cit._, p. 49.]

[Footnote 2: _Contra Usurarios_.]

[Footnote 3: _De Tobia_.]

[Footnote 4: Cleary, _op. cit._, p. 52.]

The other Fathers of the later period do not throw very much light