[Footnote 1: Endemann, _Studien_, vol. i. p. 433.]

[Footnote 2: Ashley, _op. cit._, vol. i. pt. i. p. 448.]

[Footnote 3: _De Usuris_.]

[Footnote 4: Ashley, _op. cit._, p. 449.]

It was probably the example of these State loans, or _montes profani_,
that suggested to the Franciscans the possibility of creating an
organisation to provide credit facilities for poor borrowers, which
was in many ways analogous to the modern co-operative credit banks.
Prior to the middle of the fifteenth century, when this experiment
was initiated, there had been various attempts by the State to provide
credit facilities for the poor, but these need not detain us here, as
they did not come to anything.[1] The first of the _montes pietatis_
was founded at Orvieto by the Franciscans in 1462, and after that
year they spread rapidly.[2] The _montes_, although their aim was
exclusively philanthropic, found themselves obliged to make a small
charge to defray their working expenses, and, although one would think
that this could be amply justified by the title of _damnum emergens_,
it provoked a violent attack by the Dominicans. The principal
antagonist of the _montes pietatis_ was Thomas da Vio, who wrote a
special treatise on the subject, in which he made the point that the
_montes_ charged interest from the very beginning of the loan, which
was a contradiction of all the previous teaching on interest.[3]

[Footnote 1: Cleary, _op. cit._, p. 108; Brants, _op. cit._, p. 159.]

[Footnote 2: Perugia, 1467; Viterbo, 1472; Sevona, 1472; Assisi,
1485; Mantua, 1486; Cesana and Parma, 1488; Interamna and Lucca,
1489; Verona, 1490; Padua, 1491, etc. (Endemann, _Studien_, vol. i. p.
463).]

[Footnote 3: _De Monte Pietatis_.]

The general feeling of the Church, however, was in favour of the
_montes_. It was felt that, if the poor must borrow, it was better
that they should borrow at a low rate of interest from philanthropic
institutions than at an extortionate rate from usurers; several
_montes_ were established under the direct protection of the Popes;[1]
and finally, in 1515, the Lateran Council gave an authoritative
judgment in favour of the _montes_. This decree contains an excellent
definition of usury as it had come to be accepted at that date: 'Usury
is when gain is sought to be acquired from the use of a thing, not
fruitful in itself, without labour, expense, or risk on the part of
the lender.'[2]

[Footnote 1: Cleary, _op. cit._, p. 11