330 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



of the " Bill of Usury/' In this it is said, " Forasmuch as usury 

 is by the word of God utterly prohibited, as a vice most odious 

 and detestable, as in divers places of the Holy Scriptures it is 

 evident to be seen, which thing by no godly teachings and per- 

 suasions can sink into the hearts of divers greedy, uncharitable, 

 and covetous persons of this realm, nor yet, by any terrible threat- 

 enings of God's wrath and vengeance," etc., it is enacted that 

 whosoever shall thereafter lend money " for any manner of usury, 

 increase, lucre, gain, or interest, to be had, received, or hoped 

 for," shall forfeit principal and interest, and suffer imprisonment 

 and fine at the king's pleasure.* 



But, most fortunately, it happened that Calvin, though at times 

 stumbling over the usual texts against the usance of money, turned 

 finally in the right direction. He cut through the metaphysical 

 arguments of Aristotle, and characterized the mass of subtleties 

 devised to evade the Scriptures as " a childish game with God." 

 In place of these subtleties, there was developed among Protestants 

 a serviceable fiction — the statement that usury means illegal or op- 

 pressive interest. Under the action of this fiction, commerce and 

 trade revived rapidly in Protestant countries, though with occa- 

 sional checks from exact interpreters of Scripture. At the same 

 period in France, the great Protestant jurist, Dumoulin, brought 

 all his legal learning and skill in casuistry to bear on the same 

 side. A certain ferret-like acuteness and litheness seem to have 

 enabled him to hunt down the opponents of usance through the 

 most tortuous arguments of scholasticism. 



In England the struggle went on with varying fortune ; 

 statesmen on one side, and theologians on the other. We have 

 seen how under Henry VIII interest was allowed at a fixed rate, 

 and how the development of English Protestantism having at 

 first strengthened the old theological view, there was, under 

 Edward VI, a temporarily successful attempt to forbid usance by 

 law. The Puritans, dwelling on Old Testament texts, continued 

 for a considerable time especially hostile to the taking of any 

 interest. Henry Smith, a noted preacher, thundered from the 

 pulpit of St. Clement Danes in London against " the evasions of 

 Scripture " which permitted men to loan money on interest at all. 

 In answer to the contention that only "biting " usury was oppress- 



* For Luther's views see his sermon, Von dem "Wucher, Wittenberg, 1519, also the 

 Tischreden, cited in Coquelin and Guillaumin, article Inteiet. For the later more mod- 

 erate views of Luther, Melanchthon, and Zwingli, making a compromise with the needs of 

 society, see Bohm-Bawerk, p. 2Y, citing Wiskercann. For Melanchthon and a long line of 

 the most eminent Lutheran divines who have denounced the taking of interest, see Die 

 Wucherfrage, St. Louis, 1869, pp. 94 et seq. For the law against usury under Edward VI, 

 see Cobbett's Parliamentary History, vol. i, p. 596 ; see also Craik, History of British 

 Commerce, chap. vi. 



