n accepted as of divine origin by all obedient sons of the Church
in the government of France. Such rulers as Charles the Bald in the
ninth century, and St. Louis in the thirteenth, had riveted this idea
into the civil law so firmly that it seemed impossible ever to detach
it.(455)

(455) For the declaration of the Sorbonne in the seventeenth century
against taking of interest, see Lecky, Rationalism, vol. ii, p. 248,
note. For the special condemnation by Innocent XI, see Viva, Damnatae
Theses, Pavia, 1715, pp. 112-114. For consideration of various ways of
escaping the difficulty regarding interest, see Lecky, Rationalism,
vol. ii, pp. 249, 250. For Bousset's strong declaration against taking
interest, see his Oeuvres, Paris, 1845-'46, vol. i, p. 734, vol. vi,
p. 654, and vol. ix, p. 49 et seq. For the number of councils and popes
condemning usury, see Lecky, as above, vol. ii, p. 255, note, citing
Concina.

As might well be expected, Italy was one of the countries in which
the theological theory regarding usury--lending at interest--was most
generally asserted and assented to. Among the great number of Italian
canonists who supported the theory, two deserve especial mention, as
affording a contrast to the practical manner in which the commercial
Italians met the question.

In the sixteenth century, very famous among canonists was the learned
Benedictine, Vilagut. In 1589 he published at Venice his great work
on usury, supporting with much learning and vigour the most extreme
theological consequences of the old doctrine. He defines usury as the
taking of anything beyond the original loan, and declares it mortal sin;
he advocates the denial to usurers of Christian burial, confession,
the sacraments, absolution, and connection with the universities; he
declares that priests receiving offerings from usurers should refrain
from exercising their ministry until the matter is passed upon by the
bishop.

About the middle of the seventeenth century another ponderous folio was
published in Venice upon the same subject and with the same title, by
Onorato Leotardi. So far from showing any signs of yielding, he is even
more extreme than Vilagut had been, and quotes with approval the old
declaration that lenders of money at interest are not only robbers but
murderers.

So far as we can learn, no real opposition was made in either century to
this theory, as a theory; as to PRACTICE, it was different. The Italian
trader