rds
Galileo in the utterances of those who are anxious to convict it of
error. We have referred to this current controversy, not in order that
we might take a part in it, but that, on the contrary, we might avoid
it. It is no part of our purpose in our treatment of this subject to
discuss whether the usury prohibition was or was not suitable to
the conditions of the Middle Ages; whether it did or did not impede
industrial enterprise and commercial expansion; or whether it was or
was not universally disregarded and evaded in real life. These are
inquiries which, though full of interest, would not be in place in
a discussion of theory. All we are concerned to do in the following
pages is to indicate the grounds on which the prohibition of usury
rested, the precise extent of its application, and the conceptions of
economic theory which it indicated and involved.

[Footnote 1: Brants has a very luminous and interesting section on
_Cambium, Op. cit._, p. 214 _et seq_.]

We must remark in the first place that the prohibition of usury was in
no sense peculiar to the Catholic Church in the Middle Ages, but,
on the contrary, was to be found in many other religious and legal
systems--for instance, in the writings of the Greek and Roman
philosophers, amongst the Jews, and the followers of Mohammed. We
shall give a very brief account of the other prohibitions of usury
before coming to deal with the scholastic teaching on the subject.

We can find no trace of any legal prohibition of usury in ancient
Greece. Although Solon's laws contained many provisions for the relief
of poor debtors, they did not forbid the taking of interest, nor did
they limit the rate of interest that might be taken.[1] In Rome the
Twelve Tables fixed a maximum rate of interest, which was probably
ten or twelve per cent, per annum, but which cannot be determined
with certainty owing to the doubtful signification of the expression
'_unciarum foenus_.' The legal rate of interest was gradually reduced
until the year 347 B.C., when five per cent, was fixed as a maximum.
In 342 B.C. interest was forbidden altogether by the Genucian Law;
but this law, though never repealed, was in practice quite inoperative
owing to the facility with which it could be evaded; and consequently
the oppression of borrowers was prevented by the enactment, or perhaps
it would be more correct to say the general recognition, of a maximum
rate of interest of twelve per cent. per annum. T