f money; so that of all
means of money-making it is the most contrary to nature.'[1] We need
not pause here to discuss the precise significance of Aristotle's
conceptions on this subject, as they are to us not so much of
importance in themselves, as because they suggested a basis for the
treatment of usury to Aquinas and his followers.[2]

[Footnote 1: Aristotle, _Politics_, i. 10.]

[Footnote 2: Cleary, _op. cit._, p. 29.]

In Rome, as in Greece, the philosophers and moralists were unanimous
in their condemnation of the practice of usury. Cicero condemns usury
as being hateful to mankind, and makes Cato say that it is on the
same level of moral obliquity as murder; and Seneca makes a point that
became of some importance in the Middle Ages, namely, that usury is
wrongful because it involves the selling of time.[1] Plutarch develops
the argument that money is sterile, and condemns the practices
of contemporary money-lenders as unjust.[2] The teaching of the
philosophers as to the unlawfulness of usury was reflected in the
popular feeling of the time.[3]

[Footnote 1: Cleary, _op. cit._, p. 29.]

[Footnote 2: _De Vitando Aere Alieno_.]

[Footnote 3: Espinas, _op. cit._, pp. 81-2; Roscher, _Political
Economy_, s. 90.]

Sec. 2. _Usury in the Old Testament_.

The question of usury therefore attracted considerable attention in
the teaching and practice of pagan antiquity. It occupied an equally
important place in the Old Testament. In Exodus we find the first
prohibition of usury: 'If thou lend money to any of my people being
poor, thou shalt not be to him as a creditor, neither shall ye lay
upon him usury.'[1] In Leviticus we read: 'And if thy brother be waxen
poor, and his hand fail with thee; then, thou must uphold him; as a
stranger and a sojourner shall he live with thee. Take thou no money
of him or increase, but fear thy God that thy brother may live with
thee. Thou shalt not give him thy money upon usury, nor give him
victuals for increase.'[2] Deuteronomy lays down a wider prohibition:
'Thou shalt not lend upon usury to thy brother; usury of money,
usury of victuals, usury of anything that is lent upon usury; unto
a foreigner thou mayest lend upon usury, but unto thy brother thou
mayest not lend upon usury.'[3] It will be noticed that the first and
second of these texts do not forbid usury except in the case of loans
to the poor, and, if we had them alone to consider, we could conclude
that loans t