a single trace of the keen analysis with which Aquinas was
later to illuminate and adorn the subject.

[Footnote 1: These are but a few of the enactments of the period
directed against usury (Cleary, _op. cit._, p. 61; Favre, _Le pret a
interet dans l'ancienne France_).]

Sec. 4. _The Mediaeval Prohibition of Usury_.

The tenth and eleventh centuries saw no advance in the teaching on
usury. The twelfth century, however, ushered in a new era. 'Before
that century controversy had been mostly confined to theologians, and
treated theologically, with reference to God and the Bible, and only
rarely with regard to economic considerations. After the twelfth
century the discussion was conducted on a gradually broadening
economic basis--appeals to the Fathers, canonists, philosophers, the
_jus divinum_, the _jus naturale_, the _jus humanum_, became the order
of the day.'[1] Before we proceed to discuss the new philosophical or
scholastic treatment of usury which was inaugurated for all practical
purposes by Aquinas, we must briefly refer to the ecclesiastical
legislation on the subject.

[Footnote 1: Boehm-Bawerk, _Capital and Interest_, p. 19.]

In 1139 the second Lateran Council issued a very strong declaration
against usurers. 'We condemn that disgraceful and detestable rapacity,
condemned alike by human and divine law, by the Old and the New
Testaments, that insatiable rapacity of usurers, whom we hereby
cut off from all ecclesiastical consolation; and we order that no
archbishop, bishop, abbot, or cleric shall receive back usurers except
with the very greatest caution, but that, on the contrary, usurers
are to be regarded as infamous, and shall, if they do not repent, be
deprived of Christian burial.'[1] It might be argued that this decree
was aimed against immoderate or habitual usury, and not against usury
in general, but all doubt as regards the attitude of the Church was
set at rest by a decree of the Lateran Council of 1179. This decree
runs: 'Since almost in every place the crime of usury has become
so prevalent that many people give up all other business and become
usurers, as if it were lawful, regarding not its prohibition in both
Testaments, we ordain that manifest usurers shall not be admitted to
communion, nor, if they die in their sins, be admitted to Christian
burial, and that no priest shall accept their alms.'[2] Meanwhile,
Alexander III., having given much attention to the subject of usury,
had come