1.]

[Footnote 2: Ashley, _op. cit._, vol. i. pt. ii. p. 451.]

It was generally admitted by the theologians that the taking of usury
might be permitted by the civil authorities, although it was insisted
that acting in accordance with this permission did not absolve the
conscience of the usurer. Albertus Magnus conceded that 'although
usury is contrary to the perfection of Christian laws, it is at least
not contrary to civil interests';[1] and Aquinas also justified the
toleration of usury by the State: 'Human laws leave certain things
unpunished, on account of the condition of those who are imperfect,
and who would be deprived of many advantages if all sins were strictly
forbidden and punishments appointed for them. Wherefore human law
has permitted usury, not that it looks upon usury as harmonising
with justice, but lest the advantage of many should be hindered.'[2]
Although this opinion was controverted by AEgidius Romanus,[3] it was
generally accepted by later writers. Thus Gerson says that 'the civil
law, when it tolerates usury in some cases, must not be said to be
always contrary to the law of God or the Church. The civil legislator,
acting in the manner of a wise doctor, tolerates lesser evils that
greater ones may be avoided. It is obviously less of an evil that
slight usury should be permitted for the relief of want, than that men
should be driven by their want to rob or steal, or to sell their goods
at an unfairly low price.'[4] Buridan explains that the attitude of
the State towards usury must never be more than one of toleration;
it must not actively approve of usury, but it may tacitly refuse to
punish it.[5]

[Footnote 1: Rambaud, _op. cit._, p. 65; Espinas, _op. cit._, p. 103.]

[Footnote 2: II. ii. 78, 1, ad. 3.]

[Footnote 3: _De Reg. Prin._, ii. 3, 11.]

[Footnote 4: _De Cont._, ii. 17.]

[Footnote 5: _Quaest. super. Lib. Eth._, iv. 6.]

Sec. 7. _The Justice of Unearned Income_.

Many modern socialists--'Christian' and otherwise--have asserted that
the teaching of the Church on usury was a pronouncement in favour of
the unproductivity of capital.[1] Thus Rudolf Meyer, one of the
most distinguished of 'Christian socialists,' has argued that if one
recognises the productivity of land or stock, one must also recognise
the productivity of money, and that therefore the Church, in denying
the productivity of the latter, would be logically driven to deny
the productivity of the former.[2] Anton