If you lend money to any of my people who is poor among you, you shall not be to him as a lender, neither shall you charge him interest.
Read Chapter 22
Clement Of Alexandria
AD 215
There is a great deal about sharing and exchanging, but it is enough to say that the law forbids lending at interest to a brother. By brother it means not merely one born of the same parents but a member of the same tribe or one of the same faith, who shares in the same Logos. The law does not deem it right to collect interest on the capital. It seeks to enable free giving to those in need, with hands and minds wide open. God is the creator of this free gift. It is he who shares his goods, exacting as the only reasonable interest the most precious things human beings possess: gentleness, goodness, highmindedness, repute, glory.
Poor. Such are often most in want. Usury is not lawful, even with respect to the rich. The Hebrew terms it a bite. (Menochius)
"What is usury, said Cato, but to kill a man. "The Romans required thieves to restore double, but usurers were to render four times as much as they had taken. (Varro, Rustic. i.)
Restitution is prescribed, 2 Esdras v. 11. Some Calvinists have stood up in its defence, in opposition to the Scriptures, fathers, and Councils of the Catholic Church. Lend, hoping to gain nothing by it, Luke vi. 35. "Let him who loves money. Lend (in the persons of the poor) to Him who says, Give, and it shall be given to you. "(St. Leo, ser.) The Jews themselves have reprobated usury in any use. (Calmet)
