What The Catholic Church Teaches About The Jews – Part 6
Usury Is Forbidden, And This Is Especially Directed Towards The Jews
The Catholic Church had many councils regarding how to handle the Jews, in the middle ages.
Moreover, the Popes issued many papal bulls regarding how to handle the Jews, in the middle ages.
These councils and bulls dealt with topics like usury and other issues.
The Catholic dictionary defines usury as such:
Taking of excessive interest for the loan of money is the modern understanding of usury. In essence, however, usury is the acceptance of a premium for the mere use of a thing given in loan. Objectively it is the premium paid for a pure loan. The word has come to mean taking advantage of another who is in need. As such, it is forbidden by the natural law, because it is contrary to commutative justice. In the case of the poor, it is also a sin against charity.
The Catholic Dictionary
Thus, modern money lending with compound interest, and especially approving these loans for the poor, is considered usury.
Usury is a grave sin.
The Old Testament condemns usury in Exodus:
If thou lend money to any of my people that is poor, that dwelleth with thee, thou shalt not be hard upon them as an extortioner, nor oppress them with usuries.
Exodus 22:25
Also, Deuteronomy condemns usury:
Thou shalt not lend to thy brother money to usury, nor corn, nor any other thing: But to the stranger. To thy brother thou shalt lend that which he wanteth, without usury: that the Lord thy God may bless thee in all thy works in the land, which thou shalt go in to possess.
Deuteronomy 23:19-20
Moreover, in the New Testament, Christ condemns usury:
And if you lend to them of whom you hope to receive, what thanks are to you? for sinners also lend to sinners, for to receive as much. But love ye your enemies: do good, and lend, hoping for nothing thereby: and your reward shall be great, and you shall be the sons of the Highest; for he is kind to the unthankful, and to the evil.
Luke 6:34-35
Over a millennia later, in 1179 AD, the Third Lateran Council, consistent with Scripture, condemned usury:
Nearly everywhere the crime of usury has become so firmly rooted that many, omitting other business, practice usury as if it were permitted, and in no way observe how it is forbidden in both the Old and New Testament. We therefore declare that notorious usurers should not be admitted to communion of the altar or receive Christian burial if they die in this sin. Whoever receives them or gives them Christian burial should be compelled to give back what he has received, and let him remain suspended from the performance of his office until he has made satisfaction according to the judgment of his own bishop.
Third Lateran Council, Canon 25
But usury was still a problem in Christendom because most of the money lenders in the middle ages were Jews.
And since the Jews don’t follow Christian morality, they became the main usurers.
Thus, the Fourth Lateran Council, in 1215 AD, specifically condemned Jewish usury:
Jews and excessive Usury
The more the Christian religion is restrained from usurious practices, so much the more does the perfidy of the Jews grow in these matters, so that within a short time they are exhausting the resources of Christians. Wishing therefore to see that Christians are not savagely oppressed by Jews in this matter, we ordain by this synodal decree that if Jews in future, on any pretext, extort oppressive and excessive interest from Christians, then they are to be removed from contact with Christians until they have made adequate satisfaction for the immoderate burden. Christians too, if need be, shall be compelled by ecclesiastical censure, without the possibility of an appeal, to abstain from commerce with them. We enjoin upon princes not to be hostile to Christians on this account, but rather to be zealous in restraining Jews from so great oppression. We decree, under the same penalty, that Jews shall be compelled to make satisfaction to churches for tithes and offerings due to the churches, which the churches were accustomed to receive from Christians for houses and other possessions, before they passed by whatever title to the Jews, so that the churches may thus be preserved from loss.
Fourth Lateran Council, Canon 67
Of course, the Jews didn’t really care that the Christian Church ordered them to stop their usurious ways.
The Jews hate Christ and the Christian Church, as we already know.
Therefore, the Popes had to make sure the law was enforced, in order to keep the peace in Christendom.
For example, Pope Innocent III admonished the French King Philip II to enforce the Canon:
Although it be not displeasing to the Lord, but rather acceptable to Him, that the Jewish Dispersion should live and serve under Christian princes …they greatly offend in the sight of God’s Divine Majesty who prefer the offspring of the Crucifiers before those who are the heirs of Christ. …It has come to our knowledge that in the kingdom of France Jews have so much liberty that, under a species of usury—by which they not only extort interest, but interest from interest—they obtain control of the goods of the churches and the possessions of the Christians….
We warn and exhort Your Serene Majesty in the Lord (adding the remission of your sins) that you force the Jews from their presumption … and see to it that due punishment be meted out to all such blasphemers, and that an easy pardon be not given to delinquents!
Etsi non displiceat
Another interesting fact of the Middle Ages is that Popes ordered Jews to remit interest for crusaders:
If any of those setting out are bound by oath to pay interest, we ordain that their creditors shall be compelled by the same punishment to release them from their oath and to desist from exacting the interest; if any of the creditors does force them to pay the interest, we command that he be forced by similar punishment to restore it. We order that Jews be compelled by the secular power to remit interest, and that until they do so all intercourse shall be denied them by all Christ’s faithful under pain of excommunication. Secular princes shall provide a suitable deferral for those who cannot now pay their debts to Jews, so that after they have undertaken the journey and until there is certain knowledge of their death or of their return, they shall not incur the inconvenience of paying interest. The Jews shall be compelled to add to the capital, after they have deducted their necessary expenses, the revenues which they are meanwhile receiving from property held by them on security. For, such a benefit seems to entail not much loss, inasmuch as it postpones the repayment but does not cancel the debt. Prelates of churches who are negligent in showing justice to crusaders and their families should know that they will be severely punished.
Fourth Lateran Council, Canon 71
The First Council of Lyons repeated this canon.
Of course, this didn’t stop Jews from accumulating wealth through lending and banking.
And many prominent banking families of the present are Jewish, like the Rothschilds, Goldmans, Sachses, Lehmans, etc.
In a Catholic State, usury would be a crime, and thus compound interest would no longer be a thing.
In conclusion, I will leave you with this quote from Our Lord:
