Usury
idea · 4 works · 5 mentions · 8 anchored passages
usury · interest · taking interest · usurious loan
in the texts
Magna Carta: A Commentary on the Great Charter of King John
The practice of lending money at interest, associated in this passage with Jewish moneylenders and progressively regulated by the Charter and successive statutes.
The rates of interest were proportionately high, ranging in normal cases from two to four pence per pound per week;
During the minority no interest at all, it was provided, should accrue to Jew or other usurer;
Usury was looked on in the Middle Ages as immoral (although illegal only for Christians);
Letters
The canon on admitting a former usurer to the priesthood.
He who takes interest, if he consents to spend the unjust gain on the poor, and henceforth to be freed from the disease of avarice, is acceptable to the priesthood.
The Rights of War and Peace
The taking of interest for loans, and its moral/legal permissibility
Demosthenes, in his speech against Pantaenetus, condemns it as an odious act of injustice, to charge with usury a man, who in order to keep his principal undiminished, or to assist another with money, lends out the savings of his industry and frugal habits, upon a moderate interest.
The next topic, that comes under consideration, is the lawfulness of taking interest for the use of consumable thing;
Nor is there any more weight in the objection to taking interest for the use of money, which in its own nature is barren and unproductive.
Bṛhaspati Smṛti
The doctrine limiting how much interest may be charged, defining and condemning usurious (excessive) interest.
When a share above double is taken, and compound interest is charged, and when the principal with interest is full, that is condemned as usury.
Hear the interest on a usurious loan, as stated in the words of Vasiṣṭha:
fourfold or eightfold, it is therefore known as a usurious loan.