Usury in Medieval Christianity

Abstract

<p>In this chapter I provide a critical overview of medieval Christian views on the morality of moneylending—focusing in particular on the philosophical underpinnings of such views. The "usury doctrine" of the medieval period deemed the taking of interest on loans to be morally impermissible. It was a doctrine that dominated a great deal of medieval thinking on economic matters. After considering the influence of the Bible and the works of Aristotle on the development of the doctrine, I turn to the philosophical arguments that were developed in the Middle Ages to justify the prohibition on charging interest. The most important of these arguments are what various commentators now label the "argument from barrenness" and the "argument from compulsion." However, many Christian thinkers at the time believed that the prohibition was overly demanding and thus developed a number of exceptions—known as "extrinsic titles'—to the doctrine. The extrinsic titles identified cases in which one could legitimately receive compensation, over and above the original sum of money loaned, and which were said not to be usurious. Such exceptions were unsurprisingly controversial, some critics regarding them as mere ruses and evidence of genuine sophistry on the part of those who defended them. In the final section of the chapter, I consider the intellectual forces that led to the demise of the doctrine, these being both economic and philosophical in nature. However, despite the undeniable weight of these criticisms, I suggest in the conclusion that there remains much to learn from the doctrine, especially with respect to the moral status of loans undertaken in desperate circumstances.</p>