§ 1. In a great multitude of rich and beneficent men there would be no lack of one who would liberally offer money as a loan to the needy, but negligence and the removal of trust make everyone timid.
If anyone makes a loan, it is lost as though it were his own;
When you now seek repayment, through your benefit you find a friend an enemy.
Nothing is easier than to make enemies from a benefit.
For the greatest part of mankind possesses this custom:
While they seek what they desire for themselves, they are good; but when they now possess it,
From good men they become the worst and most fraudulent.
Plautus, Trinummus.
The obstinacy, perfidy, and ingratitude of certain debtors cause all those whom poverty oppresses to suffer punishment. A creditor is sometimes troublesome and burdensome, premature and savage, which is forbidden by law. More often, however, the debtor is fastidious and a defrauder. For those to whom something is owed generally ask for it humanely; but debtors, however gently you address them and whatever delay you grant, are indignant. If they are poor, they proclaim the creditor a tyrant; if they are magnates, they threaten as if by their own right. Especially in this matter, nothing so closes the fountain of doing good as the abuse of benefits. Nor can sufficient precaution be taken, nor is it customarily taken, although there is a mortgage and there are judges. Yet is it not burdensome to recover by force of arms what you gave to a friend? These matters must therefore be established seriously by the magistrate; clear debts must be judged quickly and summarily, and an obstinate debtor must be punished.
§ 2. Let the prince, or each city, make a loan from the treasury to its citizens, after fixing the day upon which it must be repaid and receiving a mortgage. This is exacted without envy and hatred; it does not permit the debtor to be negligent through hope in judicial proceedings, and it binds those who are in need. Many princes have attained great praise from this and fortified themselves with the firmest defense of majesty, that is, love.
§ 3. A perpetual remedy for usuries is the institution which they call a mount of piety. This, therefore, was also a special object of care for Charles, archbishop of Milan, in the First Council:
Let bishops apply all their care and labor to erecting and instituting, by authority of the Supreme Pontiff, in each city and more notable town, the pious establishments which are called mounts of piety, from which the poor can receive borrowed money. Let them take care that both these and those already established are administered diligently and faithfully. We beseech princes and magistrates to assist the zeal and diligence of the bishops in this matter by every means. In them let nothing beyond the principal be received except for the maintenance of the ministers and other necessary expenses, and this by authority of the Supreme Pontiff.
Leo X ended the controversy which had arisen concerning the mounts. His edict reads as follows:
Leo, bishop, servant of the servants of God, for perpetual remembrance of the matter, with the holy Council approving. Among the manifold cares of our solicitude, in accordance with our pastoral office we ought especially to undertake this one: that those things which in our time are salutary and praiseworthy, consonant with the Catholic faith and conformable to good morals, should not only be unfolded but also propagated to posterity; and that things which could furnish material for scandal should be completely cut down and torn out by the roots, and not permitted to sprout anywhere. Thus we permit only those things to be cultivated in the field of the Lord and the vineyard of the Lord of Hosts by which the minds of the faithful can be spiritually fed, after the tares have been eradicated and the sterility of the wild olive cut away.
Indeed, since we have learned that formerly a certain controversy arose, not without scandal and murmuring among the peoples, among some beloved sons, masters of sacred theology and doctors of both laws, and that it has recently been renewed in these days concerning the relief of the poor by loans made to them under public authority, which are commonly called mounts of piety; these have been established in many cities of Italy by the magistrates of cities and other faithful of Christ to relieve by such a loan the poverty of the poor, lest they be swallowed by the abyss of usuries, and they have been praised and advocated by holy men who preach the divine word, and have also been approved and confirmed by some Supreme Pontiffs, our predecessors. The question is whether the aforesaid mounts disagree with Christian doctrine or not, with each party thinking and preaching differently.
For some masters and doctors say that those mounts are not lawful in which, after a fixed time has elapsed, something beyond the principal is exacted per pound by the ministers of the mount from the poor themselves to whom the loan is given; and that consequently they do not escape the crime of usuries or injustice, or some certain appearance of evil, since our Lord, as Luke the Evangelist bears witness, has bound us by an open command that from a loan given we ought to hope for nothing beyond the principal. For this is the proper interpretation of usuries: namely, when one endeavors from the use of a thing which does not beget to acquire profit and offspring without any labor, expense, or danger.
The same masters and doctors also added that in these mounts neither commutative nor distributive justice is satisfied, although a contract of this kind ought not to exceed the limits of justice if it is to be approved. They also endeavored to prove this because the expenses owed by many, as they say, for the preservation of mounts of this kind are extorted only from the poor to whom the loan is given; and because sometimes several things beyond the necessary and moderate expenses are furnished to certain other persons, not without an appearance of evil and an incentive to offend, as they seem to imply.
But many other masters and doctors assert the contrary, and in many schools of Italy proclaim by word and writing, in favor of so great a good and one so necessary to the state, that, provided nothing is sought or expected by reason of the loan, nevertheless, for the indemnity of those mounts—that is, for the expenses of their ministers and of all things pertaining to their necessary preservation, without profit to mounts of this kind—something moderate and necessary may lawfully be exacted and received beyond the principal from those who receive an advantage from a loan of this kind; for the rule of law holds that one who receives an advantage ought also to bear the burden, especially if apostolic authority is added. They show that this opinion was approved by the Roman Pontiffs of happy memory Paul II, Sixtus IV, Innocent VIII, Alexander VI, and Julius II, our predecessors, and was also preached by holy and God-fearing preachers of evangelical truth who were held in great esteem because of their reputation for holiness.
Wishing to make suitable provision in this matter, as has been granted to us from on high, and commending the zeal of each party—the former from zeal for justice, lest an abyss of usuries be opened; the latter from love of piety and truth, so that the poor might be assisted—since these things seem to pertain to the peace and tranquility of the whole Christian state, with the holy Council approving we declare and define that the aforesaid mounts of piety, established by states and hitherto approved and confirmed by authority of the Apostolic See, in which, for their expenses and indemnity, something moderate is received beyond the principal solely for the expenses of ministers and of other matters pertaining to their preservation, as stated above, and solely for their indemnity, without profit to those mounts, neither display an appearance of evil nor furnish an incentive to sin; nor are they to be disapproved in any way. Rather, such a loan is meritorious and is to be praised and approved, and is by no means to be regarded as usurious. It is lawful to preach their piety and mercy to the peoples, even with indulgences granted for that reason by the holy Apostolic See; and henceforth other similar mounts may also be erected with the approval of the Apostolic See.
Nevertheless, it would be much more perfect and much holier if such mounts were established altogether free of charge; that is, if those who erect them assigned certain annual revenues from which, if not all, at least half of the expenses of the ministers of mounts of this kind might be paid, so that through this means the poor would happen to be burdened with a lighter portion of the money to be paid. We decree that the faithful of Christ are to be invited by greater indulgences to erect mounts for them, with the assignment of revenues of this kind for bearing the expenses. But we will that all religious, ecclesiastical, and secular persons who henceforth dare to preach by word or writing contrary to the form of the present declaration and sanction shall incur the penalty of excommunication already pronounced, notwithstanding any privilege whatever, the aforesaid matters, apostolic constitutions and ordinances, and all other things whatsoever to the contrary. Therefore let no one at all be permitted to infringe this page of our declaration, definition, decree, and excommunication, or to oppose it by a rash attempt. If anyone should presume to attempt this, let him know that he will incur the indignation of Almighty God and of his blessed apostles Peter and Paul.
In those mounts, therefore, the following things are necessary:
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The loan must be given altogether without charge.
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Something is to be given for the maintenance of the ministers, who do not render their services without charge.
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A house must also be established and pledges preserved, which cannot be done without some expense.
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Those expenses must be equalized, so that the poor are not burdened more than the rich.
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There is nothing usurious in these things. For if a person gives a loan, employs witnesses and a notary, and orders a pledge to be inspected or brought in, it is not equitable that these things be done at the expense of the person who gave the loan.
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Nevertheless, one must endeavor to establish the mounts altogether free of charge, for thus every cause of suspicion will be removed. This can be done by either of two methods, or by both. First, let an annual revenue be purchased by which the necessary expenses may be borne. Second, let great, trustworthy, and rich men discharge without charge the offices of scribes, tellers, and custodians. Nor, in so pious a matter, is the labor beneath anyone’s dignity. For if in Italy and Spain, and now also in Gaul and Germany, noble and senatorial men go to seek alms for the poor, and it is not contrary to their reputation to be ambassadors of the poor, but adorns their dignity more than any purple; indeed, if it redounds to the great glory of Christ that men clothed in purple and the rich of this age are vicars and procurators of his poor, that they are not high-minded but fear, and that they do not regard poverty, preferred in the life of their Lord to every scepter, as disgraceful—if kings and princes minister to the poor, why should a rich man not also act as a scribe and doorkeeper of the poor? What they do for one of the least of these, they do for Christ. Every office rendered to Christ is above every dignity and is altogether royal, because to serve God is to reign.