Usury (Ti'ir'.?i neskek, lit. a biting, i. e. extortion ; TOKOQ, yield; twice [Neh. v, 7, 10] ii.^S'0,mashshd,debt') is used in the A. Y. in the Old-English sense of interest for money loaned, and not necessarily in the odious and later signification, an unlawful contract for the loan of money, to be returned again with exorbitant increase. By the laws of Moses the Israelites were forbidden to take usury from their brethren upon the loan of money, victuals, or anything else, not, it has been observed by Michaelis, as if he absolutely and in all cases condemned the practice, for he expressly permitted interest to be taken from strangers, but only out of favor to the poorer classes. In other words, he did not mean to represent that the taking of interest for the loan of money was in itself sinful and unjust; but as at that period the Israel- ites were comparatively a poor people and strangers to commerce, they borrowed, not with a view to profit, but from poverty, and in order to procure the common nec- essaries of life. It would therefore have been a hard- ship to have exacted from tliem more than was lent. The Israelites were, however, permitted to take usury from strangers, from the Canaanites and other people devoted to subjection. This was one of the many means they adopted for oppressing and ruining the Canaanites who remained in the land. The Israelites were not a commercial people, nor were the laws and regulations under which they were placed framed with a view to encourage them to become such, but rather to preserve them in the possession of their family inheritances, and in the cultivation of a simple, unostpntatious, frugal mode of life. Among themselves, therefore, only such lending as ministered help to the struggling poor, and served to tide them over trials and difficulties, was con- sistent with the spirit of the old economy; not such as tended to embarrass their circumstances, and at their expense enabled a griping neighbor to enrich himself. This last is the only kind of usury forbidden in the law, and the avoiding of this is sometimes given among the characteristics of tlie upright and godly man (Psa. XV, 5; Jer. xv, 10). It is also that wliich when prac- ticed was denounced as a crying inquity, and exposed
USURY
685
UTENIIEIM
those who did it to judicial condemnation (Prov. xxviii, 8).
The practice of mortgaging land, sometimes at ex- orbitant interest, grew up among the Jews during the Captivity, in direct violation of the law (Lev. xxv, 30, 37; EzQk. xviii. 8, 13, 17). We tind the rale reaching 1 in 100 per month, correspontling to the Koman cenln- simm usurce, or 12 per cent, per annum — a rate which Nicbuhr considers to have been borrowed from abroad, and which is, or lias been till quite lately, a very usual or even a minimum rate in the East (Niebuhr, flist. of Rome, ill, 57, Engl, transl.; Volney, True, ii, 254, note; Chardin, I'oi/. vi, 122) ; but untler Turkish misrule it now often reaches 40 or 50 per cent. (Conder, Tent lVo7-k ill Pdkst. ii, 2(58). Yet the law of the Koran, like the Jewish, forl)ids all usury (Lane, Mod. Eiinpt. i, 132; Sale, Koran, c. 30). The laws of Menu allow 18 and even 24 per cent, as an interest rate; but, as was the law in Egy[)t, accumulated interest was not to ex- cised twice the original sum lent {Laws o/ Menu, v'lii, 140, 141, 151; Jones [Sir W.], Works, iii, 295; comp. Diod. Sic. i, 9, 79). This Jewish practice was annulled by Nehemiah,and an oath exacted to insure its discon- tinuance (Neh. V, 3-13 ; comp. Selden, De Jur.Nat. vi, 10 : Hoffmann, Lex. s. v. " Usura"). Our Saviour denounced all extortion, and promulgated a new law of love and forbearance: "Give to everj' man that asketh of thee, and of him that taketh away thy goods, ask them not again." "Love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again" (Luke vi, 30, 35).
The practice of usury was severely censured by the ancient Church and strictly forbidden to the clergy. One law prohibited a usurer from ordination. Many of the ancient canons condemned it in unmeasured terms. One of the canons of Nice says, " Forasmuch as many clerks, following covetousness and tilihy lucre, and fi!r- getting the Holy Scriptures (which speak of the right- eous man as one that hath not given his money upon usury), have let forth their money upon usury, and taken the usual monthly increase, it seemed good to this great and holy synod that if an}' one, after this de- cree, shall be found to take usury, or demand the prin- cipal with half the increase of the whole, or shall invent any such methods for filthy lucre's sake, he shall be de- graded from his order, and have liis name struck out of the roll of the Church." The same practice is censured by the Apostolical Canons; the Council of Eliberis; the first and second councils of Aries; the first and third of Carthage; the Council of Laodicea and of Trullo. Usury was of various kinds; sometimes it was called centesi- moe, the hundredth part of the principal being paid every month. This was allowed by the civil law, but it was generally condemned b}' the Church. Another form of usury was called sesciiplum; that is, the whole and half as much more. This was condemned by a law of Justinian and reprobated by the Church. Other forms of lower interest were allowed, such as half or thinl of the centesimal interest. See Bingham, £ccl. Antiq. p. 200-201, 1014, etc.