But the taking of usury in the sense of receiving a reasonable rate of interest for the use of money em- ployed in merchandise belongs to a different category, and is nowhere forbidden; nor is it more contrary to the law of love than the plying of merchandise itself for the sake of gain. Hence it is referred to in Now- Test. Scripture as a perfectly understood and allowalile practice (Matt, xxv, 27; Luke xix, 23) — a practice winch the Jews of all ages, from the time of the Exile, when they began to be in a manner driven to commerce for their support, have felt themselves at liberty to carry on. That it may be, and often has been, carried on by them as well as others in a way far from consistent with the great principles of etpnty, there can be no doubt; but this belongs to the abuse, not to tlie use, of the liberty in question, and is to be condemned on com- mercial as well as moral grounds. Applied to Christian times, the spirit of the old enactments regarding usury
finds its fulfilment in the frank and timely ministration of pecuniary help from those who can give it to persons on whom misfortune and poverty have fallen, and, as re- gards commercial transactions, in the maintenance of upright and lionorable dealings.
The exaction of an exorbitant rate of interest for the loan of money was first prohibited in England during the reign of Edward the Confessor; but that law is con- sidered to have become obsolete, as in 112t) usury was forbidden only to the clergy, and in 1138 it was decreed by the Council that " such of the clergy as were usurers and hunters after sordid gain, and for the public em- ployment of the laity, ought to be degraded." In 1 199, tlie last 3'ear of the reign of Ilichard L the rate of inter- est for money was restricted to 10 per cent., which con- tinued to be the market rate until the reign of Henry VJIL In 1311, Philip I\^ fixed the interest that miglit be exacted in the fairs of Champagne at 20 per cent. James I of Arragcm, in 1242, fixed it at 18 per cent. In 1490 the rate of interest in Placentia was 40 percent, Charles V fixed the rate of interest in his dominions at 12 per cent. In 154ti the rate in England was fixed at 10 per cent.; in 1(524 it was reduced to 8; in 1651 to (>; and in 1714 to 5 per cent., at which it remaineil unlil 1833. By 3 and 4 William IV, c. 98, bills not having more than three months to run were exempted from the operation of the laws against usury, and by 1 Vic- toria, c. 80, the exemption was extended to bills pay- able at twelve months. By 2 and 3 Victoria, c. 37, it was enacted that bills of exchange and contracts for loans or forbearance of money above £W shall not be affected by the usury laws. Five per cent, is still left as the legal rate of interest for money, unless it shall appear that any different rate was agreed upon between the parties. — Kitto; Smith; Fairbairn. In most of the United States a certain rate (now generally six per cent.) is fixed bj' law, and penalties are imposed for exacting a liigher rate. See Loan.
U'ta {OvTci; Viilg. Utha), a corrupt (ireek form (I Esdr. V, 30) of the Heb. name (Ezra ii, 45) Akkl'is (q.v.).
Utanubaden, in Hindfi mythology, is the eldest son of king Suayarabhu, the progenitor of the entire generation of men. He was married to Sunadi, by whom he had a son, Druwen, who already in his fifth year was a saint endowed by Vishnu with wisdom, and ruled the kingdom of his father througii a period of twenty-six thousand years, and was finally trans- planted into the polar star.
Uteiiheini, Chrtstoph von, bishop of Basle in tlie iEra of tlie Keformation, and an unconscious agent in preparing the way for that change in his diocese, was born about 1450 of an ancient and noble family, and in time became a representative of the views of Gerson (q. v.). He was made a canon at Strasburg, and after- wards provost; became rector of the newly founded University of Basle, master, doctor of canon law, and, it is saiil, general of the Order of Cluniacensians. In A.D. 1500 he was made administrator of the diocese of Basle, and in 1502 bishop. He introduced an economi- cal administration, which enabled him to liquidate the debts of his diocese, and in time to promote the inter- ests of learning, but which, to some extent, offended his clergy, and caused the Council of Basle to suspect him of entertaining ambitious designs in the direction of re- covering rights over the town which his predecessors had alienated for money. This dispute ended eventual- ly in the refusal on the part of the town to pay the bishop's penni/, which formed the last evidence of epis- copal authority in secular matters. In spiritual and ec- clesiastical matters, Utenheim also placed himself at once on the side of reform. In obedience to the direc- tions of the Council of Basle, he framed synodal statutes, and convened a synod, Oct. 23, 1503, which he address- ed in words of earnest exhortation and warning, to the end that a purer, life among the clergy might restore