THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
tory, was to be the first of a series which should embrace all the Pauline writings; but this plan was cut short by death. [He also translated into modern literary German and arranged under appropriate heads extracts from Zwingli’s writings, M. Huldreich Zwingli’s simmitliche Schriften im Auszuge (2 vols., Zurich, 1819).] His theory of myth as applied to the Gospels makes him the immediate predecessor of Strauss. He held the Reformation to be essentially a revival of the scientific spirit, and regarded the essence of the primitive Church as enthusiasm for truth and brotherly love. (E. Giprrt.)
USUARDUS: French Benedictine; flourished in the ninth century; d. at St. Germain-des-Prés, Paris, Jan. 13, probably 875. In 858 he was one of two monks deputed by his order and by Charles the Bald to bring from Valencia the relics of St. Vincent, but on their way they learned that these relics had meanwhile been obtained by the bishop of Saragossa, and they accordingly changed their route to Cordova, where they were enabled to secure the bodies of Saints George and Aurelius, as well as the head of St. Natalia. In Oct., 858, Usuardus and his companion were again on French soil, only to find that, during their absence, a Norman inroad had driven the monks from St. Germain-des- Prés to Emant, in the diocese of Sens, whence they were unable to return until 863. The success of Usuardus in obtaining relics of the saints, together
with his knowledge of church history, led Charles
to commission him to draw up a martyrology, and
it is to this work, which is based, with considerable personal control and investigation of his sources, on the martyrologies of Ado, Bede (as revised by
Florus), and the pseudo-Jerome, that his lasting
fame is due. Usuardus’ martyrology, which was
completed about 875, quickly secured great popularity, and was followed in the majority of the churches and monasteries of France, Italy, England, and Spain, naturally with the addition of various saints specially honored in each specific district. Still greater tribute was shown it when, in 1580, Gregory XIII. directed that this martyrology be revised and improved, the result being the issue, in 1583, of the Martyrologium Romanum, the foundation of the present Roman martyrology. The first edition of the martyrology of Usuardus appeared at Liibeck in 1475, and was repeatedly republished until superseded by the critical edition of J. B. Sollier (Antwerp, 1714; often reprinted, and also accessible in ASB, June, vi—vii., and in MPL,
Cxxiii.—cxxiv.).
Bisuiocrarny: J.C. F. Bahr, Geschichte der rémischen Literatur im karolingischen Zeitalter, p. 501, Carlsruhe, 1840; A. Ebert, Allgemeine Geschichte der Literatur des Mittelalters, ii. 355, 386, Leipsic, 1880; A. Longnon, in Notices et documents publiés pour le Société de V hist. de France, pp. 19 sqq., Paris, 1884; Historisch-politische Blitter, exvi
(1895), 489 sqq., exvii (1896), 177 sqq.; Ceillier, Auteurs sacrés, xii. 611-612; KL, xii. 512-513.
USURY (INTEREST),
I. Among the Hebrews. Biblical Enactments (§ 1). Talmudic and Later Usage (§ 2).
YI. In the Christian Church. Early Ecclesiastical Legislation (§ 1). Completion and Basis of Ecclesiasti-
General Results (§ 3). Views of the Reformers (§ 4). Modern Practise (§ 5).
cal Theory (§ 2).
I. Among the Hebrews: By usury is generally meant the employment of another’s need to exact from him in return for some service (usually a loan) a disproportionately large remuneration, and the word suggests something morally blameworthy.
In the Bible the word covers the mean-
I. Biblical ings attaching to the words “‘ interest ”’ Enactments. and “ tribute.” The Hebrew words are neshekh, marbith, tarbith, and the
Greek is tokos. The laws of the Pentateuch, which so frequently have a philanthropic character, declare that aid to a fellow countryman who is in need is a duty of love (Deut. xv. 17 sqq.). Hence it is forbidden to an Israelite to take from a fellow Israelite interest of any kind in return for a loan (Ex. xxii. 25-27; Lev. xxv. 35-37; Deut. xxiii. 20), whether of money or food; but from one who is not an Israelite it is permitted by the Deuteronomic law to take interest (xxiii. 20; cf. xv. 6, xxviii. 12). The distinction is not difficult to understand. In the first place, from gentiles there could be no expectation of receiving material help without payment for the service, since these did not display disinterestedness toward their own people. In Egypt loaning for interest seems to have been introduced by Bocchoris of the twenty-fourth dynasty (718-712 B.c.), and the rate was 30 per cent for loans of money and 33} per cent for grain. But the Asiatics who traded in Egypt exacted interest from the natives at a much earlier date. In the earliest time
the Romans demanded only the return of what was lent (Nonius Marcellus, v. 70). In the second place the position of commerce among the gentiles was essentially different from what it was or was intended to be among the Hebrews, the latter not being wholly devoted to it as were, e.g., the Phenicians (see PHENIcIA, PHENnriciaAns). Among the Babylonians as early as 2,000 B.c. the customary rate of interest was for money 20 per cent, for grain 25 or 333 per cent, and the same rate appears in the New-Babylonian contracts. In the Old Testament the subject is considered in relation to need, and not in connection with commercial transactions. But the legal requirements were carried out in practise only in part. The taking of usury is very often condemned (Prov. xxviii. 8; Ezek. xviii. 13, xxii. 12; Ps. cix. 11); compare the praise of abstention from the practise (Ezek. xviii. 8, 17; Ps. xv. 5, XXxvil. 26). Oppression of the poor is frequently bewailed (Ecclus. xiii. 22-23), especially that arising from insistence upon rights conferred by making a loan (Ezek. xviii. 12; Amos ii. 8; Job xxii. 6, xxiv. 3; cf. Ex. xxii. 26; Deut. xxiv. 6, 10-13). But there is no mention of the rate per cent for loans; for according to Geiger, Guthe, and others, Neh. y. 11 is to be read ‘‘ and the debt of the money, and of the corn . . .” instead of “‘ the hundredth of the money. .. .” While this rate of interest (one per cent) for a month is from the modern standpoint conceivable, it would be low for that period in