Jew and the Gentile — the prohibition to take usury from the former, and the express permission to take it from the latter? St. Ambrose, in discussing it, seems to think that it was confided to the Jews as an instrument of vengeance, to be used against their enemies, and says : " Take usury from him whom you may lawfully kill : whenever, therefore, you have a right to wage war, you have a right to take usury. Ab Jwc usuram exige, quern rwn fit crimen, ' St. Thomas Acquinas, Op. de Us., c. 4. * Calv. Epis., de Us._ ' Among the twelve questions submitted to the Grand Sanhedrim of the Jews, summoned at Paris by Napoleon, in 1806, were these :
" Is usury to their brethren forbidden ?" and " Is it permitted, or forbidden, to practice usury with strangers?" Which were an- swered : " That the Mosaic Institute forbids unlawful interest ;" but this was the law of an agricultural people. The Talmud allows interest to be taken from brethren and strangers, but forbids usury.