inexorable to his entreaties ; he melts not at his tears ; he swears and protests that he has no money, and that he is under necessity of borrowing himself; he acquires credit to his lies by superadding an oath, and aggravates his inhuman and iniquitous traffic with the grossest perjury. But when the wretched supplicant enters upon the terms of the loan, his countenance is changed ; he smiles with complacency ; he reminds him of his intimacy with his father, and treats him with the most flattering cordiality. 'Let me see,' says he, ' if I have not some little cash in store, for I ought to have some belonging to a friend — who lent it to me upon very hard terms — to whom I pay most exorbitant interest for it; but I shall not demand anything like that from you.' By fair words and promises, he seduces and completely entangles him in his snares ; he then gets his hand to paper, and completes his wretchedness. How so ? By dismissing him bereft of liberty." And after this highly-colored picture of falsehood and oppression,' he continues to rail against usurers in the bitterest terms, and caps the climax of his discourse by calling them dogs, monsters, vipers, and devils. He then proceeds to advise any sacrifice, rather than borrow money upon usury. " Sell thy cattle," says he, " thy plate, thy AMONG THE ROMANS. 27 household stuff, thine apparel ; sell anything, rather than thy Hberty : never fall under the slavery of that monster, usury."
St. Gregory Nazianzen, Bishop of Constantinople, who was contemporary with St. Bazil, together with many other of the Greek Fathers, wrote and preached in similar terms. It is remarkable, however, that although some of these writers have entered very fully into the subject of usury, they have nowhere exactly defined what, in their ideas, constitutes the oflfence of usury ; but as they all seem to reflect upon it, principally on the ground of its inhumanity, we may infer that that usury which they denounced, was always an act of oppression or cruelty.
Among the Romans, twelve per cent, was the rate estabUshed by the Decemvirs, who compiled the laws of the Twelve Tables. In Eome,