for, it is said, that usury was one of the most frequent causes of sedition and discord among them: "Sane vetvs urbi fcenehre malum : et seditionum, discordia- rumque crebernma causa."^ And Cato,^ Seneca, and Plutarch inveighed against it, both at the Bar. and in the Senate Chamber ; and Cicero tells us in what abhorrence it was held at Rome in his day : " Impi'dbantur ii questus qui in odia hominum, incurrunf, ut foeneratoruTn."^ The Latin Fathers of the holy Church, and most of the clergy preached with , bitterness against usury, but were for the most part expHcit in declaring the sin to consist only in an act of oppression ; and St. Ambrose was particular in charging the whole offence to. the cruelty of the usurer. A century later, St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, who also wrote and preached on the subject, though very severe, ex- plained that he meant only oppressive usury : for, said he, an act of oppression is contrary to the laws of humanity and the spirit of equity, and can never be too severely condemned. Leo the Great' and others followed, and thus the Fathers of the Christian Church kept alive the popular feelings against usury
Table of Contents
Chapter I.
32