Chaptee II.

law, for the first offence was whipped in pubUc and banished; and upon conviction of a second offence, he was hanged.'^ The Church, however, with all her anathemas and tyrannical exercise of power, was unable to suppress " the horrible and damnable sinne," as usury was termed ;' and new punishments were to be devised, besides the " spiritual discipline " before alluded to, and several statutes were passed by Parliament, from time to time, having for their object the total sup- pression and extirpation of usury. But coercive measures were found ineffectual to suppress it, and, indeed, they gave rise, in some instances, to greater evils than they were meant to remedy ; for, by in- creasing the penalty and the risk to be run (without providing against the borrower's necessities), the usurer still drove his trade, and gathered strength and ingenuity in proportion as the law opposed its barriers to his practice. He added these increased penalties and risks to the already ample price of ' Ante, page 42. ^ Domaf. Oiv. Law, 127 " Horrible et damnable ptche. — The Church, at common la-w, held jurisdiction over usurers "for the good of their soules." — (15 Edw. I., 0. 6—Eoll. Air. til. Us.