Usury (Random House Dictionary)

1. the lending or practice of lending money at an exorbitant interest. 2. The exorbitant amount or rate of interest, esp. in excess of the legal rate.

Usury (Dictionary of Cultural Literacy)

The practice of charging more than the legal interest rate.

Law separates interest and usury by defining what is exorbitant. From a mathematical perspective, the determination is arbitrary. Interest and usury are conceptually synonymous. The difference between interest and usury is an arbitrary legal determination with no basis in mathematics.

Deuteronomy XXIII:19 (Old Testament)

Thou shalt not lend upon usury to the brother; usury on money, usury of victuals, usury of anything that is lent upon usury:

Deuteronomy XXIII:20 (Old Testament)

Unto a stranger thou mayest lend upon a stranger; but unto thy brother thou shalt not lend upon usury...

Deuteronomy was a base of morality for Hebrew tribesman. Usury could be applied to a stranger, but not to a brother. For some, usury was viewed as a weapon to be used against an enemy who could not be defeated in direct confrontation.

De Tobia by St. Ambrose (340-397)

From him, it says there, demand usury, whom you rightly desire to harm, against whom weapons are lawfully carried. Upon him usury is legally imposed. On him whom you cannot easily conquer in war, you can quickly take vengeance with the hundredth. From him exact usury whom it would not be a crime to kill. He fights without a weapon who demands usury: he who revenges himself upon an enemy, who is an interest collector from his foe, fights without a sword. Therefore, where there is the right of war, there also is the right of usury.

As the argument goes, the New Testament proclamation of universal brotherhood negated the use of usury in any circumstance.

The Idea of Usury by Benjamin N. Nelson, Princeton University Press, 1949

St. Jerome (340-420) contended that the prohibition of usury among brother in Deuteronomy had been universalized by the Prophets and the New Testament. There was, in short, no scriptural warrant for taking usury from anyone.

Though usury was a banned practice, it still crept into society and propagated itself.

Religion and the Rise of Capitalism by R. H. Tawney, Oxford, 1922

The Papacy was, in a sense, the greatest financial institution of the Middle Ages, and, as its fiscal system was elaborated, things became, not better, but worse. The abuses which were a trickle in the thirteenth century were a torrent in the fifteenth. The papacy might denounce usurers, but, as the center of the most highly organized administrative system of the age, receiving remittances all over Europe, and receiving them in money at a time when the revenues of other Governments still included personal services and payments in kind, it could not dispense with them.

The Idea of Usury by Benjamin N. Nelson, Princeton University Press, 1949

In fifteenth-century Italy, economic expediencies completely overshadowed moral philosophy as a force in the propagation of Christian Universalism. By 1509, eighty-seven banks had been set up in Italy with papal approval despite insistent pleas of traditionalist theologians, chiefly Augustinians and Dominicans, that the interest charges taken by the monti were contrary to all tradition, natural and Divine law, and subversive of Christian brotherhood.

Religious scholars began to question the Roman papacy as the sole path to spiritual enlightenment.

The History of the Modern World by Palmer and Colton, 1995

Germany in the fourteenth century produced a series of mystics. The essence of mysticism lay in the belief, or experience, that the individual soul could in perfect solitude commune directly with God. The mystic had no need of reason, nor of words, nor of joining with other people in open worship, nor even sacraments administered by the priests - or even of the church. The mystics did not rebel against the church; they accepted its pattern of salvation; but at bottom they offered, to those would follow, a deeper religion in which the church as a social institution had no place. All social institutions, in fact, were transcended in mysticism by the individual soul; and on this doctrine, both profound and socially disruptive, Martin Luther was later to draw.

Considering Germany’s economic condition, Luther’s opinion upon usury, a fundamental mechanism of money having a biblical reference, was relevant. During this period, Luther stood forth as the spokesman of the German nation against "usurious" extortions of the Roman Church. All Germany, he charged, was being exhausted by usury. In 1524, the peasants of Germany revolted. Luther’s convictions were shaken by the peasants’ violent methods of retaliations.

The History of the Modern World by Palmer and Colton

Luther repudiated all connection with the peasants, called them filthy swine, and urged the princes to suppress them by sword. The peasants were unmercifully put down, but popular unrest continued to stir the country, expressing itself, in a religious age, in various forms of extreme religious frenzy.

Neither interest nor usury were eradicated.

Another Religious Perspective

The Koran, the Holy Text of Islam delivered by the seventh century prophet Muhammad, also mentions usury.

The Glorious Qur’an, Translation by Marmaduke Pickthall

Surah II - 275

Those who swallow usury cannot rise up save as he ariseth whom the devil hath prostrated by (his) touch. That is because they say: Trade is just like usury; whereas Allah permitteth trading and forbiddeth usury. He unto whom an admonition from his Lord cometh, and (he) refraineth (in obedience thereto), he shall keep (the profits of) that which is past, and his affair (henceforth) is with Allah. As for him who returneth (to Usury) - such are rightful owners of Fire. They will abide therein.

Surah II - 276

Allah hath blighted usury and made almsgiving fruitful. Allah loveth not the impious and guilty.

Surah II - 278

O ye who believe! Observe your duty to Allah, and give up what remaineth (due to you) for usury, if ye are (in truth) believers.

Surah III - 130

O we who believe! Devour not usury, doubling and quadrupling (the sum lent). Observe your duty to Allah, that ye may be successful.

Surah XXX - 39

That which ye give in usury in order that it may increase on (other) people’s property hath no increase with Allah; but that which ye give in charity, seeking Allah’s countenance, hath increase manifold.

It is interesting to note that the New Age translation of Surah III - 130 [above] incorporates the modern concept of usury as separate from interest.

The Essential Koran, Translation by Thomas Cleary

Faithful believers, do not take usurious interest, multiplied and compounded, and be wary of God, that you may prosper.

Today, the use of usury remains a source of contention within the Islamic world and amongst religions.

Osama bin Laden: You are the nation that permits Usury, which has been forbidden by all the religions. Yet you build your economy and investments on Usury.