Musculus's penetrating treatise on the ethics of lending at interest. A bold examination of whether Christians can practice usury with a clear conscience, tested against Scripture and the church fathers.
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On Lawful and Unlawful Usury Among Christians is Wolfgang Musculus's searching treatise on the morality of lending money at interest. Writing during the Reformation, when the question of usury was hotly debated across Europe, Musculus brings clarity and conviction to a topic that most were content to leave ambiguous.
Musculus begins by defining his terms with precision, drawing on Jerome, Ambrose, and Augustine to establish that usury means receiving anything beyond the original amount lent—whether in money, goods, or favors. He then distinguishes between lawful forms of increase (such as agricultural returns and heavenly rewards) and the common practice of charging interest on loans.
The heart of the treatise confronts the argument that civil law makes usury permissible. Musculus dismantles this defense by showing that Roman emperors regulated usury not to approve it but to restrain the worst excesses of greed. He argues that Christians must look to the standard of Christ's teaching, not to civil law, for their rule of conduct.
For anyone interested in the Reformation's engagement with economics, justice, and the ethics of money—questions that remain remarkably relevant today—this treatise is essential reading.
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Among the other evils of our times, the pestilent boil and sore of usury has grown so great, and has become so ripe for the vengeance of God, that I think it utterly vain to say anything against it, even if I were to do so very earnestly and diligently. For I know from my own experience that this disease has grown stronger precisely when it has been most spoken against and rebuked in our days by the preaching and writings of godly and learned men. It is almost like the disease of cancer, which grows more deadly after it has been cut and lanced. It has become almost past cure, with nothing to be expected for it but utter destruction, after so just and worthy a rebuke and so much speaking against it. People might well think, therefore, that I am taking in hand a vain and thankless task, as hopeless as trying to wash a raven white, were it not that I considered my promise and the requests of my friends. Therefore, to keep my promise in some part and to fulfill the desire of my brothers, I will speak of usury so far as it may do good to some godly people who are not yet desperate and past recovery, wholly poisoned with this pestilent disease.
I know how, and by whom, this point of usury has been discussed in times past. But I will not meddle with the tricks of the schools, which are no less intricate than the very nature of covetousness itself. I will simply set out, without any crabbed disputation, what I think fit to be said. First, I will tell you what usury is. Secondly, so that we may perceive whether it is lawful or not for Christians, I will compare it with the doctrine of Christ and with the profession of the Christian religion.
What Usury Is
So that none of the champions and defenders of usury may challenge me, I will bring them a definition of usury that I have not devised out of my own head. It was set out many years ago by men whose godliness has gained more authority in the church of Christ than any usurers or their supporters can overthrow.
Jerome, in book 6 on Ezekiel, writes as follows: “Some people suppose that usury consists only in money. The Scripture of God foresaw this, and therefore takes away the surplus of all things, so that you shall receive no more than you delivered. Again, others are accustomed to take various kinds of rewards or presents for lending their money, and do not understand that the Scripture calls it usury and surplus, whatever it is, when they receive back more than they gave out.”
So says Jerome. And Ambrose, speaking of Naboth, says that many men, to escape the danger of the commandments of the law, when they have given out their money to tradesmen and merchants, do not demand their usury in money, but take the advantage and profit of usury in their wares. Therefore let them listen to what the law says: “Nor you shall not take any usury in meats, nor of any other thing” (Deut 23:19). So a dish of food is usury, and a garment is usury, and whatever comes above the principal is usury; and whatever name you give it, it is still usury. So says Ambrose.
Augustine also defines usury himself in this way: “If you lend your money to anyone from whom you look to receive more than you delivered, whether it is grain or wine or oil or any other thing, if you look to receive any more than you delivered, you are a usurer and deserve to be blamed.” So he says. According to the mind of these men, then, it is usury not only to receive and take, but also to hope and look for anything more than the principal, as they call it; that is to say, more than what was delivered, under whatever name it is cloaked. For changing the name does not change the malice of the vice, which remains.
And it appears plainly enough that usury is what is received above the principal, where the prophet says: “He that giveth not to usury, and receiveth not an overplus” (Ezek 18:8). For, as David Kimhi rightly explains it, what it means to give to usury is expressed by the clause that follows, when it adds: “And receive no overplus.”
So also we read: “Thou shalt not take of him any usury, or overplus, but thou shalt fear thy God. Thou shalt not give him out thy money to usury, nor thy meat to receive an overplus” (Lev 25:36-37).
The civil laws also, in the Code under the title De usuris (“On Usury”), likewise call usury whatever is received above the principal; and yet they permit its use in some way, of which we will speak later. The Latins called it usura, because a certain recompense or interest is received, as it were, for the use of the money, by which some profit may come to the lender. The Greeks call it tokos, as if it were something bred of the principal. And the Hebrews call it neshek, from biting, because in the end it bites and wrings the one who pays the interest. So much for what usury is.
Wolfgang Musculus (1497–1563) was a German Reformation theologian and biblical scholar. Originally an Augustinian monk, he embraced the Reformation after hearing Martin Luther preach and became a leading Protestant minister in Augsburg. When the city fell to imperial forces in 1548, he fled to Bern, Switzerland, where he served as Professor of Theology until his death. Musculus was a prolific writer whose Loci Communes became one of the most widely used Reformed theological textbooks of the sixteenth century. His treatise on usury reflects the Reformation's concern to apply biblical principles to every sphere of life, including economics and commerce.
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