History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom

by Andrew Dickson White

(457) For Quesnay, see his Observations sur l'Interet de l'Argent, in
his Oeuvres, Frankfort and Paris, 1888, pp. 399 et seq. For Turgot, see
the Collections des Economistes, Paris, 1844, vols. iii and iv; also
Blanqui, Histoire de l'Economie Politique, English translation, p. 373.
For an excellent though brief summary of the efforts of the Jesuits to
explain away the old action of the Church, see Lecky, vol. ii, pp
256, 257. For the action of Benedict XIV, see Reusch, Der Index der
Vorbotenen Bucher, Bonn, 1885, vol. ii, pp 847, 848. For a comical
picture of the "quagmire' into which the hierarchy brought itself in the
squaring of its practice with its theory, see Dollinger, as above, pp.
227, 228. For cunningly vague statements of the action of Benedict XIV,
see Mastrofini, Sur l'Usure, French translation, Lyons, 1834, pp. 125,
255. The abbate, as will be seen, has not the slightest hesitaion in
telling an untruth in order to preserve the consistency of papal action
in the matter of usury—e.g., pp. 93, 94 96, and elsewhere.

Yet in this case, as in others, insurrections against the sway of scientific truth appeared among some overzealous religionists. When the Sorbonne, having retreated from its old position, armed itself with new casuistries against those who held to its earlier decisions, sundry provincial doctors in theology protested indignantly, making the old citations from the Scriptures, fathers, saints, doctors, popes, councils, and canonists. Again the Roman court intervened. In 1830 the Inquisition at Rome, with the approval of Pius VIII, though still declining to commit itself on the DOCTRINE involved, decreed that, as to PRACTICE, confessors should no longer disturb lenders of money at legal interest.

But even this did not quiet the more conscientious theologians. The old weapons were again furbished and hurled by the Abbe Laborde, Vicar of the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Auch, and by the Abbe Dennavit, Professor of Theology at Lyons. Good Abbe Dennavit declared that he refused absolution to those who took interest and to priests who pretend that the sanction of the civil law is sufficient.

But the "wisdom of the serpent" was again brought into requisition, and early in the decade between 1830 and 1840 the Abbate Mastrofini issued a work on usury, which, he declared on its title-page, demonstrated that "moderate usury is not contrary to Holy Scripture, or natural law, or the decisions of the Church." Nothing can be more comical than the suppressions of truth, evasions of facts, jugglery with phrases, and perversions of history, to which the abbate is forced to resort throughout his book in order to prove that the Church has made no mistake. In the face of scores of explicit deliverances and decrees of fathers, doctors, popes, and councils against the taking of any interest whatever for money, he coolly pretended that what they had declared against was EXORBITANT interest. He made a merit of the action of the Church, and showed that its course had been a blessing to humanity. But his masterpiece is in dealing with the edicts of Clement V and Benedict XIV. As to the first, it will be remembered that Clement, in accord with the Council of Vienne, had declared that "any one who shall pertinaciously presume to affirm that the taking of interest for money is not a sin, we decree him to be a heiretic fit for punishment," and we have seen that Benedict XIV did not at all deviate from the doctrines of his predecessors. Yet Mastrofini is equal to his task, and brings out, as the conclusion of his book, the statement put upon his title-page, that what the Church condemns is only EXORBITANT interest.

This work was sanctioned by various high ecclesiastical dignitaries, and served its purpose; for it covered the retreat of the Church.

In 1872 the Holy Office, answering a question solemnly put by the Bishop of Ariano, as solemnly declared that those who take eight per cent interest per annum are "not to be disquieted"; and in 1873 appeared a book published under authority from the Holy See, allowing the faithful to take moderate interest under condition that any future decisions of the Pope should be implicitly obeyed. Social science as applied to political economy had gained a victory final and complete. The Torlonia family at Rome to-day, with its palaces, chapels, intermarriages, affiliations, and papal favour—all won by lending money at interest, and by liberal gifts, from the profits of usury, to the Holy See—is but one out of many growths of its kind on ramparts long since surrendered and deserted.(458)

(458) For the decree forbidding confessors to trouble lenders of money
at legal interest, see Addis and Arnold, Catholic Dictionary, as above;
also Mastrofini, as above, in the appendix, where various other
recent Roman decrees are given. As to the controversy generally, see
Mastrofini; also La Replique des douze Docteurs, cited by Guillaumin and
Coquelin; also Reusch, vol. ii, p. 850. As an example of Mastrofini's
way of making black appear white, compare the Latin text of the decree
on page 97 with his statements regarding it; see also his cunning
substitution of the new significance of the word usury for the old in
various parts of his book. A good historical presentation of the general
subject will be found in Roscher, Geschichte der National-Oeconomie in
Deutschland, Munchen, 1874, under articles Wucher and Zinsnehmen. For
France, see especially Petit, Traite de l'Usure, Paris, 1840; and for
Germany, see Neumann, Geschichte des Wuchers in Deutschland, Halle,
1865. For the view of a modern leader of thought in this field, see
Jeremy Bentham, Defence of Usury, Letter X. For an admirable piece of
research into the nicer points involved in the whole subject, see H.
C. Lea, The Ecclesiatical Treatment of Usury, in the Yale Review for
February, 1894.

The dealings of theology with public economy were by no means confined to the taking of interest for money. It would be interesting to note the restrictions placed upon commerce by the Church prohibition of commercial intercourse with infidels, against which the Republic of Venice fought a good fight; to note how, by a most curious perversion of Scripture in the Greek Church, many of the peasantry of Russia were prevented from raising and eating potatoes; how, in Scotland, at the beginning of this century, the use of fanning mills for winnowing grain was widely denounced as contrary to the text, "The wind bloweth where it listeth," etc., as leaguing with Satan, who is "Prince of the powers of the air," and therefore as sufficient cause for excommunication from the Scotch Church. Instructive it would be also to note how the introduction of railways was declared by an archbishop of the French Church to be an evidence of the divine displeasure against country innkeepers who set meat before their guests on fast days, and who were now punished by seeing travellers carried by their doors; how railways and telegraphs were denounced from a few noted pulpits as heralds of Antichrist; and how in Protestant England the curate of Rotherhithe, at the breaking in of the Thames Tunnel, so destructive to life and property, declared it from his pulpit a just judgment upon the presumptuous aspirations of mortal man.

The same tendency is seen in the opposition of conscientious men to the taking of the census in Sweden and the United States, on account of the terms in which the numbering of Israel is spoken of in the Old Testament. Religious scruples on similar grounds have also been avowed against so beneficial a thing as life insurance.

Apparently unimportant as these manifestations are, they indicate a widespread tendency; in the application of scriptural declarations to matters of social economy, which has not yet ceased, though it is fast fading away.(459)