[Footnote 2: Ashley, op. cit., vol. i. pt. i. p. 448.]
[Footnote 3: De Usuris.]
[Footnote 4: Ashley, op. cit., p. 449.]
It was probably the example of these State loans, or montes profani, that suggested to the Franciscans the possibility of creating an organisation to provide credit facilities for poor borrowers, which was in many ways analogous to the modern co-operative credit banks. Prior to the middle of the fifteenth century, when this experiment was initiated, there had been various attempts by the State to provide credit facilities for the poor, but these need not detain us here, as they did not come to anything.[1] The first of the montes pietatis was founded at Orvieto by the Franciscans in 1462, and after that year they spread rapidly.[2] The montes, although their aim was exclusively philanthropic, found themselves obliged to make a small charge to defray their working expenses, and, although one would think that this could be amply justified by the title of damnum emergens, it provoked a violent attack by the Dominicans. The principal antagonist of the montes pietatis was Thomas da Vio, who wrote a special treatise on the subject, in which he made the point that the montes charged interest from the very beginning of the loan, which was a contradiction of all the previous teaching on interest.[3]
[Footnote 1: Cleary, op. cit., p. 108; Brants, op. cit., p. 159.]
[Footnote 2: Perugia, 1467; Viterbo, 1472; Sevona, 1472; Assisi, 1485; Mantua, 1486; Cesana and Parma, 1488; Interamna and Lucca, 1489; Verona, 1490; Padua, 1491, etc. (Endemann, Studien, vol. i. p. 463).]
[Footnote 3: De Monte Pietatis.]
The general feeling of the Church, however, was in favour of the montes. It was felt that, if the poor must borrow, it was better that they should borrow at a low rate of interest from philanthropic institutions than at an extortionate rate from usurers; several montes were established under the direct protection of the Popes;[1] and finally, in 1515, the Lateran Council gave an authoritative judgment in favour of the montes. This decree contains an excellent definition of usury as it had come to be accepted at that date: 'Usury is when gain is sought to be acquired from the use of a thing, not fruitful in itself, without labour, expense, or risk on the part of the lender.'[2]
[Footnote 1: Cleary, op. cit., p. 111.]
[Footnote 2: Ashley, op. cit., vol. i. pt. ii. p. 451.]