We Have Got to Talk About Usury (Part VII): The Church Fathers—Chrysostom through Leo the Great (c. 347–461)
St. Augustine of Hippo, Nürnberg, Pfarrkirche St. Lorenz (c. 1477). Photo: Jean Jeras, CVMA Freiburg, CC BY-NC 4.0
The following post is the seventh in a series on usury by the Rev. Vincent Shemwell. Rev. Shemwell serves as pastor of Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Johnson City, Tennessee. He graduated from Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne with the M.Div. in 2022, and received his STM from CTSFW in 2024, writing his thesis on Johann Georg Hamann. The previous installments can be found below:
Part I: Introduction
Part II: The Old Testament
Part III: The New Testament
Part IV: The Church Fathers—Clement of Alexandria through Hilary of Poitiers
Part V: The Church Fathers — The Cappadocians
Part VI: The Church Fathers — Church Councils and Ambrose
Born less than a decade after Ambrose, the next father in our series, John Chrysostom (347-407), renowned preacher and—like Gregory Nazianzen before him—Patriarch of Constantinople, addressed the issue of usury on numerous occasions, particularly in his homilies.
In the forty-first of his Homilies on Genesis, preaching on Genesis 18:1, Chrysostom embarks on a bit of a tangent regarding the Parable of the Talents. In this context, he denies that the parable condones lending at interest, asserting instead that it is “spiritual interest” alone which the Lord permits and desires, something “diametrically opposed to material wealth.” He then proceeds to explain the rationale behind the Old Testament prohibition against lending at interest: “When it comes to material wealth, the Lord expressly forbids the taking of interest. But for what reason? Well, because both parties incur great harm through it. For while the poverty of the debtor is generally made worse, the creditor, for his part, accumulates a multitude of sins along with the excess of his wealth. Thus, from the very beginning, the Lord established this law for the Jews, whose disposition was admittedly more materially inclined: ‘You shall not charge interest to your brother or your neighbor.’” For Chrysostom, usury is forbidden for the sake of both borrower and lender; the former suffers material harm, while the latter sustains spiritual injury.
Chrysostom voices his opposition to usury with unmistakable force in the fifth of his Homilies on Matthew, where he writes:
Usury is indeed the herald of a kingdom—the kingdom of hell! … For nothing is more ignoble than the usury of this world, nothing more cruel…. Therefore, I urge you to reject it, and receive heaven in its place.” He offers this admonition in response to the objection that one ought not to lend what is rightfully one’s own without expecting some financial or material return. But Chrysostom contends that such reasoning is deeply misguided, for the one who lends without interest is indeed rewarded, “not with a meager or insignificant reward,” but with the assurance of salvation itself and the many treasures of heaven. Once again, we find a church father echoing Proverbs 19:17 and the Lord’s promise to repay those who do good in this life. Implicitly, the question posed to any potential lender is this: do you truly believe in God and trust His promises?
Later on, at the conclusion of the fifty-sixth of his Homilies on Matthew, Chrysostom again emphasizes the true wealth of righteousness over the snare of material wealth. He writes, expressing a particular abhorrence for compound interest:
Are there not, indeed, many honest and upright forms of livelihood: labors in the fields, the care of flocks and herds, the breeding of cattle, the practice of handicrafts, and the stewardship of property? Why, then, rage and rave in vain, cultivating thorns that yield no fruit? It is true that the fruits of the earth are sometimes afflicted by misfortunes, such as hail, blight, or excessive rain; but never to the degree seen in moneylending. For when disaster strikes agriculture, it is the produce that suffers loss, while the principal, i.e., the land itself, remains intact. But in the case of usury, it is often the principal itself that is destroyed, and even before such ruin occurs, the moneylender lives in a state of perpetual anxiety. Never does he enjoy his wealth or take pleasure in it; and when he receives his interest, he does not rejoice in gain received, but laments that the interest has not yet equaled the principal. Even before this monstrous offspring is fully matured, he compels it to reproduce, transforming interest into principal and forcing it to give birth to its own premature and abortive brood of vipers. For such are the gains of usury: more ravenous than wild beasts, they tear and consume the souls of the wretched. This is the ‘bond of iniquity’ (Acts 8:23), the twisted knot of oppressive bargains. The usurer, in effect, seems to say, ‘I give, not that you may receive, but that you may repay me more.’ And while God commands that we are not even to expect a return for what we give—‘Lend,’ He says, ‘hoping for nothing in return’—you demand not only repayment, but more than was given, compelling the borrower to return what he never received. And you imagine that your substance increases thereby. Yet in truth, you are kindling and stoking the unquenchable fire. Therefore, that this may not come to pass, let us cut out the wicked womb of usurious gain; let us deaden these lawless births; let us dry up this fatal wellspring of avarice, and instead pursue only true and enduring profit. And what is this profit? Hear the Apostle: ‘Godliness with contentment is great gain’ (1 Timothy 6:6). Let us, then, be rich in this wealth alone, that we may enjoy security in this life and inherit the blessings of the life to come, by the grace and love of our Lord Jesus Christ, to Whom be glory and dominion, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and forever, world without end. Amen.
But lest anyone suppose that money itself is inherently evil—for it is the love of money that Scripture calls the root of all evil (1 Timothy 6:10)—Chrysostom sets forth the proper understanding and use of money in the thirteenth of his Homilies on 1 Corinthians:
Money is not evil, provided we use it well. But it is sinful if we fail to share it with the poor or otherwise misuse it for our own personal gain. For God made nothing evil, but all things very good. Therefore, money also is good, but only if it does not rule over those who possess it, and only if it actually relieves the poverty of one’s neighbor. For that light is not good which does not drive away darkness, but only increases shadows; nor should those things be called riches which do not actually relieve poverty, but only increase it. For he who is truly rich does not seek to receive from others, but to give help to others; and he who seeks to receive from others is no longer rich, but is himself poor. So then, it is not wealth that is evil, but the impoverished soul, which turns wealth into poverty. Such people are more wretched than those who panhandle in alleyways, more miserable than the bodily maimed with their beggar’s bowl; and those arrayed in fancy garments are worse off than those clothed in filthy rags; those who strut proudly in the marketplace are lower than those who haunt crossroads, and enter into courtyards, and beg from their cellars, seeking charity. For these needy vagrants praise God and speak words of mercy and a rigorous morality; therefore, we pity them, we stretch out our hands to them, and never accuse them. But those who possess wealth badly vomit words of cruelty, inhumanity, plunder, and satanic greed. Therefore, they are held by all in hatred and scorn. But consider what seems shameful to all people: is it shameful to ask from the rich man or from the poor? Clearly, it is shameful to beg from the poor. Yet this is what the rich do, for they do not dare to approach those who are wealthier than them. The beggars, on the other hand, ask only from those who are better off than them; for a beggar does not beg from a beggar, but from the rich; whereas the rich tear apart the poor…. So I beseech you, from this so-called ‘wealth,’ let us flee, despicable and disgraceful as it is and full of death; and let us work for that which is spiritual, and let us thus store up treasures in heaven … where our wealth cannot be taken away.
Lastly here, in the tenth of his Homilies on 1 Thessalonians, Chrysostom puts forward his most candid judgment regarding those who charge interest: “The usurer is a thief, a robber, or rather, he is even more savage and monstrous than that, for he is much more tyrannical in his evil works.”
Living contemporaneously with Chrysostom, Jerome (c. 347–420), renowned translator and church historian, offers a brief yet significant remark on the subject of usury. Though his reference is in passing, it bears considerable weight, as Jerome stands out among the church fathers for articulating most clearly a progression in the scriptural witness with regard to lending. In his Commentary on Ezekiel, he writes (VI.18): “Notice the progression in Scripture: at the beginning of the law (i.e., the Pentateuch), usury is only forbidden toward brothers; in the prophets, it is forbidden altogether, as Ezekiel says: ‘He has not exacted usury’; further still, in the Gospel there is an even greater increase of virtue, with the Lord commanding: ‘Lend, hoping for nothing in return.’” In Jerome’s view, the moral prohibition against usury expressed in Ezekiel 18 is universal, which served as a sort of propaedeutic to the Gospel, echoing the argument advanced centuries earlier by Tertullian (see Against Marcion IV.17).
In a subsequent part of this series, we will engage with some Lutheran theologians who contended that the biblical prohibition against charging interest applies exclusively to cases involving loans made for those in genuine financial need. According to this view, lending at interest to the wealthy does not constitute usury and is therefore permissible. But Jerome rejects this notion in the very same passage of his Commentary on Ezekiel, saying: “Let the ‘merciful’ moneylender answer us concisely: Did he lend to one who had means, or to one who lacked? If to one who had, then obviously he ought not to have lent in the first place; but he nevertheless lent as if to one who lacked. Therefore, why, then, does he demand more as if from one who has means? Others are accustomed to receive little gifts of various kinds for money lent, and they do not understand that this is still usury and excess—whatever it may be called—if they have received back more than what they lent.” Again, for Jerome, the prohibition in Ezekiel applies universally. And moreover, attempting to circumvent it through nonvoluntary “gifts” is still sin.
Our next father holds a place of particular esteem among Lutherans. Augustine (354–430), born just a few years after Jerome and widely regarded as the father of the Western church, devoted considerable attention to the subject of usury. Here, I give little in the way of commentary, preferring instead to allow Augustine’s own words to speak on his behalf.
In his Expositions on the Book of Psalms, commenting on Psalm 37:26 (“The righteous is ever merciful, and lends…”), he writes:
I would not have you be lenders of money with interest; and I would not have you be such for this reason: because God would not have you. For it is written in His Word, ‘He who does not put out his money at usury.’ How detestable, odious, and execrable a thing usury is! … If you have lent your money to a man on usury—that is, if you have given a loan with the expectation of receiving back more than you gave, whether in money or whatever else, whether wheat, wine, oil, or anything whatsoever—then you are a usurer. Such a practice does not merit praise, but rather condemnation.
Later, in his exposition on Psalm 129, he says:
Do not lend at interest. To those who oppose this teaching, just know that you accuse the Scripture which declares, ‘He who does not put out his money at interest.’ I did not write this; it did not first come from my lips. Just listen to God, its source. He also says, ‘Clergymen shall not lend at interest.’ And perhaps the one who preaches to you does not lend at interest; but suppose, for the sake of argument, that he does. Did the God Who preaches through him do it? If a preacher practices what he preaches to you, and you do not do it, then only you go into the fire, whereas he enters the kingdom. But if he does not practice what he preaches to you, and together with you practices the same evils that you do, and preaches good things which he himself does not practice, then both of you go into the fire. ‘The hay will burn, but the word of our God stands forever’ (Isaiah 40:8). Does the Word that was preached to you through a man burn? Either it is Moses who preaches to you—that is, a good and just servant of God—or it is a Pharisee sitting in Moses’ seat (Matthew 23:2). But you have heard even about them: ‘Whatever they tell you to observe, that observe and do, but do not do according to their works’ (Matthew 23:3). You have no excuse when the Word of God is preached to you. Since you cannot kill the Word of God, you seek to accuse those through whom the Word is preached to you. Search all you want, say all you want, blaspheme all you want: ‘Many a time they have afflicted me from my youth,’ let Israel now say, ‘Many a time they have afflicted me from my youth.’ Even moneylenders dare to say: ‘I have no other means to live.’ A thief caught in the act would say that to me as well; as would a burglar caught breaking into someone else’s home; as would a madam purchasing girls for prostitution; as would a sorcerer casting spells and selling his wickedness. Whatever such thing we tried to forbid, they would all respond that they had no other means of living, that their iniquity was how they supported themselves, as if that very thing were not most worthy of punishment in them, that they chose the trade of iniquity by which to live, and want to sustain themselves by that which offends the One by Whom all are sustained.
Continuing the patristic theme, rooted in Proverbs 19:17, that the Lord repays, on behalf of the poor, with righteous interest in eternity, Augustine, drawing upon Psalm 39:6 and Sirach 2:1–5, delivers the following exhortation to those enticed by the practice of lending at interest (Sermo XXXVIII):
Riches are only ever kept safe when they are distributed. For almsgiving is a pious loan to God. Yet do men desire to behold their riches now? If so, then let them go ahead and lay up their treasures here on earth. But do they not, then, fear their riches being seen by others? So they dig, they cover, and they hide them; but once they have covered and concealed them, do they even manage to see what they supposedly possess? Not even they themselves see it; they hope it remains hidden, but fear it might be exposed. Clearly, they wish to be rich in reputation, not in truth. As if it were enough to have the conscience comforted with what is ‘kept’ on earth! O how much greater and better a man’s conscience would be if he were to store up his treasures in heaven! Here below, when a man buries wealth in the ground, he fears lest his servant know of it, and take it, and flee; he fears lest his servant rob him. There in heaven, however, he has nothing to fear, because his Lord keeps it safe for him. ‘But,’ you say, ‘I have a faithful servant, who knows all about my wealth, and will not betray me or steal it.’ Well, compare him to your Lord. Sure, maybe you have found a faithful servant here on earth, but when has your Lord ever deceived you? Even if your servant cannot steal your wealth, he may nonetheless lose it; but your Lord neither steals nor loses, nor does He allow it to perish. He keeps your wealth for you, it remains yours; He delivers you and causes you to endure; neither will He lose you, nor what you have entrusted to Him. He says, ‘Come, receive what you have placed with Me.’ But far be it!—this is not what God says to you at present. Instead, He says this: ‘I, Who forbade you to lend at interest, have Myself been given a loan by you. You wanted to increase by interest, and you lent to a man so that he might return to you more than you lent, rejoicing when he received, but weeping when he repaid. This you desired, and I forbade it: for I said, He who does not put out his money at usury (Psalm 15:5). I forbade you usury; and I now command you to loan—but loan to Me!’ This your Lord says to you: ‘Do you really desire to give little and receive much? Then forsake the mortal man who weeps when you demand repayment and find Me, Who rejoices when I repay. Behold, I am here; give, and receive; at the time of repayment, I will repay you. And what will I repay? You gave only little; now receive much. You gave only earthly things; now receive heavenly things. You gave only temporal things; now receive eternal things. You gave only what was Mine; now receive Me Myself. For what did you give, except from what you had already received from Me? I do not merely repay what you have lent, for, indeed, I am the one Who gave you even what you have given; I, Who gave you yourself, that you might give; I, Who gave you Christ, to Whom you might give—He Who said to you: When you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me (Matt. 25:40). See to Whom you give: He feeds, and hungers for your sake; He gives, and yet is in need. When He gives, you are willing to receive; yet when He is in need, you do not wish to give. Christ is in need when the poor is in need; He, Who is prepared to give eternal life to all His own, has deigned to receive temporally in every poor man.’
In another sermon, expounding on Matthew 19:21 (“If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.”), Augustine gets to the heart of the matter, seeking to tear his hearers away from the service of mammon (Sermo LXXXVI):
What is it that you sought in the practice of usury? To lend money and receive it again—but to give fewer coins and receive more in return. Yet God says, ‘I will transform all that you have given into something far better.’ For if you were to give a pound of silver and receive back a pound of gold, how great would your rejoicing be? Examine and ask avarice itself. ‘I gave silver, and yet I received back gold!’ And what comparison is there between silver and gold? But far greater still, what comparison is there between earth and heaven? The gold and silver you so eagerly pursue must be left behind here below, but you yourself will not remain here forever. ‘I will give something else,’ says the Lord, ‘something greater, something better, something which lasts forever.’ Therefore, let our greed, brothers, be restrained, that a holier longing may be kindled within us. Whatever it is that holds you back from doing good speaks to you with evil intent; yet you are apparently willing to submit to a cruel master, failing to recognize your gracious Lord. At times, two mistresses occupy the heart, and the wicked servant—fit only for such mistresses—is torn asunder by their competing claims.
Finally, in his On Baptism, Against the Donatists, Augustine, in a parenthetical remark, makes his case as plain as day, writing (IV.9): “There is no obscurity on this question. Scripture cries out openly: ‘Neither covetous nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God’ (1 Corinthians 6:10); and ‘He who puts out his money at usury’; and ‘No fornicator, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God’ (Ephesians 5:5).” For Augustine, usury is tantamount to covetousness and extortion, which he, along with Paul, associates with idolatry.
The final father in our series is Leo the Great, bishop of Rome, who represents a major turning point in the history of the Western church, having deliberately consolidated power through his appeals to Petrine authority and papal primacy. Notably, Leo issued the earliest known universal prohibition against usury for the laity. In a text entitled Nec hoc quoque (c. 443)—an excerpt from the longer epistle Ut nobis gratulationem—which was later incorporated into the Hadriana, the canonical collection adopted as ecclesiastical law under Charlemagne, Leo writes:
Usury Forbidden to Laymen and Clergy: We have likewise judged it necessary not to leave unmentioned that certain men, seized by shameful lust for gain, lend money at interest and seek to enrich themselves through usury. We grieve that this vice is found not solely among those in the sacred office, but also among laymen who wish to be called Christians. Accordingly, we decree that those found guilty of this sin are to be punished with severity, that every occasion for further wrongdoing may be taken away. No Cleric Shall Practice Usury, Either in His Own Name or Another’s: This also we deem necessary to address. Just as no cleric may engage in usury in his own name, so neither may he attempt to do so under the name of another; for it is disgraceful to cloak one’s crime beneath the guise of another’s profit. As for usury, the only kind we ought to regard or pursue is that whereby, in giving mercifully in this life, we may receive from the Lord, Who will restore a hundredfold with eternal reward. A Bishop Who Violates the Canons Is to Be Deposed: We therefore declare that if any of the brethren should endeavor to contravene these established decrees and dare to commit what has been forbidden, he must understand that he is to be removed from office and shall no longer share in our communion, having refused to submit to our discipline.
Leo was following the tradition of the fathers before him in affirming that the only expectation of interest permitted among Christians is that reward received in eternity for good works performed in this life. As with so many of the fathers, Leo’s understanding of lending was largely shaped by the moral vision of Proverbs 19:17. And whatever one may think of his claims to supreme authority, his word effectively prohibited all interest in the Christian church for centuries.
We will end our study of the church fathers with an excerpt from one of Leo’s sermons, in which he coins a saying that became quite famous in the centuries after him: fenus pecuniae funus est animae; meaning: “usury is the funeral of the soul.” He writes (Sermo XVII—De Jejunio Decimi Mensis VI):
The teaching of the law, dearest brethren, lends great authority to the Gospel mandates, since certain commandments of the old law are transferred into the new observance; and by the very devotion of the church, it is shown that the Lord Jesus Christ did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it (Matthew 5:17). For when the signs foretelling the coming of our Savior ceased, and the figures were completed, which were superseded by the very presence of the Truth, those things which the principle of piety established either for the regulation of morals or for the simple worship of God continue among us in the same form in which they were instituted; and those things which were fitting to both Testaments have been altered in no respect…. Thus, be steadfast, O Christian giver: give that you may receive; sow that you may reap; scatter that you may gather. Do not fear loss; do not sigh over uncertain return. Your substance, when it is rightly distributed, is increased. Desire the just profit of mercy, and pursue the commerce of eternal gain. Your Giver wills that you be generous, and He Who gives that you may have, commands that you also give, saying: ‘Give, and it will be given to you’ (Luke 6:38). You should embrace and rejoice in the condition of this promise. For although you have nothing except what you have received, you cannot fail to possess what you have given. Therefore, let the one who loves money and desires to increase his wealth by immoderate gain rather exercise this holy kind of usury, and become rich by this kind of interest: not by ensnaring the needs of laboring men, nor by casting nets of insurmountable debts under the guise of fraudulent benefits, but by being a creditor to Him, a usurer to Him, Who says: ‘Give, and it will be given to you: for with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.’ But he is unfaithful and unjust even to himself who does not wish to have permanently that which he judges worthy to be loved. However much he may add, however much he may store up and heap together, he shall depart from this world poor and destitute, as the holy prophet David says: ‘For when he dies, he shall carry nothing away; his glory shall not descend after him’ (Psalm 49:17). If he had chosen to be kind to his soul, he would have entrusted his goods to Him Who is both a reliable guarantor for the poor and the most generous payer of interest. But unjust and shameless greed, which deceives itself while pretending to do a favor, does not believe God Who promises truthfully, and believes only man who promises fearfully. And while it considers present things more certain than those to come, it often justly falls into this consequence: that greed for unrighteous gain becomes—not unjustly—the cause of loss. Whatever outcome follows, the reasoning of the usurer is always evil, for whether he diminishes his money or increases it, he sins, so that he is either wretched for losing what he gave, or more wretched for receiving what he did not give. The iniquity of usury is to be entirely avoided, and that gain which is devoid of all humanity is to be shunned. Wealth may be multiplied by unjust and miserable increase, but the substance of the soul is consumed, for usury is the funeral of the soul. What God thinks of such men the most holy prophet David explicitly shows: for when he said, ‘Lord, who may abide in Your tabernacle? Who may dwell in Your holy hill?’ (Psalm 15:1), he is instructed by the answer of the divine voice, and comes to know that he belongs to eternal rest who, among other rules of pious conduct, has not ‘put out his money at usury’ (Psalm 15:5). But he is shown to be a stranger from the tabernacle of God and an alien from His holy hill who seeks dishonest gain through interest on his money; and while he desires to grow rich by the losses of others, he deserves to be punished with eternal poverty. You, therefore, beloved, who have believed the promises of the Lord with your whole heart, flee from the foulest leprosy of avarice, and use the gifts of God piously and wisely. And since you rightly rejoice in His bounty, make it your aim to have partners in your joy. For many lack what you possess and are in need of some help, and so an opportunity is given you to imitate divine goodness, so that through you also the blessings of God might pass on to others, and that by rightly dispensing temporal goods, you may acquire eternal ones…. through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Leo straightforwardly states that the Old Testament prohibition against usury is a binding moral law for the Christian. And like many of the previous fathers, he encourages lending freely for the sake of eternal reward, which is the only way to practice usury without sin.
God willing, in the next installment of our series, we will pick things up some centuries later with usury and the medieval church.
Stay tuned.