As I mentioned in the Introduction to this series, the seventeen-hundredth anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea served, in part, as the impetus for initiating this conversation about usury. Nicaea holds particular significance as the first ecumenical council to issue an explicit condemnation of the practice. Yet this prohibition against lending at interest was not confined to Nicaea alone; it appears in at least seven other councils and synods spanning the fourth to the seventh centuries. Before continuing with our exploration of the church fathers, it is worth pausing here to list these councils and synods, in chronological order, along with the specific canons in which usury was formally condemned.
Read More