# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1847 06 01_S109
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

...such danger and trouble might be absent and might never come to pass that he loses more than he invests, and thus the money is invested exactly as though it could always and entirely be free of any other risk-bearing interest: then it is clear that the transaction is founded on nothing, since no such interest can exist or be found. For in such a transaction he always finds goods on hand and can trade while sitting still, sick, a child, a woman, or however unfit he may be — none of which is possible in trade and business carried on with bare money. Therefore those who look only to such interest and act upon it are worse than usurers; indeed they buy the first interest by means of a second interest, and gain thereby exactly what other people lose by it. — Money placed out on rent-interest has a foundation that grows without ceasing and yields from the earth, without fear of losing the principal sum. But money in trade has nothing certain; therefore there is here no legitimate interest, but only a chance one, on which nothing can be built. — Since, then, one cannot obtain landed property with just any money, so too one cannot buy rent-interest with just any money. Therefore it is not enough to say: with so much money I could buy so much interest secured on a piece of land, therefore I fairly take so much interest for it and let someone else take care of the land. For in this way one wants to reckon a solid, real foundation for every sum of money, which however is not possible, and from which great burdening of land and people must follow. — Therefore it should not be permitted that people buy interest with bare money, without designating and precisely determining the particular piece of land on which that interest in particular rests — as is now the custom among the great merchants, who go on and lay their money out upon land in general, unnamed. For thereby they ascribe to the nature and kind of money something that is really only its luck and chance. It is not the nature of money that it should buy land; rather, it may happen by chance that a piece of land becomes available for interest, at which point some money proves useful for it — but this does not happen with every piece of land and every sum of money. Therefore one should name the land and determine it precisely. If that were done, it would indeed become plain how much money would have to remain idle, without interest, in trade or in the strongbox — money that now draws interest and yet has no other basis or color of justification than that people say in general: "I could buy so much interest for this on some piece of land," and this is to be called interest. Yes indeed, dear friend, my money might buy up my neighbor's house from him; but if it is not for sale to him, then the ability of my money, together with its interest, counts for nothing. Thus it is not the fortune of every sum of money that it should buy interest upon land, and yet men want to buy interest on everything that can be minted; such people are usurers, thieves, robbers, for they sell money's good fortune, which is not theirs, nor in their power. — Now the rich merchants want to sell their money's good fortune — and that alone, without any misfortune attached — together with other people's willingness and courage, on which it depends whether they wish to sell; this is called

109

selling the bearskin for the thirteenth time — and this is the sole safeguard of this transaction, keeping it from being usury, and it accomplishes more than any [claim of] interest: that the interest-lord has his interest exposed to every danger, and that it be as uncertain to him as all his other goods. For the rent-payer, together with his property, is subject to God's power — to death, sickness, water, fire, wind, hail, thunder, rain, wolves, wild beasts, and the manifold harm done by wicked men. All this danger together should fall upon the interest-lord, for his interest rests upon this ground and no other. Nor is he entitled to interest on his money before the rent-payer, or seller of the property, is able to make use of it clearly determined, freely, in health, and without hindrance for his labor — thus, where the rent-payer's labor does not succeed despite diligence exerted, he should and may say freely to his interest-lord: "This year I owe you nothing, for I have sold you my labor and effort to bring you interest from such-and-such property; this has not prospered for me; the loss is yours, and not mine, for if you wish to share the interest when there is gain, you must also share the interest when there is loss" — and those interest-lords who will not suffer this are as pious as robbers and murderers, and tear from the poor man his goods and his sustenance. Woe to them! — This same rent-purchase sometimes happens by buying from those who would rather need to be lent to or given something outright; yet at bottom it is worth nothing at all, for God's commandment stands in the way and wills that the needy be helped by lending and giving. A second time it happens when the buyer and the seller, both parties being in need of what is theirs, are for that reason unable either to lend or to give, but must help themselves by means of this exchange of purchase. Now when this happens without transgression of the spiritual law, so that one gives 4 or 6 florins on the hundred, it can be borne; yet the fear of God should always be watchful, so that one fears rather to take too much than too little, lest greed creep in alongside the fairness of a reasonable bargain; the fewer florins per hundred, the more godly and Christian the transaction — but to my mind, I judge that if we wished to keep Christ's commandment in its first three degrees, rent-purchase should not be so common or necessary, except in large, considerable sums or substantial properties. But it breaks in even among groschen and pennies, and is practiced here below even in quite small sums, which could easily be settled by giving or lending according to Christ's commandment, and yet it does not wish to be called greed. Here, however, they come along and say: the churches and the clergy do this, and have the right to, since such money goes toward divine worship — Take away the name of the church, and say instead: it is usurious greed that does it! What divine service do you render me by this? This is what it means to serve God and keep his commandment: that one steal from no one, take from no one, overcharge no one, and the like, but rather give and lend to the needy. Such true divine services you wish to tear apart, so that you may build a church, endow an altar, and have reading and singing done — none of which God has commanded you. It is better to make one godly foundation out of ten endowments than to keep many against God's commandment. — Not a few buyers wish to be certain of their interest and their capital, and therefore put out their money so that it may not remain at risk with them, and much prefer that other people work with it and stand in the danger, so that they themselves may meanwhile be idle and lazy and yet remain or become rich by it. If this is not usury, it is very much like it. In short, it is against God. p. 1005—1015.—"Where it comes to this, that the buyer wants his interest paid in full regardless of the fact that the seller has suffered loss on the land or pledged property — as often happens through no fault of his own — then the buyer is a robber before God and the world, taking from the other man his sweat and his blood. For the danger attached to the property should stand on the buyer's side, so that he is as uncertain of his interest as the other man is of his principal, both being in God's hand as regards their goods. In sum, I hold that rent-purchase is not [in itself] usury; yet it seems to me that its nature is such that it is sorry not to be usury — the will is not lacking, and it must, unfortunately, remain honest." p. 1023—1025. (From the year 1519.)

II. From Luther's "Admonition to the Pastors, to Preach against Usury."

(1540.)

"One should tell the people clearly and plainly: first, concerning lending and borrowing — where money is lent and for it more or something better is demanded or taken, that is usury, condemned in every system of law. Therefore all those who take 5, 6, or more per hundred on money of equal value are usurers; let them know how to conduct themselves accordingly, and be called idolatrous servants of greed or of Mammon, who cannot be saved unless they do penance. Just the same should be said of grain, barley, and other goods as well: where more or something better is demanded for them, that is usury, stolen and plundered goods. For to lend means this: that I give someone my money, goods, or implements, so that he may use them as long as he needs, or as long as I am able and willing, and that he give the same back to me in due time, as good as I lent it to him — just as one neighbor lends another a dish, jugs, bedding, clothing — so also money or money's worth, for which I should take nothing." p. 1025—26.

Then Sir Usury speaks thus: "Dear friend, as times now stand, I do my neighbor a great service by lending him 100 [gulden] at 5, 6, or 10 [per hundred], and he thanks me for such a loan as a special kindness, asks me nicely for it, and even offers of his own free will, unforced, to give me 5, 6, or 10 gulden; should I not be permitted, without usury and with a good conscience, to take this? Who would count a gift as usury?" Here I say: let whoever wishes praise it, dress it up, and polish it — pay it no mind whatsoever; hold fast to the text: on lending, one should take nothing more