# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Juni 1864_S173
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Martin Chemnitz on Usury. 173

...that pleasant sleep he dies, because the venom then spreads through all his limbs in a hidden manner. So he who borrows under the obligation of paying usury feels, for a time, a kind of benefit, but the usury passes through all his possessions and turns everything into debt," etc. So also Baldus says that usury is like the woodworm, which, when touched, seems soft and gentle, but has very hard teeth and gnaws away the core of the wood in such a way that the surface appears untouched. The third name is Marbit or Tarbit. But this signifies the increase of quantity, namely when, in lending, more is demanded back than was given and paid out; and when the duty of lending is practiced with the intention, not of coming to the aid of a neighbor's need, but that the money should be increased. The old translation has rendered the word as "Uebersatz" [overcharge] or "taking back more." The Jews of our time call it (usury), from the same root, Rabbath or Ribbis.

2. From certain and clear testimonies of Scripture it is to be established that usury is not, in itself and by its nature, a good thing, nor is it in such a sense a matter indifferent as to be judged according to its use or abuse — moderation in it approved, but only excess condemned — but rather that it is, in itself and by its nature, an evil, sinful, and condemned act. For many think that, just as in other lawful contracts only the excess, the faults, and the abuse are condemned, so also a moderate usury is no sin, and only the excess is condemned.*) And indeed it was among the Romans that first the

*) In our German language it has come to this, after usury has penetrated, like a flood, into all business relations, that by "Wucher" [usury] one understands only the lending of money at higher interest than is permitted by the law of the state. This new usage of language, founded on a denial of the Word of God, has done immeasurable harm. The consequence has been that even those who still fear God's Word (which absolutely condemns usury) have fallen into usury without knowing or suspecting it. It has therefore become necessary among us Germans that, when the doctrine of the divine Word concerning usury is to be set forth, the hearers must first be made clear as to what the word "Wucher" means; namely, that this word, and the corresponding terms for it in all the languages of the world, mean nothing other than lending at interest, or lending and then demanding back more than one had lent. To prove this, one need only make use of any good dictionary in which the proper meaning of words is given. To cite just one example here, Eberhard writes, in his excellent dictionary of synonyms, under the heading "Wucher, Zinse" [Usury, Interest], the following: "The meaning common to both words is: the price which the borrower promises the lender for the use of the money lent. Difference: common usage distinguishes usury from interest in that it understands by usury unlawful interest." Very naively it is stated in Brockhaus's Conversations-Lexikon (5th edition), under the entry "Wucher," as follows: "In older times the word Wucher did not have the bad (!) meaning in which it is now invariably taken. By it was understood the profit which one had from one's property in trade and commerce, hence

interest. To lend money at usury, that is, at interest, was formerly a