# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Juli 1864_S197
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Martin Chemnitz on Usury. 197

certainty that is necessary in this matter; and this chiefly for two reasons. 1. Because usury, in the holy language, takes its name not only from biting, but also from overcharge and taking more, as has been said above. 2. If Scripture itself had clearly set down this distinction, namely, that it is no sin to practice usury with a rich man, then the matter would present no difficulty — just as Christ, for example, says of divorce: except it be for fornication, etc., and further, as he makes a distinction, in the matter of killing, between a private person and a public one. But now Scripture speaks of usury simply and generally, without any such exception and distinction; that etymological definition (founded solely on the derivation of the word) is therefore not the true, full, and complete one. Others condemn, on the ground that usury is called marbit, "taking more," as has been said above, every purchase of income and every honest profit gained in lawful contracts, because Scripture calls usury such an overcharge, whenever one takes more than one gives out. There have also been those who, because some have translated marbit as "going too far," accordingly maintained that only the going-too-far is condemned in usury, while a moderate use of it is not censured. I mention this so that, since errors are easily made, one may learn to understand the true definitions all the more diligently and to search out the grounds of them.

I will, however, communicate a few descriptions from various authors, for I hold that such a comparison is of great use. The jurists have the following definitions: "Usury is the profit owed on account of a loan, or demanded by agreement. Usury is everything that is added to the capital, whether by intention or on the basis of a prior agreement." The definition of Hostiensis (jurist and bishop, †1271) is more complete: "Usury is everything that is added, upon the restitution of the thing lent, on account of the use of the thing, on the basis of an agreement made, or by virtue of a contract made with that intent." Philip (Melanchthon) defines it thus: "Usury is a profit demanded, beyond the capital, solely for the service of lending." Luther says: "Whoever lends according to the commandments of love, and demands or takes over and above the capital something more or something better, commits usury." Others again: "Usury is whenever there is added to the capital whatever is demanded on account of the use of the money lent, or on account of the delay." From Moses a twofold definition can be drawn up: "Usury is when one demands and takes more, for the service of lending, than one has lent." Or: "When, in the lending, the matter is not one of supporting the neediness of one's neighbor, and when one is unconcerned about how it turns out for the one who borrows, but only the gain and advantage of the loan is sought, and from it there arises either an open