Against moneylenders

Perhaps the sermon “Against Usurers” was preached by St. Gregory of Nyssa shortly after the death of St. Basil the Great, in March 379. In it, St. Gregory denounces usury, which violates the laws of mercy, as a vice. *The title of the work in Greek is Κατὰ τοκιζόντων. *The title of the essay in Latin is Contra usurarios. The life of people who love virtue and decide to live wisely is determined by good laws and regulations; to them, as can be seen, the Legislator’s thought has in mind two main goals: one is to prohibit what is forbidden, the other is to arouse to the fullness of what is good. For there is no other way for anyone to succeed in a well-ordered and chaste life than by running away as much as one can from evil and striving after virtue, as a son runs after his mother. So, having gathered now to listen to the commandments of God, let us listen to the prophet (Am. 8:4-9), who defeats the evil children of mutual giving - interest, and consumes in (our) life the use of money for growth. Let us obediently accept his admonition, so that we do not become that stone, on which the seed that fell remains dry and barren (Luke 8:13), so that we are not told what was once said to stubborn Israel: “You will hear by hearing, but you will not understand; and with seeing you will see, and you will not see” (Is. 6:9). I ask those who will listen, not to accuse me in any way of insolence or madness, if, after a man eloquent and eminent in philosophy, experienced in instruction in all kinds of verbal works, gained fame by arguing on the same subject, and left a word against the covetous - a treasure for life, and I enter the same field of competition, letting my pair of donkeys or oxen along with crowned horses. With great things, small things are always visible; and the moon shines in the brightness of the sun; and the heavily laden ship, driven by a strong wind, is followed by a small boat, crossing the same abyss; and after the men, laboring in the struggle according to the rules of warfare, the children rush to do the same. This is what to keep in mind, please. But you, to whom I am speaking, whoever you are, hate the custom of trading: being a man, love people, not silver; Resist, but at least as much as sin. Tell the words of John the Baptist to those who were once most dear to you: “the birth of vipers” (Matthew 3:7), get away from me; You are the destroyers of both those who have money and those who borrow, you give pleasure for a short time, but after a while the poison from you becomes a bitter poison for the soul; you block the path of life; you close the gates of the kingdom; Having pleased your eyes with a view for a short time, and comforted your ears with a ringing sound, you become the culprits of eternal sadness. Having said this, say goodbye to increase and usury, and make friends with love of poverty, and “do not turn away anyone who wants to borrow” (Matthew 5:42). Out of poverty he prays to you and sits at your door; out of lack, the rich man resorts to you, so that you can be a helper to him in need. You are doing the opposite; from an ally you become an enemy, because you do not help him so that he can free himself from the necessary need and return what he has lent to you, but you multiply the misfortunes of the one oppressed by grief, you undress the naked, you further wound the wounded, you add worries to worries, and sorrows to sorrows. For he who takes money in order to give it back with interest, takes the pledge of poverty, as an example of good deeds, introducing destruction in the house (his own.) Like the one who, as if out of love for mankind, gives wine to a feverish person, scorched with heat, possessed by an intense thirst and strenuously asking for a drink, although it gives pleasure for a short time to the one who takes the cup, but after a little time causes the sick person to go to hospital and in ten times the strongest heat; So he who lends money to the poor, which brings growth, does not end the need, but increases misfortune. So, do not live the life of a misanthrope, under the guise of love for mankind; Do not be a murderous doctor, pretending that you want to save with the help of wealth, as he did with the help of art, but deliberately using it for the destruction of those who trusted you. The life of a covetous man is idle and selfish. He does not know the labor of agriculture or the art of trade, but sits in one place, feeding animals by the hearth. He wants everything to grow for him without sowing and without plowing; his plow is a pen, his field is paper, his seed is ink, the rains are time, which imperceptibly brings back fruit to him - an increase in money; his sickle is the collection of money; threshing floor - a house in which you thresh the property of the oppressed (by misfortune). You look at everything that belongs to others as your own. You wish people in need and misfortune so that they will inevitably go to him; He hates those who have enough of their own, and considers as enemies those who are not in debt to him. He often sits near the courts to find those who are pressed by those collecting debts, and follows the bailiffs like kites behind the camp and the army. He carries a wallet with him and shows those who are pressed by extremes a hunting bait, so that, out of need, their mouths open on it, and they swallow up the hook of interest along with it. Every day he counts his profits, and his greed is not satisfied. He regrets the gold that is kept at home, why does it lie idle and idle. He imitates farmers who constantly demand seeds from a heap of grains. Does not give rest to the pitiful gold, but transfers it from hand to hand. Therefore, you see a rich and moneyed person often without even one coin in his house; but in his receipts he has hopes, in his obligations he has a fortune; he has nothing and owns everything; he acts in life opposite to the apostolic injunction, he gives everything to those who demand, but not out of a philanthropic disposition towards them, but for the sake of the love of money. For you endure temporary poverty so that gold, like a hardworking slave sent to earn money, returns with profit. You see how hope for the future makes his house empty, and makes the great rich man a temporary poor man. What is the reason for this? A receipt on paper, an obligation of someone straitened by misfortune: “I will pay back with interest, I will pay in increments.” Then I ask you to pay attention to the fact that the debtor, although he is poor, is believed on the basis of a receipt, but they do not listen to God, who is rich and promises (to repay). Give, and “I will repay,” cries the one who wrote in the Gospel (Matthew 6:4), - in this manuscript, published for the whole universe, which was written not by the scribe of treaties, but by the four Evangelists; the witnesses of which are all Christians, from the time of salvation: you have paradise as a guarantee, a sure guarantee. And if you are looking for it here, then the whole world is the property of a well-meaning debtor. Carefully examine the trustworthiness of the person seeking your favor, and you will find that he is rich. For all gold ores are the property of this debtor. All metals, silver and copper and other substances form part of his power. Look at the great sky; pay attention to the boundless sea; explore the breadth of the earth; number the animals it feeds; all this is subject to and constitutes the acquisition of the One Whom you neglect as the poor. Come to your senses, O man! Do not insult God, and do not honor Him more dishonestly than the money changers, whom you, if presented with guarantees, have no doubt about believing. Give to the undying guarantor, trust the undying and indestructible handwriting. Do not ask for interest, but give a favor without bargaining, and you will see that God will reward you with mercy. If these words seem strange to your ears, then you have at hand a testimony that God rewards those who piously expect and do good with many different rewards. For in response to Peter’s question: “We have all forsaken us and are dead after You: what then will happen to us?” - answers “Amen, I say to you... everyone who leaves a house, or a brother, or a sister, or a father, or a mother, or a wife, or a child, or a village, will receive a hundredfold, and will inherit eternal life” (Matthew 19:27-30). You see generosity, you see goodness. The most shameless usurer tries only to double the given amount, and God voluntarily rewards the one who does not oppress his brother a hundredfold. So, place your trust in God, who advises you, and you will receive sinless interest. Why burden yourself with sinful worries, calculating days, counting months, thinking about a given amount, dreaming of its increment, fearing the urgent day, lest it turn out to be fruitless, like the day of harvest during a hailstorm? The moneylender carefully monitors the affairs of the debtor, his absences, movements, travels, trade; whether some unfortunate rumor spreads that he fell into the hands of robbers and suffered misfortune from them, or his well-being due to some circumstance changed into poverty, he sits with folded hands, constantly sighs, often cries; unfolds the receipt, mourns in letters (his) gold, holds the debt obligation before himself, like the clothes of a deceased son; this intensifies his suffering even more. And if a ship is loaned, it sits near the shore, carefully watching the movement of the wind; constantly asks those landing on the shore whether they have heard of a shipwreck somewhere, whether the swimmers are in danger; His soul suffers from the little things of daily care. To such one must be told: leave, O man, dangerous care; give up withering hope; so that while looking for interest for yourself, you do not lose the main sum. From the poor you demand more and more wealth, just as if someone from a field dried up by a severe drought wanted to gather heaps of grain, or many berries from a vine, after a hail cloud, or (expected) the birth of children from a barren womb, or nourishment with milk from nulliparous women. No one undertakes what is unnatural and impossible, because in addition to doing nothing, he will be ridiculed. One almighty God produces abundance from poverty and arranges what cannot be hoped or expected: he commands the stones to bring out springs, then to rain unusual and strange bread from heaven, then he delights bitter Marah with the touch of a tree; and makes the womb of barren Elizabeth fertile, and gives to Hannah Samuel, and to Mary the firstborn in virginity. All this can only be the work of an almighty hand. You, do not demand growth from copper and gold, substances that cannot grow, do not force poverty to produce what is characteristic of the rich, do not demand interest from those who need essential things. Or don’t you know that the need to borrow money with interest is a plausible request for mercy? Therefore, the law, a letter that serves as an introduction to piety, everywhere prohibits interest: “If you lend money to your brother, do not force him” (Ex. 22:25). And grace, abounding in the flow of goodness, legislates the remission of debts, either showing mercy and saying: do not lend to those from whom you hope to receive (Luke 6:34), then in another place in the parable, bitterly punishing the cruel servant, who did not have mercy on his fellow servant who bowed to him, and did not forgive an insignificant debt of a hundred denarii, while he himself received forgiveness of ten thousands of talents (Matt. 18:23-35), And our Savior and Teacher of piety, establishing for the disciples the rules of prayer and its model, which did not contain anything superfluous, included this one member in the words of the prayer, as the most necessary and - first of all, sufficient to bow (to us) God: “and forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors” (Matthew 6:12). So, how will you pray, money lender? With what conscience will you ask God to fulfill a good request, receiving everything and not knowing how to give? Or don’t you know that your prayer is a reminder of (your) inhumanity? What kind of leniency have you shown to ask for forgiveness? Whom has he pardoned in order to call upon the Merciful? And if I gave alms from your man-hating taxes, isn’t it overflowing with the misfortunes of others, their tears and lamentations? If the beggar knew where you are giving alms from, he would not accept it, fearing that you would feed your brother’s flesh and blood of your neighbors, but he would say to you words filled with wise boldness: do not feed me, O man, with your brother’s tears: do not give the beggar bread from the groaning of beggars like me; release to my neighbor what I unjustly demanded from him, and I will acknowledge your mercy. What good is it if you comfort one and make many beggars? If there were not many covetous people, there would not be many poor; let this crowd be destroyed, and we will all have prosperity. Everyone blames the greedy, and the law, prophets, and evangelists cannot heal this evil. What does the divine Amos say: “Hear... those who crush the poor out of the morning, and force the poor from the land, saying, when the month is past, they will sell it” (Amos. 8, 4, 5). For even a father does not rejoice so much at the birth of children, as he who takes interest rejoices at the end of the months? They call sin by honorable names, call growth philanthropic, imitating the pagans, who call some man-hating and bloodthirsty demons, instead of their true name, Eumenides (i.e., merciful). Humane growth! But isn’t it an excessive tax that overthrows houses, exhausts the rich, leads noble people to lead lives worse than slaves; (loan) is somewhat pleasant at first, but prepares bitterness for the rest of your life. For just as the birds for which bird-catchers build coves are glad when grains are scattered for them, and make their favorite and usual habitat those places where they find abundant food, but a little time later, having been caught in the net, they die: so those who borrow money for interest, having been prosperous for a short time, are finally deprived of their fatherly hearth. Mercy does not live in bad and money-loving souls; Seeing that the debtor’s very house is set for sale, they do not bow to mercy, but even more force them to sell, in order to quickly receive the money, and entangle another poor man in the net of a loan, following the example of zealous and insatiable fishermen, who, having surrounded one valley with nets and having caught all the animals there, again rearrange the stakes for the nets to the neighboring valley and from it to another, until all the mountains are empty, having lost animals. So, with what eyes, being one, do you look at the sky? How do you ask for forgiveness of sins? Is it possible that out of insensibility, when you pray, you say what the Savior taught: “forgive us our debts, as we are forgiven by our debtors”? About how many people, as a result of interest, took up the rope, gave themselves up to the waves of the rivers, considered death easier than the lender, left their children orphans, with their evil stepmother - poverty! And good moneylenders do not spare even then an empty house, but drag in the heirs who may have inherited one rope from a noose, and demand gold from those who eat bread from someone else’s table. And when they are disgraced, as should be the case with the death of a debtor, and some, in order to shame them, mention the noose, they are not ashamed of this incident and are not horrified in their souls, but from the bitterness of their spiritual mood they utter shameless words: “Is it really the fault of our customs, if this unfortunate and senseless person, who was destined from birth to a sad lot, by necessity of fate, ended his life with a violent death”? For moneylenders both philosophize and become students of Egyptian astrologers, how quickly they need to justify their damned actions and murders. So, to one of these you need to say: “you are (that) unfortunate fate, you are the evil necessity of the stars.” For if you had eased (the debtor’s) care and forgiven one part of his debt, and collected the other part with weakness, then he would not have hated the hard life, and would not have become his own executioner. But with what eyes will you look at the murdered person during the resurrection? You will both come to the Judgment Seat of Christ, where it is not the excesses that are counted, but the (deeds of) life that are judged. What will you answer, O accused, to the incorruptible Judge, when he says to you: you had the law, the prophets, the gospel exhortations, you heard how they all unanimously proclaimed love, love for mankind, and said: some - “Do not give it to your brother for usury” (Deut. 23:19); others - “silver... will not give you more than interest” (Ps. 14:5); others - “if you give... a loan to your brother,... do not force him” (Exodus 22:25). Matthew cries out in parables, speaking and proclaiming the word of the Lord: “You wicked servant, he has forgiven you all your debt; since you have begged me, would it not be fitting for you to have mercy on your minion, just as I also had mercy on you; and his Lord became angry and handed him over as a tormentor until he repaid all his debt” (Matthew 18:32–34). Then fruitless repentance will take possession of you; then heavy lamentations and inexorable punishment will come; Gold will not help at all and silver will not help; More bitter than bile will be the increase in excess. These are not fearful words, but true deeds testifying to judgment before we experience it; protecting yourself from it is a good thing for a prudent husband who cares about the future. And in order to bring some benefit to the listeners, I will tell you what happened in our times in the house of the moneylender before the judgment of God: listen to what I say, although perhaps this incident will be known to many. There was in a certain city one man (I will not say his name, being careful, by calling him by name, to expose the deceased to shame), whose trade was usury and the increase (of fortune) with nasty interest. Possessed by the passion of love of money, he was also stingy regarding his own expenses (for such are lovers of money); he did not have a sufficient table, did not change his clothes except out of need, did not provide the children with the necessities of life, did not allow himself to go to the bathhouse often, fearing payment and three ovols, but in every way he thought out how to increase the amount of money. He did not even consider anyone a sufficiently faithful guardian of (his) wallet, neither a son, nor a slave, nor a money changer, nor a key, nor a seal; but, putting money into the recess of the walls and covering the outside with clay, he kept his treasure unknown from everyone, replacing some places with others, and some walls with others, and thinking skillfully to hide it from everyone. Suddenly he departed from life, without notifying anyone at home where the gold was buried. He who himself found it useful to hide (money) was buried. And his children, who hoped because of their wealth to become more noble than anyone in the city, looked (for money) everywhere, questioned each other, questioned the servants, dug up the floors of the houses, cleaned the walls from below, inquired from neighbors and acquaintances about the houses, turned over, as they say, every stone, but did not find a single stone. They lead a homeless, homeless, destitute life, more than once cursing their father’s stupidity every day. This is your friend and friend, moneylenders! The vain acquirer of money, who subjected himself to severe hardships and hunger, ended his life worthy of his way of life; he who collects an inheritance will receive eternal punishment for himself, and poverty for his children. You don’t know for whom you are collecting or working. The circumstances are varied, countless deceivers, robbers and robbers are disturbing the land and sea; take care that you do not increase sin and lose gold. “But they say that such speech is intolerable to us (I know that you are grumbling through your teeth, and I constantly put you in front of this seat); he wishes harm to those to whom we benefit and who are in need. So we will refrain from lending; How will those in need also live? Words worthy of deeds, and an objection worthy of the darkness of money; for they do not even have the firmness of judgment in their minds to understand what we are saying; they misunderstand the advice of those who teach them the law. For, as if I were saying that one should not lend to the poor, they threaten them, and threaten to lock the doors against the needy. But first of all, I preach and exhort to give: then I invite to lend (for lending is the second type of gift); but to do this without interest or increase, but as the word of God commanded us. For the one who does not lend and the one who gives with interest is equally liable to punishment; since the former is condemned for inhumanity, and the latter for profiteering. And they, rushing to the opposite extreme, promise to completely stop giving. But this is a shameless objection, a frantic argument against the truth, enmity and abuse against God; for you say, either I will not give, or by lending, I will enter into a condition for growth. So, our word fought against the covetous enough, and satisfactorily, as if in court, indicated what they were guilty of. May the Lord give them repentance for this evil! And to those who easily fall into debt and, despite the dangers, rush to the hook of growth, I will not say anything, thinking that the advice that our divine father Vasily wisely offered them in his work is enough for them, addressing himself more to those who thoughtlessly go into debt than to those who covetously lend. You might be interested in: