Canon
XVII.
as many enrolled among
the Clergy, following covetousness and lust of gain, have forgotten the
divine Scripture, which says, “He hath not given his money upon
usury,” and in lending money ask the hundredth of the sum [as
monthly interest], the holy and great Synod thinks it just that if
after this decree any one be found to receive usury, whether he
accomplish it by secret transaction or otherwise, as by demanding the
whole and one half, or by using any other contrivance whatever for
filthy lucre’s sake, he shall be deposed from the clergy and his
name stricken from the list.
Notes.
If anyone shall receive usury or 150 per cent, he shall
be cast forth and deposed, according to this decree of the Church.
Although the canon expresses only these two species of
usury, if we bear in mind the grounds on which the prohibition was
made, it will be manifest that every kind of usury is forbidden to
clerics and under any circumstances, and therefore the translation of
this canon sent by the Orientals to the Sixth Council of Carthage is in
no respect alien to the true intent of the canon; for in this version
no mention is made of any particular kind of usury, but generally the
penalty is assigned to any clerics who “shall be found after this
decree taking usury” or thinking out any other scheme for the
sake of filthy lucre.
This Canon is found in the Corpus Juris Canonici, in the first part of the Decretum, in Dionysius’s version. Dist. xlvii, c. ii, and again in Isidore’s version in Pars II, Causa xiv. Quæs. iv., c. viii.