Usury (from the

Latin usus meaning"used") was defined originally as charging a fee
for the use of money. This usually meant

interest on

loans , although charging a fee for changing money (as at a Bureau de change
) isincluded in the original meaning. After moderate-interest loans became an
accepted part of the business world in the

early modern age , the word has come to refer specifically to charging
veryhigh interest on loans.

Usury laws are state laws that specify the maximum legal interest
rate at which loans can be made.

Usury is scriptually and doctrinally forbidden in many religions.

Judaism forbidsa Jew to lend at interest to another Jew. It's forbidden in

Islam . The most recent

Catholic teaching on usury is by Pope Benedict XIV in his

Vix Pervenit from 1745 whichstrictly forbids the practice, though many Jews,
Catholics and Muslims break their own laws in this matter.

The usury committed by Jews, both real and imagined, was used as an excuse to
take their possesions and punish them throughoutthe history of Christianity.

Usury has been denounced by almost every major spiritual leader and
philosopher of the past three thousand years.

Plato ,

Aristotle ,

Cato ,

Cicero ,

Seneca ,

Plutarch ,

Aquinas ,

Jesus ,

Mohammed and

Moses arejust a few.

Cato in his De Re Rustica said:

"And what do you think of usury?"

"What do you think of murder?"

Biblical injunctions against Usury

Exodus 22:25 If thou lend money to any of my people that is poor by
thee, thou shalt not be to him as an usurer,neither shalt thou lay upon him
usury.

Leviticus 25:36 Take thou no usury of him, or increase: but fear thy
God; that thy brother may live with thee.

Leviticus 25:37 Thou shalt not give him thy money upon usury, nor lend
him thy victuals for increase.

Deuteronomy 23:19 Thou shalt not lend upon usury to thy brother; usury
of money, usury of victuals, usury of any thingthat is lent upon usury:

Deuteronomy 23:20 Unto a stranger thou mayest lend upon usury; but
unto thy brother thou shalt not lend upon usury:that the LORD thy God may bless
thee in all that thou settest thine hand to in the land whither thou goest to
possess it.

Nehemiah 5:7 Then I consulted with myself, and I rebuked the nobles,
and the rulers, and said unto them, Ye exactusury, every one of his brother. And
I set a great assembly against them.

Nehemiah 5:10 I likewise, and my brethren, and my servants, might
exact of them money and corn: I pray you, let usleave off this usury.

Psalm 15:5 He that putteth not out his money to usury, nor taketh
reward against the innocent. He that doeth thesethings shall never be moved.

Proverbs 28:8 He that by usury and unjust gain increaseth his
substance, he shall gather it for him that will pity thepoor.

Isaiah 24:2 And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest;
as with the servant, so with his master; as withthe maid, so with her mistress;
as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower;
as with thetaker of usury, so with the giver of usury to him.

Jeremiah 15:10 Woe is me, my mother, that thou hast borne me a man of
strife and a man of contention to the wholeearth! I have neither lent on usury,
nor men have lent to me on usury; yet every one of them doth curse me.

Ezekiel 18:8 He that hath not given forth upon usury, neither hath
taken any increase, that hath withdrawn his handfrom iniquity, hath executed
true judgment between man and man,

Ezekiel 18:13 Hath given forth upon usury, and hath taken increase:
shall he then live? he shall not live: he hath doneall these abominations; he
shall surely die; his blood shall be upon him.

Ezekiel 18:17 That hath taken off his hand from the poor, that hath
not received usury nor increase, hath executed myjudgments, hath walked in my
statutes; he shall not die for the iniquity of his father, he shall surely live.

Ezekiel 22:12 In thee have they taken gifts to shed blood; thou hast
taken usury and increase, and thou hast greedilygained of thy neighbours by
extortion, and hast forgotten me, saith the Lord GOD.

See also:

loanshark

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Date de création : 15/02/2005 : 16:36
Dernière modification : 12/05/2008 : 17:28
Catégorie : Boycott

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