60. What then he should lend, tell me, Holy David! I have brought witness against myself unless you help me. Peter said, Silver and gold I have none. Was he then not just? Explain to me then, what he should lend. For you have said: Blessed is the man that showeth mercy and lendeth: he shall order his words with judgment. I have found what the just man lends. But let Peter, moreover, teach me himself also what he may lend, who said to the help- none. less man looking earnestly at him and John: Silver and gold I have Will you then give nothing to the poor man, apostle? But you do give, and you give more than others, you give to the helpless man what others cannot give, you give to the helpless man that after receiving which he cannot lack, you give to the helpless man what even the rich long to receive, you give to the helpless man what those who have that silver and gold cannot bestow, because greed hinders them. You give to the helpless man, you who make him richer than the rich. You have moved my heart, I long for this gift of thine. Tell, I beseech, what you give. Do not keep me long in suspense; I desire to seek if you pay quickly. But you did pay quickly; you did not put off the needy, you did not despise the prayer of the poor, you did not make him despair longer, you did not go empty up to the temple, saying: Silver and gold I have none. Not they alone go up with full hands who have gold and silver; the poor man also does not go up empty, nor did Peter go up empty because he had not gold and silver. Let us hear what the poor man gives. But what I have, he said, I give thee. In the name of Jesus of Nazareth, arise and walk. O poverty greatly to be desired, O richer want! He was lame to whom the rich gave; one poor man gave, and straightway he who was lame was made whole.
61. The just man therefore has what he may lend, he has even silver which he may lend: he lends his words. This is the just man's silver, for the words of the Lord are pure words, silver tried by the fire, purged of earth, refined seven times. This he lends who receives the Law, who meditates upon the Law, who practices the Law; this Peter lent, this Paul lent, to whom it is bidden that they should go to the men of the nations-Peter, to Cornelius the centurion, to whom it is said: Arise and go doubting nothing, for I have sent thee, and he arose and went. And below he has said: Are we able to forbid water, that these should not be baptized who have received the Holy Ghost? And he commanded them to be baptized; that is, thou shalt lend to the nations, that you may forgive their sins, remit their debts, but thou shalt not borrow; for the sinner borrows and will not pay for his sins, because he is a sinner. To Paul it is said: Thou shalt lend to the nations, who was sent to the nations. To John it is said: Thou shalt lend to the nations, to James it is said... to all of whom it is said: Go baptize the nations.
62. It is said to the people of our fathers: If you keep my commandments you will be blessed and you will lend to the nations the Word. Finally what follows shows it is not said of money: Thou shalt be the chief of many nations, for no one shall rule over thee: the Lord thy God shall set thee at the head and not at the tail, and thou shalt then be above and not beneath if thou will hear the voice of the Lord thy God. And there follows: But if thou wilt not hear it, cursed shalt thou be in the city and cursed in the field. And below: Cursed the fruit of thy womb. Certainly not money makes blessed, but the knowledge of God, the preaching of the Word, if we lend the grace of the Lord, if we confer upon the poor the words of the Lord, if we observe the heavenly commandments; and on the other hand, it does not make accursed, if money is lacking which may be lent; but if zeal is lacking, if observance of the heavenly ordinances is lacking, you will be accursed. 19, 63. Finally the mystery of the Church is clearly expressed. For he said first to the follower of the Law: If thou wilt hear the Law and keep it, thou shalt lend to the nations, and this was done by our fathers. Moses lent to the nations, and he gained proselytes; Jesus Nave lent, Gideon lent, Samuel, David, Solomon, Elias, Eliseus lent; and if anyone wished to know the Word, he went to them: The queen of the south came to hear the wisdom of Solomon.
64. When the people of the Jews began not to keep the Law, strangers, that is, those from the people of the nations, who believed in the Lord Jesus, began to lend the interpretation of the Scriptures to that ancient people. Timothy, sprung from a Greek S. AMBROSII 81. father, lent the Word to the Jews when he had received the priestly office, and we today as priests in the Church lend the word to the Jews who have crossed over from the synagogue to the Church; we lend both the old and the new money. For what they had, they have no longer. They have eyes and see not, they have ears, and hear not, they have money and have it not because they are ignorant of its use, they do not know its value, they have not recognized its form and shape. For if they had recognized it, they would never have denied the author of that money, saying: We do not wish this man to rule over us. He, however, having received his kingdom, returning commanded His servants to be called, to whom he had given money, and he praised those who had lent their money, but to him who had kept his master's money idle he said: Thou knewest that I was an austere man: I take up what I laid not down and Ireap that which I did not sow. And whythen didst thou not give my money into the bank? And I on coming would assuredly have exacted it with usury.
65. You have heard what kind of money belongs to the good usurer, what money acquires good usury, what money does not disgrace the lender, does not oppress the debtor, what money rust cannot consume nor moth penetrate; what money is not from an earthly treasure, but from the eternal; what money makes the receiver rich and takes nothing from the lender. This money has usury, so that it bears not a hundredth part of that which you gave, but fruit an hundred fold. Open then the bosom of your mind, that you may receive the amount of this money allotted to you; direct the eye of your heart, that you may recognize the image and inscription of this money. Certainly put out this money; set a squared account on the changing table of your mind, which may be strong in virtues; hide it away in the treasure of your heart, from which the wise scribe brings forth the new and the old. You see what kind of money this is, how it joins together the names creditor and debtor, hateful in themselves. I, who was inveighing against lenders, now challenge the debtor. I desire you to be usurers of this money, then, so that those who borrow may voluntarily hasten to you. Through this money you can gain not coin, but the Kingdom; through this money you may seek not curses, but the grace of blessing.
66. The people of the nations lend this money, who have learned to receive what has been lent, who have learned to distinguish it, who have learned to put it out. You have rejected the needs of spiritual interest, you have begun to be in want. Of you therefore was it said by the Son of God: The sinner shall borrow and shall not pay again. To you it is said: The stranger that liveth with thee shall rise up over thee, but thou shalt go down. For he does not know the highest who is ignorant of Christ; he is always in the lowest who does not rise to Christ; but in the highest, the people who receive the Word. The latter has the whole patrimony of faith, and of the latter the Law says: He shall lend to thee and thou shalt not lend to him: he shall be as the head and thou shalt be the tail, that is, he shall be first, you last and cast down. I will take from Judea the head and tail, the beginning and the end; Christ the beginning, who, on being asked who he was, answered: The beginning who also speak to you. He calls Christ also the end, for He is the end of the Law unto Justice to everyone that believeth. Therefore he who does not believe has neither the beginning nor the end unto justice, but he is himself his own end. 20, 67. We have become acquainted with lawful usury, let us know the pledge also which the Law commands should be returned before sunset. What this is, hear the apostle saying: God has given the pledge of the spirit in our hearts. Moreover it is called in threefold manner, pledge, and commitment and trust. They call that a pledge which is received for borrowed money, but a commitment and a trust what we have committed to someone for the purpose of custody. Wherefore the apostle says: I know whom I have believed and I am certain that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him against that day. He likewise showed what the trust was, saying: Keep the good thing committed to thy trust by the Holy Ghost who dwelleth in us. Is the Spirit the guardian of silver or gold given in trust, or is money kept by the Holy Ghost? Therefore a spiritual pledge is kept by the Spirit, lest the fowls of the air come and take it away from our hearts.
68. Let us seek therefore that Christ may keep in us this pledge which He Himself has given, and may preserve His trust and His commitment; for He has received nothing from us, but Himself has entrusted to us what was not ours. And therefore he suffers detriment to his honor who violates the trust of another. If we ought by no dishonesty to violate the commitment of a man, how much more does it behoove us to preserve in good faith the divine and spiritual trust, lest we undergo grave loss both of reputation and of profit.
69. This then is the pledge which the Law forbids to take and carry away by force. For thus the Scripture has: If anything is owed to thee by the neighbor, thou shalt not go into his house to take away a pledge, and the man who has what is owing to thee shall bring thee out the pledge. But if that man be poor thou shalt not sleep with his pledge, but thou shalt restore the pledge to him before the going down of the sun, and he shall sleep in his own raiment and there will be mercy for thee.
70. But you will say to me: Behold the law forbade that the pledge be carried away, not that it be taken, and it commanded that it be returned to the poor man, not to everyone. But indeed concerning corporeal pledges Esdras has also taught us adequately, on the basis of which now, usurers, you cannot go against the declaration of your fathers. For when those who had lent money and had received the pledges of others, were being bidden to restore them, they said: We do restore and we require nothing of them. Virtuous fathers, who decreed that the pledges of the debtors be returned; likewise good usurers who replied that they were returning the pledges and were not requiring the money which they had given! Both the tenor of the command of your fathers and the declaration of the creditors binds you to these things.
71. There is however another pledge also which the spiritual law forbids to be carried away and, if it has been given, commands should be returned before the going down of the sun, a pledge which the man in debt returns and himself has delivered. For the debtor is everyone who hears the Word of the Kingdom and does not understand it. There cometh the wicked one and snatcheth away that which was sown in his heart. Do not therefore enter into his house that you may receive that pledge. For woe to him who shall scandalize one of these little ones. If by his own stupidity he loses his pledge, you will not have the blame. But if he is poor, return the pledge before the going down of the sun; for the pledge is his raiment. If he seems rich to himself, he is deceiving himself if he gives up his own pledge. But if he is a poor man, who does not have the riches of the spirit, return his garment to him before the going down of the sun.
72. If there were question of a corporeal pledge, certainly rather should there have been an obligation to return it by day, lest the shame of the naked body be exposed in the light of day; for darkness does not expose the naked man. But if this moved him, that the poor man would not have anything wherewith he could be covered while sleeping, certainly he would have said that either a blanket or a covering ought to be returned. But now in speaking of raiment he means rather the garment which we wear and with which we are clothed. Return therefore to the poor man his garment, that he may sleep in it at night.
73. Does he not seem to you to signify that poor man who is commanded to go forth with one garment, not to seek another, on being sent by Christ to preach the Gospel? For he is poor in spirit, who can sleep. In the case of the man satiated with riches, there is no one who would allow him to sleep. For the poor man sleeps the rest of Christ Who says: I have slept and have taken my rest and have risen up. This is that garment woven from the top in which Christ was clad, which those soldiers as you know were not able to tear apart. For none of them tore the raiment of Christ, but divided it, as it is written: They parted My garments amongst them and upon My vesture they cast a lot. The evangelists parted his garments amongst them, and upon his vesture, that is the preaching of the Gospel, with which our Lord Jesus is likewise clothed today, they cast a lot, certainly that lot which fell upon Matthias, that he should be joined as the twelfth to the number of the apostles after the exclusion of the betrayer's name. Moreover it is well said of the Evangelists that they cast a lot; for a lot depends as it were upon divine consideration. And for the reason that they did not speak by their own power, nor all the same things, but often spoke diverse things which the others had not spoken, we know that the grace of the Holy Ghost bestowed upon them as it were by an allotment what each should say concerning the works of our Lord Jesus, so that they might divide His deeds among them to be described according to His will.
74. This is the garment also which the apostle indicates, saying: Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the garment which covers our uncomely members and clothes more abundant honor in them in Christ. We put on the bowels of mercy in Christ, we put on the glory of the cross which is to the Jews a stumbling block, to the Greeks foolishness. Let those blush who think this should be blushed for, but far be it from me to glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus. For these our less honorable parts have more abundant honor, because through the suffering of our Lord an everlasting kingdom is prepared for us, for he who has sinned more loves more. Let us therefore be buried with our Lord Jesus that we may deserve to be the sharers of the resurrection. Therefore let us strip off the old man with his deeds, let us put on the new, in whom is remission of sins.
75. A good cover and garment therefore is the Word of God. With this garment the sons of Noah, receiving a cloak upon their shoulders and going backward, covered the nakedness of their father, that they might not see their father's nakedness, that is, parts of the body which have a certain kind of shame on account of human generation. And therefore he who wished to see received the just reward of a smaller mind, that he should be made a servant, for everyone who commits sin is the servant of sin. Wherefore he remained among the things of earth. Let no one take away this garment of the poor man; or, if he take it, let not the sun go down upon him who has been despoiled before he restore it, lest the sin of the poor man be ascribed to the usurer, and he should begin to suffer not only under his own but under another's sin.
76. Let this pledge be returned in the night of this world, let him put on this garment in the darkness of this world. For this pledge is of the lot of the Lord, not of that opposite one. For we read in Leviticus that there were two lots, concerning which it is said: The one thou shalt offer to the Lord, the other for an emissary. The emissary has transferred his lot to usurers, the servants of the Lord are in the lot of Christ. Standing in this lot Aaron warded off the plague of the opposite lot, when, standing between the two divisions of the people, he prevented death from creeping from the dead into the lot of the living by the interposition of his own body. A good pledge of this lot is the covering of the Word. Let no one take this garment from you, debtors; you should pledge this garment to no one if you wish never to endure shame, so that you may sleep among the midst of lots, like Aaron, that you may sleep between the two Testaments, that you may sleep the sleep of the resurrection and may be able to restore yourselves. This is the garment, which, even if you have given it as a pledge, holy Solomon in Proverbs urges us must be recovered, saying: Take off thy garments; for an unjust man is passing by.
77. The garment of wisdom is of those vestures which wisdom has made for herself from fine linen and purple, that is, the raiment of faith consists of the preaching of heavenly things and of the blood of our Lord's passion. By the fine linen are indicated heavenly things, and under the symbol of purple is declared the Mystery of the Sacred Blood by which the Kingdom of Heaven is conferred. Finally, the preceding words indicate that the garment of wisdom is signified, for he began first saying: Be wise, my son, that thy heart may rejoice, and two verses below he says, for the imprudent passing on suffer loss. Take off thy garment. Take it off, lest you suffer the loss due to your folly, lest that most wicked and common usurer, seeing you stripped of your own garment, should attempt to reveal the confusion of your shame and should persuade you to cover yourself with leaves, and lest seeing yourself naked you should fear to come into the sight of God.
78. Lend to thy neighbor, he says, on occasion, restrict thy word and deal faithfully with him and thou shalt at all times find what is necessary for thee. Innocence does not like to defend itself with many words. Susanna did not need verbal defense. She restricted her word to the Lord and immediately she earned a right to obtain testimony of her own chastity. The elders, who were attempting to obscure truth under the false guise of words, said much, but not the daughter of Juda. She kept silent before men, but spake to God, for a woman's defense of herself before the people was shameful, and while her modesty was being defended, her shamelessness was shown. She restricted her word, saying to the Lord: Thou knowest that they have borne false witness against me. And the Lord moved as the avenger of her chastity the spirit of the boy Daniel.
79. Therefore restrict your word, that your action of giving back, not your tongue, may reply to the creditor; or mystically, restrict your word, that is, finish it, for the Lord shall finish His word and cut it short upon the earth; that is, from many reckonings let the shortened sum be agreeable to you. Take out what has been paid for diverse expenses that you may have safe what remains; just as the Lord, in the case of the many expenditures on the Jews, from that lengthy reckoning of sins, made an end finally and cut short, so the remnants might be saved through the election of grace and be preserved for seed, and through these he might revive the lifeless hope of the synagogue. 21, 80. How disgraceful it is that you should repay with vexation in place of benefit him who has helped you! Since you have defrauded him whom you owe, afterward in the time of your need you will not find a creditor to trust you. How unworthy, that although you are unable to support your life when you still owe nothing, you should think that you can support both your life and your debt! Think beforehand whence you can pay, and so borrow. "I get the yield of my lands," he says. But how will they, which do not abound for your use, abound for the increase of the interest contracted? "But I will sell my property." And from whence the income which you would use for your expense? The interest is not paid with its own money, but it is increased; by counting it is heaped up and grows.
81. Finally, do you not consider the humility and sense of shame of the man who begs? Before you receive it, you kiss the hands of the haughty usurer, you lower your voice lest too clear a tone of your voice may offend his ears, lest too many should hear you beseeching him. Poverty is not a crime, there is no infamy in indigence, but to be in debt is shameful, and not to pay, shameless. You will beg for delay when you begin to be summoned at the time of payment agreed on. In place of money you will bring vexation, you will dispute about the time, you will build up excuses, and although you have promised all, in order that you may not seem altogether to cheat, you will give back barely half. Of a friend you will make an enemy, in place of honor you will bring upon yourself disgrace, in place of blessing, a curse. Consider how these things injure reputation, recognize how at variance they are with the upright man.. Therefore while you are free of chains, draw back, remove yourself from the yoke and burden of slavery. You are rich: do not take a loan. You are poor: do not take a loan. You are rich: you suffer no necessity of begging. You are poor: consider the difficulty of paying. Wealth is diminished by interest, poverty is not lightened by interest; for never is evil corrected by evil nor is a wound healed by a wound, but is made worse by an ulcer.
83. See to this, lest while you are seeking money you should pledge the nether or the upper millstone. It is the millstone with which flour is prepared, with which the one woman who is taken and the other who is left, grinds grain. Perchance she is taken who always grinds the Word of God, who, that she may have flour, prepares a spiritual meal, who purges out the old leaven that there may be new paste, who guards her lower millstone, who interprets the Scriptures, who preserves for herself her upper millstone. She, however, is left who pledges her lower millstone, who when she has ground something carelessly pledges her upper millstone. What is that stone, I ask? I have read: The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner. Wherefore the upper stone? Because it is the very one which helps those grinding. It is the one which says: Search the Scriptures in which you think that you have life everlasting.
84. Do not, usurer, take this upper millstone as a pledge, lest you should fall upon it. For whosoever shall fall upon that stone shall be crushed and upon whomsoever it shall fall it will grind him to powder. Nor should you take the pledge of the widow. Each is grave and according to the letter, that you should take away from the needy his occupation and means of livelihood, or that you should take the widow's pledge; but it is more grave if you should retain the word of the soul, which is the widow of the Word, so that you should pronounce the sterility of widowhood upon it. 22, 85. And that you may know that I am urging these things upon you with loving affection, that you may know that it is permitted also to lend well, I will show you what usurer you ought to imitate. A certain creditor, he said, had two debtors: the one owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty. And whereas thy had not wherewith to pay, he forgave them both. Which therefore loveth him more? Simon the Pharisee said, I suppose that he to whom he forgave more. And his opinion was praised by the Lord, who said: Thou hast judged rightly. The Pharisee judged rightly who thought evilly, believing that the Lord was ignorant of the woman's sins rather than forgave them. But his opinion is praised that all excuse may be taken from him.
86. More has been remitted to the Church which has been gathered together from the people of the nations, since she owed more; but the woman also paid more, not to one asking, but to one forgiving. She gave water for the feet of Christ because he cleansed her sins, she kissed his feet, bearing tokens of peace, she poured oil upon his feet, she herself also conferring mercy on the poor-they are the feet of Christ, for among them does Christ walk more innocently-and wiped them with the hair of her head. For whoever has the love of humility humbles himself for Christ. Wherefore, he said, many sins are forgiven her because she hath loved much.
87. Take note that the Lord both bestows mercy generously, as it were, and dispenses judgment with compassion. He forgave beforehand through grace, but he knew whom he was forgiving. The Jew has nothing to excuse him. He forgave me, as a sinner, more; to him, as ungrateful, he conceded less. He knew however both that he, as ungrateful, could not pay back what he had received, and that the Church, mindful of grace, would pay more because she merited more. 23, 88. You have therefore a usurer whom you may follow, if you wish to be given praise, if you do not wish to be what is reproached by us. For we do not disparage the person, but avarice. Nor am I unaware that certain ones said two days ago, when my sermon had stung their feelings, "What did the bishop. mean by holding forth against usurers as though something new were permitted, as though our ancestors did not also do it, as though it were not an old thing to take usury?" It is true and I do not deny it, but guilt too is an old thing. Indeed, sin was committed by Adam, and guilt came from him, from whom also came Eve; from him came falsehood, from whom also our human condition. Wherefore Christ came, that He might destroy the old, that He might set up the new, and that grace might renew what guilt had destroyed; therefore He gave Himself over to suffering that He might renew by His spirit and free us all. For the devil deceived Eve so that she might overthrow her husband, that she might pledge their inheritance.
89. What do the usurers do? They deceive those who are in- debted. They bind the sureties. But Tobias did not seek a Behold pledge or demand surety. But you must run about to seek a surety that you may bind him with your obligations. another enemy is being prepared. For when you have nothing whence to pay your debt, he will be held in your place. You will be found a circumventor in this case and a deceiver, who have deceived your friend. He will be stripped, he will be cast into chains in your place. You will find him a harsher collector than the creditor, who will say, " Goad your fellow citizen for whom you have become surety." So it will be done, so that you yourself also may begin to be ungrateful and transgress what is written: Be not forgetful of the favor of thy bondsman, for He gave His dear life for thee. You must needs say, “Who asked you to promise surety? If you had not given surety I would not have received the money. I received counterfeit money; he gave me brass mixed with gold. O that you had not offered yourself! Perhaps my creditor suborned you, or you him."
90. Therefore beware lest you bind yourself for another's debt, lest you be said to have sold this also, lest if your debtor gives you any gratitude, as is the custom of friendship, it may seem that you have bought it. Or if you wish to intervene, are moved on being besought by the entreaties of your friend, and blush to refuse, intervene in such a way that if he is not equal to paying the debt, you will know that it must be paid from your own funds. Prepared for this, proceed. For you have read: Thou shouldest not promise beyond thy strength, but if thou hast promised regard thyself as restoring. And below: Receive thy neighbor according to thy strength and watch that thou mayest not fall. That is, you should not bind yourself for a greater amount of security than the strength of your resources is able to bear and pay. For if you surrender what you have, you have lost your wealth, but you have not lost your honor. You do not experience the loss of your reputation, you have redeemed your friend without your own dishonor. In another place also the Proverbs of Solomon warn you of this, saying: In acting as surety be surety for your friends, just as one who binds himself as sponsor for his friends. If however you do not have, listen to what Solomon says: Do not offer thyself as surety blushing at the role, for if thou have not wherewith to restore he will take thy covering from beneath thy body. Therefore a good usurer gets gratitude, a wicked one imprecation. 29, 91. But not content merely with these limits of virtue, holy Tobias also knew that a reward must be paid to the hired servant. He offered him even a half, and instead of a worthy hired servant he found an angel! And whence do you know that you may not defraud some just man of his hire-this is worse if he be infirm, for woe to him that shall scandalize one of these little ones. How do you know whether there be an angel in him? For we ought not to doubt that there can be an angel in the hired servant, since Christ can be, who is accustomed to be in the least.
92. Give the hired servant his reward therefore and do not defraud him of the price of his labor, because you too are a hired servant of Christ, and He has sent you to His vineyard, and a heavenly reward is laid up for you. Do not therefore injure the servant working in truth nor the hired servant giving his life, do not despise the needy man who spends his life at his labor and maintains it by his hire. For this is to kill a man, to deny him the succor required for his life. You too are a hired servant on this earth; give his reward to the hired servant, that you too may be able to say to the Lord when you pray: Give a reward to them that uphold thee.
93. Tobias says to you, Riotous living is the mother of starvation, whereby he teaches moderation. He says likewise: To every man that hath done any work for thee pay his hire on the same day and let not the wages of the hired servant stay with thee, and thy reward shall not be lessened. He says to you: Do not drink wine to intoxication. He says to you: Give of your bread to those who are hungry -you see what he wishes you to lend and with thy garments cover the naked. Of all that thou hast in abundance do charity. Bless God at all times. In these things, therefore, is everlasting gain and perpetual usury.