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Vix pervenit

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Pope Benedict XIV promulgated Vix Pervenit in 1745.

Vix Pervenit: On Usury and Other Dishonest Profit was an encyclical, promulgated by Pope Benedict XIV on November 1, 1745, which condemned the practice of charging interest on loans as usury. Because the encyclical was addressed to the Bishops of Italy, it is generally not considered ex cathedra.[1][2] The Holy Office applied the encyclical to the whole of the Roman Catholic Church on July 29, 1836, during the reign of Pope Gregory XVI.[1][2]

The encyclical codified Church teachings which date back to early ecumenical councils, at a time when scholastic philosophy (which did not regard money as a productive input) was increasingly coming into conflict with capitalism. Though never formally retracted, the encyclical's relevance has faded as the Roman Catholic Church retreated from actively enforcing its social teachings in the financial sphere, and as the practice of charging interest on loans became almost universally accepted—legally and ethically.

Historical context

Main article: Usury

Medieval Christian interest payment theology began with the First Council of Nicaea (325), which forbade clergy from engaging in usury.[3] Later ecumenical councils applied this regulation to the laity.[4][3]

Lateran III decreed that persons who accepted interest on loans could receive neither the sacraments nor Christian burial.[5] Pope Clement V made the belief in the right to usury heresy in 1311, and abolished all secular legislation which allowed it.[6][1] Pope Sixtus V condemned the practice of charging interest as "detestable to God and man, damned by the sacred canons and contrary to Christian charity."[6]

Theological historian John Noonan argues that "the doctrine [of usury] was enunciated by popes, expressed by three ecumenical councils, proclaimed by bishops, and taught unanimously by theologians."[4]

The encyclical

The encyclical states:

The nature of the sin called usury has its proper place and origin in a loan contract. This financial contract between consenting parties demands, by its very nature, that one return to another only as much as he has received. The sin rests on the fact that sometimes the creditor desires more than he has given. Therefore he contends some gain is owed him beyond that which he loaned, but any gain which exceeds the amount he gave is illicit and usurious.[7]

The prohibition was rather unequivocal, rejecting even "moderate" rates of interest.[7] The prohibition on usury did not extend only to loan contracts but also condemned those who "falsely and rashly persuade themselves" that "other just contracts exist, for which it is permissible to receive a moderate amount of interest. Should any one think like this, he will oppose not only the judgment of the Catholic Church on usury, but also common human sense and natural reason."[7]

Extrinsic interest

The encyclical, however, did allow extrinsic interest to be charged, stating that "legitimate reasons arise to demand something over and above the amount due on the contract" as long as those reasons are "not at all intrinsic to the contract."[7] The Holy Office would later expand upon these extrinsic justifications for interest in 1780 and 1784 to include "compensation" for the hazards and delays of repayment.[8] The encyclical also did not prohibit profit from non-lending investment.

Effects

The encyclical was published one year after an influential and controversial three-volume defense of usury by Scipione Maffei.[9] Months after the publication of Vix Pervenit, Maffei published a second, almost identical edition of his treatise—which contained the full text of the encyclical and a dedication to Benedict XIV, his friend—with the imprimatur of the Catholic Church.[10][11]

Papal historian John Pollard argues that the encyclical's prohibition on usury contributed to the dependence of the Holy See upon Jewish bankers like James de Rothschild.[12]

The text of the encyclical was destroyed in several countries.[13] In France, the ban on usury persisted until the French Revolution of 1789, the same year in which Turgot's Mémoire sur les prets d'argent, a defense of usury, was allowed to be published.[2]

Current status

No other papal encyclical deals directly and rigourously with the permissibility of usury.[14] Pope Leo XIII's Rerum Novarum (1891) laments that usury is "still practiced by covetous and grasping men"[15] and Pope Pius XI's Quadragesimo Anno (1931) deals generally with economic violence.[16] By the nineteenth century, the debate over lending within the Catholic Church disappeared, as the provision of credit had become viewed as political economy issue, rather than a theological one.[17]

In 1830—following the widespread acceptance of the Napoleonic code, which allowed interest, throughout Europe[11]— with the approval of Pope Pius VIII, the Inquisition of Rome, distinguished the doctrine of usury from the practice of usury, decreeing that confessors should no longer disturb the latter.[10]

According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, circa 1912, "The Holy See admits practically the lawfulness of interest on loans, even for ecclesiastical property, though it has not promulgated any doctrinal decree on the subject."[1] W. Hohoff in Die Bedeutung der Marxschen Kapitalkritik argues that "the Church has never admitted the justice of interest whether on money or on capital, but has merely tolerated the institution, just as under the Old Dispensation, God tolerated polygamy and divorce."[18]

The Code of Canon Law, promulgated in 1917, allowed those responsible for the church's financial affairs at the parochial and diocesan levels to invest in interest-bearing securities "for the legal rate of interest (unless it is evident that the legal rate is exorbitant), or even for a higher rate, provided that there be a just and proportionate reason."[19]

Miller, a specialist in Catholic social doctrine, argues, circa 1994, that: "the words 'bank' and 'banking' are almost nonexistent in the documents of modern Catholic social teaching. Perhaps because the medieval teaching was never formally retracted that money was unproductive and therefore money lending at interest was therefore immoral, yet the church itself became an active investor [...] Or perhaps it was because the church was deeply involved in financial matters at the highest levels that it was in no position to criticise."[20]

References

  • Carlen, C. (ed.). 1990. The Papal Encyclicals, Vol. I. Raleigh, N.C. p. 15-17.
  • Moehlman, Conrad H. 1934. "The Christianization of Interest." Church History. Issue 3. p. 3-15.
  • Pollard, John F. 2005. Money and the Rise of the Modern Papacy: Financing the Vatican, 1850–1950. Cambridge University Press. p. 26.

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d Vermeersch, Arthur. 1912. "Usury." Catholic Encyclopedia.
  2. ^ a b c Turner, Bryan Stanley. 1999. Max Weber: Critical Responses. Routledge (UK). ISBN 0415184738. p. 143.
  3. ^ a b Moehlman, 1934, p. 6.
  4. ^ a b Noonan, John T., Jr. 1993. "Development of Moral Doctrine." 54 Theological Stud. 662.
  5. ^ Moehlman, 1934, p. 6-7.
  6. ^ a b Moehlman, 1934, p. 7.
  7. ^ a b c d Vix Pervenit.
  8. ^ McManners, John. 1998. Church and society in eighteenth-century France. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0198270046. p. 273.
  9. ^ Jones, Norman. 2004. "Usury". EH.Net Encyclopedia, edited by Robert Whaples.
  10. ^ a b White, Andrew Dickerson. 1897. A History of the warfare of science with theology in Christendom vol. 2. D. Appleton and Company. p. 283.
  11. ^ a b Raymond de Roover. 1955. "Scholastic Economics: Survival and Lasting Influence from the Sixteenth Century to Adam Smith." Quarterly Journal of Economics. Vol. 69. No. 2. p. 176.
  12. ^ Pollard, 2005, p. 24-26.
  13. ^ François de Siebenthal. June-July 2005.Michael. "How to apply Social Credit locally."
  14. ^ Zenit News Agency. 1999, April 14. John Paul II's severe condemnation of usury."
  15. ^ Rerum Novarum.
  16. ^ Quadragesimo Anno.
  17. ^ Olegario, Rowena. Winter 2000. "A History of Consumer Credit: Doctrines and Practices." Business History Review. Vol.74. Iss. 4. p. 702.
  18. ^ Moehlman, 1934, p. 15.
  19. ^ T.L. Bouscaren and A.C. Ellis. 1957. Canon Law: A Text and Commentary. p. 825.
  20. ^ Miller, A. (1994). "Banks and Banking" in Dwyer (ed.) New Dictionary of Catholic Social Thought, p. 676-678.
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