demerits of the two philosophies, they are two, and not one.



SECTION 4.--DIVISION OF THE SUBJECT


The opinion is general that the distinctive doctrine of the mediæval
Church which permeated the whole of its economic thought was the
doctrine of usury. The holders of this view may lay claim to very
influential supporters among the students of the subject. Ashley says
that 'the prohibition of usury was clearly the centre of the canonist
doctrine.'[1] Roscher expresses the same opinion in practically the
same words;[2] and Endemann sees the whole economic development of the
Middle Ages and the Renaissance as the victorious destruction of the
usury law by the exigencies of real life.[3] However impressed we
may be by the opinions of such eminent authorities, we, nevertheless,
cannot help feeling that on this point they are under a misconception.
There is no doubt that the doctrine of the canonists which impresses
the modern mind most deeply is the usury prohibition, partly because
it is not generally realised that the usury doctrine would not have
forbidden the receipt of any of the commonest kinds of unearned
revenue of the present day, and partly because the discussion of usury
occupies such a very large part of the writings of the canonists. It
may be quite true to say that the doctrine of usury was that which
gave the greatest trouble to the mediæval writers, on account of the
nicety of the distinctions with which it abounded, and on account of
the ingenuity of avaricious merchants, who continually sought to
evade the usury laws by disguising illegal under the guise of
legal transactions. In practice, therefore, the usury doctrine was