Gregory of Nyssa — Against Those Who Practice Usury

Contains the closest thing in the patristic usury corpus to an address to lawgivers — and on inspection it is not one. Recorded because the near-miss is more useful to the argument than a silence would be.

Persons who love virtue live in accord with reason by following beneficial laws and ordinances. Two general characteristics belonging to lawgivers distinguish such persons… Hence we are assembled today to hear God’s commands and to pay close attention to the prophet [Ezekiel].

You whom I address, whomever you are, forsake the habits of a petty thief.

How can you pray like this, oh usurer?

You hinder the road of life and close the doors to the kingdom.

Comment

The near-miss. The opening sentence is the best candidate in the whole patristic usury corpus for an appeal to the civil magistrate, and it does not survive reading. The “lawgivers” are not Roman legislators being petitioned; the sentence describes persons who love virtue, and the laws in view are God’s commands — as the next clause makes explicit, we are assembled today to hear God’s commands. The frame is the assembly, not the court.

Everything after it is second person singular. You whom I address, whomever you are. How can you pray like this, oh usurer? The sanctions are spiritual throughout: the usurer hinders the road of life and closes the doors of the kingdom. No civil penalty is proposed, requested, or implied.

Why record a near-miss at all. A collection that reports only silence on the magistrate invites the reply that no one asked the question. Gregory comes within one sentence of asking it, in a homily built on Ezek. 22:12 and Ex. 22:25, and turns to the conscience instead. That is stronger evidence than absence: the register was available and was not taken.

The translator’s own introduction states the situation plainly — interest-taking was legal throughout the patristic period, and Gregory condemned it anyway. He preached against a lawful practice without asking that it be made unlawful. Compare [[basil-usury]], preaching the same year in the same province, to the same effect.