Usury and the Church of England by Rev. Henry Swabey Mid-May 2008 Draft

Usury and the

Church of England

by the

Rev. Henry Swabey

List of Contents

Usury and the Church of England by Rev. Henry Swabey Mid-May 2008 Draft

Chapter 1. Background The Scriptures

The prohibition of the business of usury1 is clear enough in the Old Testament. It was against the Law of Yahweh to lend £100 and to expect back more than £100.

Usury and the Church of England by Rev. Henry Swabey Mid-May 2008 Draft

Chapter 2. The Early Church

This was the kind of society in which the Christians found themselves. The first disciples, it is true, belonged to a society in which the Yeoman was not extinct, and in which the Usurer was still regarded with traditional loathing. But embracing, as it were, this small scale community was the Roman Empire, riddled by usury, and it was upon this society that, eventually, the Christian moral law as to money made its impact and was accurately developed.

Usury and the Church of England by Rev. Henry Swabey Mid-May 2008 Draft

Chapter 3. The Medieval Church

There are two main trends in economics in the Europe that arose after the Dark Ages. On the one hand, the process of centralization gradually emerged, in which money came to take a more important part. On the other hand, Catholic thought on economics grew into fullness and made itself felt in law throughout Christendom.

Usury and the Church of England by Rev. Henry Swabey Mid-May 2008 Draft

Chapter 4. Before the Reformation

We can see more clearly the trends and dates in the Church's dealing with usury when we consider England. The problem was, how to outlaw the sin.

Usury and the Church of England by Rev. Henry Swabey Mid-May 2008 Draft

Chapter 5. Church Mints

The prohibition of usury was a negative way of protecting the social order that had been achieved. But positive action was also taken by Church and State to render usury unnecessary.

Usury and the Church of England by Rev. Henry Swabey Mid-May 2008 Draft

Chapter 6. A Just And Stable Price

We now look at some of the results of Medieval Economy as concerns the purchasing power of money.

Usury and the Church of England by Rev. Henry Swabey Mid-May 2008 Draft

Chapter 7. Cloth is My Bread

Pannus Mihi Panis - Cloth is my Bread - is the motto of Kendal and it typifies the other tendency in England which indirectly contributed so much to the demand for the withdrawal of Anti-Usury Legislation.

Usury and the Church of England by Rev. Henry Swabey Mid-May 2008 Draft

Chapter 8. Partnership “Hark, hark, the dogs do bark. The beggars have come to town.”

In the reign of Henry VIII, the attack on Catholic Order was so widespread that some have seen in it more than a chance collection of tendencies coming to a head. In fact, a new type of man was coming to power, whose ruling passion was greed.

Usury and the Church of England by Rev. Henry Swabey Mid-May 2008 Draft

Chapter 9. Usury Legalized

In this chapter we shall look at four writings about usury from the second half of the 16th century.

Usury and the Church of England by Rev. Henry Swabey Mid-May 2008 Draft

Chapter 10. Legalized Usury Is Not Legal119

Introduction

The title page of Bishop Andrewes’ treatise reads as follows: ‘Concerning Usuries: a Theological Computation made in the Public Theological School of Cambridge by Lancelot Andrewes, Doctor of the School of Theology. London. Printed by Felix Kyngston for R.B. & Andrea Hebb. 1629’.

Usury and the Church of England by Rev. Henry Swabey Mid-May 2008 Draft

Chapter 11. Usury Moralized

At the opening of the seventeenth century, there were signs that the puritans were not going to have matters all their own way. There were men of integrity and learning like Wilson and Andrewes, whose opinions had weight. But the Whig current had set in, a stiff breeze was blowing from Geneva, and when in 1610 the people wanted Andrewes for their Primate, Abbot the ‘bigoted Calvinist’ was chosen to that high office by James I.

Usury and the Church of England by Rev. Henry Swabey Mid-May 2008 Draft

Chapter 12. Usury in the Eighteenth Century

Mr. Tawney remarks that it is in vain to look for social teaching from the eighteenth century Church. Indeed, Convocation177 was closed in 1717, and Samuel Richardson in Clarissa gives a faithful portrait of many lick- spittle clergy in Mr. Brand, the heroine's enemy. It was the century of the rising manufacturer, slowly pushing the landed gentry to the background. New inventions were constantly discovered, looser rein given to greed in the industrial revolution.

Usury and the Church of England by Rev. Henry Swabey Mid-May 2008 Draft

Chapter 13. After Waterloo

After the Battle of Waterloo184, the Financial Interests struck first by discarding Silver in 1817 and forcing the Cash Payments Bill through Parliament in 1819 to the dismay of the older Peel185 who complained bitterly to his son. The Monetary Interests were now beating the Manufacturing Interests resulting in the severest suffering for Labourers of all kinds. It is one of the curiosities of literature that Walter Savage Landor considered Peel was the only statesman of any integrity in the period. But this was rather for his interest in Southey. The gratitude between the families extends to this day.

Usury and the Church of England by Rev. Henry Swabey Mid-May 2008 Draft

Chapter 14. Christian Socialism

‘The rate at which animals and plants increase and minerals are produced under the hand of man; in other words, the rate at which the means of subsistence increase...is the ultimate cause of a rate of interest.’ Del Mar, The Science of Money

Usury and the Church of England by Rev. Henry Swabey Mid-May Draft 2008

Chapter 15. The Recovery

It was the turn of the century. The State of England was at the height of its Imperial Powers - an empire upon which the sun never set. Meanwhile in the Church of England new men were coming to the fore. They wanted to be part of a new Social Movement but they were not content with a Socialism that was moving from Humanism to Secularism. Such were the late Bishop Gore and the Rev. P.E.T. (later Canon) Widdrington. And it was only later on that Conrad Noel wrote about usury.