If one of your brethren becomes poor, and falls into poverty among you, then you shall help him, like a stranger or a sojourner, that he may live with you. Take no usury or interest from him; but fear your God, that your brother may live with you. You shall not lend him your money for usury, nor lend him your food at a profit. Lev 25:35-37
Then I said, “What you are doing is not good. Should you not walk in the fear of our God because of the reproach of the nations, our enemies? I also, with my brethren and my servants, am lending them money and grain. Please, let us stop this usury! Restore now to them, even this day, their lands, their vineyards, their olive groves, and their houses, also a hundredth of the money and the grain, the new wine and the oil, that you have charged them.” Nehemiah 5:5-11
Lord, who may abide in Your tabernacle? Who may dwell in Your holy hill?
He who walks uprightly, and works righteousness, . . .
He who does not put out his money at usury, . . Psalm 15:1-5
In you they take bribes to shed blood; you take usury and increase; you have made profit from your neighbors by extortion, and have forgotten Me,” says the Lord GOD. Ezekiel 22:12
Thanks for those great quotations. Food for thought.
Thank you. I think, Belloc's point was that usury is an intrinsic evil that all religions abhor, not something prohibited by the Catholic Church for the benefit of Catholics only. That the Holy Scripture prohibits usury is well-known, at least for educated people.
The Church, of course, made the same distinction Belloc makes: charging interest in an entrepreneurial way is OK, charging interest on necessities or when the lender is in duress is not. See Aquinas and Hostiensis, especially, on this.