Lending money at interest has been condemned by men such as Plato, Aristotle, Plutarch, Seneca and Cicero, early fathers of the Christian church; the majority of popes and councils up to 1983; likewise modern authors such as Goethe and Wagner.
The fight against usury goes back to the earliest known beginnings of civilization. From the days of Sumer to the present, decent people have struggled against this tool of the forces of darkness. Charging interest was condemned by the ancient Greek philosophers. Money was to them something dead; something dead cannot be allowed to grow. Aristotle wrote in his work Politics (Book One, Part X):
“The most hated sort, and with the greatest reason, is usury, which makes a gain out of money itself, and not from the natural object of it. For money was intended to be used in exchange, but not to increase at interest… Wherefore of all modes of getting wealth this is the most unnatural.”
Up until the end of the Middle Ages it was forbidden for Christians to charge interest. To charge interest on a loan was tantamount to murder and robbery. Later, those who charged interest were treated as heretics.
Martin Luther stated plainly: “All usurers are thieves and belong in the gallows.” Everyone who lent money at an interest rate of 5 to 6 percent was considered to be a usurer. During the Middle Ages only Jews were allowed to lend money with interest. In Deuteronomy a Jew is forbidden to charge interest from his brother. But the goy (non-Jew) was not his brother. And to Jewish extremists plunder was not unfamiliar.
In ancient Babylonia the legal interest rate was 30 percent on money and 50 percent on grain. In Assyria there was no upper limit for interest rate. The farmers were often so deep in debt that they starved to death along with their families. This led to ruthless exploitation of the soil.
In the city of Uruk in Sumer there lived two brothers who lent money with interest. When a borrower no longer could repay his loan, he lost his house and had to start working for free for the brothers. The slave could be lent also to other employers. This is a classical example of economic slavery…
WebInvestigator.KK.org - by F. Kaskais 