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having the power to save through wealth as that other through his skill, but using your choice for the destruction of the one who entrusted himself to you. The life of the moneylender is idle and greedy; he knows not the labor of farming, nor the ingenuity of trade, but he sits in one place, raising wild beasts at his hearth. He wants everything to grow for him unsown and unplowed. His plough is the pen, his field the paper, his seed the ink, his rain is time, secretly increasing for him the fruit of his money; his sickle is the demand for payment. His threshing-floor is his house, on which he thins out the substance of the afflicted; he eyes the property of all. He prays for hardships and misfortunes for men, so that they might be forced to come to him. He hates the self-sufficient and considers those who have not borrowed as enemies. He haunts the law courts, to find the one hard-pressed by his creditors, and he follows the debt-collectors as vultures follow battle lines and wars. He carries around his purse and shows to those who are drowning the bait for the hunt, so that gaping at it out of need, 9.198 they might swallow along with it the hook of usury. Every day he counts his profit and his desire is not satisfied. He is vexed at the gold that lies stored up in his house, because it lies idle and unproductive. He imitates the farmers who sow immediately from the summer heaps; he received, he gave. He does not let the wretched gold rest, but transfers it from hand to hand. Indeed, you see the rich man, abounding in gold, often not having even one coin in his house, but his hopes are in papers, his substance in contracts, having nothing and possessing all things, using his life in a way contrary to the apostolic writing, giving all things to those who ask not out of a philanthropic mind, but out of a greedy manner. For he chooses temporary poverty, so that the gold, like a hard-working slave, having worked, may return with its wages. Do you see how the hope of the future empties the house and makes the man of much gold temporarily without possessions.

And what is the reason for this? The writing on the paper, the contract of the one in distress: “I will give with interest, I will pay back with the produce.” Then, I ask, the debtor, though being poor, is trusted because of the written bond, but God, though being rich and making promises, is not heard. “Give, and I will repay,” He cries out, having written in the Gospels, in a public manuscript of the whole world. which four evangelists wrote instead of one notary, of which all Christians from the times of salvation are witnesses. You have paradise as a security, a trustworthy pledge. But if you also seek here and now: the whole world is the possession of the well-disposed debtor. examine carefully the resources of the one who seeks the interest and you will find the riches; every gold-bearing land is the possession of your debtor, every 9.199 mine of silver and bronze and the other materials is part of His dominion. Look up at the great heaven, contemplate the boundless sea, consider the breadth of the earth, count the animals nourished upon it; all are slaves and possessions of Him whom you despise as being poor. Come to your senses, O man; do not insult God nor consider Him less honorable than the bankers, whom you trust without doubt when they offer a guarantee. Give to a guarantor who does not die, trust in a manuscript that is not stolen nor torn. Do not ask for interest, but give the benefaction unadulterated, and you will see God repaying the favor to you with an addition. But if this saying strikes your hearing as strange, I have the testimony at hand, that to those who spend piously and do good, God repays the reward many times over. For when Peter asked and said: "Behold, we have left everything and followed you; what then will there be for us?" "Amen, I say to you," he says, "Everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life." Do you see the generosity? Do you see the goodness? The very

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τοῦ σῴζειν ἔχων διὰ τὸν πλοῦτον ὡς ἐκεῖνος διὰ τὴν τέχνην, τῇ προαιρέσει δὲ κεχρημένος εἰς ἀπώλειαν τοῦ ἑαυτόν σοι καταπιστεύσαντος. ἀργὸς καὶ πλεονεκτικὸς βίος ὁ τοῦ τοκίζοντος· οὐκ οἶδε πόνον γεωργίας, οὐκ ἐπίνοιαν ἐμπορίας, ἐφ' ἑνὸς δὲ τόπου κάθηται τρέφων ἐπὶ τῆς ἑστίας θηρία. ἄσπαρτα αὐτῷ βούλεται τὰ πάντα καὶ ἀνήροτα φύεσθαι. ἄροτρον ἔχει τὸν κάλαμον, χώραν τὸν χάρτην, σπέρμα τὸ μέλαν, ὑετὸν τὸν χρόνον αὔξοντα αὐτῷ λανθανόντως τὴν τῶν χρημάτων ἐπικαρπίαν, δρέπανόν ἐστιν αὐτῷ ἡ ἀπαίτησις. ἅλων ἡ οἰκία, ἐφ' ἧς λεπτύνει τὰς τῶν θλιβομένων οὐσίας, τὰ πάντων ἴδια βλέπει. εὔχεται τοῖς ἀνθρώποις ἀνάγκας καὶ συμφοράς, ἵνα πρὸς αὐτὸν ἠναγκασμένως ἀπέλθωσι. μισεῖ τοὺς ἑαυτοῖς ἀρκοῦντας καὶ τοὺς μὴ δεδανεισμένους ἐχθροὺς ἡγεῖται. προσεδρεύει τοῖς δικαστηρίοις, ἵνα εὕρῃ τὸν στενούμενον τοῖς ἀπαιτηταῖς, καὶ τοῖς πράκτορσιν ἀκολουθεῖ ὡς ταῖς παρατάξεσι καὶ τοῖς πολέμοις οἱ γῦπες. Περιφέρει τὸ βαλάντιον καὶ δείκνυσι τοῖς πνιγομένοις τῆς θήρας δέλεαρ, ἵν' ἐκείνῳ διὰ τὴν χρείαν περιχήναντες 9.198 συγκαταπίωσι τῶν τόκων τὸ ἄγκιστρον. καθ' ἡμέραν ἀριθμεῖ τὸ κέρδος καὶ τῆς ἐπιθυμίας οὐκ ἐμπίμπλαται. ἄχθεται πρὸς τὸν χρυσὸν τὸν ἐπὶ τῆς οἰκίας ἀποκείμενον, διότι κεῖται ἀργὸς καὶ ἄπρακτος. Μιμεῖται τοὺς γεωργοὺς τοὺς ἀπὸ τῶν σωρῶν τοῦ θέρους εὐθὺς σπείροντας· ἔλαβεν, ἔδωκεν. οὐκ ἀνίησι τὸν ἄθλιον χρυσόν, ἀλλ' ἐκ χειρῶν εἰς χεῖρας μετάγει. βλέπεις γοῦν τὸν πλούσιον καὶ πολύχρυσον πολλάκις μηδὲ ἓν νόμισμα ἔχοντα ἐπὶ τῆς οἰκίας, ἀλλ' ἐν χάρταις τὰς ἐλπίδας, ἐν ὁμολογίαις τὴν ὑπόστασιν, μηδὲν ἔχοντα καὶ πάντα κατέχοντα, πρὸς τοὐναντίον τοῦ ἀποστολι κοῦ γράμματος κεχρημένον τῷ βίῳ, πάντα διδόντα τοῖς αἰτήσασιν οὐ διὰ φιλάνθρωπον γνώμην, ἀλλὰ διὰ φιλάργυρον τρόπον. αἱρεῖται γὰρ τὴν πρόσκαιρον πενίαν, ἵνα ὡς δοῦλος ἐπίμοχθος ὁ χρυσὸς ἐργασάμενος μετὰ τῶν μισθῶν ἐπανέλθῃ. ὁρᾷς, ὅπως ἡ τοῦ μέλλοντος ἐλπὶς κενοῖ τὴν οἰκίαν καὶ ποιεῖ τὸν πολύχρυσον ἀκτήμονα πρόσκαιρον.

Τούτου δὲ τίς ἡ αἰτία; ἡ ἐν τῷ χάρτῃ γραφή, ἡ ὁμολογία τοῦ στενωθέντος· δώσω μετὰ τῆς ἐργασίας, ὑποτελέσω μετὰ τοῦ γινομένου. εἶτα, παρακαλῶ, ὁ μὲν χρεώστης καὶ ἄπορος ὢν διὰ τὴν συγγραφὴν πιστεύεται, ὁ δὲ θεὸς πλούσιος ὢν καὶ ἐπαγγελλόμενος οὐκ ἀκούεται. δὸς καὶ ἐγὼ ἀποδώσω, βοᾷ γράψας ἐν εὐαγγελίοις, ἐν χειρογράφῳ δημοσίῳ τῆς οἰκουμένης. ὃ τέσσαρες ἔγραψαν εὐαγγελισταὶ ἀνθ' ἑνὸς συμβολαιογράφου, οὗ μάρτυρες πάντες οἱ ἐκ τῶν χρόνων τῆς σωτηρίας Χριστιανοί. ἔχεις ὑποθήκην τὸν παράδεισον, ἐνέχυρον ἀξιόπιστον. εἰ δὲ καὶ ἐνταῦθα ζητεῖς· ὅλος ὁ κόσμος τοῦ εὐγνώμονος χρεώστου κτῆμα. περιέργασαι σοφῶς τὴν εὐπορίαν τοῦ ζητοῦντος τὴν ἐργασίαν καὶ εὑρήσεις τὸν πλοῦτον· πᾶσα γῆ χρυσῖτις τοῦ χρεώστου σου κτῆμα, πᾶν 9.199 μέταλλον ἀργυρίου καὶ χαλκοῦ καὶ τῶν ἑξῆς ὑλῶν τῆς ἐκείνου δεσποτείας μέρος. ἀπόβλεψον εἰς τὸν μέγαν οὐρανόν, κατάμαθε τὴν ἄπειρον θάλασσαν, ἱστόρησον τὸ πλάτος τῆς γῆς, ἀρίθμησον τὰ ἐπ' αὐτῆς τρεφόμενα ζῷα· πάντα δοῦλα καὶ κτήματα, οὗ σὺ ὡς ἀπόρου καταφρονεῖς. σωφρόνησον, ἄνθρω πε· μὴ καθυβρίσῃς τὸν θεὸν μηδὲ ἡγήσῃ τῶν τραπεζιτῶν ἀτιμότερον, οἷς ἐγγυωμένοις ἀναμφιβόλως πιστεύεις. δὸς ἐγγυητῇ μὴ ἀποθνῄσκοντι, πίστευσον χειρογράφῳ μὴ κλεπτομένῳ μηδὲ σπαρασσομένῳ. μὴ ἐπερωτήσῃς τὴν ἐργασίαν, ἀλλὰ δὸς ἀκαπήλευτον τὴν εὐεργεσίαν, καὶ ὄψει σοι τὸν θεὸν μετὰ προσθήκης ἀποδιδόντα τὴν χάριν. Ἂν δὲ ξενίζῃ σου τὴν ἀκοὴν ὡς παράδοξος ὁ λόγος, πρόχειρον ἔχω τὴν μαρτυρίαν, ὅτι τοῖς εὐσεβῶς δαπανῶσι καὶ εὐεργετοῦσι πολυπλασιάζων ὁ θεὸς τὴν ἀμοιβὴν ἀποδίδω σι. Πέτρου γὰρ ἐρωτῶντος καὶ λέγοντος· Ἰδοὺ ἡμεῖς ἀφήκαμεν πάντα καὶ ἠκολουθήσαμέν σοι· τί ἄρα ἔσται ἡμῖν; ἀμὴν λέγω ὑμῖν, φησί, Πᾶς, ὅστις ἀφῆκεν οἰκίας ἢ ἀδελφοὺς ἢ ἀδελφὰς ἢ πατέρα ἢ μητέρα ἢ γυναῖκα ἢ τέκνα ἢ ἀγρούς, ἑκατονταπλασίονα λήψεται καὶ ζωὴν αἰώνιον κληρονομήσει. ὁρᾷς τὴν φιλοτιμίαν; βλέπεις τὴν ἀγαθότητα; ὁ σφόδρα