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full of sober frankness: do not feed me, O man, from brotherly tears, 9.202 do not give bread to a poor man that was made from the groaning of the unfortunate. Return to your kinsman what you wickedly demanded, and I will acknowledge the grace. What good do you do by making many poor and comforting one? If there were not a multitude of usurers, there would not be a multitude of the impoverished. Dissolve your company, and we will all have self-sufficiency. All denounce the usurers, and there is no cure for the evil: law, prophets, evangelists. For instance, what the divine Amos says: Hear this, you who wear down the needy in the morning and oppress the poor of the land, you who say: when will the month be over, that we may sell? For not even fathers rejoice so much at the birth of their children as usurers delight when the months are completed.

But they call sin by venerable names, addressing the gain as "philanthropic," in imitation of the Greeks, who call certain man-hating and murderous demons "Eumenides" instead of their true name. Philanthropic indeed; for is not the contribution of interest one that wears down houses, consumes wealth, makes the well-born live worse than slaves, delighting for a little while in the beginning and preparing a bitter life for later? For just as the birds that are plotted against by fowlers delight when seeds are scattered for them and make a friendly and customary living in those places where abundant food is provided for them, but a little later, being caught in the snares, are destroyed, so those who take out loans with interest, having been well-off for a short time, are later cast out from their own paternal hearth. 9.203 But mercy † drives out the souls of the polluted and avaricious, and seeing the very house of the debtor put up for sale, they are not moved to pity, but rather they even press for the sale, so that by receiving the gold more quickly they may bind another wretched man with a loan, like zealous and insatiable hunters, who, having surrounded one valley with their nets and snared all the beasts in it, again move their hunting-posts to the neighboring ravine, and from there to another, and so on, until they empty the mountains of their prey. With what eyes, then, does such a man as you look up to heaven? And how do you ask for forgiveness of sin? Or perhaps out of insensibility you say even this when you pray, what the Savior taught: Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors? Oh, how many because of interest have resorted to the noose and given themselves over to the currents of rivers and judged death to be lighter than the moneylender, and have left behind orphan children with poverty as a wicked stepmother. But the "good" usurers do not even then spare the desolate house, but drag in the heirs who have perhaps inherited only the rope of the noose, and they demand gold from those who provide their bread by begging; and when reproached, as is likely, for the death of the debtor, and when some mention the noose to shame them, they are not even veiled in the face of the drama nor are they stricken in soul, but from a bitter mind they speak shameless words: "And is this our moral failing, if that wretched and ungrateful man, having been allotted a wicked birth, was driven by the necessity of fate to a violent death?" For usurers also philosophize and become students of the Egyptian astrologers, whenever it is necessary to make a defense for their accursed deeds and murders. 9.204 Therefore one must say to one of these: you are the wicked birth, you are the evil necessity of the stars; for if you had lightened the worry and forgiven part of the debt, and collected a part with leniency, he would not have hated his toilsome life nor would he have become his own executioner. With what eyes, then, at the time of the resurrection will you look upon the murdered man? For you both will come to the judgment seat of Christ, where there is no interest

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γέμοντα σώφρονος παρρη σίας· μή με θρέψῃς, ἄνθρωπε, ἀπὸ δακρύων ἀδελφικῶν, 9.202 μὴ δῷς ἄρτον πένητι γενόμενον ἀπὸ στεναγμοῦ τῶν συμπτώ χων. ἀνάλυσον πρὸς τὸν ὁμόφυλον, ὃ κακῶς ἀπῄτησας, κἀγὼ ὁμολογήσω τὴν χάριν. τί ὠφελεῖς πολλοὺς πτωχοὺς ποιῶν καὶ ἕνα παραμυθούμενος; εἰ μὴ πλῆθος ἦν τοκιστῶν, οὐκ ἂν ἦν τὸ πλῆθος τῶν πενομένων. λῦσόν σου τὴν φατρίαν, καὶ πάντες ἕξομεν τὴν αὐτάρκειαν. πάντες τῶν τοκιστῶν κατηγοροῦσι, καὶ οὔκ ἐστι τοῦ κακοῦ θεραπεία νόμος προφῆται εὐαγγελισταί. οἷα γοῦν ὁ θεσπέσιος Ἀμὼς λέγει· Ἀκούσατε, οἱ ἐκτρίβοντες εἰς τὸ πρωὶ πένητα καὶ καταδυναστεύοντες πτωχοὺς ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, οἱ λέγοντες· πότε διελεύσεται ὁ μὴν καὶ ἐμπολήσομεν; οὐδὲ γὰρ πατέρες οὕτω χαίρουσιν ἐπὶ τῇ γεννήσει τῶν παίδων ὡς οἱ τοκίζοντες εὐφφαίνονται τῶν μηνῶν πληρουμένων.

Καλοῦσι δὲ τὴν ἁμαρτίαν σεμνοῖς ὀνόμασι φιλάνθρωπον τὸ λῆμμα προσαγρεύοντες κατὰ μίμησιν Ἑλλήνων, οἳ δαίμονάς τινας μισανθρώπους καὶ φονώσας ἀντὶ τῆς ἀληθοῦς κλήσεως Εὐμενίδας προσαγορεύουσι. φιλάνθρωπός γε· οὐ γὰρ ἡ τοῦ τόκου εἰσφορὰ οἴκους ἐκτρίβουσα, πλούτους δαπανῶσα, τοὺς εὖ γεγονότας χεῖρον ζῆν τῶν δούλων παρασκευάζουσα, πρὸς ὀλίγον τέρπουσα ἐν ἀρχαῖς καὶ πικρὸν τὸν εἰς ὕστερον βίον παρασκευάζουσα. ὡς γὰρ τὰ πτηνὰ τὰ παρὰ τῶν ὀρνιθευτῶν ἐπιβουλευόμενα ἥδεται ῥαινομένων τῶν σπερμά των αὐτοῖς καὶ φίλην ποιεῖται καὶ συνήθη διαγωγὴν τὴν ἐν ἐκείνοις τοῖς τόποις, ἐν οἷς δαψιλὴς αὐτοῖς ἡ τροφὴ γίνεται, μικρὸν δὲ ὕστερον ἐνσχεθέντα τοῖς θηράτροις διόλλυται, οὕτως οἱ τὰ ἔντοκα τῶν δανεισμάτων λαμβάνοντες ὀλίγον εὐπορήσαντες χρόνον ὕστερον αὐτῆς τῆς πατρικῆς ἑστίας 9.203 ἐκπίπτουσιν. ἔλεος δὲ † ἐξοικεῖ τὰς τῶν μιαρῶν καὶ φιλαργύ ρων ψυχάς, καὶ βλέποντες αὐτὴν τὴν οἰκίαν τοῦ ὀφείλοντος ὤνιον προκειμένην οὐκ ἐπικλῶνται, ἀλλὰ καὶ μᾶλλον τὴν πρᾶσιν κατεπείγουσι, ἵνα θᾶττον τὸ χρυσίον ὑποδεξάμενοι ἄλλον ἄθλιον δανείσματι καταδήσωσι κατὰ τοὺς σπουδαίους καὶ ἀπλήστους τῶν θηρευτῶν, οἳ μίαν κοιλάδα τοῖς δικτύοις κυκλώσαντες καὶ πάντα τὰ ἐν αὐτῇ σαγηνεύσαντες θηρία πάλιν ἐπὶ τὴν γείτονα φάραγγα μεθιστῶσι τὰς στάλικας καὶ ἀπ' ἐκείνης ἐπὶ τὴν ἄλλην καὶ μέχρι τοσούτου, μέχρις ἂν τὰ ὄρη τῶν θηρευμάτων κενώσωσι. ποίοις οὖν ὀφθαλμοῖς ὁ τοιοῦτος ἀναβλέπεις εἰς οὐρανόν; πῶς δὲ αἰτεῖς ἄφεσιν ἁμαρτήματος; ἢ τάχα ὑπ' ἀναισθησίας καὶ τοῦτο λέγεις εὐχόμενος, ὅπερ ἐδίδαξεν ὁ σωτήρ· Ἄφες ἡμῖν τὰ ὀφειλήματα ἡμῶν, ὡς καὶ ἡμεῖς ἀφήκαμεν τοῖς ὀφειλέταις ἡμῶν; ὢ πόσοι διὰ τόκον ἀγχόνης ἥψαντο καὶ ῥεύμασι ποταμῶν ἑαυτοὺς ἐξέδωκαν καὶ κουφότερον ἔκριναν τοῦ δανειστοῦ τὸν θάνατον, ἀφῆκαν δὲ παῖδας ὀρφανοὺς κακὴν μητρυιὰν ἔχοντας τὴν πενίαν. οἱ δὲ χρηστοὶ τοκογλύφοι οὐδὲ τότε τῆς ἐρήμου φείδονται οἰκίας, ἀλλ' ἕλκουσι τοὺς κληρονόμους τάχα τὴν σχοῖνον μόνην τοῦ βρόχου κληρονομήσαντας καὶ χρυσίον ἀπαιτοῦσι τοὺς τὸν ἄρτον ἐξ ἐράνου ποριζομένους· ὀνειδιζόμενοι δέ, ὡς εἰκός, ἐπὶ τῷ θανάτῳ τοῦ χρεωστοῦ καί τινων πρὸς δυσωπίαν μεμνημένων τοῦ βρόχου οὐδὲ ἐγκαλύπτονται πρὸς τὸ δρᾶμα οὔτε πλήττονται τὴν ψυχήν, ἀπὸ πικρᾶς δὲ γνώμης λόγους λέγουσιν ἀναιδεῖς· καὶ ἠθῶν ἀδίκημα τοῦτο ἡμέτερον, εἰ ὁ κακοδαίμων καὶ ἀγνώμων ἐκεῖνος μοχθηρᾶς γενέσεως λαχὼν τῇ ἀνάγκῃ τῆς εἱμαρμένης πρὸς τὸν βίαιον ἤχθη θάνατον; καὶ γὰρ καὶ φιλοσοφοῦσιν οἱ τοκογλύφοι καὶ τῶν μαθηματικῶν Αἰγυπτίων γίνονται μαθηταί, ὅταν δεήσῃ ὑπὲρ τῶν ἐναγῶν αὐτῶν πράξεων καὶ τῶν φόνων 9.204 ἀπολογήσασθαι. λεκτέον οὖν πρὸς ἕνα τῶν τοιούτων· σὺ ἡ μοχθηρὰ γένεσις, σὺ ἡ κακὴ τῶν ἀστέρων ἀνάγκη· εἰ γὰρ ἐπεκούφισας τὴν φροντίδα καὶ μέρος μὲν ἀφῆκας τοῦ χρέους, μέρος δὲ ἐκομίσω μετὰ ἀνέσεως, οὐκ ἂν τὴν ἐπίμοχθον ζωὴν ἐμίσησεν οὐδ' ἂν αὐτὸς ἑαυτοῦ ἐγένετο δήμιος. ἆρα ποίοις ὀφθαλμοῖς κατὰ τὸν καιρὸν τῆς ἀναστάσεως ὄψει τὸν φονευθέντα; ἥξετε γὰρ ἀμφότεροι πρὸς τὸ τοῦ Χριστοῦ βῆμα, ἔνθα οὐ τόκοι