Wealth, almsgiving and lending at interest: what was taught?
What the sources show
Didachec. 100 · Shepherd of Hermasc. 140Share
The earliest manual tells Christians to share everything with a brother in need. Hermas turns fasting into money for widows and orphans. 12
Clement of Alexandriac. 200Use rightly
Clement of Alexandria taught that Jesus' "sell what you have" means banishing greed from the soul, not throwing money away. 3
Basil of Caesareac. 370 · Ambrose of Milanc. 377No usury
Basil and Ambrose preached against lending at interest; the ban held in the West until the Reformation era. 56
The answers given:
ApostolicBefore NicaeaNicaea and afterMiddle AgesReformation to today
Scroll through the centuries, or tap a dot. JK move between witnesses.
Apostolic Fathers
30–150
100c. AD
Share
Didache c. 100 ADDidache 4.8
You shall not turn away the needy, but share all things with your brother, and not say they are your own. For if you are sharers in what is immortal, how much more in what is mortal?
Private property is not abolished; its use is shared.
οὐκ ἀποστραφήσῃ τὸν ἐνδεόμενον, συγκοινωνήσεις δὲ πάντα τῷ ἀδελφῷ σοῦ καὶ οὐκ ἐρεῖς ἴδια εἶναι: εἰ γὰρ ἐν τῷ ἀθανάτῳ κοινωνοί ἐστε, πόσῳ μᾶλλον ἐν τοῖς θνητοῖς;Anonymus Kirsopp Lake The Apostolic Fathers William Heinemann The Macmillan Company London New York 1912 1 Hathi Trust (First1KGreek TEI, urn:cts:greekLit:tlg1311.tlg001) · English: translated for this page from the Greek
140c. AD
Share
Shepherd of Hermas fl. c. 140 ADShepherd of Hermas Similitude 5.3.7
On the day you fast you shall taste nothing but bread and water; and reckoning the cost of the food you would have eaten that day, you shall give it to a widow, an orphan or someone in need.
Fasting and almsgiving joined: what is saved goes to the poor.
Full English of this work is being translated
ἐν ἐκείνῃ τῇ ἡμέρᾳ ᾗ νηστεύεις μηδὲν γεύσῃ εἰ μὴ ἄρτον καὶ ὕδωρ, καὶ ἐκ τῶν ἐδεσμάτων σου ὧν ἔμελλες τρώγειν συμψηφίσας τὴν ποσότητα τῆς δαπάνης ἐκείνης τῆς ἡμέρας ἧς ἔμελλες ποιεῖν, δώσεις αὐτὸ χήρᾳ ἢ ὀρφανῷ ἢ ὑστερουμένῳHermas Kirsopp Lake The Apostolic Fathers William Heinemann G.P. Putnam's Sons London New York 1917 2 Internet Archive (First1KGreek TEI, urn:cts:greekLit:tlg1419.tlg001) · English: translated for this page from the Greek
Before Nicaea
150–325
200c. AD
Use rightly
Clement of Alexandria c. 150–c. 215 ADWho Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 11.2
"Sell what you have." What does this mean? Not, as some quickly take it, that he orders him to throw away the property he has and stand apart from his money, but to banish from his soul his notions about money, his attachment to it, his excessive desire, his anxious longing and sickness, the cares, the thorns of life that choke the seed of life.
The first Christian treatise on wealth. Riches are a tool; the danger is in the soul.
»πώλησον τὰ ὑπάρχοντά σου.« τί δὲ τοῦτό ἐστιν; οὐχ ὃ προχείρως δέχονταί τινες, τὴν ὑπάρχουσαν οὐσίαν ἀπορρῖψαι προστάσσει καὶ ἀποστῆναι τῶν χρημάτων, ἀλλὰ τὰ δόγματα τὰ περὶ χρημάτων ἐξορίσαι τῆς ψυχῆς, τὴν πρὸς αὐτὰ συμπάθειαν. τὴν ὑπεράγαν ἐπιθυμίαν, τὴν περὶ αὐτὰ πτοίαν καὶ νόσον, τὰς μερίμνας, τὰς ἀκάνθας τοῦ βίου, αἳ τὸ σπέρμα τῆς ζωῆς συμπνίγουσιν.Clement of Alexandria Otto Stählin Stromata, Buch VII-VIII. Excerpta ex Theodoto. Eclogae prophetica. Hinrichs Leipzig 1909 Clemens Alexandrinus 3 Internet Archive (First1KGreek TEI, urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0555.tlg006) · English: translated for this page from the Greek
Nicaea to Chalcedon
325–451
368c. AD
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Basil of Caesarea c. 330–379 ADHomily on the Words 'I Will Pull Down My Barns' (Destruam horrea mea) 7
What other name does the man deserve who does not clothe the naked, though he could do it? The bread you keep belongs to the hungry; the cloak you store away in your chests belongs to the naked; the shoe rotting at your house belongs to the shoeless; the silver you have buried belongs to the needy. So you wrong as many people as those you could have helped.
From Basil's sermon on the rich fool of Luke 12. Keeping back a surplus is not thrift but injustice, owed to each person it could have fed or clothed. The gap note pointed to the library book basil-homilia-lacisis, but that book is the different Homily Spoken at Lacizae and does not contain this text, and the Destruam homily is not a locked library book; the words are therefore quoted from the Migne PG 31 scan (OCR poor in places), saved as a witness in Wave 3.
Full English of this work is being translated · Source text
Basil of Caesarea c. 330–379 ADHomily on Psalm 14, against usurers 1
He swears and curses himself that he has no money at all, and that he himself is looking for someone to lend to him ... But when the borrower mentions interest and names securities, then he lowers his brow and smiles, and remembers some family friendship.
Basil's sermon on Psalm 15:5 ("who does not lend at interest"). Ambrose reworked it in Latin (On Tobit).
Full English of this work is being translated
ἐξομνύμενος καὶ ἐπαρώμενος ἑαυτῷ, ἦ μὴν ἀπορεῖν παντε λῶς χρημάτων, καὶ περισκοπεῖν καὶ αὐτὸς εἴ τινα εὕροι τῶν δανειζόντων ... Ἐπειδὰν δὲ ὁ ζητῶν τὸ δάνειον τόκων μνησθῇ, καὶ ὑποθήκας ὀνομάσῃ, τότε καταβαλὼν τὴν ὀφρὺν προσεμειδίασε, καί που καὶ πατρῴας φιλίας ἀνεμνήMigne PG 29; Khazarzar Digital Patrology text, checked against the PG scan · English: translated for this page from the Greek
377c. AD
No usury
Ambrose of Milan c. 339/340–397 ADOn Tobit 2.7
Usury, by which interest is sought, is an evil. ... That other kind of lending is rightly cursed: to give money at interest, which the law forbids.
Lending to the needy is good; lending at interest is forbidden. The West kept the ban on usury through the Middle Ages.
Full English of this work is being translated
malum est enim faenus, quo quaeruntur usurae. ... aliud illud faenus est iure exsecrabile, dare in usuram pecuniam, quod lex prohibet.Sanctii Ambrosii Opera Karl Schenkl Ambrose F. Tempsky G. Freytag Prague Vienna Leipzig 1897 Pars Altera Corpus scriptorum ecclesiasticorum Latinorum 32.2 Internet Archive (OGL CSEL TEI, urn:cts:latinLit:stoa0022.stoa044) · English: translated for this page from the Latin
Witnesses not in the library yet
These writers also matter for this question. Their texts will join the timeline above once they are translated.
325
Council of Nicaea, Canon 17
Clergy who lend at interest are to be deposed.
1545
John Calvin, Letter on usury (to Sachinus)
Calvin allowed moderate interest.
How this page was made
Every early quote was read in its Greek or Latin and translated for this page by Claude (Opus 5.5) on 13 October 2026. Each line names the printed edition it was read from. A quote marked indirect does not state the answer outright; read its note. A writer's silence is never counted as an answer.