Exercises on usury and fair pricing

(FGV) In a 13th century manuscript one can read:"Usurers are thieves, because they sell time, which does not belong to them, and sell the property of others, against the will of the owner , It is a steal." Apud LE GOFF, J., The purse and life. Usury in the Middle Ages . São Paulo, Brasiliense, 1989, p.39.

About usury, it is CORRECT to say:

a) Usury was tolerated by medieval theologians who lived in the cities and criticized by theologians who dedicated themselves to the contemplative life in rural monasteries.

b) Usury was considered a sin by Christian theologians because the usurer could appropriate, like a thief, any good of his debtor.

c) The practice of usury came to be considered virtuous by Catholic theologians, convinced that Luther's criticisms were pertinent.

d) Usury was considered a theft of God's time and was practiced exclusively by Jews during the Middle Ages.

e) Usury was condemned by medieval theologians in a context in which a monetary economy generated within feudalism was developing.

For the Catholic Church, usury was considered a sin against justice because:

a) was a way for the Jews to get rich, something that bothered the clergy.

b) was an interest charge on the exercise of magistrates in medieval courts.

c) was an interest charge over the time (something that does not produce anything concrete) of the borrower.

d) was for profit, which under any circumstances is sinful.

e) did not generate direct profit for clergy members.

(Fuvest-SP) "If you return your memory to Genesis, you will understand that man derives his sustenance and happiness from nature. The usurer, on the contrary, denies both, despising the nature and the way of life it teaches, for others are its ideals in the world." (Dante Alighieri, Divine Comedy, Inferno, canto XI, trans. Hernâni Donato.)

This passage from the Florentine poet expresses:
a) an already modern view of nature, which here appears superimposed on the interests of man.

b) a point of view that was already outdated in his time, since usury was a common practice and no longer prohibited.

c) a nostalgia for Greco-Roman antiquity, where the practice of usury was severely restrained.

d) a dominant conception in the Late Middle Ages, condemning the practice of usury for being contrary to the Christian spirit.

e) an original perspective, as it combines the practice of usury with human happiness.

Read the excerpt and mark the correct alternative:

“(...) Thirteenth century documents almost always use the term in the plural:usurae. Usury is a multi-headed monster, a hydra (…) Usury is the collection of interest by a lender on operations that should not give rise to interest. It is therefore not charging any interest. Usury and interest are not synonymous, nor are usury and profit:usury intervenes where there is no material production or transformation of concrete goods.” (LE GOFF, Jacques. The purse and life:usury in the middle ages . 4th ed., São Paulo:Editora brasiliense, 1989. p. 17-18.)

According to French historian Jacques Le Goff, usury:

a) could not be condemned because it did not provide for profit for the usurer.

b) was not identified with every form of interest charged.

c) usury was reprehensible as it was a form of interest charged on the production of something concrete.

d) was identified with any and all types of interest.

e) usury was not condemned by the Church, only by the civil authority.

Letter E

The condemnation of usury, seen as a sin against justice, by the Catholic Church occurred at a time when the first commercial centers of the Middle Ages began to develop, a fact that also demanded the creation of the first institutions financial institutions capable of offering credit to merchants.

Letter C

Usury was considered a sin against justice because the profit obtained over the time of borrowing money with no productive purpose was not fair to the one who needed it. The usurer sinned by taking advantage of the time of this loan.

Letter D

Dante Alighieri, author of The Divine Comedy, as a man of high culture, was completely immersed in the dogmatic Christian precepts of his time. The condemnation of the practice of usury by the Catholic Church was assimilated and defended by him.

Letter B

The practice of usury was identified only with the interest charged on what does not generate products, that is, that is not liable to generate material goods for sale and consumption.