Chapter V — On trade, and on those to whom it is forbidden or permitted

I. Three kinds of trade are wont to be distinguished. The first, by which the things necessary for food are bought, and what remains over is sold. The second, by which material is bought — say wood, metals, and many other things — out of which by the labour of art those things are made which conduce either to ornament, or to convenience, or to the necessity of life. The third, by which wares are bought that the same, unchanged, may be sold more dearly. The first two bear the name of trade in a less proper sense. The third is the trade of which we shall speak. This the divine Scriptures and the holy Fathers of the Church assert to be liable to guiles, frauds, perjuries, and lies. For it is said, Ecclesiasticus 26: Two sorts of callings are hard … a merchant is hardly free from negligence, and a huckster shall not be justified from the sins of his lips. With difficulty is a merchant stripped of negligence in the business of eternal salvation, because he is bewitched with the cupidity of increasing riches. Hence the Apostle, 1 Timothy 6, says: For they that will become rich fall into temptation and into the snare of the devil, and into many unprofitable and hurtful desires, which drown men into destruction and perdition. For the desire of money is the root of all evils; which some coveting have erred from the faith, and have entangled themselves in many sorrows. But thou, O man of God, fly these things; and pursue justice. Very many testimonies of the Fathers I pass over from a study of brevity.

II. QUESTION I. Is trade forbidden to clerics and religious? ANSWER. There are many canons which forbid trade to clerics and religious under penalty of excommunication. Chapter Secundum, under Clerics or Monks, where these things are had: Under the threat of anathema we forbid that monks or clerics trade for the sake of gain. Again chapter Consequens, distinction 88; the Clementine 1, On the Life and Honesty of Clerics; chapter Canonum, cause 14, question 4. The penalties imposed by these canons are excommunication and suspension, which the Council of Trent renewed, session 22, and to which it added others. Authors commonly teach that these penalties are not latae but ferendae, which no one incurs save after the judge's sentence. Those laws comprehend all clerics constituted in sacred orders, nay even those in minor orders, if they be beneficed. Many of the younger authors except from this prohibition clerics constituted in minor orders … … even if they be beneficed, without any foundation: they distinguish for themselves, and we are not bound to distinguish.

III. Moralists dispute whether clerics or monks who trade once and again sin mortally. But I am wont to abstain from defining the degree of malice, unless the truth be expressed. The Salmanticenses defend that a cleric or monk does not sin mortally if he trade twice or thrice, and they cite Diana, de Lugo, Molina, Filliucci, and others. But I answer that the law is to be observed. Whether the sin be grave or slight escapes our mind. That the law is to be observed our mind evidently recognizes. Therefore these little distinctions are evasions for eluding the law.

IV. QUESTION II. Can clerics or monks trade through others? ANSWER. The Salmanticenses affirm it, who cite Molina, Lessius, de Lugo, and others: because, they say, the sacred canons forbid to clerics and monks trade to be carried out by themselves; for this indeed bears an unseemliness and brings with it a distraction of mind; but it is otherwise when clerics and monks leave the whole care to another, and exercise merchandise by the ministry of others.

V. If this be not a circumvention of the law, what will be? The end and spirit of the prohibiting law tends to this, that it may draw clerics and monks, consecrated to God, away from the heaping up of riches, that they may give themselves wholly to the divine worship, that they may render God propitious to themselves and to the people. But clerics and monks who trade by the industry of others are tormented by avarice, by cupidities, by cares, by straits, by continual perplexities and solicitudes. What trade is permitted to clerics and monks is described in Vol. VII, Book 3, dissertation 1, chapter 3, no. 10 and following.

VI. QUESTION III. In how many ways does trade become unlawful? ANSWER. It can become unlawful: first, if its end be gain alone; second, if frauds, lies, perjuries, or monopolies be mingled with it; third, if the matter be not vendible, as sacred things, or wares which we are forbidden to sell to unbelievers, such as arms, iron, and the others which are enumerated in the Bull In Coena Domini; fourth, if merchandise be carried on either on feast days or in a sacred place.

VII. QUESTION IV. Can those who exercise merchandise lawfully sell wares more dearly than those who do not exercise trade? ANSWER. All affirm it, since the profession of merchants is necessary to the commonwealth, and these must live by their profession and sustain many burdens from which those are free who do not exercise merchandise. They cannot, however, exceed the limits of the price customary among merchants. It is forbidden them to gather up corn while it is worth less, that it may be sold more dearly. This trade natural and positive law reject. For rich men of this kind who accumulate corn, that in a time of scarcity they may sell it more dearly, are oppressors of the poor and pernicious to the commonwealth. The law itself, not only the common law, chapter Quicumque, cause 14, question 4, but the peculiar law also of every kingdom, forbids such trade.