Question V

GRATIAN. PART I. But that alms are not to be made from interest or usury, nor from anything acquired evilly, Augustine testifies in the book On the Words of the Lord, tractate XXXV:

Do not wish to make alms from interest and usury.

Likewise Augustine. One who sacrifices from iniquity makes a stained offering. The Most High does not approve the gifts of the iniquitous, nor does He regard the offerings of the iniquitous, nor will He be propitiated for their sins by the multitude of their sacrifices. One who offers sacrifice from the substance of the poor is as one who sacrifices the son in the sight of his father. The bread of the needy is the life of the poor man. One who defrauds him is a man of blood. One who sheds blood and one who commits fraud against a person in need are brothers.

Likewise Augustine in a homily. Perhaps someone thinks and says: “There are many rich Christians, avaricious and covetous; I have no sin if I take from them and give to the poor. For since they do nothing good, I shall be able to have a reward.” But a thought of this kind is suggested to him by the cunning of the devil. For if he should bestow the whole of what he took, he adds to sin rather than diminishes it.

[PALEA.

Likewise Jerome. No one who plunders is saved when dying if he has the means from which to make restitution. If he is unable to find those to whom it belonged, let him bestow it upon the church or the poor.]

[PALEA.

Likewise Ambrose. It is not permitted to purchase plunder except with the intention that it be restored to the one from whom it was taken.]

Likewise from the same. If you found something and did not return it, you plundered it; you did as much as you could, because you did not find more. One who denies another’s property would also take it if he could. § 1. God questions the heart, not the hand.

Likewise Gregory, [book VII, letter 110, to Syagrius]. That alms pleases the eyes of our Redeemer which is not heaped up from illicit things and iniquity, but which is expended from permitted and well-acquired goods.

Likewise Jerome in the book on Leviticus. Many think that it is without sin if they retain another’s property which they have found, and they say, “God gave it to me; to whom have I to return it?” Let them learn that, if anyone does not return things found, this sin is similar to robbery.

Likewise Augustine, [book On the Good of Marriage, c. 14]. For neither, if anyone so uses fields unjustly and wrongly invaded that he makes generous alms from their fruits, does he thereby justify the robbery. § 1. Nor, if another avariciously broods over a paternal estate or one justly acquired, is the rule of civil law by which he became the lawful possessor therefore to be blamed. § 2. Nor will the perversity of a tyrannical faction be praiseworthy if it treats tyrants subjected to it with royal clemency. § 3. Nor is the order of royal power to be censured if a king rages with tyrannical cruelty. For it is one thing to wish to use an unjust power justly, and another to wish to use a just power unjustly.

Likewise Ambrose in book [III] On Duties, [c. 9]. Finally, if one cannot be aided unless another is harmed, it is more advantageous that neither be aided than that one be burdened. And therefore it is not priestly to intervene in pecuniary causes in which it cannot happen that frequently one who is defeated is not harmed, since he thinks himself defeated by the benefit of the intercessor. Therefore it belongs to a priest to harm no one and to wish to profit all; but to be able to do so belongs to God alone.

Likewise Gregory in the Register, [book VII, indiction 2, letter 126, to King Reccared]. It is written: “The victims of the impious are abominable to God; the vows of the righteous are pleasing”; for in the judgment of almighty God, not what is given but by whom it is given is considered. Hence it is written: “God regarded Abel and his gifts, but He did not regard Cain and his gifts.” For when Scripture was about to say that the Lord regarded the gifts, it first carefully stated that He regarded Abel. From this matter it is plainly shown that it was not the offerer who pleased because of the gifts, but the gifts because of the offerer. “For the Most High does not approve the gifts of the iniquitous, nor does He regard their offerings, nor will He be propitiated for their sins by the multitude of their sacrifices.” Likewise: “The Lord is far from the impious, and He will hear the prayers of the righteous.” PART II. GRATIAN. To the contrary, it is read in Exodus that the children of Israel, when about to depart from Egypt, received golden and silver vessels as a loan from their neighbors, from which they afterward built the tabernacle for the Lord. Augustine replies to these matters in the book Questions on Exodus, [question 39]:

The Lord said to Moses: “Let a man ask from his male neighbor and a woman from her female neighbor vessels of gold and silver and clothing.” No one ought to think that an example is to be taken from this for despoiling a neighbor in this manner. For God commanded this, who knew what it was fitting for each person to suffer. Nor did the Israelites commit theft, but they furnished ministry to God who commanded it. PART III. GRATIAN. Likewise it is objected: To seize another’s property is not against a precept, since robbery appears to be prohibited by no command of God. But by the name of theft every illicit usurpation of another’s property is understood. Hence Augustine in the same book, [question 71]:

To take away secretly is punishable; to seize openly is of much greater punishment. Therefore to take from an unwilling person, whether secretly or openly, has its own precept. For by the name of theft every illicit usurpation of another’s property is well understood. For He who prohibited theft did not permit robbery, but surely willed robbery also to be understood by the name of theft in the law of the Old Testament. For by the part He signified the whole: whatever of a neighbor’s property is taken illicitly. GRATIAN. By these authorities it is proved that no one can make alms either from things found or from things evilly acquired. PART IV. § 1. But Augustine testifies to the contrary, [sermon XXXV On the Words of the Lord], saying:

You who have something from evil, make good from it. You who have nothing from evil, do not acquire from evil. Be good, you who make good from evil; and when you have begun to do something good from evil, do not remain evil yourself. Your coins are converted into good, and do you remain evil? GRATIAN. But this is understood in many ways. For one who restores what he took illicitly makes good from evil. By the name of evil, the care and solicitude of mortals is also expressed. Therefore one makes good from evil who dispenses to the poor what he acquired with labor and solicitude, according to that saying of the Gospel: “Make friends for yourselves from the mammon of iniquity.” Or that is acquired from evil which is possessed from a shameful cause, as when an astrologer profits something from the art which he teaches or from the future things which he predicts. But things which are thus acquired from evil can be converted into good. Some things are also sometimes acquired from sin which are justly expended upon the poor.

Hence Augustine to Macedonius, [letter LIV]:

Certainly not everything that is taken from an unwilling person is taken away injuriously. For many are unwilling to render either his honor to a physician or his wage to a workman; nevertheless, those who receive these things from an unwilling person do not receive them through injury, for they would rather not be given without injury. § 1. But a judge ought not therefore to sell a just judgment, or a witness true testimony, because an advocate sells just patronage and a jurist true counsel. For the former are employed for examination between both parties; the latter stand on one side. But when judgments and testimonies, which ought not to be sold even when just and true, are sold when iniquitous and false, money is certainly received much more wickedly, because it is also given wickedly, although by willing persons. Nevertheless, one who bought a just judgment is accustomed to reclaim money badly taken from him, because the judgment ought not to have been for sale. But one who gave money for an iniquitous judgment would indeed wish to reclaim it, unless he feared or was ashamed that he had bought it. § 2. There are other persons of inferior station who not improperly receive from both parties, such as the official who is removed and the one to whom an office is assigned. Things extorted by immoderate dishonesty are accustomed to be reclaimed from these persons; and we blame those who have reclaimed such things contrary to custom more than those who received them according to custom, because many persons necessary to human affairs are either invited by benefits of this kind or retained by them. § 3. If these persons have changed their way of life or ascended to a more excellent degree of holiness, they more readily bestow upon the poor as their own the things which they acquired in this manner than restore them as another’s property to those from whom they were received. § 4. But if anyone has taken anything contrary to the right of human society by thefts, robberies, calumnies, oppressions, or invasions, we judge that it is to be restored rather than donated, according to the example of Zacchaeus the publican.