Religion and the Rise of Capitalism

of their money, by giving it out in this sort to needy persons⁠ ⁠… without having any regard of his commodity to whome they give it, but only of their own gain,” nevertheless admitted that interest was not always to be condemned. See also Thos. Fuller, History of the University of Cambridge, ed. M. Prickett and T. Wright, 1840, pp. 275⁠–⁠6, 288⁠–⁠9, and Cunningham, Growth of English Industry and Commerce, Modern Times, 1921 ed., pt. I, pp. 157⁠–⁠8. ↩

New Shakespeare Society, Series VI, no. 6, 1877⁠–⁠9, Phillip Stubbes’s Anatomy of the Abuses in England, ed. F. J. Furnivall, pp. 115⁠–⁠16. ↩

W. Ames, De Conscientia et eius iure vel casibus libri quinque, bk. V, chaps. XLIII, XLIV. Ames (1576⁠–⁠1633) was educated at Christ’s College, Cambridge, tried to settle at Colchester, but was forbidden to preach by the Bishop of London, went to Leyden about 1610, was appointed to the theological chair at Franeker in 1622, where he remained for ten years, and died at Rotterdam. ↩

E.g., Phillip Stubbes, Anatomy of the Abuses in England, ed. F. J. Furnivall, pp. 115⁠–⁠16.; Richard Capel, Temptations, Their Nature, Danger, Cure, 1633; John Moore, The Crying Sin of England of Not Caring for the Poor; Wherein Inclosure, viz. Such as Doth Unpeople Townes, and Uncorn Fields, Is Arraigned, Convicted and Condemned, 1653. ↩

J. O. Halliwell, The Autobiography and Correspondence of Sir Simonds d’Ewes, 1845, vol. I, pp. 206⁠–⁠10, 322, 354; vol. II, pp. 96, 153⁠–⁠4. ↩

R. G. Usher, The Presbyterian Movement in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth, as Illustrated by the Minute Book of the Dedham Classis, 1905, pp. 32, 53, 70, 99⁠–⁠100. ↩

Sept. 26, 1645, it is resolved “that it shall be in the power of the eldership to suspend from the sacrament of the Lord’s supper any person that shall be legally attainted of Barratry, Forgery, Extortion, Perjury, or Bribery” (Commons’ Journals, vol. IV, p. 290). ↩

Chetham Society, Minutes of the Bury Presbyterian Classis, 1647⁠–⁠57, pt. I, pp. 32⁠–⁠3. The Cambridge classis (ibid., pt. II, pp. 196⁠–⁠7) decided in 1657 that the ordinance of Parliament of August 29, 1648 should be taken as the rule of the classis in the matter of scandal. The various scandals mentioned in the ordinance included extortion, and the classis decided that “no person lawfully convict of any of the foresaid scandalls bee admitted to the Lord’s supper without signification of sincere repentance,” but it appears (p. 198) to have been mainly interested in witches, wizards, and fortune-tellers. ↩

Hist. MSS. Com., Report on MSS. in Various Collections, vol. I, 1901, p. 132. ↩

Quoted by F. J. Powicke, A Life of the Reverend Richard Baxter, 1924, p. 92. ↩

Selections from those parts of The Christian Directory which bear on social ethics are printed by Jeannette Tawney, Chapters from Richard Baxter’s Christian Directory, 1925, in which most of the passages quoted in the text will be found. ↩

Reliquiæ Baxterianæ (see note 2), p. 1. ↩

Life and Death of Mr. Badman (Cambridge English Classics, 1905), pp. 116⁠–⁠25, where Bunyan discusses at length the ethics of prices. ↩

Carlyle, Cromwell’s Letters and Speeches, Letter II. ↩

See on these points, Max Weber, Die protestantische Ethik und der Geist des Kapitalismus, vol. I of his Gesammelte Aufsätze zur Religionssoziologie, 1920, p. 94, whose main conclusions I paraphrase. ↩

Milton, A Defence of the People of England (1692 ed.), p. xvii. ↩

See, e.g., Thos. Wilson, A Discourse Upon Usury, Preface, 1925 ed., p. 178: “There bee two sortes of men that are alwayes to bee looked upon very narrowly, the one is the dissemblinge gospeller, and the other is the wilfull and indurate papiste. The first under colour of religion overthroweth all religion, and bearing good men in hande that he loveth playnesse, useth covertelie all deceypte that maye bee, and for pryvate gayne undoeth the common welfare of man. And touching thys sinne of usurie, none doe more openly offende in thys behalfe than do these counterfeite professours of thys pure religion.” ↩

Fenton, A Treatise of Usurie, 1612, pp. 60⁠–⁠1. ↩

Brief Survey of the Growth of Usury in England, 1673. ↩

S. Richardson, The Cause of the Poor Pleaded, 1653, Thomason Tracts, E. 703 (9), p. 14. For other references, see note 366. For extortionate prices, see Thomason Tracts, E. 399 (6), The Worth of a Penny, or a Caution to Keep Money, 1647. I am indebted for this and subsequent references to the Thomason Tracts to Miss P. James. ↩

Hooker, Preface to The Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, Everyman ed., 1907, vol. I, p. 128. ↩

Thos. Wilson, A Discourse Upon Usury, Preface, 1925 ed., p. 250. ↩

Memoirs of the Life of Colonel Hutchinson, Written by His Widow Lucy, Everyman ed., 1908, pp. 64⁠–⁠5. ↩

See the references given in note 360. ↩

The Earl of Strafforde’s Letters and Despatches, by William Knowler, D.D., 1739, vol. II, p. 138. ↩

No attempt has been made in the text to do more than refer to the points on which the economic interests and outlook of the commercial and propertied