Folio 270

Lateran Council V, 1512-1517

printed p. 238 · pdf p. 270

CLEMENT V our predecessor of happy memory published in the (general) Council of VIENNE [n. 481] but it is also multiple according to the multitude of bodies into which it is infused, multiplied, and to be multiplied. . . . And since truth never contradicts truth, we declare [see n. 1797] every assertion contrary to the truth of illumined faith to be altogether false; and, that it may not be permitted to dogmatize otherwise, we strictly forbid it, and we decree that all who adhere to errors of this kind are to be shunned and to be punished as detestable and abominable infidels who disseminate most damnable heresies and who weaken the Catholic faith.

"Mountains of Piety" and Usury1

[From the Bull "Inter multiplices," April 28 (Session X, May 4), 1515]

739. With the approval of the holy Council, we declare and define that the aforesaid "Mountains of piety" established by the civil authorities and thus far approved and confirmed by the authority of the Apostolic See, in which a moderate rate of interest is received exclusively for the expenses of the officials and for other things pertaining to their keeping, as is set forth, for an indemnity of these as far as this matter is concerned, beyond the capital without a profit for these same Mountains, neither offer any species of evil, nor furnish an incentive to sin, nor in any way are condemned, nay rather that such a loan is worthwhile and is to be praised and approved, and least of all to be considered usury. . . . Moreover, we declare that all religious and ecclesiastics as well as secular persons, who henceforth shall dare to preach or dispute in word or in writing against the form of the present declaration and sanction, incur the penalty of excommunication of a sentence [automatically] imposed [latae sententiae], a privilege of any nature whatsoever notwithstanding.

The Relation Between the Pope and the Councils2

[From the Bull "Pastor Aeternus" (Session XI) Dec. 19, 1516]

740. Nor should this move us, that the sanction [pragmatic] itself, and the things contained in it were proclaimed in the Council of Basle . . . , since all these acts were made after the translation of that same Council of Basle from the place of the assembly at Basle, and therefore could have

  1. Msi XXXII 906 D f.; Hrd IX 1747 C; BR(T) 5, 622 b ff.; MBR 1, 554 a ff.; Bar(Th) ad 1515 n. 3 (31, 90 b f.); cf. Hfl VIII 645. ↩

  2. Msi XXXII 967 C; Hrd IX 1228 D; BR(T) 5, 661 a f.; MBR 1, 570 b f.; Bar(Th) ad 1516 n. 25 (31, 121 a); cf. Hfl VIII 710 ff. ↩