Usury

Use in the book

The sharpest distinction appears in Burton’s imagined commonwealth. He will exclude brokers, pawnbrokers and biting usurers, yet tolerate some kinde of usury because the polity deals with imperfect human beings. If people were upright, he says, they would have no need of it; as things stand, they must admit it. The concession does not abolish the initial condemnation, and the condemnation does not make every permitted loan extortionate.

The next paragraphs give that allowance its limits. Burton reports opposition from most theologians, practical toleration by statesmen, and approval from Calvin, Bucer, Zanchi and Peter Martyr, supported by legal and customary permissions. He then restricts lenders to approved people who cannot otherwise employ their money, including orphans, unmarried women and widows. They must use a common bank rather than lend separately. Supervisors set rates at five, six or seven per cent, never above eight. Borrowers also require approval: merchants, young tradesmen and people needing money or able to employ it honestly qualify, while prodigals and spendthrifts do not. These are provisions of his historical proposal, not present financial advice. The original Zanchi margin calls approximately this form of interest consistent with Christian charity, while retaining conditions and ellipses whose scope cannot be fully recovered from the excerpt.

The proposal follows a different attack on lenders. Adapting More, Burton objects that a moneylender who does nothing can live comfortably and oppress others while an indispensable worker is abandoned in old age. His remedy includes maintenance for those unable to work and compulsory labour for those able. Elsewhere usury appears among the products of covetousness, or among the alleged sources of family wealth and rank. The latter argument speaks of many families and conjectures that a rich ancestor was most likely a usurer; it does not document an actual pedigree. Its eventual allowance for honour earned and sustained by merit qualifies the assault on inherited status. In the account of poverty, the rich usurer can nevertheless be honoured in common opinion, provided he is generous too. Burton exposes this valuation rather than adopting it.

The lender may also suffer from the wealth he seeks. Burton’s version of Lucian’s Cock places the moneylender Gniphon awake at midnight, anxiously counting and guarding his money. The retelling redistributes Lucian’s characters and details; Burton then claims that such behaviour occurs outside comedy. Another saying makes misery and usury commonly go together. Its preceding Latin concerns debt and litigation more broadly, and the sequel warns about surety and lawsuits. Commonly matters: the association is not an assertion that every loan produces misery.

The therapeutic account makes a moneylender a possible recipient of help. Arnoldus is said to have known a greedy lender who became melancholy after losing money and was cured through the kind of comfort, counsel or practical assistance just described. The reported case supports the ensuing recommendation of gentleness. That recommendation is itself conditional: Burton subsequently cites threats and physical punishment if mild approaches fail. Both the claimed cure and the harsh sequel belong to historical medicine, not current treatment guidance.

Religion gives the accusation another contrast. Professed usurers openly practise what their ostentatious zeal appears to condemn; the phrase attacks hypocrisy rather than identifying a professional qualification. In the discussion of religious melancholy, however, Lemnius is reported to regard moneylenders and several other occupations as seldom troubled in this particular way because their consciences stretch. That sweeping historical comparison does not mean that lenders never suffer melancholy: the earlier anxious and distressed examples concern other causes. The English seldom is also weaker than the original marginal Latin’s exclusion of the listed occupations.

Toleration returns in the discussion of jealousy. Burton attributes to religious opponents a policy of permitting brothels to prevent greater harm, comparing it to usury tolerated for the hardness of human hearts. He grants the force of the political argument but expressly opposes the practice in religion. The account is polemical rather than an independently verified statement of Catholic teaching. Its recurrence preserves the tension between a practical concession and moral disapproval already present in the imagined commonwealth.

Finally, the Latin language of return extends beyond lending. In Petronius’s verse, magno…fænore describes the merchant’s great returns, contrasted with eloquence left in rags; Burton follows it with his separate English verse and then the students’ turn to lucrative professions. In consolation, cum fænore means with interest figuratively: retaliation multiplies injuries and enemies. The commercial metaphor reinforces an appeal to patient forbearance where possible.

Related entries

Legal evidence: Debt, surety and the institutions of legal obligation.

Commodity: Profit, advantage and the valuation of people by gain.

Charity: The claimed reconciliation of restricted interest-taking with Christian charity.

Commonwealth: The larger imagined institutional scheme.

Policy: Political toleration and its tension with religious judgment.

Honour and nobility: Wealth, pedigree, accusation and acquired merit.

Comfort and consolation: Reported help after financial loss.

Revenge: Retaliation and the multiplication of injury.

Places to read

1. Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraphs 14–17; Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraph 16professed usurers and gripers, with different motives assigned to the preceding religious followers.
2. Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraphs 39–42; Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraph 42; note 1076the idle lender and neglected worker in Burton’s adaptation of More; public maintenance and compulsory work.
3. Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraphs 5–14; Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraphs 8–11biting usurers, some kinde of usury, theological disagreement, approved lenders and borrowers, bank and rate restrictions, and the Zanchi margin note 1108. note 1103’s Plato linkage is provisional; note 1107’s predicted economic effects and unnamed author remain unverified.
4. Subsection 11. The Concupiscible Appetite: Desires and Ambition as Causes · paragraph 31; Subsection 12. Love of Money. Covetousness as a Cause · paragraphs 32–40; Subsection 12. Love of Money. Covetousness as a Cause · paragraphs 1–3; Subsection 12. Love of Money. Covetousness as a Cause · paragraph 34usury among covetousness’s alleged products; the rival pleasure-of-acquisition argument and Burton’s reply.
5. Subsection 12. Love of Money. Covetousness as a Cause · paragraphs 16–22; Subsection 13. Love of Gambling and the Like, and Excessive Pleasures, as Causes · paragraphs 23–24; Subsection 12. Love of Money. Covetousness as a Cause · paragraph 18Gniphon’s anxiety, the redistributed Lucian narrative, and Burton’s claim that comedy describes actual conduct.
6. Subsection 15 Love of Learning or Excessive Study With a Digression on the Misery of Scholars and Why the Muses Are Melancholy · paragraphs 29–33; Subsection 15 Love of Learning or Excessive Study With a Digression on the Misery of Scholars and Why the Muses Are Melancholy · paragraphs 31–32fænore as commercial returns; the Latin verse and Burton’s separate English version differ and remain distinct.
7. Subsection 6 Poverty and Want as Causes of Melancholy · paragraphs 20–25; Subsection 6 Poverty and Want as Causes of Melancholy · paragraph 22the wealthy usurer honoured in common opinion, with generosity an explicit condition.
8. Subsection 7. A Collection of Other Events That Cause Melancholy: The Death of Friends, Losses, and So On · paragraphs 1–5; Subsection 7. A Collection of Other Events That Cause Melancholy: The Death of Friends, Losses, and So On · paragraph 1misery and usury, the distinct Latin debt-and-litigation saying, surety and legal distress.
9. Subsection 2 Help From Friends Through Counsel and Comfort Gentle and Harsh Methods Ingenious Devices Reassurance Changes in the Way of Life and Removal of Troubling Objects and So Forth · paragraphs 23–30; Subsection 2 Help From Friends Through Counsel and Comfort Gentle and Harsh Methods Ingenious Devices Reassurance Changes in the Way of Life and Removal of Troubling Objects and So Forth · paragraph 25; note 6208Arnoldus’s moneylender, reported relief through help, gentleness and the subsequent conditional resort to harsh measures.
10. Member 2 Bodily Deformity, Sickness, Low Birth, and Particular Discontents · paragraphs 21–44; Member 2 Bodily Deformity, Sickness, Low Birth, and Particular Discontents · paragraphs 1–2; Member 2 Bodily Deformity, Sickness, Low Birth, and Particular Discontents · paragraphs 23, 25usury and supposed family origins, original usuræ in note 6528, the conjectural ancestor, and the later valuation of acquired merit.
11. Member 7 Against Rejection, Abuse, Injuries, Contempt, Disgrace, Insults, Slander, Mockery and the Like · paragraphs 16–20; Member 7 Against Rejection, Abuse, Injuries, Contempt, Disgrace, Insults, Slander, Mockery and the Like · paragraph 18cum fænore as the multiplying return of injury, within the argument for patient restraint.
12. Prevention Before or After Marriage: Plato’s Community of Wives; Marrying a Courtesan; Love Potions; Brothels; Marrying Someone Equal in Age and Fortune, From a Good Family, Well Educated and of Good Standing; Treating Wives Well; and So On · paragraphs 48–53; Prevention Before or After Marriage: Plato’s Community of Wives; Marrying a Courtesan; Love Potions; Brothels; Marrying Someone Equal in Age and Fortune, From a Good Family, Well Educated and of Good Standing; Treating Wives Well; and So On · paragraphs 1–3; Prevention Before or After Marriage: Plato’s Community of Wives; Marrying a Courtesan; Love Potions; Brothels; Marrying Someone Equal in Age and Fortune, From a Good Family, Well Educated and of Good Standing; Treating Wives Well; and So On · paragraphs 50–52the usury analogy for toleration, with political concession and religious objection expressly distinguished.
13. Member 2 Subsection 1 Religious Melancholy From Deficiency: Those Affected—Epicures, Atheists, Hypocrites, the Worldly and Complacent, Carnalists, All Impious People, Impenitent Sinners, and Others · paragraphs 1–14; Member 2 Subsection 1 Religious Melancholy From Deficiency: Those Affected—Epicures, Atheists, Hypocrites, the Worldly and Complacent, Carnalists, All Impious People, Impenitent Sinners, and Others · paragraphs 11–14professed Usurers amid the attack on outward holiness and contrary conduct; the earlier distinction between appearance and judgment of hearts remains relevant.
14. Causes of Despair: The Devil, Melancholy, Meditation, Distrust, Weakness of Faith, Harsh Ministers, Misunderstanding Scripture, Guilty Consciences, and So On · paragraphs 17–23; Causes of Despair: The Devil, Melancholy, Meditation, Distrust, Weakness of Faith, Harsh Ministers, Misunderstanding Scripture, Guilty Consciences, and So On · paragraph 19; note 12928the reported occupational comparison, English seldom versus Latin non, and contrasting cases of religious distress.

In this edition

“biting usurers” → “extortionate moneylenders”; “some kinde of usury” → “some lending at interest”. Biting supplies the explicit severity in the first pair; usury names the practice in the second. Reading both as extortion would hide Burton’s concession. At use becomes at interest within take up money at use → borrow at interest. In the same scheme to be an Usurer is recast as to lend at interest, preserving the restriction on permission.

The Latin usuram is interest, accusative with vocat, calls, in the Zanchi margin. Its approximately this form and the subsequent restrictions prevent the approval from becoming universal. In ad fœnus, at interest, the modern local clause says should lend and leaves the interest qualification implicit from its context. Elsewhere usuræ is a plural agent, rendered by the mass noun Usury in Usury enriched this man. Fœnerator, fœneratorem and fæneratores name a moneylender or moneylenders in different grammatical cases; avarum separately supplies greedy in the reported patient’s description.

Misery and moneylending at interest commonly go together supplies go where the printed English appears to lack a verb after do commonly. It does not replace the preceding Latin about both debt and litigation. In the hypocrisy passage, professed usurers, gripers becomes openly practise usury and extortion: the modern changes agent nouns into practices, and professed means openly avowed. The later professed Usurers becomes open usurers.

Magno…fænore gives great returns from the merchant’s voyage, while cum fænore gives with interest in the metaphor of multiplying injury. The first construction concerns profit, the second figurative increase; neither warrants silently turning its setting into an actual loan. Burton’s separate English merchant verse remains alongside the fresh translation of the Latin.

At use

Printed “at use” (English; phrase).

At interest, as a condition of borrowing money.

Here: Borrowers as well as lenders require approval in the proposed scheme.

Context: Not everyone may borrow: the supervisors approve merchants, young tradesmen, those in need or able to use funds honestly, excluding prodigals and spendthrifts. These are the proposal’s historical restrictions.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: take up money at use

Modern rendering: borrow at interest

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase or construction in the supplied parallel text.

Word and construction: Take up money supplies borrow; at use supplies at interest. Use here denotes the charge for the loan, not merely employment of the money.

Biting usurers

Printed “biting usurers” (English; phrase).

Extortionate moneylenders: biting marks oppressive severity, while usurers identifies those who lend at interest.

Here: These lenders are excluded before the qualified admission of some interest-taking.

Context: I will not admit is the governing prohibition. The following yet changes the scope from rejecting abusive lenders to permitting a regulated practice; the two clauses must not be collapsed.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: biting usurers

Modern rendering: extortionate moneylenders

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase or construction in the supplied parallel text.

Word and construction: Biting supplies extortionate; usurers supplies moneylenders. The prohibition belongs to the surrounding clause rather than these two nouns and modifiers alone.

Cum fænore

Printed “cum fænore” (Latin; phrase).

With interest: cum governs ablative fænore.

Here: An injury provokes further injuries and multiplied enemies, figuratively earning interest.

Context: Burton’s Hydra and broken-mirror comparisons support patient forbearance if it is possible. The unverified Praxiteles anecdote is not needed to establish the phrase’s figurative force; this is not an actual financial transaction.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: cum fænore

Modern rendering: with interest

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase or construction in the supplied parallel text.

Word and construction: Cum supplies with and fænore interest; the lending metaphor describes an increase in injury and hostility.

Fænus; financial return

Printed “fænore” (Latin; family).

Return or profit; ablative singular of fænus, here the gain of seaborne commerce.

Here: The verse contrasts profitable worldly pursuits with impoverished eloquence.

Context: This is Eumolpus’s verse in Petronius, as adapted by Burton, not a guaranteed return on a loan or voyage. The following English verse is a separate restatement and the next paragraph turns to students choosing lucrative professions.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: Qui Pelago credit, magno se fænore tollit

Modern rendering: He who trusts the sea raises himself on great returns

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase or construction in the supplied parallel text.

Word and construction: Qui is he who, Pelago dative to the sea with credit trusts; se is himself. Magno fænore, ablative, supplies on great returns; tollit raises. The return is commercial gain in this context, not necessarily loan interest.

Fœnerator

Printed “fœnerator” (Latin; lemma).

Moneylender; nominative singular.

Here: More’s argument, compressed in the original margin, opposes idle wealth to neglected useful labour.

Context: The conditional rhetorical question concerns a moneylender who does nothing, not every possible lender. The margin’s irregular quæ dat…prodigit and abbreviated source remain as transmitted.

Source: original marginal quotation

Source wording and original alignment: aut fœnerator qui nihil agat

Modern rendering: or moneylender who does nothing

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase or construction in the supplied parallel text.

Word and construction: Aut supplies or; fœnerator moneylender; qui nihil agat who does nothing, retaining the relative qualification.

Modern container: note

Further local use

Printed “fœneratorem” (Latin; lemma).

Citation key: Fœnerator.

Moneylender; accusative singular.

Here: The cited case explicitly calls the distressed lender greedy.

Context: Arnoldus’s reported recollection says the man lost much money and was cured in this way. I is the cited speaker, not Burton claiming personal treatment; exact attribution and edition remain open.

Source: original marginal quotation

Source wording and original alignment: fœneratorem avarum

Modern rendering: a greedy moneylender

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase or construction in the supplied parallel text.

Word and construction: Fœneratorem supplies moneylender, avarum greedy; a is supplied as the English indefinite article.

Modern container: note

Further local use

Printed “fæneratores” (Latin; lemma).

Citation key: Fænerator.

Moneylenders; accusative plural in the negated list of those allegedly not troubled by conscience.

Here: Lemnius’s marginal generalization contrasts accommodating consciences with solitary religious scrupulosity.

Context: The Latin non excludes the listed occupations, while the separate English body says seldom rather than never. Neither is a verified claim about modern occupations or prevalence.

Source: original marginal quotation

Source wording and original alignment: fæneratores

Modern rendering: moneylenders

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase or construction in the supplied parallel text.

Word and construction: The plural agent noun is rendered moneylenders; its governing negative belongs to the surrounding note, outside this noun-only alignment.

Modern container: note

Misery and usury

Printed “usury” (English; phrase).

Moneylending at interest, associated here with debt and distress.

Here: Burton’s English aphorism narrows the immediately preceding Latin saying about debt and litigation.

Context: Commonly is the frequency qualification, not invariably. The following warning about surety concerns liability for another person’s debts, and the sequel broadens to quarrels and lawsuits.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: misery and usury do commonly together

Modern rendering: Misery and moneylending at interest commonly go together

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase or construction in the supplied parallel text.

Word and construction: Usury supplies moneylending at interest. The modern supplies go where the original appears to omit a verb after do commonly; this English saying is separate from the Latin debt-and-litigation sentence.

Professed usurers

Printed “professed usurers” (English; phrase).

Open or avowed practitioners of interest-taking, here condemned alongside extortioners.

Here: Their conduct contradicts conspicuous religious zeal.

Context: Others introduces this group, distinct from the preceding followers driven by zeal or fear. The contrast is Burton’s charge of hypocrisy, not proof of all sermon-goers’ motives or an adopted occupational stereotype.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: professed usurers, gripers

Modern rendering: openly practise usury and extortion

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase or construction in the supplied parallel text.

Word and construction: Professed supplies openly; the two agent nouns become practices: usurers practise usury, gripers extortion. The shared verb practise is supplied by the modern restructuring.

Further local use

Printed “professed Usurers” (English; phrase).

Citation key: Professed usurers.

Openly acknowledged usurers or interest-taking moneylenders.

Here: Religious attendance is contrasted with grasping and indulgent conduct.

Context: The passage is polemical: Epicurism is an accusation of sensual indulgence. The preceding distinction between outward conduct and hidden hearts must not be converted into verified unbelief.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: professed Usurers

Modern rendering: open usurers

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase or construction in the supplied parallel text.

Word and construction: Professed supplies open, not trained or professional; Usurers is retained.

Usura

Printed “usuram” (Latin; lemma).

Interest on a loan; accusative singular of usura.

Here: The original margin attributes qualified approval of approximately this form of interest to Zanchi.

Context: The note retains conditions and ellipses: not everyone lends, not everyone borrows, and the permitted use is honest. Printed modo non exigant is rendered provided they do not exact it, with its precise scope unresolved beyond the incomplete quotation.

Source: original marginal quotation

Source wording and original alignment: Hoc fere Zanchius com. in 4 cap. ad Ephes. æquissimam vocat usuram, & charitati Christianæ consentaneam

Modern rendering: Zanchi, commentary on Ephesians chapter 4, calls approximately this form of interest entirely just and consistent with Christian charity

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase or construction in the supplied parallel text.

Word and construction: Hoc fere contributes approximately this form; usuram interest is the accusative with vocat, calls, and æquissimam/consentaneam describe it as entirely just/consistent. Charitati Christianæ is dative, with Christian charity.

Modern container: note

Further local use

Printed “usuræ” (Latin; lemma).

Citation key: Usura.

Interest receipts or usury; nominative plural used as the agent enriching someone.

Here: The marginal catalogue makes money from lending one allegedly corrupt origin of wealth and rank.

Context: Burton’s extended list is attributed to Machiavelli’s Florentine History but is not a verbatim rendering of the consulted insurgent’s speech; it must not be made the historian’s unqualified doctrine.

Source: original marginal quotation

Source wording and original alignment: hunc usuræ ditârunt

Modern rendering: Usury enriched this man

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase or construction in the supplied parallel text.

Word and construction: Usuræ supplies the collective English singular Usury; ditârunt enriched, and hunc this man. The Latin plural agent becomes an English mass noun.

Modern container: note

Further local use

Printed “ad fœnus” (Latin; phrase).

Citation key: Ad fœnus dare.

At interest; ad with accusative fœnus within the lending construction.

Here: Zanchi’s reported restriction allows only certain people to lend.

Context: The negative is not everyone, not an absolute refusal of all lending. The modern leaves at interest implicit in this local clause because interest has just been named.

Source: original marginal quotation

Source wording and original alignment: nec omnes dent ad fœnus

Modern rendering: not everyone should lend

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase or construction in the supplied parallel text.

Word and construction: Nec omnes gives not everyone; dent is subjunctive, should lend. Ad fœnus explicitly says at interest in the Latin; that qualification is carried by the context rather than repeated in this modern unit.

Modern container: note

Usurer

Printed “Usurer” (English; lemma).

A person who lends money at interest.

Here: The noun can name an approved lender rather than necessarily an extortioner.

Context: The no/not…every construction restricts who may lend; it does not forbid the practice altogether. The modern changes a lender noun phrase into a verb phrase within the whole prohibition.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: it shall not be lawful for each man to be an Usurer that will

Modern rendering: not everyone who wishes shall be allowed to lend at interest

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase or construction in the supplied parallel text.

Word and construction: The noun Usurer contributes lend at interest when to be an Usurer is recast verbally. Each man…that will becomes everyone who wishes, with the negative permission preserved.

Further local use

Printed “usurer” (English; lemma).

Citation key: Usurer.

A moneylender, here represented as an idle beneficiary of others’ work.

Here: The contrast with an exhausted labourer supports public provision for those unable to work.

Context: Burton adapts More’s protest against a commonwealth rewarding the idle while abandoning indispensable workers in old age. It is a social accusation, not a measured description of all lenders.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: a usurer

Modern rendering: moneylender

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase or construction in the supplied parallel text.

Word and construction: Usurer supplies moneylender; the original article is not repeated before this member of the modern coordinated list.

Further local use

Printed “Usurers” (English; lemma).

Citation key: Usurer.

Moneylender’s; the printed noun has possessive force before house.

Here: Gniphon’s sleepless counting exemplifies the anxiety of wealth.

Context: Burton retells Lucian’s Cock and redistributes its details, naming Eucrates where the supplied annotation identifies Simon as another anxious money-counter. The literary example and Burton’s claim of real-life parallels are not a clinical finding.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: Gnyphon the Usurers house

Modern rendering: the moneylender Gniphon’s house

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase or construction in the supplied parallel text.

Word and construction: Usurers supplies moneylender, with possession expressed by Gniphon’s in the reordered modern noun phrase. No apostrophe is silently inserted into the original form.

Further local use

Printed “usurer” (English; lemma).

Citation key: Usurer.

A lender at interest, included in a morally hostile catalogue.

Here: Common opinion honours wealth even in a person whose conduct is condemned.

Context: The local conditions are that he is rich and generous too; Burton satirizes this valuation rather than endorsing it. Most part qualifies the preceding general account.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: an usurer

Modern rendering: a usurer

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase or construction in the supplied parallel text.

Word and construction: The noun is retained; the article is modernized from an to a. Its negative evaluation comes from the catalogue and argument, not an imported statutory definition.

Further local use

Printed “Usurer” (English; lemma).

Citation key: Usurer.

A moneylender, here a person reported as distressed after financial loss.

Here: Arnoldus’s example supports the claimed power of comfort, counsel or practical help.

Context: The cure is reported, not independently established; the marginal speaker’s I belongs to the cited account. The sequel recommends gentleness first, then conditionally turns to threats and physical punishment if reassurance fails. Those are historical prescriptions, not present advice.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: an Usurer

Modern rendering: a moneylender

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase or construction in the supplied parallel text.

Word and construction: Usurer supplies moneylender; the article changes to a. The disapproving force becomes explicit as avarum, greedy, in the separate marginal Latin.

Further local use

Printed “usurer” (English; lemma).

Citation key: Usurer.

A moneylender, alleged as the source of an ancestor’s wealth.

Here: A supposed pedigree is attacked as inherited money rather than inherited worth.

Context: In all likelihood qualifies the inference; Burton does not establish the imagined ancestor’s occupation. The surrounding polemic attacks many family origins and later allows honour earned and sustained by merit.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: in all likelihood a usurer

Modern rendering: most likely a usurer

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase or construction in the supplied parallel text.

Word and construction: In all likelihood becomes most likely; usurer is retained. This full unit preserves the speculative modality.

Usurer; religious melancholy

Printed “Usurer” (English; family).

Moneylender, among occupations said to possess an accommodating conscience.

Here: Lemnius’s reported comparison makes such people seldom troubled by religious apprehension.

Context: Seldom and in this kinde restrict the English claim; it does not say moneylenders never suffer melancholy of any kind. The marginal Latin uses non with the occupational list. These are historical moral and medical generalizations, not modern prevalence facts.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: an Usurer so troubled in minde

Modern rendering: usurer so troubled in mind

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase or construction in the supplied parallel text.

Word and construction: Usurer is retained and minde modernized. The original an is absorbed into the modern coordinated list; so retains reference to the religious distress under discussion.

Usury

Printed “usury” (English; lemma).

Lending money at interest; not necessarily an excessive charge in this use.

Here: Burton’s imagined commonwealth tolerates a limited kind of interest-taking while rejecting extortionate lenders.

Context: The allowance is a concession to human imperfection, unnecessary if people were upright. The sequel reports theologians’ disagreement, then restricts lenders, borrowers, bank arrangements and rates. It is Burton’s historical proposal, not a modern rule or financial recommendation.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: some kinde of usury

Modern rendering: some lending at interest

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase or construction in the supplied parallel text.

Word and construction: Some kinde of becomes some, retaining the limited scope; usury supplies lending at interest. Reading the word as necessarily extortionate would erase the concession.

Usury; moral accusation

Printed “usury” (English; family).

Lending at interest construed here as culpable or oppressive gain.

Here: Burton adds it to the evils attributed to covetousness.

Context: The addition is Burton’s after the question from James, not part of that biblical quotation. He reports a rival claim that acquiring wealth brings pleasure, then rejects its adequate duration and goodness. The moral rhetoric is not a modern legal definition.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: I will adde usury

Modern rendering: I will add usury

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase or construction in the supplied parallel text.

Word and construction: The verb is modernized and usury retained; I marks Burton’s addition to the cited biblical question.

Further local use

Printed “usury” (English; lemma).

Citation key: Usury.

Interest-taking presented as an exploitative source of wealth.

Here: It joins fraud and oppression among the alleged origins of many noble families.

Context: Many is the scope of this local assertion, though the succeeding rhetoric is more sweeping. The eventual merit-based exception prevents reading the passage as a denial of all deserved honour.

Source: original body

Source and modern wording: usury

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase or construction in the supplied parallel text.

Word and construction: The noun is retained unchanged within the hostile catalogue.

Further local use

Printed “usury” (English; lemma).

Citation key: Usury.

Interest-taking as a source of enrichment.

Here: The English catalogue assigns different sources of wealth to different people.

Context: The sentence follows an attributed insurgent’s argument in Machiavelli; Burton expands the list and later distinguishes personal merit. It is not an authenticated genealogy.

Source: original body

Source and modern wording: usury another

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase or construction in the supplied parallel text.

Word and construction: The elliptical unit retains the preceding enriches as its understood verb: usury enriches another person. Neither another nor the ellipsis says all wealth comes from lending.

Usury; toleration analogy

Printed “usury” (English; family).

Interest-taking invoked as a politically tolerated practice despite religious objection.

Here: Burton compares a claimed toleration of brothels with toleration of usury because of human hardness of heart.

Context: The account is attributed polemic against Roman Catholics, not independently established doctrine or civic practice. Burton expressly concedes the force of the policy argument while opposing the practice in religion; the two judgments remain distinct.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: and howsoever unlawful, yet to avoid a greater mischief, to be tolerated in policy, as usury, for the hardness of mens hearts

Modern rendering: and, however unlawful, they are to be tolerated as a matter of policy, like usury, to avoid a greater evil, because of the hardness of human hearts

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase or construction in the supplied parallel text.

Word and construction: As usury becomes like usury; policy becomes as a matter of policy. The however unlawful concession retains howsoever…yet without a separate yet. To avoid a greater mischief becomes to avoid a greater evil and moves later; they are makes the implied subject and copula explicit.