Letter 36: Severus tells Eusebius to persuade Libanius to give up clerical usury before canonical penalties become necessary.

Severus writes to Eusebius about a complaint brought by the letter's carriers. Libanius, a presbyter enrolled among the clergy of Apamea, is trying to collect interest on a loan, even though the sacred canons do not allow clergy to profit in that way. The borrowers say they repeatedly begged him to show mercy and accept only the principal, but he refused. Eusebius should therefore remind Libanius, through the church stewards and the archdeacon, of the divine commands against taking interest from a brother. The teachers of the church followed those same scriptural principles when they forbade priests to practice usury and attached penalties to that kind of unjust gain. Severus wants correction before coercion. Eusebius is to put these things back into Libanius' mind and persuade him to act in a way worthy of his office and obedient to God's laws. Libanius should yield to natural kinship and human solidarity before he brings the severity of the canons down on himself. It is better for him to follow the divine counsel freely than to obey only because he is forced.

Those who bring you this letter came to us with the information that Libanius the devout presbyter, who is enrolled in the holy clergy at Apamea, wishes to exact interest from them as arising from a loan of his, contrary to the intention of the sacred canons. They say that they often entreated him to extend to them a hand of sympathy, and to be content with the amount of the principal ^ only, and they gained nothing. Be so good therefore as to remind this man through the religious oeconomi, or stewards, and the devout arch- deacon, or chief of the deacons, of the divine laws which say, " Thou shalt not exact interest from thy brother,""" and "He giveth not his money upon interest," ^ and " Interest and guile departed not from her streets," " and things like these. Following- in the tracks of these texts, the God-clad instructors ^ of the church also forbade interest and usury to those who act as priests to God, fixing a fitting punishment and penalty for such unjust acquisition/ Put him therefore, the aforesaid devout presbyter Libanius, in memory of these things, and persuade him to do what beseems him and not to do despite either to his own spiritual office, or to God's laws. But let him yield to the kinship and consanguinity of nature, lest he call down upon himself the severity of the canons. For it is better for him to follow the divine counsel not of necessity but of his own will.