Early Modern Lutheran Theologians and the Redeemable Census

Abstract

In sixteenth-century Germany, a particular financial operation called widerkaufflicher Zins or five percent contract sparked massive legal and theological controversies. This contract produced effects like a loan and therefore countered the interest-taking prohibition. Martin Luther (1483-1546), Philipp Melanchthon (1497-1560), Johannes Brenz (1499-1570), Johannes Aepinus (1499-1553), Urbanus Rhegius (1489-1541), Martin Chemnitz (1522-1586), Aegidius Hunnius (1550-1603), and Johann Gerhard (1582-1637) addressed this issue. They ended up reformulating the prohibition on interest and mapping out a set of rules for the right use of this contract. This article will survey their opinions paying attention to the points where their teachings resembled the Catholics or where they took a different path.