Denoting today an excessive rate of interest, in late antiquity the term “usury” (τόκος, usura, foenus) more generally referred to any interest on a loan, irrespective of the amount or type, in money or in kind. Contemporary Christian writers loosely defined usury as “what redounds to the loan” (fenoris redundantia; Tert. Marc. 4.17) or “whatever is added to the capital” (quodcunque sorti accedit; Ambr. Tob. 14.49). In even pl…