THE DEFEAT OF A GOOD CAUSE: SCIPIONE MAFFEI AND THE CONTROVERSY ON USURY

This paper examines Scipione Maffei’s contributions to the eighteenth-century debate on usury, focusing on his treatise Dell’impiego del denaro (1744). Maffei argued for the moral legitimacy of moderate interest rates on money loans, emphasizing mutual benefit and economic growth, while challenging entrenched theological prohibitions. Drawing on scriptural analysis, theological reasoning, and observations from Protestant economies, he sought to align private financial incentives with the common good. Despite influencing Pope Benedict XIV’s encyclical Vix Pervenit (1745), Maffei’s views were strongly opposed by theologians such as Daniele Concina and Pietro Ballerini, who eventually won the controversy against Maffei, despite the arguments of Dell’impiego del denaro that later proved correct. This was an important episode that sheds light on the Catholic and southern European spirit of capitalism, its double morality, and its paradoxes.