“And yet in these days, if that men have riches,
Though they be hangmen, usurers or witches,
Devils-incarnate, such as have no shame
To act the thing that I shall blush to name,
Does that disgrace them one whit? Fie, no.
…There is no shame for rich men in these times,
For wealth will serve to cover many crimes.”
– George Wither, Abuses Stript and Whipt (1613)
Wither’s writing “gave such offense that he was committed to the Marshalsea prison for several months.” British Bibliographer 1 (1810), pp 4-5.
From Michael Hoffman, Usury In Christendom: The Mortal Sin that Was and Now is Not (2013).
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