Annotatio CLXXXVII
”Because I have not known letters [learning].” — Psalm 70:15
The explanation of Cassiodorus on this little verse St. Thomas, in the Second Part of the Second Part, question 77, article 4, brings forward in [his] argumentation, as [something] at first sight favoring the error of those who assert that traders — selling dearer than they buy — are to be altogether cast out of the Church.1 He cites the author’s [Cassiodorus’s] words, alluding to this, in this manner: “‘For I have not known letters’ — or ‘trading,’ according to another reading: what,” he says, “is trading, other than to procure more cheaply, and to sell more dearly?”; and he adds: “Such traders the Lord cast out of the temple; but no one is cast out of the temple except on account of some sin: therefore such trading is a sin.” But if the words themselves, as they are in Cassiodorus, be diligently inspected, they bring their own interpretation with them — since the author himself interprets his own opinion clearly enough, speaking thus: “‘For I have known tradings’: this part of the verse, unless it be well examined, is recognized to admit a question. For if every trader is to be altogether condemned, then neither do those escape this penalty who are known to exercise the remaining crafts. For what else is trading, than to wish to sell more dearly the things that can be procured more cheaply? Then, in the Lives of the Fathers, we read that Paphnutius, that most holy man, was by a revelation compared to a trader; and we find even today, in the Church of God, [some] who indeed handle merchandise, yet are strong in the highest faith: for the worst act, not the honest thing, is condemned — just as we read that the rich man does not enter into the kingdom of heaven, although the patriarchs Job, Abraham, Isaac, [and] Jacob were abounding also in riches. Those traders, therefore, are esteemed abominable, who — least of all considering the justice of the Lord — through immoderate” gain are polluted, loading their merchandise more with perjuries than with prices — such the Lord cast out of the temple, saying: “Make not the house of my Father a house of trading, and a den of thieves,” etc.2 On this subject, read Annotation 95 of book 6.