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Money, Bank Credit, and Economic Cycles - The Ludwig von Mises ...

Money, Bank Credit, and Economic Cycles - The Ludwig von Mises ...

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Historical Violations of the Legal PrinciplesGoverning the Monetary Irregular-Deposit Contract 55Refutatio omnium haeresium, a work attributed to Hippolytus<strong>and</strong> found in a convent on Mount Athos in 1844, reportsCallistus’s bankruptcy in detail. 29 Like the recurring criseswhich plagued Greece, the bankruptcy of Callistus occurredafter a pronounced inflationary boom followed by a seriousconfidence crisis, a drop in the value of money <strong>and</strong> the failureof multiple financial <strong>and</strong> commercial firms. <strong>The</strong>se events tookplace between 185 <strong>and</strong> 190 A.D. under the rule of the EmperorCommodus.Hippolytus relates how Callistus, at the time a slave to hisfellow Christian Carpophorus, started a banking business inhis name <strong>and</strong> took in deposits mainly from widows <strong>and</strong>Christians (a group that was already increasing in influence<strong>and</strong> membership). Nevertheless, Callistus deceitfully appropriatedthe money, <strong>and</strong>, as he was unable to return it upondem<strong>and</strong>, tried to escape by sea <strong>and</strong> even attempted suicide.After a series of adventures, he was flogged <strong>and</strong> sentenced tohard labor in the mines of Sardinia. Finally, he was miraculouslyreleased when Marcia, concubine of the Emperor Commodus<strong>and</strong> a Christian herself, used her influence. Thirty yearslater, a freedman, he was chosen the seventeenth Pope in theyear 217 <strong>and</strong> eventually died a martyr when thrown into a wellby pagans during a public riot on October 14, 222 A.D. 30We can now underst<strong>and</strong> why even the Holy Fathers intheir Apostolic Constitutions have admonished bankers to behonest <strong>and</strong> to resist their many temptations. 31 <strong>The</strong>se moralexhortations warning bankers against temptation <strong>and</strong> remindingthem of their duties were used constantly among earlyChristians, <strong>and</strong> some have even tried to trace them back to theHoly Scriptures.29 Hippolytus, Hippolytus Wercke, vol. 2: Refutatio omnium haeresium(Leipzig: P. Wendl<strong>and</strong>), 1916.30 Juan de Churruca, “La quiebra de la banca del cristiano Calisto (c.a.185–190),” Seminarios complutenses de derecho romano, February–May 1991(Madrid, 1992), pp. 61–86.31 “Gínesthe trapézitai dókimoi” (“bankers, you must be honest!”). See“Orígenes y movimiento histórico de los bancos,” in Enciclopedia universalilustrada europeo-americana (Madrid: Espasa Calpe, 1973), vol. 7, p. 478.

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