Canto XLV Sin Quotes

One of the first things to suffer from usura is churches, since churches aren't built with cheap, efficient budgets like most modern buildings are. Churches are built to be beautiful and to inspire faith in the power and goodness of God. But in a world that cares only about money, these beautiful things don't get built because they aren't cost-effective.

Pound mentions two examples of churches that he finds especially beautiful, but only for the sake of saying that these churches can't be built in a world with usura. Nothing beautiful can be built at all. But the fact that it's specifically churches that can't be built allows Pound to make his connection between usura and the failure of religious faith in the modern world.

It's in Latin and it's all caps. Hard to miss it when Pound basically yells in our faces the phrase "AGAINST NATURE." Here, he sounds like he's taking on the voice of God, telling us that usura is a sin against nature and implying that we'll all be doomed to hell (or something like it) if we choose to make money without actually contributing anything to the world.