The legitimacy of the profits of the _commendator_ never seems to have caused the slightest difficulty to the canonists. In 1206 Innocent III. advised the Archbishop of Genoa that a widow's dowry should be entrusted to some merchant so that an income might be obtained by means of honest gain.[1] Aquinas expressly distinguishes between profit made from entrusting one's money to a merchant to be employed by him in trade, and profit arising from a loan, on the ground that in the former case the ownership of the money does not pass, and that therefore the person who derives the profit also risks the loan. 'He who lends money transfers the ownership of the money to the borrower. Hence the borrower holds the money at his own risk, and is bound to pay it all back: wherefore the lender must not exact more. On the other hand, he that entrusts his money to a merchant or craftsman so as to form a kind of society does not transfer the ownership of the money to them, for it remains his, so that at his risk the merchant speculates with it, or the craftsman uses it for his craft, and consequently he may lawfully demand, as something belonging to him, part of the profits derived from his money.'[2] This dictum of Aquinas was the foundation of all the later teaching on partnership, and the importance of the element of risk was insisted on in strong terms by the later writers. According to Baldus, 'when there is no sharing of risk there is no partnership';[3] and Paul de Castro says, 'A partnership when the gain is shared, but not the loss, is not to be permitted.'[4] 'The legitimacy,' says Brants, 'of the contract of _commenda_ always rested upon the same principle; capital could not be productive except for him who worked it himself, or who caused it to be worked on his own responsibility. This latter condition was realised in _commenda_.'[5] [Footnote 1: _Greg. Decr._, iv. 19, 7.] [Footnote 2: II. ii. 78, 2, ad. 5.] [Footnote 3: Brants, _op. cit._, p. 167.] [Footnote 4: _Consilia_, ii. 55; also Ambrosius de Vignate, _De Usuris_, i. 62; Biel, _Op. cit._, IV. xv. 11.] [Footnote 5: _Op. cit._, p. 172.]