COLLATION VI.
On the fifth, sixth, and seventh commandments.
Summary. - Introduction, 1. - Recapitulation, 2. - On the six other commandments in general, 3. - Part I. On the fifth commandment. Threefold anger, offending three goods of the neighbor, 4. - Objections of the Manichaeans, 5. - Against them a threefold distinction of killing is made, namely killing is done first by the law: three things are required in a minister of the law, 6. 7. - Second, by a person, and this in three ways: by chance, by necessity, by will, 8-10. - Third, interpretively, and this in three ways, 11. - Part II. On the sixth commandment. Sin is committed against this in seven ways; threefold chastity: their foundation, 12. 13. - Confirmation: example, 14. 15. - Conclusion and addition, 16. - Part III. On the seventh commandment. Definition of theft, 17. - Divisions of theft, 18. - The reason why usury, and not lending, is a sin, 19. - On simony, 20.
1. You shall not kill. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal.
Then I shall not be confounded, when I shall have regard to all your commandments. Blessed James says: Whoever shall keep the whole law, yet offend in one point, is become guilty of all: not that for one transgression he is punished with as much punishment of sense as for the transgression of all; but he will be punished with as much punishment of loss, yet not as severely for one as for all. Therefore, if anyone wishes to attain to true life, it is necessary that he have regard to all the commandments of God in heart, mouth, and deed. And therefore he says: When I shall have regarded, that is, perfectly looked upon and considered and acted accordingly, I shall not fear to be confounded. It is no great thing to be confounded in the present, but to be confounded eternally. Such confusion is greatly to be abhorred. But we cannot escape that confusion unless we have regard to all the commandments of God. Therefore at the beginning let us ask God that he reveal our eyes to consider his commandments.
2. You shall not kill, etc. I was telling you that the commandments of God were distinguished into two tablets. In the first are contained commandments according to the law of justice ordering us to the Trinity, in which are contained three commandments according to the three things appropriated to the three persons. In the second tablet are contained commandments ordering us to our neighbor, and this according to the twofold part of justice, namely beneficence and innocence. Moreover, all justice is reduced to three things: because to God we owe due reverence through prayer, through confession, and through satisfaction; to our father we owe beneficence, and to all others innocence.
We have spoken of the three commandments that order us to God; we have also spoken of the fourth commandment, which is taken according to that part of justice which is beneficence: in which it is commanded that we must show honor to father and mother.
3. There follows concerning the six other commandments, which pertain to innocence, in which it is commanded that no one harm his neighbor. Now one harms his neighbor in three ways: by perversity of deed, by falsity of speech, and by wickedness of will; and accordingly the Lawgiver first prohibits the harm that comes from perversity of deed. Now the perversity of deed by which one injures another is threefold: for either one injures another in his own person, or in a person joined to him, or in his temporal substance; and accordingly there are three commandments that pertain to innocence. In the first, harm to one's own person is prohibited, there: You shall not kill. In the second, harm to a person joined to him is prohibited, there: You shall not commit adultery. In the third, harm to temporal substance is prohibited, there: You shall not steal.
4. First, I say, in this commandment: You shall not kill, anger breaking forth into injuries destructive of natural or substantial life and of sound life and of honorable life is prohibited. "For nature desires what is better," and therefore it does not suffice for it to have mere existing life; rather, beyond this it desires a healthy and sound and honorable life; and accordingly the Lawgiver in this commandment: You shall not kill, first prohibits anger breaking forth into injuries destructive of natural life; second, of sound life, namely, when injury is done through beatings or wounds; third, of honorable life, such as the injury done through open or hidden insult, such as that which is done through a gesture.
Hence in the Gospel: You have heard that it was said to the ancients: You shall not kill; and whoever kills shall be liable to judgment. But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment. And whoever says to his brother: Raca, shall be liable to the council. And whoever says: You fool, shall be liable to the fire of Gehenna. Therefore it is plain that in three ways a man acts against that commandment: You shall not kill, namely when someone is angry with his brother, or when he says: Raca, or when he says: You fool. And when he does this from deliberation of mind, then he says that he is liable to the fire of Gehenna. And because natural life is the foundation of the others, therefore under this form: You shall not kill, the Lawgiver expressed the commandment.
5. Now the Manichaeans object to us and say that the Lawgiver contradicts himself. For he says: You shall not kill, and elsewhere he says: You shall not suffer sorcerers to live. And this is against rulers in Christian law, who kill others through judicial sentence. —Likewise they object that the Lord says: All who take up the sword shall perish by the sword; therefore it is not lawful to take up the sword.
And similarly they say that it is not lawful for a priest to be a slayer. And this is against the Church and ecclesiastical persons, who by executing judgment and commanding take up the sword. -Likewise they object that it is said But I say to you, not to resist evil, and this is against the Lawgiver.
6. We ought to understand that what is prohibited here is the slaying of man, not of beasts or plants, as the ancient Manichaeans said, who refused to eat from the fruits of trees.
Now the slaying of man can be by law, or by man in truth, or interpretively. The slaying of man by man as by man, not as by law, is prohibited: but God, who is the founder of nature and the preserver of nature and of law, can deprive a man of life whenever He wills. - Law however slays a man when the minister of the law slays, and this with a just order having been observed, a just cause, and a just intention.
7. It is necessary that there be a just order and a just cause, that is, that one be slain from a just cause, because the law says: That which is just you shall justly pursue.
Likewise, it is necessary to have a just intention, so that the man who is the minister of the law slays a man by law, not from the desire for vengeance, but from the love of justice. Whence the Apostle to the Romans, speaking to rulers, says that the ruler does not bear the sword without cause. For he is the minister of God, an avenger unto wrath against him who does evil.
What therefore the Lord says to Peter: All who take up the sword shall perish by the sword: this refers only to this, that he who is not a minister of the law ought not to slay.
And what is said, that it is not lawful for a priest to be a slayer, this does not refer to rulers.
The first thing, therefore, that the Lord says: You shall not kill, is true, as man, but as minister of the law. The second, that the Lord says: All who take up the sword shall perish by the sword, is true, if one does not preside over the commonwealth.
The third, that the Lord says: But I say to you, not to resist evil, is true, from the desire for vengeance: but from the love of justice it is well lawful to resist evil.
It is now clear how the law slays a man.
8. Likewise, a man is slain by man as by man, and this happens in three ways: either by chance, or by necessity, or by will.
If a man slays a man by chance, either he applies his effort to a lawful matter and exercises due diligence; and then he is excused from so much and from the whole. If however the homicide is accidental, and the man applies his effort to an unlawful matter and does not exercise due diligence: then he is excused from so much, not from the whole .
9. If however the homicide was committed out of necessity, this is twofold: either out of avoidable necessity, or unavoidable. The necessity is avoidable if I can flee but refrain on account of shame or some other cause: and in this case the person is excused from so much, not from the whole, because it would have been better for him to flee. If however the necessity is unavoidable, namely such that a man kills another not from the desire for revenge but from the love of preserving life and soul, so that he does not slay him out of cruelty but rather prevents him from destroying his own life and soul, and if this is done with the moderation of blameless self-defense; then it is conceded to imperfect persons, not to perfect ones — and Augustine says this in On Free Will — and such a person is excused both from the whole and from so much.
10. In a third way homicide is committed by a man willfully, and this is twofold: either from the desire for revenge, as when someone kills another's father; or from cruelty of spirit, as when robbers or the wrathful kill others: and both of these are prohibited, and the first is graver than the second.