Page:The Net of Faith.pdf/647



St. Gregory says, "the commandment 'thou shalt not kill' forbids anyone to kill a man, but not to hand over to death a man condemned by the law." For he who exercises public authority and punishes the evildoers by virtue of the law, is not a transgressor of the commandment "thou shalt not kill." And Saint Augustine, speaking of the City of God, says:

He wallows in blood saying this. So the soldier is obeying the law when he mercilessly murders people, but is a transgressor of the law if he should show mercy! This is what he says, he who is supposedly filled of the Holy Spirit! And again he says, that the House of David could not have had peace, had it not extinguished Absalom

Master Aegidius used these as well as many other arguments in order to justify the right to spill blood by the secular authority. He quoted the Fathers, some of whom I have ., I, 20.

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