226 SSAYS SCIENTIFIC AND PHILOSOPHICAL. 



Christian must always will peace s though war 

 may be forced upon him (Pacem habere debet 

 voluntas, bellum necessitas] ; and, even in war, the 

 Christian must labour for peace (esto ergo bellando 

 pacificus, etc.). He will fight miser icorditer, in the 

 spirit of a father who is compelled to chasten those 

 he loves. And St. Thomas closely follows St. 

 Augustine. " Three things," he says, " are neces- 

 sary for a just war, the authority of the ruler, a 

 righteous cause, and a good intention. Any other 

 war is unlawful." 1 But the rapid deterioration 

 which had taken place in the Western Church 

 between the fourth and the thirteenth century is 

 shown by the numerous canons passed against even 

 clergy bearing arms. The Crusades had familiar- 

 ized men's minds with bloodshed in the name of 

 Christ, and the wars of Christians with one another 

 had confused their judgment. The proclamation 

 of a " Truce of God " marks the ineffective pro- 

 test of Christianity against a spirit which it had 

 done so little to overcome. 



Why, then, did not the Christian Church from 

 the first prohibit war as Tertullian would have 

 done ? Because it had realized the fact that 

 Christianity is a principle of life which is to trans- 

 form the world into itself. " We see not yet all 

 things put under Him." The ideal is not the 

 actual, either for the Christian society or for the 

 1 Summa. Theol., 2, 2, Q. XL. Art. i. 



