turbers of the peace and quiet of the states of which they are in charge, without necessity of resorting to his Majesty for permission.
The second condition of righteous war is that the cause for which it is waged shall be a just one, as St. Thomas says: "Those upon whom war is waged deserve it for the offenses that they have committed, and the grievances that they have inflicted upon the one who makes war on them." Thus says St. Augustine (lib. 83. Quæstionum super Josue, 9. 10), and Gratian quotes him (23, q. 2, c. Dominus noster): Justa autem bella solent definiri que ulciscuntur injurias, si gens vel civitas plectenda est, quod vel vindicare neglexerit quod a suis improbe factum est, vel reddere quod per injuriam ablatum est.[1] And as this injury and grievance may be of many kinds, so too, many and various are the just causes of war; but we will consider here only those which make for the matter in hand, confirmed by the authority of Scripture.
The first ground of a righteous war may exist when one is hindered from doing what he may by right do. This is matter of natural and divine law and on this ground Julius Cæsar, as Lucan represents him (lib. 1), made defense of his conduct in waging war against the Roman state—viz., that the state had blocked to him, a Roman citizen, the route to Rome; and so he said, arms in hand, Omnia dat qui justa negat.[2] On this ground, as St. Augustine says (in Quaest. Num. q. 43),[3] the children of Israel justly
- ↑ "Just wars are defined to be those which avenge wrongs; if a nation or a state is to be punished either for neglect to punish the evil deeds of their people, or to make restitution of what has been taken wrongfully."
- ↑ "He concedes all who refuses what is just."
- ↑ This reference is to St. Augustine's "Questions on (the book
