{"id":8899,"date":"2013-06-07T18:50:09","date_gmt":"2013-06-07T18:50:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leithart.level2d.com\/?p=2633"},"modified":"2013-06-07T18:50:09","modified_gmt":"2013-06-07T18:50:09","slug":"violence-in-tradition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2013\/06\/violence-in-tradition\/","title":{"rendered":"Violence in tradition"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\">\n<\/head><body><p>\n<style>  <!-- <br \/> @font-face {   font-family: \"Times New Roman\"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; line-height: 200%; font-size: 10pt; font-family: \"Times New Roman\"; }table.MsoNormalTable { font-size: 10pt; font-family: \"Times New Roman\"; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; } <br \/> -->  <\/style>\n<\/p><p> From the early centuries through the Reformation and beyond, Christian thinkers distinguished between violence and just acts of force. Justin argued that every \u201chonourable person\u201d would agree that \u201crulers should give their decision as having followed not violence and tyranny but piety and philosophy\u201d ( <i> First Apology <\/i> , 2). Tertullian recognized that the  <i> lex talionis <\/i>  was given as a restraint on violence rather than as blanket permission ( <i> Against Marcion <\/i> , 16). For Eusebius, a man who shows no allegiance to God and who is vicious may \u201cbe deemed powerful through despotic violence\u201d but he does not have a real claim to the title \u201cemperor\u201d ( <i> Speech for the Thirtieth Anniversary of Constantine\u2019s Accession <\/i> , 5). John Chrysostom is careful to point out that Israel plundered Egypt \u201cwithout violence or wrong\u201d ( <i> Twelfth Homily on 1 Timothy <\/i> ).Though Augustine sometimes speaks of war as repulsing enemy violence \u201cwith equal violence for the protection of the citizens\u201d ( <i> On Free Choice of the Will <\/i> , 1.5), he also describes war as being \u201cagainst violent resistance\u201d ( <i> Against Faustus <\/i>  22.74). <\/p>\n<p> Similar notions of violence are evident in the legal and political theorists of Western Christendom throughout the Middle Ages. <\/p>\n<p>  <!--more--> In his  <i> Summa Decretorum <\/i>  (1.1), Rufinus the Canonist argued that natural law permits rulers \u201cforcible to repel violence,\u201d and cites the Digest to show that \u201covercoming violence and injustice is a matter for the law of nations.\u201d Even wild animals exhibit the first principle, since they \u201crepel violence.\u201d But repelling violence is not itself an act of violence; it is an act of \u201cforce.\u201d Authority may fail to derive from God, Thomas says, if it is acquired \u201cthrough violence, or simony or some other illegal method\u201d ( <i> Commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard <\/i> , 2.44.2). <\/p>\n<p> Wyclif warned that there was no valid right of conquest, warning that the principle that permits it inculcates \u201crapacious and predatory attacks against their weaker brethren.\u201d He cites Proverbs 21:7 in support: \u201cThe violence of the wicked will sweep them away\u201d ( <i> Civil Lordship <\/i> , 1.21). Nicholas of Cusa was summing up a medieval commonplace when he wrote that \u201call violence is opposed to law\u201d ( <i> Catholic Concordance <\/i> , 3.4).Luther argued that it was no violation of the Sermon on the Mount to appeal to the law against \u201cviolence and malice\u201d ( <i> The Sermon on the Mount <\/i> ). Grotius cited Euripides to the effect that \u201cGod hates violence\u201d ( <i> Right of War and Peace <\/i>  1.1.10). <\/p>\n<p> All citations taken from Oliver O\u2019Donovan and Joan Lockwood O\u2019Donovan, eds.,  <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/0802842097\/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=0802842097&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=leithartcom-20\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"> From Irenaeus to Grotius: A Sourcebook in Christian Political Thought <\/a>  <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=leithartcom-20&amp;l=as2&amp;o=1&amp;a=0802842097\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" border=\"0\"> . <\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From the early centuries through the Reformation and beyond, Christian thinkers distinguished between violence and just acts of force. Justin argued that every \u201chonourable person\u201d would agree that \u201crulers should give their decision as having followed not violence and tyranny but piety and philosophy\u201d ( First Apology , 2). Tertullian recognized that the lex talionis [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3021,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Violence in tradition<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"From the early centuries through the Reformation and beyond, Christian thinkers distinguished between violence and just acts of force. 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