[17] St. Augustine, Epist. CLXXXIX., ad Bonifacium, 4 (Migne, op. cit. xxxiii. 855).
[18] St. Matthew, xxvi. 52.
[19] St. Augustine, Contra Faustum Manichæum, xxii. 70 (Migne, op. cit. xlii, 444).
[20] St. Augustine, Contra Faustum Manichæum, xxii. 75 (Migne, op. cit. xlii. 448).
[21] St. Augustine, De civitate Dei, xix. 11.
By the writings of St. Augustine the theoretical attitude of the Church towards war was definitely settled, and later theologians only reproduced or further elaborated his views. Yet it was not with a perfectly safe conscience that Christianity thus sanctioned the practice of war. There was a feeling that a soldier scarcely could make a good Christian. In the middle of the fifth century, Leo the Pope declared it to be contrary to the rules of the Church that persons after the action of penance—that is, persons then considered to be pre-eminently bound to obey the law of Christ—should revert to the profession of arms.[22] Various Councils forbade the clergy to engage in warfare,[23] and certain canons excluded from ordination all who had served in an army after baptism.[24] Penance was prescribed for those who had shed blood on the battle-field.[25] Thus the ecclesiastical canons made in William the Conqueror’s reign by the Norman prelates, and confirmed by the Pope, directed that he who was aware that he had killed a man in a battle should do penance for one year, and that he who had killed several should do a year’s penance for each.[26] Occasionally the Church seemed to wake up to the evils of war in a more effective way; there are several notorious instances of wars being forbidden by popes. But in such cases the prohibition was only too often due to the fact that some particular war was disadvantageous to the interests of the Church. And whilst doing comparatively little to discourage wars which did not interfere with her own interests, the Church did all the more to excite war against those who were objects of her hatred.
[22] Leo Magnus, Epistola XC., ad Rusticum, inquis. 12 (Migne, op. cit. liv. 1206 sq.).
[23] One of the Apostolic Canons requires that any bishop, priest, or deacon who devotes himself to military service shall be degraded from his ecclesiastical rank (Canones ecclesiastici qui dicuntur Apostolorum, 83 [Bunsen, Analecta Ante-Nicæna, ii. 31]). The Councils of Toulouse, in 633 (ch. 45, in Labbe-Mansi, op. cit. x. 630), and of Meaux, in 845 (can. 37, ibid. xiv. 827), condemned to a similar punishment those of the clergy who ventured to take up arms. Gratian says (Decretum, ii. 23. 8. 4) that the Church refuses to pray for the soul of a priest who died on the battle-field. Notwithstanding the canons of Councils and the decrees of popes, ecclesiastics frequently participated in battles (Nicolaus I. Epistolæ et Decreta, 83 [Migne, op. cit. cxix. 922]. Robertson, History of the Reign of Charles V. i. 330, 385. Ward, Foundation and History of the Law of Nations, i. 365 sq. Buckle, History of Civilisation in England, i. 204; ii. 464. Bethune-Baker, Influence of Christianity on War, p. 52. Dümmler, Geschichte des Ostfränkischen Reichs, ii. 637).
[24] Grotius, De jure belli et pacis, i. 2. 10. 10. Bingham, Antiquities of the Christian Church, iv. 4. 1 (Works, ii. 55).
[25] Pœnitentiale Bigotianum, iv. i. 4 (Wasserschleben, Bussordnungen der abendländischen Kirche, p. 453). Pœnit. Vigilanum, 27 (ibid. p. 529). Pœnit. Pseudo-Theodori, xxi. 15 (ibid. p. 587 sq.). Cf. Mort de Garin le Loherain, p. 213: “Ainz se repent et se claime cheti; Ses pechiés plore au soir et au matin, De ce qu’il a tans homes mors et pris.”