[78] Robertson, op. cit. i. 55, 56, 338 sqq. Hallam, View of the State of Europe during the Middle Ages, i. 207. Brussel, op. cit. i. 142.
[79] Ibid. i. 343 sq. Prof. Freeman (Comparative Politics, p. 328 sq.) mentions as the last instance of private war in England one from the time of Edward IV.
[80] Lawrence, Essays on some Disputed Questions in Modern International Law, p. 254 sq.
[81] I do not understand how M. Gautier can say (op. cit. p. 6) that Chivalry was the most beautiful of those means by which the Church endeavoured to check war.
[82] Mills, History of Chivalry, i. 147.
[83] Laurent, op. cit. vii. 245.
[84] Bonet, op. cit. iv. 54, p. 150.
Similar opinions have retained their place in the orthodox creeds both of the Catholic and Protestant Churches up to the present day. The attitude adopted by the great Christian congregations towards war has been, and is still, to a considerable degree, that of sympathetic approval. The Catechism of the Council of Trent brings home that there are on record instances of slaughter executed by the special command of God Himself, as when the sons of Levi, who put to death so many thousands in one day, after the slaughter were thus addressed by Moses, “Ye have consecrated your hands this day to the Lord.”[85] Even quite modern Catholic writers refer to the canonists who held that a State might lawfully make war upon a heretic people which was spreading heresy, and upon a pagan people which prevented the preaching of the Gospel.[86] Again, when the Protestant Churches became State-Churches, their ministers, considering themselves as in the service of the State, were ready to champion whatever war the Government pleased to undertake. As Mr. Gibb observes, the Protestant minister was as ready with his Thanksgiving Sermon for the victories of a profligate war, as the Catholic priest was with his Te Deum; “indeed, the latter was probably the more independent of the two, because of his allegiance to Rome.”[87] The new Confessions of Faith explicitly claimed for the State the right of waging war, and the Anabaptists were condemned because they considered war unlawful for a Christian.[88] Even the necessity of a just cause as a reason for taking part in warfare, which was reasserted at the time of the Reformation, was subsequently allowed to drop out of sight. Mr. Farrer calls attention to the fact that in the 37th article of the English Church, which is to the effect that a Christian at the command of the magistrate may wear weapons and serve in wars, the word justa in the Latin form preceding the word bella has been omitted altogether.[89]
[85] Catechism of the Council of Trent, iii. 6. 5.
[86] Adds and Arnold, Catholic Dictionary, p. 944.