The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 — Volume 08 of 55 / 1591-1593 / Explorations by Early Navigators, Descriptions of the Islands and Their Peoples, Their History and Records of the Catholic Missions, as Related in Contemporaneous Books and Manuscripts, Showing the Political, Economic, Commercial and Religious Conditions of Those Islands from Their Earliest Relations with European Nations to the Close of the Nineteenth Century

by Unknown

Sources: All these documents are obtained from original MSS. in the Archivo general de Indias, Sevilla.

Translations: In the first document, the opinion of the Augustinians is translated by Joseph Fitzgerald; that of the Franciscans, by Victoria G. Peacock; the remainder, by James A. Robertson. The second document is translated by Rev. T.C. Middleton, O.S.A., Villanova College; the third, by José M. and Clara M. Asensio. In the eighth document, the first letter is translated by Helen E. Thomas; the third, by Mary F. Foster. The remaining documents of this group are translated by James A. Robertson. Page 191

Opinions of the Religious Communities upon Waging War with the Zambales

Opinion of the Augustinians

Your Lordship orders us to give our judgment whether it be lawful to make war on the Zambales, in view of the many injuries that they have been and daily are inflicting upon our people; and, if so be that the war is lawful and righteous, what measures may be taken to attain the end proposed therein, security.

In reply to this we say that, according to all the authorities, divines as well as canonists and jurists, three conditions are required in a war to make it a righteous one; and on these we will rest the justification of the war at present under consideration.

The first condition is that he who begins the war shall have authority; the second, just cause for making war; and third, righteous intention.

The first requires that he who begins the war and by whose order it is waged be a public person, as St Augustine declares, Contra Faustum Manichæum; cited by Gratian (23 qu. I. c. Quid culpatur): Ordo naturalis mortalium paci accommodatus hoc poscit, ut susctpiendi belli authoritas atque consilium penes principes sit. Whence it is clear, as St. Thomas says Page 192(2a 2æ, q. 40, art. I),[1] that a private person cannot lawfully make war; for, if he is aggrieved, he should resort to his superior for satisfaction; and it is as little within the right of a private individual to collect such a body of men as is requisite to carry on a war. The difficulty is to understand what is meant by “public person” or “prince;” for it is plain that it is not lawful for every prince or judge whatsoever to wage war. The solution of this difficulty, according to St. Thomas (ubi supra,) and Cajetanus (ibi and in Summa, ch. Bellum), and Castro (De justa hæreticorum punitione lib. 2, c. 4), is that by “public person” in the present case is understood the one who in his government depends not on another; such are the kings of Spain and France, also some free commonwealths, as Venice, Florence, and Ferrara: these have authority, without recourse to another, to wage war. But those princes and states whose government is not sovereign may not levy war without authority from their superior; and so the lords of Castilla and the viceroys and governors appointed by our king Philippus may not without a warrant make war.