You understand it now, I hope?" "Perfectly well," was my reply."To men you grant the outward material effect of the action; and to God you give the inward and spiritual movement of the intention; and by this equitable partition, you form an alliance between the laws of God and the laws of men.But, my dear sir, to be frank with you, I can hardly trust your premisses, and I suspect that your authors will tell another tale." "You do me injustice, rejoined the monk; "I advance nothing but what I am ready to prove, and that by such a rich array of passages that altogether their number, their authority, and their reasonings, will fill you with admiration.To show you, for example, the alliance which our fathers have formed between the maxims of the Gospel and those of the world, by thus regulating the intention, let me refer you to Reginald: 'Private persons are forbidden to avenge themselves; for St.Paul says to the Romans (12), "Recompense to no man evil for evil"; and Ecclesiasticus says (28), "He that taketh vengeance shall draw on himself the vengeance of God, and his sins will not be forgotten."Besides all that is said in the Gospel about forgiving offences, as in chapters 6 and 18 of St.Matthew.'" "Well, father, if after that he says anything contrary to the Scripture, it will not be from lack of scriptural knowledge, at any rate.Pray, how does he conclude?" "You shall hear,"he said."From all this it appears that a military man may demand satisfaction on the spot from the person who has injured him- not, indeed, with the intention of rendering evil for evil, but with that of preserving his honour-'non ut malum pro malo reddat, sed ut conservet honorem.' See you how carefully they guard against the intention of rendering evil for evil, because the Scripture condemns it? This is what they will tolerate on no account.Thus Lessius observes, that 'if a man has received a blow on the face, he must on no account have an intention to avenge himself; but he may lawfully have an intention to avert infamy, and may, with that view, repel the insult immediately, even at the point of the sword- etiam cum gladio!' So far are we from permitting any one to cherish the design of taking vengeance on his enemies that our fathers will not allow any even to wish their death-by a movement of hatred.'If your enemy is disposed to injure you,' says Escobar, 'you have no right to wish his death, by a movement of hatred;though you may, with a view to save yourself from harm.' So legitimate, indeed, is this wish, with such an intention, that our great Hurtado de Mendoza says that 'we may pray God to visit with speedy death those who are bent on persecuting us, if there is no other way of escaping from it.'""May it please your reverence," said I, "the Church has forgotten to insert a petition to that effect among her prayers." "They have not put in everything into the prayers that one may lawfully ask of God," answered the monk.
"Besides, in the present case, the thing was impossible, for this same opinion is of more recent standing than the Breviary.You are not a good chronologist, friend.But, not to wander from the point, let me request vour attention to the following passage, cited by Diana from Gaspar Hurtado, one of Escobar's four-and-twenty fathers: 'An incumbent may, without any mortal sin, desire the decease of a life-renter on his benefice, and a son that of his father, and rejoice when it happens; provided always it is for the sake of the profit that is to accrue from the event, and not from personal aversion.'" "Good!" cried I."That is certainly a very happy hit; and I can easily see that the doctrine admits of a wide application.
But yet there are certain cases, the solution of which, though of great importance for gentlemen, might present still greater difficulties." "Propose them, if you please, that we may see," said the monk."Show me, with all your directing of the intention," returned I, "that it is allowable to fight a duel." "Our great Hurtado de Mendoza," said the father, "will satisfy you on that point in a twinkling.'If a gentleman,' says he, in a passage cited by Diana, 'who is challenged to fight a duel, is well known to have no religion, and if the vices to which he is openly and unscrupulously addicted are such as would lead people to conclude, in the event of his refusing to fight, that he is actuated, not by the fear of God, but by cowardice, and induce them to say of him that he was a hen, and not a man, gallina, et non vir; in that case he may, to save his honour, appear at the appointed spot- not, indeed, with the express intention of fighting a duel, but merely with that of defending himself, should the person who challenged him come there unjustly to attack him.His action in this case, viewed by itself, will be perfectly indifferent; for what moral evil is there in one stepping into a field, taking a stroll in expectation of meeting a person, and defending one's self in the event of being attacked? And thus the gentleman is guilty of no sin whatever; for in fact it cannot be called accepting a challenge at all, his intention being directed to other circumstances, and the acceptance of a challenge consisting in an express intention to fight, which we are supposing the gentleman never had.'" "You have not kept your word with me, sir," said I."This is not, properly speaking, to permit duelling; on the contrary, the casuist is so persuaded that this practice is forbidden that, in licensing the action in question, he carefully avoids calling it a duel." "Ah!" cried the monk, "you begin to get knowing on my hand, I am glad to see.I might reply that the author I have quoted grants all that duellists are disposed to ask.
