• - j PAMPHLET No. 15 W A R A N D PEACE IN SAINT AUGUSTINE'S DE C I V I T A T E D E I By Rev. F. E. Tourscher, O.S.A., S.T.M. a n d The Ethics Commit tee A Report of the Ethics Commit tee PRICE 10 CENTS THE CATHOLIC ASSOCIATION FOR INTERNATIONAL PEACE 1312 Massachusetts Avenue, N. W. Washington, D. C. 1934 Appreciation for their co-operation in spon- soring this report is hereby expressed to Villa- nova College, Villanova, Pennsylvania, re- sponding to the Holy Father's appeal, "May they all unite in the peace of Christ in a full concord of thoughts and emotions, of desires and prayers, of deeds and words—the spoken word, the written word, the printed word— and then an atmosphere of genuine peace, warming and beneficent, will envelop all the world." WAR A N D PEACE In Saint Augustine's D E C I V I T A T E D E I Study Presented to The Catholic Association for International Peace by The Ethics Committee P R I C E 10 C E N T S THE CATHOLIC ASSOCIATION FOR INTERNATIONAL PEACE 1312 Massachusetts Avenue, N. W. Washington, D. C. S T . J O S E P H ' S P R I N T I N G H O U S E P H I L A D E L P H I A , P A . î * m f | S £ This is a Report of the Ethics Committee of the j i Catholic Association for International Peace and ; | is being issued as a Study from this Committee. I t was presented and discussed at the regular an- nual meeting of the organization. The Committee co-operated in the final form of the Report and it was presented to the Executive Committee which ordered it published. As the process indicates, this Report, being the report only of a Committee, is not a statement from the whole Association. I Ì E T H I C S C O M M I T T E E Chairman R T . R E V . J O H N A . R Y A N R E V . J . C . B A R T L E Y , O . S . A . R E V . C H A R L E S P . B R U E H L R T . R E V . A L C U I N D E U T S C H , O . S . B . R E V . J O S E P H P . D O N O V A N , C . M . R E V » C Y P R I A N E M A N U E L , O . F . M . R E V . G R E G O R Y F E I G E R E V . A D O L P H D . F R E N A Y , O . P . R E V . L E O C . G A I N O R , O . P . R T . R E V . M I C H A E L J . G R U P A R T . R E V . W . J . K E R B Y R E V . W I L L I A M S . K R E S S , M . M . R E V . L I N U S A . L I L L Y , S . J . R E V . D O N A L D A . M A C L E A N R T . R E V . T . H . M C L A U G H L I N F R A N C I S E . M C M A H O N R E V . C H A R L E S C . M I L T N E R , C . S . C . K A T H L E E N M U R P H Y L O U I S J . P O T T S M I R I A M T . R O O N E Y R E V . J O H N K . R Y A N R E V . F U L T O N J . S H E E N R E V . F . E . T O U R S C H E R , O . S . A . OsaMecf The City of God was written by Saint Augustine to an- swer charges of responsibility for the fall of Rome in the year 410. After the taking of Rome by the Goths under Alaric the followers of pagan partisans were saying that these recent losses and this final disaster must be traced" to the neglect of the old religion. The public honors formerly paid I to the heroes and gods of Rome had been going out of vogue. The influence of Christianity had long been marked as a cause of this neglect. Here was a foreign religion, a strange faith, a new code of morals, another philosophy of life. The gods were offended. The fall of the City, the "ruin of the world" was the proof of it. This appeal to prejudice under cover of patriotism im- plied a charge of "war guilt" against Christians and the Christian Church. The earlier apologists had been refuting such charges since the time of Justin and Tertullian. Augus- tine sums up the illogic of the argument for the old religion in two trenchant questions:—"What unreason," he asks, "to think that Rome was entrusted wisely to such defenders; and that, if she had not lost them, she could not have been de- feated? Aye, more, what is this very fact of worshipping vanquished gods as rulers and defenders other than holding, not divine beings that are good, but omens that are evil?" The answer to the pagan partisans, whom Augustine re- gards evidently as men of low ideals and little culture,1 is a piece of straight thinking on causes of war and conditions for peace. The stand is taken and held consistently that proxi- mate causes of war and conditions for peace are not to be f found in the old religion or the new. Religion is a philosophy of life. Its whole aim has to do with the meaning of life, its purpose and its end and the right use of means to attain that end. The causes of wars in the past and the present have been tangible facts recorded in the annals of Rome. A survey of seven hundred years of Roman history fol- lows. This survey takes up the first five books of The City of God. Through this survey of history runs a double line i"Quos usitato nomine paganos vocamus." Retract. 11-43. 4 War and Peace in the: City of God 4 of reasoning. F i rs t Augustine shows tha t it would be un- sound and inconsistent in practice to revive a religion, a phil- osophy of life, which had always been in bad repute, which was known to cater to low ideals, which found its support (in later times at any ra te) in the patrons of the degraded theatre, immoral and disgraceful heathen shows. This rea- soning was strong, to the point arid practical in the fifth cen- tury. I t was even stronger in the times of the earlier apol- ogists. I ts bearing now on the modern problems of morality and ethics is indirect only and remote. In the second line of thought Augustine reviews the facts of war and peace in Roman history. These facts are studied from the standpoint of ethics. The records of the building up of empire are taken objectively. Tr iumphs and defeats, gains and losses with their results are cited and quoted from pagan and pre-Christian sources. In these facts one stand- ard of r ight and wrong in human conduct is held out as the measure of right and wrong in social and civic l ife, in the Citv-States, in the Provinces, in the Father land of the ancients, in the more recent world empire of Rome. These surveys of Roman history have a present interest now. In them Augustine defines and describes principles of right living. H e marks the way of r ight thinking about the meaning of life. H e unfolds the philosophy of r ight rela- tions of men, individuals and social units of men to the mater- ial wealth of the world, to brother-men, to God. Later on, in the nineteenth book, he describes the ideal Commonwealth. There, of course, social justice must prevail, s tatute laws must conform to the law of reason and the law of God. The res publico must be one with the res populi. A few of the leading thoughts of Augustine on the ethics of war and peace will be turned into English here. They are points of fact and of law in Roman history in which Augustine undertakes to show how the principles of human morals have worked out in the past . The recorded facts are taken as premises in the argument to show how the same principles will work out in the present and in the future . War and Peace in the: City of God 5 The opponents of Christianity are told plainly from the testimony of their own. philosophers and historians that the greatest evils and disorders of the Empire have come, not f rom losses in war , not f rom the disgrace of this latest defeat , but from moral wrongdoing, f rom facts of crookedness in the social and civic l ife, in the private l i fe of the people.. These facts of perverted morals, Augustine tells his contemporaries, Christian and anti-Christian, have been the sources of trouble and unrest, the destroyers of peace, and the causes of war. Though the different chains of facts cited do not change the meaning or the force of moral principles, of r ight and wrong, these facts will be classed under three distinct heads, according as they are connected more or less directly with results in social, civic and economic life. There is no inten- tion here to infer that the theories and practices of modern economics or civics were recognized or thought of as distinct and working sciences in the fifth century, nor that the factors and the elements of these sciences were the subject of thought and problems in l i fe and government. There was the factor of human worth above the values of material wealth. There were skill and genius and human industry on the proper em- ployment of which the development of wealth always depends. There was labor, whether of slaves or freemen, to be re- warded, if not by a modern wage, then by some jus t re turn of food, shelter, raiment or other needs and comforts of human living. The first argument turns logically upon the problem and the principles of moral l ife and conduct. Augustine asks his readers to learn f rom history, to compare the experience of these recent times with the facts of earlier Roman history, the difficulties of peace times and of war which have tried the mettle of good men and proved the virtues and the wisdom of those who directed the affairs in pre-Christ ian days. "Why are you touched by adversity," he asks his heathen op- ponents, "why do you complain against these Christian times? Why, but because you want to be secure in your excesses, because you have a will to find dissipation in the most degrading morals, free from all check of restraint? You desire to have peace, and to abound in 6 War and Peace in the: City of God 6 plenty of every kind, not that you may use these good things de- cently, that is, in moderation, sobriety, temperance, piety; but so that in brainless dissipation you may have unlimited variety of in- dulgence; that, in consequence, from this very prosperity in tem- poral things, those disorders may arise in moral life which are worse than the devastating cruelties of foreign foes."2 The correctness of this last statement is proved by citing the words of counsel spoken in the Roman Senate by the veteran statesman, Scipio Nasica, who, prior to the thi rd Punic War , had warned the Romans tha t Carthage should not be ut ter ly destroyed. H e feared for Rome those very disorders of social and civic l i fe which Sallust describes in the history of the Conspiracy of Catiline.3 "After the destruction of Carthage, when the gTeat dread (the rival) of the Roman Commonwealth was crushed and destroyed such evils followed from material prosperity that out of harmony, now wrecked and broken, first, seditions and cruel plots were formed, then, by a chain of evil causes, followed uprisings in civil war, such bloodshed, such inhuman greed for conscriptions and spoils that those very Romans, who formerly, in the integrity of life, were in dread of a peril from a foreign foe, now were forced to experience things more severe and inhuman from their own fellow citizens." This review of ancient troubles in Rome, as others which follow, is made, not to shi f t the blame for "hard times" f rom the Christian centuries to the pre-Christ ian era. The " T u quoque" argument is no par t of the plan of The City of God. Facts are studied in the records of ancient history. The whole purpose is to find what was the moral s tandard, what was right and what was Wrong in the conduct of the men who were responsible for the facts . The aims and the designs of men in peace and in war are followed and the ends attained to show the ethics of human conduct in the building up of the empire. Ancient rivalries are chosen, not because they are worse or better than the present or the fu ture , but because they are -De -Civitate Dei. 1-30. 'Bellum Catilinarium, cc. IX-X-XI. Augustine here gives the substance only of Sallust s text. War and Peace in the: City of God 7 established and known as facts. Rome and Carthage are held out as types of powers warr ing for domain. The fight is for control, and control is mastery over sources of material wealth. The types are real. They have made history. They live in the world drama of peace and war. In our changed environ- ment of modern times Rome and Carthage may be viewed as symbols of powers and practices tha t are now comfortably remote. In the perennial struggle for economic and industrial supremacy they represent s tandards in human ethics that have not changed. The result of the fisjht beween Rome and Carthage was defeat and destruction for one, ut ter demoralization for the other. The lesson in human morals, in the principles of right and wrong, is plain. Advantage or disadvantage in economic control is not a jus t cause for war , whether the rights con- tested are between Rome and Carthage or between the most favored nations of the modern industrialized world.* ANCIENT NATIONALISM AND MATERIAL PROSPERITY In the fourth book of The City of God, Augustine draws a picture of the ancient, self-satisfied, materialistic State. The picture is, it seems, in principles and in facts t rue to economic history. The principles are marked clearly in parallels of personal responsibility for the individual man and the work- ing ethics of the organized State. Social justice in securing peace, that is, the right living of the people as a unit in the tranquill i ty of order is the aim and the function of the State. So f a r as this aim is not realized, so f a r as it fails or is f rus- trated by selfish interests and greed, jus t so fa r does the State fall short of the s tandard fixed for the ideal Common- wealth described in the nineteenth book of The City of God.5 *"Inferre autem bella fmitimis, et in cetera inde procedere, ac populos sibi non molestos, sola regni cupiditate conterere ac subdere quid aliud quam grande latrocinium nominandum est?*' De Civitate Dei. IV-6. "Remota itaque justitia, quid sunt tegna nisi magna Iatrocinia?" Ibid. Cap. 4. ""Pax hominis mortalis et Dei ordinata in fide sub aetema lege obedientia: Pax hominum ordinata concordia: Paz Domus ordinata imperandi atque obediendi con- cordia cohabitantium: Pax civitatis ordinata imperandi atque obediendi concordia civium: Pax coelestis civitatis ordinatissima et concordissima societas fruendi Deo et invicem in Deo: Pax omnium rerum tranquillitas ordinis. Ordo est- parium dispariumque rerum sua cuique loca tribuens dispositio." De Civitate Dei. XIX-13. 8 War and Peace in the: City of God 8 " I would ask first briefly what reason there is, what fore- sight in your wanting to boast in extent and greatness of em- pire . . . so long as you cannot show (me) the happiness of men." " I n order tha t we may form a judgment more easily on this point let us not lose ourselves in vain boasting, let us not dull the keenness of understanding by highsounding names when we hear : Peoples—Kingdoms—Provinces. Let us take two men. (For as a letter in a sentence, so in the City-State, in the Empire, how wide soever may be its extent in the hold- ing of lands, is every individual man an integral pa r t of the State.) Let us think of these two men, one poor or in the common standing of l ife, the other very rich. The rich man is weighed down by fears , weakened by worries," res t less 'by reason of greed. H e is never at peace, ever insecure. H e labors in never ending animosities. H e multiplies the measure of his unwieldy patrimony by these new cares but he also adds new troubles by every new acquisition of wealth. "Take now the other man of little and limited means, sufficient for himself: H e is loved by kindred and neighbors; he has a good mind, a sound body; he is temperate, his habits of l ife are clean; he has a tranquil conscience. I know not whether any will be found so thoughtless as to hesitate in his choice between these two men. As in the case of these two men, so in two families, so in two peoples, so in two nations the same rule holds, a rule of equity, by which, if our at ten- tion is right, we shall see easily where vanity is, where is the abiding home of happiness—contentment—peace."0 The stability of the State and the common welfare, as described here, are made to rest on the principles of man's moral nature, on right living and the normal operation of the laws of social justice. Every departure from these principles of our rational social nature is itself a depar ture f rom peace. I t breaks the harmony, the " tranquil l i ty" of the "order" estab- lished by God, the Maker of men and of nations. 9De Chilate Dei. IV-3. War and Peace in the: City of God 9 Responsibility for such departures, also merit for main- taining the law and the order of nature, will follow inevitably in the individual conscience, in the l ife of the body social, in the office and the functions of the State. There, f rom within, more than f rom the foreign aggressor comes the dread evil of war, because it hurts the cause of justice, which no external force can take from the hear t of man, the individual, nor f rom the nation tha t so wills. "In this world, then, the rule of good men is given, not so much for themselves as for the common weal of men. The misrule of bad men hurts themselves more than it hurts their subjects because the evil of misdeeds lays waste the soul, while (the souls of) subjects are hurt only by their own wrongdoing. Whatever wrongs are in- flicted on the just by iniquitous overlords are not penalties for crime, but the proving of virtue. The good man, therefore, though he serve, is free; the wicked, though he rule, is a slave, not the slave of one master, but of masters as many and as oppressive as are his vices.'" Augustine's concluding thought on this point is summed up briefly and well: "The powers of the State, apar t f rom justice, are organized robbery." ("Remota itaque justitia, quid sunt regna nisi magna latrocinia?") This is exemplified in the story of Alexander the Great and the Pirate, who, when he was asked why he had made the sea so unsafe, replied haughti ly: "For the same reason that you make unsafe the whole world; but , because I do this by means of one little ship, I am called a thief. You accomplish your aim by means of a fleet, and you are styled Emperor ." A C O M P E T E N T C O U R T The problem of adjus t ing facts to existing conditions in l ife and government to prevent war, to secure peace is always a point of practical difficulty. On this point the Romans failed, when, prior to the third Punic War , the Senate re- jected the counsel of Scipio, and followed the advice of Cato *De Civitate Dei. XV-3. •¡Ibid. IV-4. 10 War and Peace in the: City of God 10 in a decision which meant war and finally the destruction of Carthage. Sallust is the historian of results which followed that decision. H i s judgments on facts of social and economic l ife in Rome show us conditions of str ife, in their moral and ethical aspect, worse than war. Later , when the culture and power of Carthage had been crushed, when civic disorders were less tense, a f t e r the ad- vocates of force had first secured, then lost their hold on the wealth of the Provinces, it is the Christian Sallust, Augustine, who passes judgment on facts and conditions of the times. Like Sallust, he has described and he passes judgment on results of misrule in the State, troubles f rom within, which had been sources of unrest and the cause of war more than any- fancied or real superior force or any right of powers f rom without. The problem of moral l ife and economic ad jus tment and the need of effective means to secure peace were obviously, quite as urgent when Augustine was writ ing The City of God as at any time during the earlier Christian centuries or in pre- Christian times. Why, it may be asked, did the Christian idealist find no way to ad jus t difficulties by arbitration, to prevent wars by means of Conferences and Peace Courts ? A simple answer to this question is—-He did. The question is faul ty, first, because it presumes no invitation to a court of arbitration. Secondly, in looking for a , text it loses sight of the whole logic of the work of more than thirteen years (413- 426) . One aim of tha t work was to define conditions and to mark the way to peace. Thirdly, the question ignores the fac t that Christian peace arbitrations, to decide questions of law and of fact in cases which were mainly civil and political, were a pa r t of the normal administration of the Church in the Christian Empire a hundred years before Augustine's time, and for centuries a f te r , on to the close of the Middle Ages. As to the mind of Augustine on arbitrat ion to prevent wars, it will be noted tha t in the first five books of The City of God is a series of contrasts between, on the one hand, the Christian Philosophy of the State, the office and functions of War and Peace in the: City of God 11 government , a n d on the o ther , t he records of t he old p r e - Chr i s t i an order . R igh t th ink ing on war s and on peace is t he a im, not p r i m a r i l y nor only in del iberat ions of assembled cour ts , bu t in the men ta l a t t i t ude of the Chr i s t i an communi ty , t he C i ty -S ta t e or t h e W o r l d E m p i r e . T h e Bible , t h e N e w T e s t a m e n t in pa r t i cu l a r , is ci ted as t h e cha r t e r of th is W o r l d - C o u r t which aims to live the ideals of peace. "Let them read for us," Augustine says, referring to present promoters of post-Christian progress, "precepts against extravagance and greed given by the gods of the Roman people. Would that they had left unsaid only things clean and modest, and that they had not demanded what is wrong and shameful, to which is added the au- thority of their fancied deities. Let them read, then, in the Prophets and in the Holy Gospel, in the Acts and the Letters of the Apostles many things well ordered and expressed for the people, who are as- sembled everywhere for this purpose( to be taught how) to overcome greed and excesses. Let them see how divinely these things are spoken, not discordant from conflicting theories of philosophers, but as from oracles of God on high. And yet, when, before the coming of Christ, the common weal was at its worst, and guiltily so from the lusts and greed and cruelty and the degrading morals of the people, they imputed this not to their gods. Now, however, in this time, whatever has touched their pride and whatever their lustful living has had to suffer, the blame for it all is put upon the Christian religion."8 At the end of this same chap te r , t he ph i losophy of peace is summed u p briefly and well . W e a re to ld how t h e h a r d th ings of l i f e ' a r e to be t u r n e d to mer i t and the prof i t of h im who endures in pa t ience . "But because one man heeds, another heeds not, because many are inclined more to follow allurements of vice than the hard way of virtue, the servants of Christ are taught to bear in patience what- ever their position in life, whether holding authority to rule, to coun- sel or to judge, soldiers or provincial residents, rich or poor, slave «De Civitate Dei. 11-19. 12 War and Peace in the: City of God 12 or free, of either sex—all are taught alike to endure the burdens of the State at its worst, if no change is possible.10 By this patient en- durance in a heart of peace they acquire merit for themselves and a place in the court of the angels, in the Republic of heaven, where the will of God is law." This, of course, is not a plan to re fer cases of dispute or of injust ice to a world court of arbitrat ion. I t is not a plan, because it is more than a plan. The principles of human con- duct and r ight living are laid down on which any decision or arbitrat ion for international peace must stand. I t is not a charter for a select body of peacemakers, but a philosophy of peace in practice, in its simplest form, for the daily l i fe of the common people in patience, love of justice, respect for constituted authority, human hopefulness. I t points to a s tandard of r ight living and practical ideals which must be taken care of in arbitrations, in war and in peace. As to the fact of peace courts in the early centuries of the Church any thoughtful study of the political side of the history of the Church and the Empire f rom the time of Con- stantine in the first quarter of the fourth century to the close of the Middle Ages will show what was done by synods, con- ferences of churchmen and laymen and courts of arbitrat ion to ad jus t and to settle problems of war and peace. T h e facts in the history of Donatist troubles in Provincial Afr ica in Augustine's time and during nearly a century earlier may be taken as types of contemporary war-time difficulties. These troubles were in their main features political, not ec- clesiastical. They would correspond to our modern disorders of faction fighting, civil war and rebellion. The Christian 10"tt" necesse est." War and Peace in the: City of God 13 Empire co-operated with the Catholic Church f rom the he- ginning of the schism, f rom the synod of Aries in 311, to the final settlement in the Conference of Carthage in the year 411." Several of Saint Augustine's letters are addressed to offi- cials in the Provincial or Imperial Government. These con- tain valuable information f rom which can be gathered minute details of some of the war-time cruelties, and also the working methods of courts which were deciding war-time cases and the penalties of offenders in order to restore and secure a lasting peace. Following the Conference of Carthage, in June , 411, there had been some serious breaches of the peace by maraud- ing bands of Donatist fanatics, the Circumcelliones. Members of this band, who were natives of Augustine's episcopal city, Hippo, had confessed in court to the guilt of killing one Cath- olic pr ies t and cruelly mutilating another. Augustine writes to two members, both Christians, of the Court. One is Marcellinus, at whose suggestion the writ- ing of The City of God was begun a little later, the other a brother of Marcellinus, who holds office of military commander under the provincial government. From the text of three let- ters12 writ ten on the case it is evident tha t Augustine feared a reaction which might follow from a sentence according to the Lex Talionis fo r the outlaws. H e asks for a less severe pen- alty (whipping) , not from motives of sentiment, but because he dreaded the peril of a new uprising which might undo the work of the Carthage Conference. u I n a brief work (Breviculus Collationis cum Donatisti*) written after the Carthage Conference of June, 411, Augustine gives what appears to be an abstract of the ab- breviated report of the proceedings of this important peace court. Of this report he says: "Posteaquam facta est cum Donatistis nostra Collatio breviter commemoravi quae gesta sunt, litterisque comprehendi, secundum tres dies quibus cum eis contulimus. Idque opus utile existimavi, quo quisque commonitus, vel sciat sine labore quid actum sit, vel consultis numeris, quos rebus singulis annotavi, legat in isdem gestis ad locum quodcumque voluerit: Quoniam fatigant ilia sua nimia prolixitate lectorem." Evidently, the work was meant to be an abridgement and an Index to the bulky official reports of Imperial or provincial court proceedings. Retract. 11-39. 12Letters. CXXXIII-CXXXIV-CXXXIX. 14 War and Peace in the: City of God 14 H e reminds Marcellinus tha t the tr ial and proof of guilt were secured without violence or coercion. The guilt proved vindicates the cause, not the punishment of the culprit , whose part isans (in the present case) are to be corrected. "Noli ergo atrocius vindicare quod lenius invenisti. Inquirendi quam puniendi necessitas maior est. Ad hoc enim mitissimi homines facinus occultatum diligenter atque instanter examinant ut inveniant quibus parcant . " In the next letter Augustine makes it clear that he speaks in the cause of Christianity and the Church, which even before a non-Christian judge has the r ight to be heard. H e asks for a wide publication of the transactions of the court as having a more wholesome effect for peace than the punishment of con- fessed culprits which might be interpreted to be retaliation on the par t of the Church and the State. "The cause of the Province is one thing, the cause of the Church another. The administration of the Province must have sanction of law. The office of the Church recommends clemency. If I were speaking to a non-Christian judge, I would use other means; but then too would I hold to the cause of the Church. I would insist, so f a r as it is fitting, that the sufferings of the servants of God, which ought to be an example of patience for good, be not dishonored by the blood of their enemies; and if he ( the judge ) would not hear me, I would suspect his opposition as coming not f rom a fair- minded judge, but f rom a spiri t of hostility. . . . The court proceedings ought to be read to set r ight men whose minds have been poisoned by a wrong persuasion." I t will be noted here that the "cause of the Church" is presented by Augustine, not as a favor or as something out of harmony with the best welfare of the Empire . The cause of the Church, in this case, a lighter sentence for the guilty of- fenders, will contribute to the common cause of peace in the Province, therefore he would present his plea for it also be- fore an "unbelieving judge ." In a second let ter to Marcellinus ( C X X X I X ) Augustine says that he is waiting for the official reports of the court pro- War and Peace in the: City of God 15 ceedings, which he will have published in the church of Hippo and, if possible, in the other churches of the diocese. H e says in this letter tha t any punishment short of the death penalty will be accepted as lenient. "And, if to some of our own, moved by the recent atrocities, this may seem to be an indig- nity and close to laxity and neglect / ' he says, "when the emo- tions have passed which are now aroused, more than is wont, by the recent wrongs, the higher good will appear all the more honorable, and for this same reason will it be a joy to read and to publish the court proceedings." This letter concludes with a final request that if it is found that this position for mercy is impracticable the prison- ers be kept under guard. I n that case an appeal will be made to the Emperor (Theodosius) . This, Augustine says, was done by the former Emperor (Arcadius in 397) when the clergy of Tren t appealed for the heathen mountaineers of the Tyrol , who were held prisoners for the slaying of the missionaries sent to convert them. The Church now honors these mission- aries as Mar tyrs (Anaunenses) ." The principles on which Christians, Catholic bishops and statesmen, in Augustine's time, worked for peace have not changed. The whole endeavor for peace, as it is stated in The City of God, in contemporary letters and in individual cases is to discern what is right and what is wrong in human mqrals, in social, political, and economic l ife. Where these things of l i fe are as they ought to be there is peace. The Donatist troubles were more than local faction fights. They were a menace to the peace of the Empire and the unity of the Church Catholic. If some of the main facts in the endeavors to restore peace in the fourth and fifth cen- turies are compared with similar endeavors during the Eu- ropean debacle of 1914-1918 one point of difference will be found in the results. The decisions of the Christian Imperial conferences met with much opposition and, on various pre- texts, refusals to accept a court 's judgment ; but the principle, the right to decide in Church and in States, was not denied laRomari Martyrolo&y, May 19. 16 War and Peace in the: City of God 16 nor set aside. Af t e r a century of divisions and unrest , it was not force of arms but the decisions of Carthage that restored and secured peace, brought the Donatist again into the Church. The appeals of Pope Benedict XV during more than four years in the World War were not less sincere nor less strong than the appeals and the reasoning of the earlier Christian peacemakers. On the first aniversary of the opening of hos- tilities the Pope reminds the nations at wa r : "Our first words as Chief Shepherd of souls, addressed to the nations and their rulers, were words of peace and of love. But our advice, a f - fectionate and insistent, as tha t of a fa ther and a f r iend, re- mained unheeded. Our grief was aggravated, but our purpose was unshaken. We turned, therefore, in all confidence to the Almighty. In the holy name of God, in the name of our heavenly Fa ther and Lord, by the Blessed Blood of Jesus, price of man's redemption, we conjure you, whom Divine Providence has placed over the nations, to put an end at last to this horrible slaughter, which for a whole year has dis- honored Europe." This appeal, made simultaneously in French, German, I tal ian, and English, was published Ju ly 28, 1915. Two years later the final appeal beseeching the war-worn nations to agree to arbitrat ion was issued. "We wish to come now to propositions more concrete and practical and invite the governments and the people at war to come to agreement on the following points which appear to be fundamental for a peace that is jus t and lasting, leaving it to their care to fill in matters of minor import and precision. "F i r s t of all, the fundamental point ought to be that the moral force of r ight must take the place of the material power of arms. "Then there should be an equitable agreement of all (na- tions) for a simultaneous and reciprocal reduction of armed forces, in accordance with rules and guarantees fixing the measure necessary and sufficient to maintain public order in each state. War and Peace in the: City of God 17 "Final ly, a court of arbitrat ion to take the place of armed forces—this court to decide according to norms of accord, and to fix the sanctions against a State which either might refuse to submit its questions to international arbitrat ion or refuse to accept the court 's decision."14 The Christian spirit of peace, which speaks to the war- torn nations of Europe in the words of Benedict XV, is the same appeal to reason and to justice which was expressed by the Christian "Peace Conferences" in the fifth century. So f a r as results have made history, the words of the Pope stand as the text of The City of God—a reminder that human rela- tions, the conduct of l i fe between man and man and between nation and nation must re turn to the principles and the prac- tice of the moral law, the Christian ethics of right and wrong. " T h e French te*t of the Appeal of the Pope to the Belligerent Nations, dated August 1, 1917. Acta Apostolicae Sedis. Vol. IX, p. 417 rt scq. 18 War and Peace in the: City of God 18 TH E Catholic Association for Internat ional Peace has grown out of a series of meetings during 1926-1927. Following the Eucharist ic Congress in Chicago in 1926, rep- resentatives of a dozen nations met with Americans for dis- cussion. In October of the same year a meeting was held in Cleveland where a temporary organization called The Cath- olic Committee on International Relations was formed. The permanent name, The Catholic Association for Internat ional Peace, was adopted at a two-day Conference in Washington in 1927. Annual Conferences were held in the same city in 1928, 1929, 1930, 1933 and 1934; in New York City, 1931; and in Cleveland, 1932. All-day regional Conferences took place in Chicago on Armistice Day , 1930; in St. Louis on Washington's Bir thday, 1932; and at the University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana, on November 19, 1933. I t is a membership organization. I ts objects and purposes are. To study, disseminate and apply the principles of natural law and Christian charity to international problems of the day; To consider the moral and legal aspects of any action which may be proposed or advocated in the international sphere; To examine and consider issues which bear upon international goodwill; To encourage the formation of conferences, lectures and study circles; To issue reports on questions of international importance; To further, in co-operation with similar Catholic organizations in other countries, in accord with the teachings of the Church, the object and purposes .of world peace and hap- piness The ultimate purpose is to promote, in conformity with the mind of the Church, "the Peace of Christ in the Kingdom of Christ." The Association works through the preparat ion of com- mittee reports. Following careful preparat ion, these are dis- cussed both publicly and privately in order to secure able revision and they are then published by the organization. Ad- ditional committees will be created f rom time to time. The Association solicits the membership and co-operation of Cath- olics of like mind. I t is seeking especially the membership and co-operation of those whose experience and studies are such that they can take par t in the preparat ion of committee reports . War and Peace in the City of God 19 The Committees on Ethics, Law and Organization, and Economic Relations serve as a guiding committee on the par - ticular questions for all other committees. Questions involving moral judgments must be submitted to the Committee on Ethics. War and Peace in the: City of God 20 Publications of the Catholic Associ- ation for International Peace Pamphlet Series—1 No. 1—International Ethics. No. 2—Latin America and the United States. No. 3—Causes of War, and Security, Old and New. No. 4—Haiti, Past and Present [out of print]. No. 5—Francis de Vitoria. No. 6—American Agriculture and International Affairs. No. 7—Porto Rico and the United States. No. 8—Europe and the United States—Elements in Their Relationship. No. 9—The Ethics of War. No. 10—National Attitudes in Children. No. II—Tariffs and World Peace. No. 12—Manchuria—The Problem in the Far East. No. 13—International Economic Life. No. 14—The Church and Peace Efforts. No. 15—War and Peace in St. Augustine's De Civitate Dei. Miscellaneous Ser ies— The World State. Permanent Peace Program of Pope Benedict XV. Appeals for Peace of Pope Benedict XV and Pope Pius XI. Reports in Preparation— American Intervention in Santo Domingo. Nationalism. Is War Justifiable Today? Disarmament and Catholic Doctrine. The World Court. The League of Nations. International Cultural Relations. Peace Education. So-called "Over-Population." Catholicism—the Keynote of Pan-Americanism. French-Italian Relations. World Co-operation—Symposium. N. C. W. C. Joint Committee on Peace— Peace Statements of Recent Popes.