Untitled - Shattering Denial

172
THE INQUISITION
Cum metus iste non subest . . . non dormiat severitas dis
cipline. 1 We doubt very much whether such reason
ing would have satisfied St. John Chrysostom, St.
Theodore the Studite, or Bishop Wazo, who understood
the Savior s prohibition in a literal and an absolute
sense.
But this passage does not reveal the whole mind of the
Angelic doctor. It is more evident in his exegesis of
Ezechiel xviii. 32, Nolo mortem peccatoris. "Assuredly,"
he writes, "none of us desires the death of a single heretic.
But remember that the house of David could not obtain
peace until Absalom was killed in the war he waged against
his father. In like manner, the Catholic Church saves
some of her children by the death of others, and consoles
her sorrowing heart by reflecting that she is acting for
2
the general good."
If we are not mistaken, St. Thomas is here trying to
prove on the authority of St. Augustine
times lawful to put heretics to death.
that it is some
But it is only by garbling and distorting the context
that St. Thomas makes the Bishop of Hippo advocate the
very penalty which, as a matter of fact, he always
denounced most strongly. In the passage quoted, St.
Augustine was speaking of the benefit that ensues to the
1
Augustine, Contra epistol. Parmeniani, lib. iii, cap. ii. S. Thomas, Summa,
Ila, Ilae, quaest. x, art. 8, ad 4m.
2 S. Thomas, Summa, loc. cit. ad t 4m.