Disputation — Bontempi, Palladium Theologicum V · from Schola Thomistica
Disputation XXVI: On Homicide
SINCE among the other goods life is most dear to each one, by its unjust removal one sins most gravely against one's neighbor; for it is like an annihilation of all the goods which one living possesses: wherefore by homicide all the rights by which we are bound to our neighbor are violated in every way; and this is done spiritually by hatred and detraction; corporally it is done by the tongue and by deed; the former precepts, counsels, or does not inhibit; the latter sometimes issues in homicide, by executing justice, by killing by accident, or by necessity of defense; and in this last way, the things to be observed being observed, homicide is free from fault: but if it be done by will, with the lust of vengeance alone ruling, one sins gravely, as will be seen presently.
De Homicidio.
CUM inter caetera bona, vita unicuique sit charissima, huius iniqua ablatione maxime in proximum delinquitur; est etenim veluti omnium bonorum, quibus vivens potitur, annihilatio: quare homicidio omnia iura, quibus Proximo, obstringimur, omnimode violantur; hoc autem fit spiritualiter odio, et detractione; corporaliter vero fit lingua et opere, prior praecipit, consulit, aut non inhibet; posterior autem in homicidium aliquando exit, Iustitiam exequendo, casu perimendo, vel necessitate defendendo; et hoc ultimo modo servatis servandis homicidium vacat culpa: verum si voluntate fiat; dominante tantum vindictae libidine, graviter peccatur uti mox videndum est.
Within this disputation
- Question I: What homicide is, and of how many kinds
- Question II: On homicide of deliberate purpose, by ambush, and by treachery
- Question III: Whether one who commands a homicide is to be burdened with the same guilt and punishment as the one who carries it out
- Question IV: Whether an attempted homicide, and other attempted crimes, are to be punished with the same penalty as the crime committed
Question VI: Whether it is lawful to kill a man within the limits of blameless defense, in defense of oneself or one's goods
- Doubt I: Whether it is lawful to kill someone to preserve one's honor, rather than flee
- Doubt II: Whether one who is attacked is bound in some case to kill the aggressor
- Doubt III: Whether it is lawful, in defense of one's own goods, to kill a thief
- Doubt IV: Whether, in defense of chastity, it is lawful to kill the assailant
- Question VII: Whether, and how, the duel is unlawful
- Question VIII: Whether it is lawful for a husband to kill a wife caught in adultery, and a father his daughter, and a brother his sister, together with the seducer
- Question X: Whether a pregnant mother may, to save her own life, procure the abortion of the fetus
- Question XI: On accidental homicide
- Question XII: Whether a judge can condemn to death an innocent man who has been proved guilty at the trial
- Question XIII: Whether princes can grant license to kill outlaws
- Question XIV: On the restitution owed on account of homicide, or mutilation
- Question XV: Whether the mutilation of a limb is ever lawful
- Question XVI: Whether it is lawful to imprison or beat another