Disputation XXVII: On Theft and Robbery

THEFT and Robbery, allied by a close bond, spring from Avarice; both lie in wait for the advantages of peace and of Justice: Theft indeed fraudulently and secretly; Robbery openly and violently. The former is committed either by taking unjustly, or by detaining unjustly, or lastly by circumventing with guile. In either case every law is violated, and indeed the law of nature is transgressed, whose clear voice is: Do not to another what you would not have done to yourself. Likewise the Written Law of Exodus 20. forbids the unjust handling of another's property: Thou shalt not steal: but the Law of grace forbids theft all the more strongly, since it commands each one to give his own to the poor. Yet if, under the pressure of necessity, whereby things return to the common use, or by the command of the supreme Lord of all things, at whose nod all things are licit, another's property is handled — as befell the sons of Israël when they made off with the golden vessels of the AEgyptians — there is no sin, but rather merit of obedience is heaped up; though this merit, however agreeable to each, few attain. These matters I shall discuss, after I have given some preliminary warnings about dominion.