The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1915-07-31
NoN-cATHoLlc AUTHORITIES
PRAISE suAREz AND
vAsQUEz.

That international law, to which
the great European struggle has
drawn SO much attention of late, owes
a great debt to Catholic writer's and
thinkers is a fact not generally
known. The credit for the creation
of the law of nations as it is known
today ordinarily is given, ever among
scholars to Hugo de Groot or Grotius,
the famous author of de Jure Belli
ct Pacis" and Mare Liberum." Long
before his time, however, the great
St. Thomas of Aquinas had at least
in one instance paved the way for the
establishment of such code; while
Vasquez and Suarez, the Spanish the
ologians and champions of the great
scholastic revival in their country,
laid the very foundations of the mod
ern international law.
Non Catholic authorities on the sub
ject bear witness to this fact Of
Vasquez DR.. Edwin MaXey in his work
on international Law" says: Vas
quez, a Spanish monk, who put forth
the doctrine of the existence of
free states which were the subjects
of reciprocal right irrespective of the
will Of a world-empire.
This was good doctrine so far as it
went, but it lacked in clearness, for
he Identifies these rights with the jus
naturale and as there was no agree
ment as to what constituted the jus
naturale his system is fatally lacking
in defniteness. Yet for his time,
1854, the idea was undoubtedly an adj
vance" (St. Louis, 1905, p. ~ 1t
must be remembered that it is the
none Catholic Maxey who is here writ
ing.
Upon the great Jesuit, Francis
Suarez, even greater praise is be-
slowed. Wheaton, the leading Amer
lean authority, says of him: This
Spanish Jesuit has the merit of haV-
ing clearly conceived, and expressed,
even at that early day, in his treatise
De Legibus &C Dec Legislature the
distinction between what is common
ly called the law of nature and the
rules of intercourse be
tween nations" (History of Law of
Nations, p. 35). Sir James Mackin-
tosh, the we'll known British philos-
opher and politician, is equally appre-
ciative of the contributions of Suarez
to international law. In his "Disserta-
ton on the Progress of Ethical Philos-l
ophy," he writes of "Suarez, a Jesuit,
whose voluminous works amount to,
twenty-four volumes in folio," and
says of him: "Grotius, who, though
he was the most upright and candid
of men, could not have praised a.
Spanish Jesuit beyond his deserts,
calls Suarez the most acute of philos-
ophers and divines. On a practical
matter, which may be naturally men
toned here, though in strict method
it belongs to another subject, the
merit of Suarez is conspicuous. He
first saw that international law was.
composed not only of the simple prin-
ciples of justice applied to the inter
course between states, but of those
usages, long observed in that inter
NOuI ny GHC k@ICs AWhkOh
have since been more exactly dis
as the cOnsuetudinary law
acknowledged by the Christian ma
lions of Europe and America. On
this important point his views are
more clear than those of his contem-
porary Alberico Gentilli. It must even
be owned, that the succeeding intima-
ton of the same general doctrine by
Grotius is somewhat more dark, -
perhaps from his excessive pursuit of
concise diction." (The Miscellaneous
Works of the Right Honorable Sir
James Macintosh, New York, 1865
London, 1S46-p. 100
Facts such as these are well worthy
of remembrance by our Catholic peo-
pie. Too often do they forget the
great work of their leaders and think
ers in every line of endeavor to an
swer the taunts of their n-Catholic
acquaintance that the Church is the
enemy of progress and the friend of
ignorance. An excellent way to over
come this deficiency is to purchase
and read from time to time the Cath
Ole Encyclopedia, that great work of.
which Catholic scholarship is rightly
so proud.-C. B. of G. ", In Cath. Sun.