This opinion is quite common with our fathers.
For example, Azor, one of the four-and-twenty elders, proposing the
question, 'Is it lawful for a man of honour to kill another who
threatens to give him a slap on the face, or strike him with a stick?'
replies, 'Some say he may not; alleging that the life of our neighbour
is more precious than our honour, and that it would be an act of
cruelty to kill a man merely to avoid a blow. Others, however, think
that it is allowable; and I certainly consider it probable, when there
is no other way of warding off the insult; for, otherwise, the
honour of the innocent would be constantly exposed to the malice of
the insolent.' The same opinion is given by our great Filiutius; by
Father Hereau, in his Treatise on Homicide, by Hurtado de Mendoza,
in his Disputations, by Becan, in his Summary; by our Fathers
Flahaut and Lecourt, in those writings which the University, in
their third petition, quoted at length, in order to bring them into
disgrace (though in this they failed); and by Escobar. In short,
this opinion is so general that Lessius lays it down as a point
which no casuist has contested; he quotes a great many that uphold,
and none that deny it; and particularly Peter Navarre, who, speaking
of affronts in general (and there is none more provoking than a box on
the ear), declares that 'by the universal consent of the casuists,
it is lawful to kill the calumniator, if there be no other way of
averting the affront- ex sententia omnium, licet contumeliosum
occidere, si aliter ea injuria arceri nequit.
Pages:
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122