ST.

THOMAS AQUINAS
ON
KINGSHIP
Political Ideas of St. Thomas Aquinas
Representative Selections
(Simon & Schuster)
WHO IS ST. THOMAS AQUINAS?

 St. Thomas Aquinas, priest and doctor of the Church,

patron of all universities and of students. His feast day is
January 28th.
 He was born toward the end of the year 1226.
 He was the son of Landulph, Count of Aquino, who, when
St. Thomas was five years old, placed him under the care of
the Benedictines of Monte Casino.
 His teachers were surprised at the progress he made, for
he surpassed all his fellow pupils in learning as well as in
the practice of virtue.
WHO IS ST. THOMAS AQUINAS?

 When he became of age to choose his state of life, St. Thomas

renounced the things of this world and resolved to enter the
Order of St. Dominic in spite of the opposition of his family.
 In 1243, at the age of seventeen, he joined the Dominicans of
Naples. Some members of his family resorted to all manner of
means over a two year period to break his constancy. They even
went so far as to send an impure woman to tempt him. But all
their efforts were in vain and St. Thomas persevered in his
vocation.
 As a reward for his fidelity, God conferred upon him the gift of
perfect chastity, which has merited for him the title of the
"Angelic Doctor".
WHO IS ST. THOMAS AQUINAS?

 After making his profession at Naples, he studied at Cologne

under the celebrated St. Albert the Great. Here he was
nicknamed the "dumb ox" because of his silent ways and huge
size, but he was really a brilliant student.
 At the age of twenty-two, he was appointed to teach in the
same city. At the same time, he also began to publish his first
works.
 After four years he was sent to Paris. The saint was then a
priest. At the age of thirty-one, he received his doctorate.
WHO IS ST. THOMAS AQUINAS?

 At Paris he was honored with the friendship of the King, St. Louis, with whom he
frequently dined.
 In 1261, Urban IV called him to Rome where he was appointed to teach, but he
positively declined to accept any ecclesiastical dignity.
 St. Thomas not only wrote (his writings filled twenty hefty tomes characterized by
brilliance of thought and lucidity of language), but he preached often and with
greatest fruit.
 Clement IV offered him the archbishopric of Naples which he also refused.
 He left the great monument of his learning, the "Summa Theologica", unfinished,
for on his way to the second Council of Lyons, ordered there by Gregory X, he fell
sick and died at the Cistercian monastery of Fossa Nuova in 1274.
 St. Thomas was one of the greatest and most influential theologians of all time.
He was canonized in 1323 and declared Doctor of the Church by Pope Pius V.
 WHO IS ST. LOUIS OF FRANCE?
(whom St. Aquinas befriended and influenced)

 St. Louis’ actions were inspired by Christian values,

he decided to punish blasphemy, gambling,
interest-bearing loans and prostitution, he bought
the relics of Christ for which he built the Sainte-
Chapelle and tried to convert the Jews of France.
 He was also a reformer and developed French royal
justice, in which the king is the supreme judge to
whom anyone is able to appeal to seek the
amendment of a judgment.
 He banned trials by ordeal, tried to prevent private
wars that were plaguing the country and introduced
the presumption of innocence in criminal
procedure. To enforce the correct application of this
new legal system, Louis IX created provosts and
He is often considered as “an bailiffs.
ideal Christian Monarch.”
CRITICISMS ON AQUINAS
(Consideration of his biases in favor of the Roman Catholic Church)
 “He does not, like the Platonic Socrates, set out to
follow wherever the argument may lead. He is not
engaged in an inquiry, the result of which it is
impossible to know in advance. Before he begins to
philosophize, he already knows the truth; it is
declared in the Catholic faith. If he can find apparently
rational arguments for some parts of the faith, so
much the better; if he cannot, he need only fall back
on revelation. The finding of arguments for a
conclusion given in advance is not philosophy, but
special pleading. I cannot, therefore, feel that he - Bertrand Russell
deserves to be put on a level with the best
philosophers either of Greece or of modern times.”
 “In all things which are ordered toward an end wherein this or that
course may be adopted, some directive principle is needed through
which the due end may be reached by the most direct route.”
For example:

A ship which moves in different

directions according to the impulse of
the changing winds would never reach
its destination were it not brought to
port by the skill of the pilot.

"Where there is no governor, the people shall fall.“

- King Solomon the Wise
ST. THOMAS AQUINAS ON KINGSHIP

 Man has an end to which his whole life and all his actions are ordered; for
man is an intelligent agent, and it is clearly the part of an intelligent agent
to act in view of an end.
 Men also adopt different methods in proceeding toward their proposed
end, is the diversity of men's pursuits and actions clearly indicates.
 Consequently man needs some directive principle to guide him toward his
end.

Man is a rationale being gifted with the

intelligence of reason.
ST. THOMAS AQUINAS ON KINGSHIP

 Moreover, all other animals are able to discern, by inborn skill, what is useful and
what is injurious, even as the sheep naturally regards the wolf as his enemy. Some
animals also recognize by natural skill certain medicinal herbs and other things
necessary for their life.
 Man, on the contrary, has a natural knowledge of the things which are essential
for his life only in a general fashion, inasmuch as he is able to attain knowledge of
the particular things necessary for human life by reasoning from natural
principles.
 But it is not possible for one man to arrive at a knowledge of all these things by his
own individual reason. It is therefore necessary for man to live in a multitude so
that each one may assist his fellows, and different men may be occupied in
seeking, by their reason, to make different discoveries — one, for example, in
medicine, one in this and another in that.
ST. THOMAS AQUINAS ON KINGSHIP

 This is clearly a necessity of man's nature. For all other animals, nature has
prepared food, hair as a covering, teeth, horns, claws as means of defense, or at
least speed in flight, while man alone was made without any natural provisions for
these things.
 Instead of all these, man was endowed with reason, by the use of which he could
procure all these things for himself by the work of his hands. Now, one man alone
is not able to procure them all for himself, for one man could not sufficiently
provide for life unassisted.

It is therefore natural that man should live in the

society of many.
ST. THOMAS AQUINAS ON KINGSHIP

“Man has an end toward which all his actions are

directed, being an intelligent being.”
 Man needs someone to direct him – someone who is just, has love for the poor,
and is God-fearing.
 Man must be with each other to ensure their survivability.
 His theory is in support of Aristotle’s :
“Man by nature is a political and social animal.”

 Question: Considering social order, do we need a government to provide order?

 Question: Society enriches by cooperation and individual contribution, on the
basis of kingship, does a king promote these values all the time?
ST. THOMAS AQUINAS ON KINGSHIP

 Path of governance: right and wrong.

right – it is led toward a befitting end; wrong – it is led toward an unbefitting end.
 The end which befits a multitude of free men is different of that which befits a
multitude of slaves – for a free man exists for his own sake, as such, a slave exist
for the sake of another.
 If, therefore, a multitude of free men is ordered by the ruler toward the common
good of the multitude, that rulership will be right and just, as is suitable to free
men. If, on the other hand, a rulership aims, not at the common good of the
multitude, but at the private good of the ruler, it will be an unjust and perverted
rulership – tyranny.
ST. THOMAS AQUINAS ON KINGSHIP

 If an unjust government is carried on by one man alone, who seeks his own
benefit from his rule and not the good of the multitude subject to him, such a ruler
is called a "tyrant" — a word derived from "strength" — because he oppresses by
might instead of ruling by justice.
 If an unjust government is carried on, not by one but by several, and if they be
few, it is called an "oligarchy," that is, the rule of a few. This occurs when a few,
who differ from the tyrant only by the fact that they are more than one, oppress
the people by means of their wealth. If, finally, the bad government is carried on
by the multitude, it is called a "democracy," i.e., control by the populace, which
comes about when the plebeian people by force of numbers oppress the rich.
In this way the whole people will be as one tyrant.
ST. THOMAS AQUINAS ON KINGSHIP

 In like manner we must divide just governments. If the government is

administered by the multitude that befits every person – it is polity.
 If it is administered by a few men of virtue, this kind of government is called an
"aristocracy," i.e., noble governance, or governance by noble men, who for this
reason are called the "Optimates.“
 And if a just government is in the hands of one man alone, he is properly called a
"king.“
 From this it is clearly shown that the idea of king implies that he be one man who
is chief and that he be a shepherd seeking the common good of the multitude and
not his own.