Augustine: Earlier Writings
ON FREE WILL II7 will indeed. Even such a deed is not without a trace of cupidity. He who kills a man from fear desires to live without fear. Aug.— And it is no small good to live without fear? Ev.—It is a great good, but the homicide cannot attain it by his crime. Aug.— am not seeking what he can attain, but what he desires. Certainly he desires a good thing who desires a life free from fear, and so far his desire is not to be blamed. Otherwise we shall be blaming all lovers of good things. So we are compelled to admit that there can be homicide in which the dominance of evil cupidity is not to be found; and it will consequently be false to say that it is the dominance of lust which makes all sins evil. In other words there can be homicide which is not a sin. Ev.—If to kill a man is homicide it can sometimes be done without sin. When a soldier kills an enemy, or when a judge or an officer of the law puts a criminal to death, or when a weapon slips out of someone's hand without his will or knowledge, the killing of a man does not seem to me to be a sin. Aug.—I agree, but these are not usually called homicides. But tell me this. A slave kills his master because he feared he would be terribly tortured by him. Do you think he would have to be regarded as one of those who are not to be classed as homicides because they have killed a man? Ev.—His is a very different case from theirs. They act in accordance with the laws, or not contrary to the laws, but no law approves his deed.
10. Aug.—You are reverting again to authority. You must remember that we have undertaken to try to understand what we believe. We believe the laws and must accordingly try if we can to understand whether the law which punishes this deed does not wrongly punish. Ev.—It does not punish wrongly when it punishes a man who willingly and knowingly slays his master. None of these other cases we have mentioned is similar. Aug.— You remember you recently said that in every evil deed lust prevailed, and that for that very reason it was evil? Ev.—Certainly I remember. Aug.—Did you not also admit that he who desires to live without fear has no evil cupidity? Ev.—That too
I remember. Aug.—When our slave kills his master from that motive he does so without any culpable cupidity. So we have not discovered why the deed was evil. We have agreed that all evil deeds are evil for no other reason than that they are committed from lust, that is, wrongful cupidity. Ev.—Now it seems
I must admit that he is unjustly condemned. But I should not dare to say so if I had any other answer to give. Aug.—You are persuaded that so great a crime ought to go unpunished before