their murdering is not killing … but simply the exercise of the law, and so a service to God… The sanctity of the great saints is removing the (stigma) of a bad conscience from (killing)…
CHAPTER 73
REFUTATION OF THE ARGUMENTS OF
ALBERTUS MAGNUS OF COLOGNE
Now we shall speak of the arguments of Albertus Magnus,[486] a doctor; they too, will leave us disconsolate. He says that in our time there was born from our disputations, in the depths of an abyss – that is, in the depths of the devil’s snares – a small frog which has the audacity to croak against the justice and the law of God, and to assume that it is in no wise and for no reason permissible to kill a man. Not only must they who refuse to do justice be chastised and called unjust, but also they must be punished and called enemies of justice… Therefore justice and discipline must muster all strength and power and arm itself against injustice and lack of discipline…
And Master Albertus goes into great details in his arguments against the little frog whose croaking is so distressing to him. And he goes on to say that every life that is taken is taken by God. He who resists God must be killed, and whoever lives unjustly rebels against God; and it is particularly the heretics and pagans who rebel against God… One must necessarily take their physical life away from them as well as their mortal soul. Eternal death must be the reward of sin, and it is more easily given with a physical death! So we ask the frog: is it allowed to go to war against the enemies of God? It is clear that in a just war all enemies of God must be killed… For if the frog says that one should not kill the enemies of God … then the honor of God would be exterminated in retreat…
The iniquitous frog asks that the City of God be left defenseless and abandoned to robberies and violence. And, adds Master Albertus, if the worth of life should be the cause of no killing, then, it seems to us, the spiritual life is much more worthy; and the physical life should not be pardoned if the spiritual can thus be saved.
