I now solicit your attention to the views held and expressed by the early christian fathers, which can not but be of special importance to such of you as are theological students.
Justin Martyr, who died about 165 A. D., proclaims, "That the prophecy is fulfilled we have good reason to believe, for we (Christians), who in the past killed one another, do not now fight our enemies."
St. Irenæus, about 140-202 A. D., boasts that "The Christians have changed their swords and their lances into instruments of peace, and they know not how to fight."
Clement of Alexandria, whose works were composed in the end of the second century and beginning of the third, writes, 'The followers of Christ use none of the implements of war.'
Tertullian, about 150-230 A. D., asks, "How shall a Christian go to war, how shall he carry arms in time of peace, when the Lord has forbidden the sword to us? . . . Jesus Christ, in disarming St. Peter, disarmed all soldiers." ('De Idololatr.,' 19.) "The military oath and the baptismal vow are inconsistent with each other, the one being the sign of Christ, the other of the Devil." ..."Shall it be held lawful to make an occupation of the sword, when the Lord proclaims that he who uses the sword shall perish by the sword?"
Origen, 185-254 A. D., says, "The angels wonder that peace is come through Jesus to earth, for it is a place ridden with wars."
"This is called peace, where none is at variance, nothing is out of harmony, where there is nothing hostile, nothing barbarian." "For no longer do we (Christians) take arms against any race, or learn to wage war, inasmuch as we have been made sons of peace through Jesus, whom we follow as our leader." ('Patrologia Græca,' XIV., pp. 46, 988, 1231.)
St. Cyprian, about 200-257 A. D., boasts that "Christians do not in turn assail their assailants, since it is not lawful for the innocent even to kill the guilty; but they readily deliver up their lives and blood." (Epistle 56, to Cornelius, section 2.)
Arnobius, who wrote about 295 A. D., says, "Certainly, if all who look upon themselves as men would listen awhile unto Christ's wholesome and peaceable decrees, the whole world long ago, turning the use of iron to milder works, should have lived in most quiet tranquility, and have met together in a firm and indissoluble league of most safe concord." ('Adversus Gentes,' Lib. I., page 6.)
Lactantius, who wrote in the beginning of the fourth century, insists that "It can never be lawful for a righteous man to go to war, for his warfare is unrighteous itself." "It is not murder that God rebukes; the civil laws punish that. God's prohibition is intended for ihose acts which men considered lawful. Therefore it is not permitted
