In the middle ages 261

ing the growing power of the king by a certain sys-

tem of control, the England of the thirteenth cen-

tury and a little later, was bringing its kings face

to face with national parliaments; about the same

time Spain also achieves its Cortes, a popular as-

sembly raised up in the midst of the centralized

government of Castile and Aragon." Everywhere,

the supreme prerogative of sovereignty lay in the

exercise of the judicial power, which was nothing

but the logical consequence of the power to give

orders and to enforce them. Everywhere were

manifest those efforts towards a more perfect con-

sistency. But on the other hand, these efforts never

attained to that form of administrative centraliza-

tion which we have come to know in the modern

state.

Then again it is important to note that the Tho-

mistic doctrines applied to states and not to na-

tions. The sentiment of love for fatherland, which

appeared in the Chanson de Roland — where la

douce terre de France is spoken of — found its place

in the moral system of Thomas Aquinas. He

speaks of the pietas which we owe to our natal soil,

27 Concerning the historical origin of the divers political functions

in Capetian France (the notion of the royal offlcium, the role of

jiisticier played by the sovereign, the oath of fidelity from subjects,

the importance of the elections and of the "sacre" and coronation,

the designatio of the heir apparent before Louis VII), see Luchaire.

Histoire des institution.t monarchiques sous les premiers capMiens

(987-1180), vol. I, Paris, 1891. Cf. Zeiller, L'id4e de I'Etat dans

St.. Thomas, Paris, 1910.

262 PHILOSOPHY AND CIVILIZATION

— in qua nati et nutriti sum us; and he considers the

citizen to be a debtor to his fatherland, ''debitor

patriae/'''^

But nation means more than state and father-

land. In our modern conception, a nation presup-

poses a strongly organized state, — with an accumu-

lation of traditions behind it, with institutions,

rights and feelings, with victories and sufferings,

and with a certain type of mind (religious, moral,

and artistic). These are its elements. The result

is that the bond which unites the nation is above all

psychical in character (intellectual and moral),

rather than territorial or racial.

Now the European nations, thus defined, did not

exist in the thirteenth century : they were in process

of formation. The monarchical states were to be-

come the nuclei of the nations of modern times.

War was not then a contest between two nations,

but a struggle between two members of a single

family, or two kings, or two vassals, or between the

vassal and the lord. It retained the character of a

private feud; and the same is true of the quarrels

between towns and between classes in the same

town. Hence, in his philosophical doctrine of war,

Thomas Aquinas insists that a war, to be just, must

be declared by the legitimate authority.

It was just because the states of the thirteenth

century were not formed into clearly defined na-

tions, that they had more traits in common than

26 8umma Theol., 2a2ac, q. CXXII, art. 5; q. CI, art. 1.