Men are governed by various sorts of laws : by natural law ; by divine law, which is that of religion ; by ecclesiastical law, otherwise known as canon law, which is that of religious order ; by the law of nations, which can be thought of as global civil law, in the sense that each people is a (…)
One ought not to decide by divine laws what should be decided by human laws, nor determine by human laws what should be determined by divine laws.
These two sorts of laws differ in their origin, their object and their nature.
Everyone agrees that human laws are of a different nature from the (…)
If a slave, says Plato, defends himself and kills a free man, he must be treated like a parricide. That is a civil law that punishes natural defense.
The law which, under Henry VIII, condemned a man without being confronted by the witnesses was contrary to natural defense ; indeed, in order to (…)
The law of Recessuinthus allowed the children of an adulteress, or her husband’s, to accuser her, and to have the household slaves put to the torture. What an unjust law, which to preserve morals overturned nature, the source of morality !
We take pleasure in seeing a young hero on our stages (…)
A law of Athens obliged children to feed their fathers who had fallen into indigence ; it excepted those who were born to a courtesan, those whose father had exposed their chastity through an ignominious commerce, and those to whom he had taught no trade by which to earn their living.
The law (…)
The Voconian law prohibited naming a woman as heir, even one’s only daughter. There never was, St. Augustine states, a more unjust law. A formula of Marculfus treats as impious the custom that deprives daughters of their fathers’ successions. Justinian calls the right of inheritance of males to (…)
The Abyssinians have a very severe fast of fifty days which weakens them so that for a long time they are incapable of any action ; the Turks do not fail to attack them after their fast. Religion should, in favor of natural defense, put limits on these practices.
The Jews were commanded to (…)
By Roman civil law, a man who remove a private item from a sacred place is punished only for the crime of theft ; by canon law, he is punished for the crime of sacrilege. Canon law takes cognizance of the place, civil law of the thing. But to take cognizance only of the place is to reflect (…)
Religious laws are more sublime ; civil laws are more encompassing.
The laws of perfection drawn from religion have as their object more the goodness of the man who observes them than of the society in which they are observed ; civil laws, on the contrary, have as their object more the moral (…)
When a religion that forbids polygamy is introduced into a country where it is permitted, we do not believe, speaking only politically, that the country’s law should allow a man who has several wives to embrace that religion, unless the magistrate or the husband compensates them by in some way (…)
Montesquieu
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