THE ETERNAL LAW BACKGROUND OF

THE NATURAL LAW

Introduction
A singular and truly providential coincidence reminds
us that exactly twenty-five years ago today Pope
Pius XI, of revered and saintly memory, was busily en-
gaged in his study in the Vatican Palace, putting the fin-
ishing touches to the page proofs of the first Encyclical of
his renowned Pontificate. Significantly enough this Papal
Message to the world, published on December 23, 1922,
was entitled, "The Peace of Christ in the Kingdom of
Christ." 1 In this historical document the scholarly Pon-
tiff appealed to the entire world to return to the basic
concepts of the Eternal Law of God, so that Europe and
the other countries of the world might be saved from im-
pending chaos and disaster. In view of what has hap-
pened during these past twenty-five years, the warnings
of Pope Pius XI now seem ominously prophetic.
In this Encyclical Letter the Pope lamented that:
"There is, over and above the absence of peace and
the evil attendant on this absence, another deeper
and more profound cause for present-day conditions.
This cause was even beginning to show its head be-
1 Encyclical Letter, "Ubi arcano," December 23, 1922, Acta Apostolicae
Sedis, XIV (1922), 673-700. An English translation appears in Social Well-
springs, II, 13, 16 (edited by Joseph Husslein, S. J. Bruce, Milwaukee,
1942), and in Principles for Peace, 341, 345, (Washington, 1943, edited
by Harry C. Koenig).
 ETERNAL AND NATURAL LAW

fore the war and the terrible calamities consequent

on that cataclysm should have proven a remedy for
them if mankind had only taken the trouble to un-
derstand the real meaning of those terrible events.
In the Holy Scriptures we read: 'They that have
forsaken the Lord shall be consumed.' No less well-
known are the words of the Divine Teacher, Jesus
Christ, Who said: 'Without Me you can do nothing'
and again, 'He that gathereth not with Me, scat-
tereth.'
"These words of the Holy Bible have been fulfilled
and are now at this very moment being fulfilled be-
fore our very eyes. Because men have forsaken God
and Jesus Christ, they have sunk to the depths of
evil. They waste their energies and consume their
time and efforts in vain sterile attempts to find a
remedy for these ills, but without even being success-
ful in saving what little remains from the existing
ruins.
"It was a quite general desire that both our laws and
our governments should exist without recognizing
God or Jesus Christ, on the theory that all authority
comes from men, not from God. Because of such an
assumption, these theorists fell short of being able to
bestow upon law not only those sanctions which it
must possess but also that secure basis for the su-
preme criterion of justice which even a pagan phi-
losopher like Cicero saw clearly could not be derived
except for the Eternal Law. Authority itself lost its
hold upon mankind, for it had lost that sound and
unquestionable justification fo' its right to command
on the one hand and to be obeyed on the other. So-
ciety, quite logically and inevitably, was shaken to its
very depths and even threatened with destruction,
106 NATURAL LAW INSTITUTE PROCEEDINGS

since there was left to it no longer a stable founda-

tion, everything having been reduced to a series of
conflicts, to the domination of the majority, or to the
supremacy of special interests." 2
Today, exactly a quarter of a century after the publica-
tion of this epochal Encyclical, nations still reject, in large
measure, the Eternal Law of God, which the Pope so ac-
curately called the supreme criterion of justice. Thus
the world finds itself without peace, without justice, with-
out the establishment of an abiding moral order.

"We have already seen," continues the same Pontiff,

"and have come to the conclusion that the principal
cause of the confusion, restlessness, and dangers,
which are so prominent a characteristic of false
peace, is the denial of the sovereignty of law and lack
of respect for authority, effects which logically follow
upon the denial of the truth that authority and power
come from God, the Creator of the world and its
Universal Law-giver. The only remedy for such a
state of affairs is the Peace of Christ, since the Peace
of Christ is the Peace of God, which could not exist
if it did not enjoin respect for law, order and su-
'3
preme authority."

In view of this solemn pronouncement given to the

world in 1922, we have good reason to pause and to ask
ourselves why precisely do so many human beings refuse
to acknowledge the existence of such a truth as the Eter-
nal Law, emanating from God Himself, the Supreme
2 Principles for Peace, pp. 340-341; A.A.S. XIV (1922). 683.
3 Id., 1). 345.
 ETERNAL AND NATURAL LAW

Legislator for all mankind? In other words, why are the

dice so heavily loaded against justice, truth, and the abid-
ing peace of Jesus Christ?
The answer to this query has been given by another
great Pontiff, our present Holy Father, and significantly
enough, in his own first Encyclical Letter, addressed to the
world, on October 20, 1939. He states that:

"At the head of the road which leads to the spirit-

ual and moral bankruptcy of the present day stand
the nefarious efforts of not a few to dethrone Christ,
the abandonment of the law of truth which He pro-
claimed and of the law of love which is the life-
breath of His kingdom. In the recognition of the
supreme prerogatives-of Christ, and in the return of
individuals and of society to the law of His truth and
of His love lies the only way to salvation....

"The present age, Venerable Brethren, by adding

new errors to the doctrinal aberrations of the past,
has pushed these to extremes which lead inevitably
to a drift towards chaos. Before all else, it is certain
that the radical and ultimate cause of the evils which
We deplore in modem society is the denial and rejec-
tion of a universal norm of morality as well for indi-
vidual and social life as for international relations;
We mean the disregard, so common nowadays, and
the forgetfulness of the Natural Law itself, which has
its foundation in God, almighty Creator and Father
of all, supreme and absolute Lawgiver, all-wise and
just Judge of human actions. When God is denied,
every basis of morality is undermined; the voice of
conscience is stilled or at any rate grows very faint,
that voice which teaches even to the illiterate and to
108 NATURAL LAW INSTITUTE PROCEEDINGS

uncivilized tribes what is good and what is bad, what

lawful, what forbidden, and makes men feel them-
selves responsible for their actions to a supreme
Judge.
"The denial of the fundamentals of morality had
its origin in Europe, in the abandonment of that
Christian teaching of which the Chair of Peter is the
depository and exponent. That teaching had once
given spiritual cohesion to a Europe which, educated,
ennobled and civilized by the Cross, had reached
such a degree of civil progress as to become the
teacher of other peoples, of other continents. But,
cut off from the infallible teaching authority of the
Church, not a few separated brethren have gone so
far as to overthrow the central dogma of Christiani-
ty, the divinity of the Saviour, and have hastened
thereby the progress of spiritual decay.
"The Holy Gospel narrates that when Jesus was cru-
cified, 'there was darkness over the whole earth,' a
terrifying symbol of what happened and what still
happens spiritually wherever incredulity, blind and
proud of itself, has succeeded in excluding Christ
from modem life, especially from public life, and has
undermined faith in God as well as faith in Christ.
The consequence is that the moral values by which
in other times public and private conduct was gauged
have fallen into disuse; and the much-vaunted laici-
zation of society, which has made ever more rapid
progress, withdrawing man, the family and the state
from the beneficent and regenerating effects of the
idea of God and the teaching of the Church, has
caused to reappear, in regions in which for many
centuries shone the splendours of Christian civiliza-
tion, in a manner ever clearer, ever more distinct,
 ETERNAL AND NATURAL LAW

ever more distressing, the signs of a corrupt and cor-

rupting paganism: 'There was darkness when they
crucified Jesus.'

"Many perhaps, while abandoning the teaching of

Christ, were not fully conscious of being led astray
by a mirage of glittering phrases, which proclaimed
such estrangement as an escape from the slavery in
which they were before held; nor did they then fore-
see the bitter consequences of bartering the truth
that sets free, for error which enslaves. They did not
realize that, in renouncing the infinitely wise and
paternal laws of God, and the unifying and elevating
doctrine of Christ's love, they were resigning them-
selves to the whim of a poor, fickle human wisdom;
they spoke of progress, when they were going back;
of being raised, when they grovelled; of arriving at
man's estate when they stooped to servility. They did
not perceive the inability of all human effort to re-
place the law of Christ by anything equal to it; 'they
became vain in their thoughts.'
"With the weakening of faith in God and in Jesus
Christ, and the darkening in men's minds of the light
of moral principles, there disappeared the indispen-
sable foundation of the stability and quiet of that
internal and external, private and public, order,
which alone can support and safeguard the prosper-
ity of states.
"It is true that, even when Europe had a cohesion of
brotherhood through identical ideals gathered from
Christian preaching, she wa0; not free from dissen-
sions, convulsions and wars which laid her waste; but
perhaps they never felt the intense pessimism of to-
day as to the possibility of settling them, for they had
110 NATURAL LAW INSTITUTE PROCEEDINGS

then an effective moral sense of the just and of the

unjust, of the lawful and of the unlawful which, by
restraining outbreaks of passion, left the way open to
an honourable settlement. In our days, on the con-
trary, dissensions come not only from the surge of
rebellious passion, but also from a deep spiritual
crisis which has overtaken the sound principles of
private and public morality." 4
4 AAS. XXXI, pp. 543-546.
 I. THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST AND
THE ETERNAL LAW
Some eighty years ago, the Russian novelist, Dostoevski
(1821-1881) observed that the modem world rejects
Christ, as God, for the very simple reason that it wishes
to have no God at all. Many of our modem lawyers, it
appears, are reluctant to acknowledge Christ as God be-
cause such an admission would necessitate belief in the
Holy Trinity as the Supreme Legislator for mankind. But
as St. Thomas points out, we can have no clear concept of
the Eternal Law, in relation to the Natural Law, or to any
other Law, unless we humbly believe in Christ as Supreme
Legislator,5 as well as the Redeemer of mankind, and in
the Holy Trinity as the source of all Divine Life and Law.
Moreover, we should realize that the tacit assumption
that God simply does not count in law can be more dan-
gerous to lawyers, particularly to young lawyers, than
positive opposition to God. n

5 Council of Trent, Session VI, On Justification, Canon XXI: "If any-

one saith that Jesus Christ was given of God to men as a Redeemer in
Whom to trust and not also as a Legislator, Whom to obey, let him be
anathema."
6 At the present time, opposition offers a challenge to thinking human
beings whereas the subtle implication that Divine Authority does not exist
in the world is a most insidious form of modern sophistry. This status of
affairs simply confirms Christian believers in the realization of the truth
that human nature in its present state is a fallen human nature redeemed
by Jesus Christ Who is the Supreme Legislator of mankind as well as its
Reedemer. The soul of an unbaptized, unregenerated human being, who is
filled with mundane desires and erroneous opinions, can well have the
understanding so darkened that neither the sunlight of natural reason nor
the supernatural Wisdom of God may illumine it clearly. Pope Leo XIII,
Encyclical Letter, "Libertas Praestanti.'simum," June 20, 1888, The Great
Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII, 137-145.

111
112 NATURAL LAW INSTITUTE PROCEEDINGS

I. THE MOST HOLY TRINITY AND

THE ETERNAL LAW
When we ask the modem lawyer to contemplate with
reverence and humility the divine life of the Holy Trinity,
we are merely asking him to go back in spirit to the Amer-
ican, European and Semitic traditions of our laws, of our
civilization and of our Christian culture. In 529, when
the Emperor Justinian promulgated his renowned Code
of Roman Law, he specifically invoked and embodied in
his legislation, the Name of the Most Holy Trinity, just
as he dedicated his Institutes to Jesus Christ, the Supreme
Legislator of mankind. Thenceforward it became the
custom of truly Christian nations to acknowledge, in all
legislation, the dependence of humankind upon the Di-
vine Creator and Legislator. Thus it was, that lawyers,
legislators and judges alike, constantly envisioned and
proclaimed their humble belief in God when they studied
law, enacted legislation or adjudged lawsuits.
It is heartening to note that ten years ago this month
when the Constitution of the Irish Free State went into
effect, on December 29, 1937, it began with these solemn
words: - "In the Name of the Most Holy Trinity, from
Whom is all authority and to Whom, as our final end, all
actions both of men and of States must be referred, We,
the People of Ireland, humbly acknowledging all our obli-
gations to Our Divine Lord, Jesus Christ, Who sustained
our Fathers through centuries of trial . . . do hereby
adopt, enact, and give to ourselves this Constitution."
112
 THE ETERNAL LAW

Only three months ago, the Constitution of the State of

New Jersey ratified on September 10, 1947, acknowledged
its humble gratitude to God in these significant words: -
"We, the people of the State of New Jersey, grateful to
Almighty God for the civil and religious liberty which He
hath so long permitted us to enjoy, and looking to Him for
a blessing upon our endeavors to secure and transmit the
same unimpaired to succeeding generations, do ordain
and establish this Constitution."
As one ponders the faith, humility, and commendable
common sense of the Preambles to these Constitutions,
one realizes how frightfully hollow and inept were the
opening words of the Covenant of the League of Nations,
signed in 1920, . . "The high contracting parties ..."
What a godless, inane, and hopeless introduction to a
Covenant destined to maintain peace, justice, and charity
in a war-tom world. Can one wonder then, why a second
World War followed so soon after Versailles?
The origin of all law goes back, as St. Thomas striking,
ly points out, to the Holy Trinity, back to that life of
knowledge and love, which constitutes the essential glory
of the Three Divine Persons. 7 The Divine Word became
incarnate in order to illumine from without, the fire of
this glory, in bestowing upon mankind the knowledge and
love of the Most Holy Trinity. Well indeed then is He
called "The Splendor of the Glory of the Father" 8 come
as He tells us Himself, "Not to destroy, but to fulfill the
law." 9
7 St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, I-II, Questions XC-XCI,
aIX-Cx.
8 St. Paul, Epistle to the Hebrews, 1, 3.
9 St. Matthew 5, 17.
114 NATURAL LAW INSTITUTE PROCEEDINGS

"In the language of philosophy, God is in intimate

contact with all things, by His Power, by His essence,
and by His Presence. The exercises of His Power on
things does not cease with their creation. Conserva-
tion is a continual creation. Without the uninter-
rupted influence of God, nothing could continue in
existence. Since the Lord's power and the exercise
of that power is at the heart of all this, His Essence
must, of necessity, be there also; for in Him Power,
Essence, Operation, Nature are one Indivisible, Sim-
ple Reality. Finally, the Creator is present every-
where because there is nothing that escapes His
observation and attention. Wherever therefore, there
is any created reality, God is present in the totality
of His being, with all His being, with all His attri-
butes and all His perfections. He is in my body and
in every fibre of it. He is in my soul, and in its facul-
ties, and in the activities of these faculties. He is in
me wholly, and He is wholly outside of me. And just
as He is in me in the totality of what He is, so is He
likewise in all creatures.
"But beyond this universal and ordinary way accord-
ing to which God is in all creatures, there is a distinct
way of presence which can be found only in the case
of rational creatures. In these He can be present as
an object known and loved is present in him who
knows and loves. An example drawn from nature
will illustrate the difference between these modes of
presence. Light shines in the eyes of the blind, in
whom the organ of vision is intact and the nerve only
destroyed. The eye is flooded with light, but there is
no vital reaction. The rays are fully present in the
eye but not to the eye. The visual faculty is power-
less to possess by a vital act, what is, nevertheless,
sending its vibrations through the organ of vision.
 THE ETERNAL LAW

Furthermore in the case where the eye is not dis-

eased, the measure of its possession of what is pre-
sented to its gaze is not unvarying. Objects of vision
may be maintained under the same conditions of
illumination, yet they will be seen more or less per-
fectly according to the strength, power and acuity of
the visual faculties of those who contemplate them.
They are seen, and therefore more perfectly pos-
sessed, by those whose vision is more perfect.

"It is thus in a parallel manner between God and the

soul, through which He pours the light of His being.
He shines on all things, whether in the mineral
realm, in the realm of plants, or in the realm of ani-
mals; and He shines also even in the souls of the sin-
ner. But there is nowhere in these worlds an answer-
ing reaction. He is present in them, but not to them.
They do not possess Him, even when they are sub-
mitting to His influence. And when the blindness of
sin is dispelled and He illuminates the souls of the
just from their very centre; when He is present not
only in them but to them, even then He is not present
to all and possessed by all in the same degree. He is
more perfectly in, and more fully possessed by those
whose grace is more abundant and whose sanctity is
more elevated. It is sanctity that sharpens the soul's
vision and strengthens the soul's embrace of its God.

"Hence, just as the faculty of vision, when in a

healthy state, has power to receive within itself and
to possess in a vital act the figures of coloured objects,
so, too, the soul when endowed with sanctifying
grace, has power to seize and to take to itself, has
power to react vitally to the divine light streaming
from its source. The faculty of intelligence fortified
116 NATURAL LAW INSTITUTE PROCEEDINGS

by the infused virtue of faith, can fix its gaze on God

as He is in His own inner life. The faculty of will,
reinforced by the infused virtue of love for the divine,
is empowered to cleave to God in acts of real affec-
tion. These two faculties are, as it were, the arms by
which the soul is enabled to enfold the Holy Spirit in
its embrace." "I

III. THE MEANING OF THE ETERNAL LAW

With these remarks in mind let us try to grasp the
meaning of the Eternal Law, in relation to all law and
particularly in relation to the Natural Law. Briefly, the
Eternal Law is naught else but the exemplar of Divine
Wisdom directing all actions and movements.1 1 Or as St.
Augustine prefers to say, "It is the supreme exemplar to
which we must always conform." 12
From all Eternity there was present to the Spirit of God
the plan of the government of the world, which He had
determined to create. This plan of government is the
Eternal Law, according to which God guides all things
toward their final goal, namely, His own glory and the
eternal happiness of mankind. 13 There is nothing, there-
fore, which does not come under this law, neither star, nor
tide, nor plant, nor animal, nor man, nor Angel, for
Divine Providence extends to all.

"The Eternal Law is God's wisdom, inasmuch as it

is the directive norm of all movement and action.
When God willed to give existence to creatures, He
10 James Leen, By Jacob's Well, (New York, 1940), 112-114.
11 St. Thomas, Summa, 1-11, Quest. XCIII, Art. 1, ad 3.
12 St. Augustine, Do Lib. Arbitrio, I, 6 (PL 32, 1229).
 THE ETERNAL LAW

willed to ordain and direct them to an end. In the

case of inanimate things, this Divine direction is pro-
vided for in the nature which God has given to each.
... Like all the rest of creation, man is destined by
God to an end, and receives from Him a direction
toward this end. This ordination is of a character in
harmony with man's free, intelligent nature.
"In virtue of his intelligence and free will, man is
master of his conduct. Unlike the things of the ma-
terial world he can modify his action at will, he is
free to act or to refrain from action, just as he sees
fit. Yet he is not a lawless being in an ordered uni-
verse. In the very constitution of his nature, he like-
wise has a law laid down for him, reflecting that
ordination and direction of all things, which is the
Eternal Law." 14
As Pope Leo XIII states in his Encyclical Letter on
"Human Liberty,"
"reason prescribes to the will what it should seek
after or shun, in order to the eventual attainment of
man's last end, for the sake of which all his actions
are to be performed. This dictate of reason is called
law. In man's free will, therefore, or in the moral
necessity of our voluntary acts being in accordance
with reason, lies the very root of the necessity of law.
Nothing more foolish can be uttered or conceived
than the notion that because man is free by nature,
he is therefore exempt from law. Were this the case,
it would follow that to become free we must be de-
prived of reason; whereas the truth is that we are
13 V. Cathrein, v. "Concept of Law," The Catholic Encyclopedia, IX,
55.
14 James J. Fox, v. "The Natural Law," The Catholic Encyclopedia,
IX, 76-77.
 NATURAL LAW INSTITUTE PROCEEDINGS

bound to submit to law precisely because we are free

by our very nature. Law then is the guide of man's
actions. It turns him towards good by its rewards,
and deters him from evil by its punishments.
"Foremost in this office comes the Natural Law,
which is written and engraved in the mind of every
man; and this is nothing but our reason, commanding
us to do right and forbidding sin. Nevertheless all pre-
scriptions of human reason can have force of law
only inasmuch as they are the voice and the inter-
preters of some higher power on which our reason
and liberty necessarily depend. For, since the force
of law consists in the imposing of obligations and the
granting of rights, authority is the one and only foun-
dation of all law-the power, that is, of fixing duties
and defining rights, as also of assigning the necessary
sanctions of reward and chastisement to each and all
of its commands. But all this, clearly, cannot be
found in man, if, as his own supreme legislator, he is
to be the rule of his own actions. It follows there-
fore that the law of nature is the same thing as the
Eternal Law, implanted in rational creatures, and in-
clining them to their right action and end; and can
be nothing else but the eternal reason of God, the
Creator and Ruler of all the world.
"To this rule of action and restraint of evil God has
vouchsafed to give special and most suitable aids for
strengthening and ordering the human will. The
first and most excellent of these is the power of His
divine grace, whereby the mind can be enlightened
and the will wholesomely invigorated and moved to
the constant pursuit of moral good, so that the use of
our inborn liberty becomes at once less difficult and
less dangerous. Not that the divine assistance hin-
 THE ETERNAL LAW

ders in any way the free movement of our will; just

the contrary, for grace works inwardly in man and
in harmony with his natural inclinations, since it
flows from the very Creator of his mind and will, by
whom all things are moved in conformity with their
nature. As the Angelic Doctor points out, it is be-
cause divine grace comes from the Author of nature,
that it is so admirably adapted to be the safeguard of
all natures, and to maintain the character, efficiency,
and operations of each.
"What has been said of the liberty of individuals is no
less applicable to them when considered as bound
together in civil society. For, what reason and the
Natural Law do for individuals, that human law, pro-
mulgated for their good, does for the citizens of
States. Of the laws enacted by men, some are con-
cerned with what is good or bad by its very nature;
and they command men to follow after what is right
and to shun what is wrong, adding at the same time
a suitable sanction. But such laws by no means de-
rive their origin from civil society; because just as
civil society did not create human nature, so neither
can it be said to be the author of the good which be-
fits human nature, or of the evil which is contrary
to it.
"Laws come before men live together in society, and
have their origin in the Natural, and consequently in
the Eternal, Law. The precepts, therefore, of the
Natural Law, contained bodily in the laws of men,
have not merely the force of human law, but they
possess that higher and Tmore august sanction which
belongs to the law of nature and the Eternal Law.
And within the sphere of this kind of laws, the duty
of the civil legislator is, mainly, to keep the commun-
 NATURAL LAW INSTITUTE PROCEEDINGS

ity in obedience by the adoption of a common disci-

pline and by putting restraint upon refractory and
viciously inclined men, so that, deterred from evil,
they may turn to what is good, or at any rate may
avoid causing trouble and disturbance to the State.
"Now there are other enactments of the civil author-
ity, which do not follow directly, but somewhat re-
motely, from the Natural Law, and decide many
points which the law of nature treats only in a gen-
eral and indefinite way. For instance, though nature
commands all to contribute to the public peace and
prosperity, still whatever belongs to the manner and
circumstances, and conditions under which such
service is to be rendered must be determined by the
wisdom of men and not by Nature herself. It is in
the constitution of these particular rules of life, sug-
gested by reason and prudence, and put forth by
competent authority, that human law, properly so
called, consists, binding all citizens to work together
for the attainment of the common end proposed to
the community, and forbidding them to depart from
this end; and in so far as human law is in conformity
with the dictates of nature, leading to what is good,
and deterring from evil.
"From this it is manifest that the Eternal Law of God
is the sole standard and rule of human liberty, not
only in each individual man, but also in the com-
munity and civil society which men constitute when
united. Therefore, the true liberty of human society
does not consist in every man doing what he pleases,
for this would simply end in turmoil and confusion,
and bring on the overthrow of the State; but rather
in this, that through the injunctions of the civil law
all may more easily conform to the prescriptions of
the Eternal Law.
 THE ETERNAL LAW

"Likewise, the liberty of those who are in authority

does not consist in the power to lay unreasonable and
capricious commands upon their subjects, which
would equally be criminal and would lead to the ruin
of the commonwealth; but the binding force of hu-
man laws is in this, that they are to be regarded as
applications of the Eternal Law, and incapable of
sanctioning anything which is not contained in the
Eternal Law, as in the principle of all law. Thus St.
Augustine most wisely says: 'I think that you can see,
at the same time, that there is nothing just and law-
ful, unless what men have gathered from this Eternal
Law.' If, then, by any one in authority, something be
sanctioned out of conformity with the principles of
right reason, and consequently hurtful to the com-
monwealth, such an enactment can have no binding
force of law, as being no rule of justice, but certain
to lead men away from that good which is the very
end of civil society.
"Therefore, the nature of human liberty, however it
be considered, whether in individuals or in society,
whether in those who command or in those who
obey, supposes the necessity of obedience to some su-
preme and Eternal Law, which is no other than the
authority of God, commanding good and forbidding
evil. And so far from this most just authority of God
over men diminishing, or even destroying their liber-
ty, it protects and perfects it. For the real perfection
of all creatures is found in the prosecution and at-
tainment of their respective ends; but the supreme
end to which human liberty must aspire is God.
"These precepts of the truest and highest teaching,
made known to us by the light of reason itself, the
Church, instructed by the example and doctrine of
122 NATURAL LAW INSTITUTE PROCEEDINGS

her divine Author, has ever propagated and asserted;

for she has ever made them the measure of her office
and of her teaching to the Christian nations. As to
morals, the laws of the Gospel not only immeasura-
bly surpass the wisdom of the heathen, but are an
invitation and an introduction to a state of holiness
unknown to the ancients; and, bringing man nearer
to God, they make him at once the possessor of a
more perfect liberty. Thus the powerful influence of
the Church has ever been manifested in the custody
and protection of the civil and political liberty of the
people. The enumeration of its merits in this respect
does not belong to our present purpose. It is suffi-
cient to recall the fact that slavery, that old re-
proach of the heathen nations, was mainly abolished
by the beneficent efforts of the Church.
"The impartiality of law and true brotherhood of
man were first asserted by Jesus Christ; and His
apostles re-echoed His voice when they declared that
in future there was to be neither Jew, nor Gentile,
nor Barbarian, nor Scythian, but all were brothers in
Christ. So powerful, so conspicuous in this respect,
is the influence of the Church, that experience testi-
fies how savage customs are no longer possible in any
land where she has once set her foot; but that gentle-
ness speedily takes the place of cruelty, and the light
of truth quickly dispels the darkness of barbarism.
Nor has the Church been less lavish in the benefits
she has conferred on civilized nations in every age,
either by resisting the tyranny of the wicked, or by
protecting the innocent and helpless from injury; or
finally by using her influence in the support of any
form of government which commended itself to the
citizens at home, because of its justice, or was feared
by their enemies without, because of its power.
 THE ETERNAL LAW

"Moreover, the highest duty is to respect authority,

and obediently to submit to just law; and by this the
members of a community are effectually protected
from the wrongdoing of evil men. Lawful power is
from God, 'and whosoever resisteth authority resist-
eth the ordinance of God'; wherefore obedience is
greatly ennobled when subjected to an authority
which is the most just and supreme of all. But where
the power to command is wanting, or where a law is
enacted contrary to reason, or to the Eternal Law, or
to some ordinance of God, obedience is unlawful, lest,
while obeying man, we become disobedient to God.
Thus, an effectual barrier being opposed to tyranny,
the authority in the State will not have all its own
way, but the interests and rights of all will be safe-
guarded-the rights of individuals, of domestic soci-
ety, and of all the members of the commonwealth;
all being free to live according to law and right rea-
son; and in this, as We have shown, true liberty
really consists." 15
IV. RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE ETERNAL
LAW AND CREATION
St. Thomas explains the relationship that exists be-
tween the Eternal Law and all creation in such a brief
and illuminating way that we can best borrow a few of
his unforgettable thoughts.
"Since all things subject to Divine Providence are
ruled and measured by the Eternal Law, it is evident
that all things partake in some way in the same Eter-
nal Law, in so far as, namely, from its being imprint-
15 Pope Leo XIII, Encyclical Letter, "Libertas Praestantissimum," June
20, 1888, The Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII, (New York, Ben-
ziger Brothers, 1903), 139-144.
124 NATURAL LAW INSTITUTE PROCEEDINGS

ed on them, they derive their respective inclinations

to their proper actions and ends.
"Now among all others, the rational creature is sub-
ject to Divine Providence in a more excellent way,
in so far as it itself partakes of a share of Providence,
by being provident both for itself and for others.
Therefore, it has a share of the eternal reason....
"The light of natural reason, whereby we discern
what is good and what is evil, which is the proper
function of the Natural Law, is nothing else than an
imprint on us of Divine Light. It is, therefore, evi-
dent that the Natural Law is nothing else than the
rational creature's sharing in the Eternal Law .... -16
In view of the intimate relationship that exists between
God and law, we can readily understand why peoples and
nations begin to ridicule and to reject law, and particular-
ly the Natural and Eternal Law, precisely in the measure
in which they cease to believe in Christ, as God. This is
just another reason, it appears, why we Americans of the
present generation have the special and personal respon-
sibility to warn the skeptics, as well as the uninformed,
that it is a law of life, as proved by history, that the "Nat-
ural, as well as the Eternal, Law invariably buries its
undertakers."
As some of you perhaps recall, in 1925, Theodore
Dreiser wrote his American Tragedy. Unfortunately, he
himself proved to be a living embodiment of the great
American tragedy, by cutting himself off from the religion
and beliefs of his childhood. As a result, he was a sad,

16 St. Thomas, Summa, I, Quest. 91, Art. 2.

 THE ETERNAL LAW

discontented, bewildered man in the last years of his life.

In his book, The Stoic, he wrote this haunting lament: -
"Chronically nebulous, doubting, uncertain, I stared at
everything, only wondering, not solving."
During the past twenty-five years a great deal of Amer-
ican law, American jurisprudence, and American legal
writings have become chronically nebulous, doubting, un-
certain, staring at everything, only wondering, not solving.
Unless we return to the true understanding of law, the
future will be one of chagrin, of bewilderment, of tragedy.
Ours is the privilege, ours is the heritage, ours is the sa-
cred personal duty "to restore all things under the Head-
7
ship of Christ," the Universal Lawgiver.'
Can any legal system long survive, when it is being
ceaselessly and systematically assailed by myriads of soph-
istries, erroneous juristic concepts, by the pragmatism of
an omnicompetent State, by the naturalism of a Dewey,
the sociological jurisprudence of a Pound, the scoffing
skepticism of a Holmes, the relativism of a Cardozo, the
positivism of a Hohfeld, the functionalism of a Cohen, the
symbolism of an Arnold, the realism of a Llewellyn, or the
utilitarianism of a Frankfurter? 18 Such bewildering sys-
tems-most of them godless-of law and of jurisprudence
have become a definite menace to our American Law and
legal thought. Under the very aegis of the Goddess of
17 St. Paul, Epistle to the Ephesian,, 1, 10.
18 Geoffrey OConnell, Naturalism ir. American Education, (New York,
1938); Man and Modern Secularism, Essays on the Conflict of the Two
Cultures, (New York, 1940); M. T. Rooney, Lawlessness, Law, and Sanc-
tion, (Washington, 1937), "Relativism in American Law," Proceedings of
the American Catholic Philosophical Association, 1945, "Mr. Justice Car-
dozo's Relativism," The New Scholasticism, XIX (1945), 1-45.
 NATURAL LAW INSTITUTE PROCEEDINGS

Justice, un-Christian publicists and even jurists are sub-

jecting American Law to a slavery of the spirit, and are
reducing us free Americans to the status of benighted
morons, stripped of our personal, God-given dignity, and
bereft of our basic rights. In truth, these sciolists are the
very ones against whom St. Paul indignantly inveighs in
his First Epistle to Timothy, when he writes: -
"There are certain ones who have gone astray, wan-
dering off into silly sophistries. They claim to be
teachers of the law, but they understand neither the
meaning of their own words, nor the assertions which
they so arrogantly proclaim." 19
In his Christmas Allocution of December 24, 1942,
Pope Pius XII alluded to this same tendency manifesting
itself in many quarters of the globe, when he said: -
"Outside the Church of Christ, juridical positivism
has reigned supreme, attributing a deceptive majesty
to the enactment of purely human laws, and effectu-
ating the fateful divorce of law from morality." 20
If we are ever going to have an abiding moral order in
America and lasting international peace, we must re-
establish a truly Christian juridical order of life, based on
the immutable principles of the Eternal Law.
In his autographical letter to President Truman on
August 26, 1947, Pope Pius XII emphasized the necessity
of changeless principles as a guarantee of abiding peace in
the world.
"What is proposed, is to ensure the foundations of a
lasting peace among nations. It were indeed futile
19 St. Paul, First Epistle to Timothy, 1, 7.
20 A.A.S. XXXIV (1942), 338-343.
 THE ETERNAL LAW

to promise long life to any building erected on shift-

ing sands or a cracked and crumbling base. The
foundations, We know, of such a peace-the truth
finds expression once again in the letter of Your Ex-
cellency-can be secure only if they rest on bed-rock
faith in the one, true God, the Creator of all men. It
was He Who of necessity assigned man's purpose in
life; it is from Him, with consequent necessity, that
man derives personal, imprescriptible rights to pur-
sue that purpose and to be unhindered in the attain-
ment of it.
"Civil society is also of divine origin and indicated by
nature itself; but it is subsequent to man and meant
to be a means to defend him and to help him in the
legitimate exercise of his Godgiven rights. Once the
State, to the exclusion of God, makes itself the source
of the rights of the human person, man is forthwith
reduced to the condition of a slave, of a mere civic
commodity to be exploited for the selfish aims of a
group that happens to have power. The order of
God is overturned; and history surely makes it clear
to those who wish to read, that the inevitable result
is the subversion of order between peoples, is war.
The task, then, before the friends of peace is clear.
"Is Your Excellency over-sanguine in hoping to find
men throughout the world ready to cooperate for
such a worthy enterprise? We think not. Truth has
lost none of its power to rally to its cause the most
enlightened minds and noblest spirits. Their ardour
is fed by the flame of righteous freedom struggling to
break through injustice and lying. But those who
possess the truth must be conscientious to define it
dearly when its foes cleverly distort it, bold to defend
it and generous enough to set the course of their lives,
 NATURAL LAW INSTITUTE PROCEEDINGS

both national and personal, by its dictates. This will

require, moreover, correcting not a few aberrations.
Social injustices, racial injustices and religious ani-
mosities exist today among men and groups who
boast of Christian civilization, and they are a very
useful and often effective weapon in the hands of
those who are bent on destroying all the good which
that civilization has brought to man. It is for all
sincere lovers of the great human family to unite in
wresting those weapons from hostile hands. With
that union will come hope that the enemies of God
and free men will not prevail.
"Certainly Your Excellency and all defenders of the
rights of the human person will find whole-hearted
cooperation from God's Church. Faithful custodian
of eternal Truth and loving mother of all, from her
foundation almost two thousand years ago, she has
championed the individual against despotic rule, the
labouring-man against oppression, Religion against
persecution. Her divinely-given mission often brings
her into conflict with the powers of evil, whose sole
strength is in their physical force and brutalized
spirit, and her leaders are sent into exile or cast into
prison or die under torture.
"This is history of today. But the Church is unafraid.
She cannot compromise with an avowed enemy of
God. She must continue to teach the first and great-
est commandment incumbent on every man: 'thou
shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart,
with thy whole soul, with all thy strength,' and the
second like unto the first: 'thou shalt love thy neigh-
bor as thyself.' It is her changeless message, that
man's first duty is to God, then to his fellow-man;
that that man serves his country best who serves his
 THE ETERNAL LAW

God most faithfully; that the country that would

shackle the word of God given to men through Jesus
Christ helps not at all the lasting peace of the world.
In striving with all the resources at her power to
bring men and nations to a clear realization of their
duty to God, the Church will go on as she has always
done, to offer the most effective contribution to the
world's peace and man's eternal salvation.
"We are pleased that the letter of Your Excellency
has given Us the opportunity of saying a word of en-
couragement for all those who are gravely intent
on buttressing the fragile structure of peace until its
foundation can be more firmly and wisely established.
The munificent charity shown by the American peo-
ple to the suffering and oppressed in every part of
the world, truly worthy of the finest Christian tradi-
tions, is a fair token of their sincere desire for univer-
sal peace and prosperity. The vast majority of the
peoples of the world, We feel sure, share that desire,
even in countries where free expression is smothered.
God grant their forces may be united towards its re-
alization. There is no room for discouragement or
for relaxing of their efforts. Under the gracious and
merciful providence of God, the Father of all, what
is good and holy and just will in the end prevail." 21

V. REASONS FOR THE NEED OF A

DIVINE ETERNAL LAW

Lawyers who are not truly versed in the history and

philosophy of law sometimes ask why there should be any
21 A.A.S. XXXIX (1947), 380-382.
130 NATURAL LAW INSTITUTE PROCEEDINGS

need of a Divine Eternal Law in addition to the Natural

Law and Human Laws.2 2 We need but enumerate a few
reasons.
First of all, man is directed to perform his proper
actions in view of the final purpose of his existence. If
man were destined only to a purely natural end, then
there would be no need for any further direction on the
part of his reason in addition to the Natural Law and
Human Law. However, since man is destined to an end
of eternal happiness, which far transcends man's natural
ability, it is necessary that he should be guided by a God-
given law. We know that by the Natural Law, the Eter-
nal Law is participated proportionately to the capacity of
human nature. Man, however, needs a higher way in
which to be directed to his supernatural end. For this
reason God gives an additional law to man, whereby he
shares more perfectly in the Eternal Law.
The second reason for the Divine Eternal Law is that
different people form diverse judgments on human
actions, especially when dealing with contingent and ab-
struse matters. This is due principally to the instability
and uncertainty of human judgment, from which would
result divergent and even contrary laws.
"Men's judgments, like their watches:
None goes just alike,
But each believes his own."
Wherefore, in order that man may clearly know, without
any doubt, what he ought to do and what to avoid, it was
necessary for him to be directed in his proper actions by

22 St. Thomas, Summa, 1-II, Quest. 91, Art. 4.

 THE ETERNAL LAW

the unerring law of God Himself, that is, the Divine Eter-
nal Law.
The third reason is that man can enact laws only in
those matters of which he is competent to judge. Now,
we all know that a man is not capable of judging the in-
terior, hidden and secret movements of another's soul, but
only of the external, manifest acts. For the perfection of
virtue and of mankind, it is necessary that man conduct
himself uprightly in interior acts, as well as in external
affairs. It is clear that no Human Law could adequately
and effectively direct or control the interior acts. Hence,
the necessity of the Divine Eternal Law.
The final reason adduced for the Divine Law, and given
to us by St. Augustine, is that no Human Law can possibly
forbid all evil deeds and misdemeanours. Any system of
Human Law that would try to do so, would be so restric-
tive and repressive, that the Blue Laws of the Puritans
would appear like a Roman holiday. 23 In other words, it
is just humanly impossible for any human legislator to
forbid all secret, hidden thoughts and motives. In order,
therefore, that no evil might remain unforbidden and un-
punished, it was necessary for the Divine Law to super-
vene, in virtue of which all sins, secret as well as manifest,
are forbidden.
VI. EXISTENCE OF A TRUE ETERNAL LAW
Some few years ago a writer, who was more sardonic
than profound, claimed that "&ere really can be no Eter-
nal Law. Every law, he asserted, is imposed on someone.
23 De Lib. .Arbitro, I, 5, PL 32, 1228.
132 NATURAL LAW INSTITUTE PROCEEDINGS

And there was really no one existing from all eternity on

whom the Eternal Law could have been imposed, because
God alone exists from eternity.
To this sophistry it is easy to reply that those things
which do not exist in themselves, exist in God, inasmuch
as they are known and preordained by Him Who, as St.
Paul says, "calls nonexistent beings as though they were
existent." 24 Hence, we see that the eternal concept of
the Divine Law bears the character of an Eternal Law,
in so far as it is ordained by God for the government of
creatures known to Him, even before they were called
25
into actual being.

VII. DERIVATION OF ALL LAWS FROM

THE ETERNAL LAW
Not only does every rational creature know more or less
about the Eternal Law, but human beings should become
increasingly aware of the fact, that every true law is de-
rived in some way from the Divine Eternal Law. This
might be demonstrated in the following manner. Law
denotes a plan, directing acts toward an end. Now there
is in life a sort of hierarchical order whereby plans and
directives emanate from higher authority to lower author-
ity, such as we see in Federal Laws, State Laws, County
26
Laws, Municipal Statutes, and the like.
24 St. Paul, Epistle to the Romans, 4, 17.
25 St. Thomas, Summa, I-II, Quest. 91, Art. 1, ad 1.
26 The Church offers a more striking example of this principle in her
universal laws, the enactments of ecumenical councils (Canons 222-229),
the statutes of plenary and provincial councils (Canons 281-292), the
statutes of diocesan synods (Canons 356-362), and the like.
 THE ETERNAL LAW

Since the Eternal Law is that supreme and exalted plan

of government existing in God Himself, the Supreme
Legislator, all plans of government on inferior planes are
derived from the Eternal Law. Hence it is that all laws,
in so far as they partake of right reason, are derived from
the Eternal Law. In other words, all that is just and law-
ful in temporal laws is derived from the Eternal Law.27
In the Morgan Library on Madison Avenue in New
York City, there is an interesting, illuminated Manuscript
of the fourteenth century, from the University of Bologna.
The Manuscript is a treatise on law. An artist of con-
summate ability has embellished the parchment at the
beginning of the text with a painting of the Almighty
Father, seated, as it were, in a medieval Court Room,
with the Divine Son and the Holy Ghost, surrounded, in
turn, by innumerable Angels, the Apostles and the heav-
enly Court, despatching two Archangels to earth. One
Archangel presents to a king the book of law for all tem-
poral kingdoms. The second Archangel offers to a Pope
a similar volume, containing the laws of the Church. It
was in this beautiful and simple way, that both the medi-
eval artist and jurist understood, depicted and described
the derivation of all law from the Eternal Law of God.
VIII. OUR KNOWLEDGE OF THE
ETERNAL LAW
An objection that is sometimes made to the notion of
an Eternal Law is that a person cannot possibly be obli-
gated by a law about which he knows nothing. And we

27 St. Thomas, Summa, Quest. 93, Art. 3.

134 NATURAL LAW INSTITUTE PROCEEDINGS

realize that there are many people, even lawyers, they tell
us, who profess to know little or nothing about the Eternal
Law. Fortunately, St. Thomas answers this objection in
a masterly way: -
"A thing may be known in two ways: first in itself;
secondly, in its effects, in which some likeness of that
thing is found. For instance, someone, not seeing the
sun in its substance, may know it, by its rays. Hence,
we must admit that no one can know the Eternal
Law, as it is in itself, except God and the Blessed who
see God in His essence." 28
Every rational creature, however, knows the Eternal
Law according to some reflection, in a greater or lesser
degree. Knowledge of truth is a kind of reflection and
sharing of the Eternal Law, which is unchangeable truth,
as St. Augustine tells us. 29 Now all men know the truth
in a certain measure, at least, as to the common principles
of the Natural Law. As to the other truths, they partake
of the knowledge of truth, some more, some less. And in
this respect they know the Eternal Law in a greater or
lesser degree.

IX. THE ETERNAL LAW KNOWN THROUGH

THE NATURAL LAW
The Eternal Law is known to us through the Natural
Law, but is nonetheless prior to every other law, to Natu-
ral Law, as well as to all Human Law. Furthermore, it is
the very basis and source of every other law.
28 St. Thomas, Summa, 1-11, Quest. 93, Art. 2.
29 De Vera Religion*, XXXI, PL 34, 147.
 THE ETERNAL LAW

The Eternal Law existed in God before the created

world existed, just as the architect's plan preceded the
construction of the Empire State Building. This same
Eternal Law was even promulgated before the world ap-
peared, despite the fact that its promulgation was not
received until creatures existed.

X. THE PROMULGATION OF THE

ETERNAL LAW
In view of what has just been stated, it may well be
objected that any law is meaningless, which is enacted or
promulgated before the very existence of the subjects for
whom it is intended. Now we know that the Eternal Law,
destined for the created world, existed before the creation
of mankind.
If the Eternal Law had been intended only as a mere
means to creatures, then it would indeed have been ab-
surd to promulgate it to nonexistent creatures. But the
Eternal Law, as we have seen, is not merely and solely a
means to something beyond itself. Like the Natural Law,
the Eternal Law has the character of a directing princi-
ple, in itself. It directs things to their proper end. It is
the Wisdom of God Himself, Who is the Creator and Su-
30
preme Legislator of mankind.
It is obvious that the Eternal Law did not produce its
effects until the world existed and until the conditions of
its fulfillment were realized. But since the Eternal Law is
not distinct from God Himself, it had attained its end,
30 St. Thomas, Summa, I-II, Quest. 90, Art. 4; Quest. 93, Art. 2.
136 NATURAL LAW INSTITUTE PROCEEDINGS

even before created beings were called into being, by

the omnipotent Creator and Supreme Legislator, Who
"speaks to nonexistent beings, as though they were
existent." 31

XI. LAW AS AN ORDINANCE OF

RIGHT REASON
In view of the fact that Human Law emanates from the
Divine Eternal Law, it is easy to understand, why it has
the nature of a true law, only in so far as it partakes of
right reason. Should Human Law deviate from right
reason, it becomes thereby an iniquitous law. Such an
unjust law would not have the nature of an ordinance of
right reason, but would be the unauthorized enactment
of unconscionable tyranny.
It is hardly possible, while speaking in this Building, to
mention tyrants who take God out of law, by fist or force,
without alluding to the case of St. Thomas More, whose
stately statue guards the west portal of this College of
Law, and whose family escutcheon graces the inner arch-
way of its Main Entrance. As Chesterton has well said of
this man who was beheaded in 1535, and canonized a
Saint in 1935: -

"The mind of More was a diamond, that a tyrant

king threw into the ditch because he could not
break it."
Whenever we treat of unjust laws, of tyrants and of
dictators, we must always bear in mind the teaching of
another St. Thomas, the Angelic Doctor. He warns us,

31 St. Paul, Epistle to the Romans, 4, 17.

 THE ETERNAL LAW

that even an unjust law, in so far as it retains some sem-

blance of law, in view of the fact that it is enacted by one
who is in power, is derived in this way from the Eternal
Law, for all power is from God.32 Thus St. Paul urges
the Romans: -
"Let everyone be subject to the higher authorities,
for there exists no authority except from God, and
those who exist have been appointed by God." 33

XII. EXTENSION OF THE ETERNAL LAW

TO THINGS BEYOND THE SCOPE
OF HUMAN LAW

St. Thomas concludes his discussion of the derivation

of all laws from the Eternal Law by a very practical con-
sideration. He reasons thus:
"Human Law is said to permit certain things, not
as approving of them, but as being unable to direct
them. And many things are directed by the Divine
Law, which Human Law is unable to direct, because
more things are subject to a higher than to a lower
cause. Hence, this very fact comes under the ordina-
tion of the Eternal Law, that Human Law does not
concern itself with matters it cannot direct. It would
be different, were Human Law to sanction what the
Eternal Law condemns. Consequently, it does not
follow that Human Law is not derived from the Eter-
32 St. Thomas, Summa, I-II, Que:,t. 93, Art. 3, ad 2; Pope Leo XIII,
Encyclical Letter, "Libertas Praestantissimum," June 20, 1888, The Great
Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII, 144-145.
33 St. Paul, Epistle to the Romans, 13, 1; Fernand Prat, The Theology
of St. Paul, II, 322-332.
138 NATURAL LAW INSTITUTE PROCEEDINGS

nal Law. What does follow, is rather that it is not

on a perfect equality with it." 34
From this we clearly discern why Pope Pius XI stated
that:
"The Church teaches-since she alone has been
given by God the mandate and the right to teach
with authority-that not only our acts, as individuals,
but as groups and Nations, must conform to the Eter-
nal Law of God. In fact, it is much more important
that the acts of a Nation follow God's law, since on
the Nation rests a much greater responsibility for the
consequence of its acts, than on the individual." 35

XIII. ENDURING STABILITY OF CHANGELESS

PRINCIPLES OF LAW
Since all true law emanates in some way from the
Divine Authority of the Eternal Law we see how lament-
able are the errors of those moderns who seem to think
that everything in this world is in a perpetual and planless
state of ever-shifting mutation, like the sand dunes of In-
diana. Only a few months ago, in fact, on April thirtieth
of this year, a District Judge of New Jersey wrote these
words in his opinion:
"As we have seen, the generally accepted rules of
morality or ethics fluctuate in each era and the best
we can do with the subject is to apply the generally
accepted rules of our own day." 36
34 St. Thomas, Summa, I-II, Quest. 93, Art. 3, ad 3.
35 Pope Pius XI, Encyclical Letter, "Ubi Arcano Dei," A.A.S. XIV
(1922), 689.
36 Petition of Smith, 71 Fed. Supp. 972 (D. N. J. 1947).
 THE ETERNAL LAW

This type of error is one of the saddest commentaries on

the status of our legal thinking of today. As a result, our
present-day judicial opinions and our legal writings are,
in large measure, a curious admixture of errors, platitudes,
sophisms and half-truths. Speaking of half-truths, we are
reminded of what Stephan Leacock once said about
them:
"Half-truths, like half-bricks, are more dangerous
than whole ones: they go further."
As we envision the future of American legal thinking, it
is not the persecution of the concentration camp, nor even
the execution in the prison-yard, that is to be feared, but
rather the imperceptible corruption of the American legal
mind by the insidious Trojan-horse system of infiltration
of false principles. This precisely is the most alarming
attack on our American thinking at the present time.
Legal thought in America is entering upon a new era.
The age of confused paganism opposing Christianity is
more or less at an end. The Christian legal system, as a
system of values and moral standards is being attacked, or
more correctly, is being betrayed, more insidiously than
ever before, perhaps, in the history of mankind.
The persuasive infiltration of a de-Christianized, god-
less, and even anti-God system of law converging on the
Christian citadel of truth from all sides, mocking its mo-
rality and ridiculing its basic principles even of the Divine
Eternal Law, calls for the defence, not only of heroic wills,
but of sturdy, enlightened legal minds, firmly grounded in
the abiding principles of eternal truth. Today as never
140 NATURAL LAW INSTITUTE PROCEEDINGS

before in the history of American law, a veritable Niagara

of high-sounding legal terms, of catch-words, of cliches,
of dithyrambic verbiage, of what the men in service con-
temptuously called "Gobbledygook," tumbles from the
legal printing presses, in a tiresome cascade of ceaseless
repetition, and thus seeks to conceal in meaningless
phrases, the shallowness and poverty of thought, charac-
37
teristic of an age that has lost its grip on God.

XIV. THE RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF ALL THINGS

UNDER THE HEADSHIP OF CHRIST

In conclusion, may we be permitted to remind you that

imbedded in the wall overlooking the Main Entrance of
the Library of this College of Law is a beautiful plaque,
chiseled from infrangible stone, of Christ, the King, the
Author of the Eternal Law and the Legislator of a true,
everlasting Kingdom. As we view this statue of a Divine
King and Supreme Lawgiver let us not forget that the
first struggle recorded in all history, was that of a battle
in Heaven over a law and over a Kingdom, that is, the
Kingdom of Christ, the Author of the Divine Eternal
Law, against the lawless, arrogant, war-mongering, rebel
kingdom of Satan.
May one of the blessed results of this Natural Law In-
stitute be that America and the world may more and more

37 Two volumes issued in recent years exemplify the sad state of Ameri-
can legal writing at the present time. A curious commixture of erroneous
expressions, ponderous platitudes, sophisms and half-truths will be found,
in large measure, in: My Philosophy of Law, Credos of Sixteen American
Scholars, (Boston, 1941), and Interpretations of Modern Legal Philosophies,
Essays in Honor of Roscoe Pound, (New York, 1947).
 THE ETERNAL LAW

look to Christ, the Author of the Eternal Law and Su-

preme Legislator, for guidance in the principles and prob-
lems of all law. May Our Divine Lord become for every
lawyer, every upright citizen, every State, and every Na-
tion the true Lawgiver, directing lives, ennobling hearts,
and divinizing souls.
We began this Paper with a reference to the Papal En-
cyclical of a quarter of a century ago. That span of time,
we know full well, seems very long to you young men,
but it is only a faded memory to the old. May the next
twenty-five years witness the personal dedication of the
lives of all present, to the cause of justice and truth, to the
spread of the correct concepts of the Natural Law and the
Eternal Law among mankind.
May this College of Law become a veritable trysting-
place of the immutable principles of Divine Justice. And
may it become, ever more and more, a temple of abiding
truth, with its foundations firmly grounded in the imper-
ishable cornerstone of God's Eternal Law.
For all of us, whether young or old, it is later than we
think in the present-day struggle for the enduring, un-
changing principles of law. For all, whether young or
old, the years are passing swiftly, and swiftly the decades
follow. May our lives be so truly dedicated to the cause
of justice and of truth that we may be privileged to share
fully and eternally in what the Preface of the Mass of the
Feast of Christ the King so beautifully calls an eternal
and everlasting Kingdom:
"A Kingdom of truth and of life,
142 NATURAL LAW INSTITUTE PROCEEDINGS

A Kingdom of holiness and of grace,

A Kingdom of justice, of love and of peace":
That abiding Peace of Christ,
In the Kingdom of Christ.
Under God, then, may our sharing in this Kingdom, with
all men of good will, be so genuine, our study of the Eter-
nal Law be so devoted, our endeavors be so constant,
our efforts so fruitful, that truly Christian governments-
founded on the principles of the Eternal Law--of the peo-
ple, by the people, and for the people may not perish from
the earth.
Rev. W. J.Doheny, C.S.C.