CHAPTER XV. Homicide in General (_continued_)

HOMICIDE IN GENERAL (continued)

Homicide of any kind condemned by the early Christians, p. 345.--Their total condemnation of warfare, p. 345 sq.--This attitude towards war was soon given up, pp. 346-348.--The feeling that a soldier scarcely could make a good Christian, p. 348.--Penance prescribed for those who had shed blood in war, p. 348 sq.--Wars forbidden by popes, p. 349. --The military Christianity of the Crusades, pp. 348-352.--Chivalry, pp. 352-354.--The intimate connection between chivalry and religion displayed in tournaments, p. 354 sq.--The practice of private war, p. 355 sq.--The attitude of the Church towards private war, p. 356.--The Truce of God, p. 357.--The main cause of the abolition of private war was the increase of the authority of emperors or kings, p. 357 sq.--War looked upon as a judgment of God, p. 358.--The attitude adopted by the great Christian congregations towards war one of sympathetic approval, pp. 359-362.--Religious protests against war, pp. 362-365.--Freethinkers' opposition to war, pp. 365-367.--The idea of a perpetual peace, p. 367.--The awakening spirit of nationalism, and the glorification of war, p. 367 sq.--Arguments against arbitration, p. 368.--The opposition against war rapidly increasing, p. 368 sq.--The prohibition of needless destruction in war, p. 369 sq.--The survival, in modern civilisation, of the old feeling that the life of a foreigner is not equally sacred with that of a countryman, p. 370.--The behaviour of European colonists towards coloured races, p. 370 sq.

{xv} CHAPTER XVI

HOMICIDE IN GENERAL (concluded)

Sympathetic resentment felt on account of the injury suffered by the victim a potent cause of the condemnation of homicide, p. 372 sq.--No such resentment felt if the victim is a member of another group, p. 373.--Why extra-tribal homicide is approved of, ibid.--Superstition an encouragement to extra-tribal homicide, ibid.--The expansion of the altruistic sentiment largely explains why the prohibition of homicide has come to embrace more and more comprehensive circles of men, ibid.--Homicide viewed as an injury inflicted upon the survivors, p. 373 sq.--Conceived as a breach of the "King's peace," p. 374.--Stigmatised as a disturbance of public tranquillity and an outrage on public safety, ibid.--Homicide disapproved of because the manslayer gives trouble to his own people, p. 374 sq.--The idea that a manslayer is unclean, pp. 375-377.--The influence which this idea has exercised on the moral judgment of homicide, p. 377.--The disapproval of the deed easily enhanced by the spiritual danger attending on it, as also by the inconvenient restrictions laid on the tabooed manslayer and the ceremonies of purification to which he is subject, p. 377 sq.--The notion of a persecuting ghost may be replaced by the notion of an avenging god, pp. 378-380.--The defilement resulting from homicide particularly shunned by gods, p. 380 sq.--Priests forbidden to shed human blood, p. 381 sq.--Reasons for Christianity's high regard for human life, p. 382.