Note 84 — XI THE LAW OF NATURE

Grotius, who (differing but little from the old schoolmen) defines the eternal and immutable Law of Nature as ‘dictatum rectae rationis, indicans actui alicui ex eius convenientia aut disconvenientia cum ipsa naturali ratione inesse moralem turpitudinem aut necessitatem moralem, ac consequenter ab auctore naturae Deo talem actum aut vetari aut praecipi,’ distinguishes from it the more arbitrary laws of God (ius voluntarium) which God may change, whereas He cannot change His own Natural Law any more than He can make two and two anything but four. In another place he observes that Human Nature itself is the mother of natural law, and (through contract) great-grandmother of civil (= positive) law. ‘Naturalis iuris mater est ipsa humana natura, quae nos, etiamsi re nulla indigeremus, ad societatem mutuam appetendam ferret’ (here repeating Aristotle), ‘civilis vero iuris mater est ipsa ex consensu obligatio, quae cum ex naturali iure vim suam habeat, potest natura huius quoque iuris quasi proavia dici’ (Proleg. 9. 16). He had just before said, ‘Cum iuris naturae sit stare pactis, necessarius enim erat inter homines aliquis se obligandi modus, neque vero alius modus naturalis fingi potest; ab hoc ipso fonte iura civilia fluxerunt. Nam qui se coetui alicui aggregaverant, aut homini hominibusque subiecerant, hi aut expresse promiserant, aut ex negotii natura tacite promisisse intelligi, secuturos se id quod aut coetus pars maior, aut hi, quibus delata potestas erat, constituissent.’ His ius divinum voluntarium is divided into that part which was delivered by God to all mankind at the Creation, after the Flood, and at Christ’s coming, and that part which was delivered to Israel alone. It is therefore Revealed Law, and so different from the Law of Nature.