Folia Theologica 11. (2000)
Eugene Csocsan de Váralja: The Just Income Distribution
114 E. CSOCSAN de Váralja terest as usury, and therefore the medieval states forbade it, as did already Charlemagne.7 8 The ethics of Francesco Vitoria and Suarez shaped the emerging international law of Hugo Grotius to very considerable extent.9 The ideology of liberalism transformed the European systems of law, though Wilhelm Ketteler remarked, that it is not new, what is true in them, and what is new in them is not true.10 Even according to the Marxism the theory penetrating the masses becomes material force. It is however not only the theories, which condense in the systems of law, but even human instincts, it is the avarice which oppresses the exploited, and it is cupidity, which confiscates the estates of the privileged. Sexual libidinousness gains often franchise. Propaganda and speeches in parliament often rely on sentiments and instincts. According to the theology divine grace also influences human decisions. The development of economic life obviously has effect on the evolve- ment and transformation of laws, nowadays interest taking is allowed even by the canon law.11 12 The stages of development of the means of production however does not go parallel with the advance of the law, for example the Arabic civilisation was more ahead of the early medieval 19 Europe, nonetheless it took slavery as natural. * * * 3.The enforceability is the existential component of law, and it means physical force. The physical force stems firstly and passively from the limitation of the human body, which needs provisions, by which it might be coerced, secondly and actively from the abilities and readiness of the human body to enforce its influence. According to Saint Thomas Aquinas it is the prime matter which individuates the individual13 and in their 7 TORNYOS, Gyula S.J., Rabszolgaság (Slavery) in: Katolikus Lexikon, Volume IV., Budapest 1933, page 57, second column. 8 IBRÁNYI, Ferenc, A kamatkérdés erkölcstudományi problematikája (The problem of interest in ethics), Theologia 1936 et seq. Cf.: BÍRÓ, Bertalan: Kamat (Interest) in: Katolikus Lexikon, Volume II, page 482 9 Gajzágó, László: A nemzetközi jog eredete (The Origine of International Law) Budapest 1942. 10 KETTELER, Wilhelm Emmanuel Freiherr von, Die Arbeiterfrage und das Christentum, Mainz 1863, translated into Hungarian by Gyula KATINSZKY with the title: A munkások kérdése és a kereszténység, Eger 1864, page 25 11 BÍRÓ, Bertalan loco citato 12 TORNYOS, op.cit, page 58, first column. 13 I qu 50. a 4.
