“The idea of formulated 'rights… comes not from John Locke and Thomas Jefferson… but from the canon law of the Catholic Church.”

Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The idea of formulated 'rights… comes not from John Locke and Thomas Jefferson… but from the canon law of the Catholic …" by Thomas E. Woods Jr.?
Thomas E. Woods Jr. photo
Thomas E. Woods Jr. 1
American academic 1972

Related quotes

Peter F. Drucker photo

“The first organization structure in the modern West was laid down in the canon law of the Catholic Church eight hundred years ago.”

Peter F. Drucker (1909–2005) American business consultant

Source: 1960s - 1980s, MANAGEMENT: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices (1973), Part 2, p. 525

Michael Walzer photo
Guido Pozzo photo

“I can say that canonical recognition by the Holy See is an essential condition for a Catholic organization to be in full ecclesiastical communion, conforming to the law. There is no canonical recognition, we are working on it, but canonical recognition is not something notarial, it is essential!”

Guido Pozzo (1951) Italian Roman Catholic archbishop

Source: Archbishop Pozzo: SSPX Continuing Dialogue With Holy See https://www.ncregister.com/blog/archbishop-pozzo-sspx-continuing-dialogue-with-holy-see (July 2016)

Ilana Mercer photo
Thomas Jefferson photo

“Neither Pagan nor Mahamedan nor Jew ought to be excluded from the civil rights of the Commonwealth because of his religion. -quoting John Locke's argument.”

Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America

Notes on Religion (October, 1776). Published in The Works of Thomas Jefferson in Twelve Volumes http://oll.libertyfund.org/ToC/0054.php, Federal Edition, Paul Leicester Ford, ed., New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1904, Vol. 2 http://oll.libertyfund.org/Texts/Jefferson0136/Works/0054-02_Bk.pdf, pp. 267
1770s
Context: Locke denies toleration to those who entertain opinions contrary to those moral rules necessary for the preservation of society; as for instance, that faith is not to be kept with those of another persuasion, … that dominion is founded in grace, or who will not own & teach the duty of tolerating all men in matters of religion, or who deny the existence of a god (it was a great thing to go so far—as he himself says of the parliament who framed the act of toleration … He says 'neither Pagan nor Mahomedan nor Jew ought to be excluded from the civil rights of the Commonwealth because of his religion.' Shall we suffer a Pagan to deal with us and not suffer him to pray to his god? Why have Christians been distinguished above all people who have ever lived, for persecutions? Is it because it is the genius of their religion? No, its genius is the reverse. It is the refusing toleration to those of a different opinion which has produced all the bustles and wars on account of religion. It was the misfortune of mankind that during the darker centuries the Christian priests following their ambition and avarice combining with the magistrate to divide the spoils of the people, could establish the notion that schismatics might be ousted of their possessions & destroyed. This notion we have not yet cleared ourselves from.

Pope Urban II photo

“The church shall be catholic, chaste and free: catholic in faith and the communion of saints, chaste from all contagion of evil, and free from all secular power.”

Pope Urban II (1035–1099) pope

Decree http://prh3.arts.cornell.edu/259/texts/clermont.html, also quoted in Colin Morris, The Papal Monarchy: The Western Church from 1050 to 1250 (1991), p. 125

Ray Comfort photo

“… the Catholic Church didn't get their information from the Bible (it was a banned Book).”

Ray Comfort (1949) New Zealand-born Christian minister and evangelist

You Can Lead an Atheist to Evidence, But You Can't Make Him Think (2009)

Éric de Moulins-Beaufort photo

“The Catholic Church is not the religious function of a given political society. It is a communion of an order quite different from what national belonging or the framework of the law can provide, a communion open to all.”

Éric de Moulins-Beaufort (1962) French archbishop

Source: Catholic archbishop: ‘The Church in France is jostled from many sides’ https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/catholic-archbishop-ric-de-moulins-beaufort-the-church-in-france-is-jostled-from-many-sides-56097 (December 19, 2020)

Robert G. Ingersoll photo
Dietrich Bonhoeffer photo

“The right way to requite evil, according to Jesus, is not to resist it. This saying of Christ removes the Church from the sphere of politics and law.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906–1945) German Lutheran pastor, theologian, dissident anti-Nazi

Source: Discipleship (1937), Revenge, p. 141.
Context: The right way to requite evil, according to Jesus, is not to resist it. This saying of Christ removes the Church from the sphere of politics and law. The Church is not to be a national community like the old Israel, but a community of believers without political or national ties. The old Israel had been both — the chosen people of God and a national community, and it was therefore his will that they should meet force with force. But with the Church it is different: it has abandoned political and national status, and therefore it must patiently endure aggression. Otherwise evil will be heaped upon evil. Only thus can fellowship be established and maintained.
At this point it becomes evident that when a Christian meets with injustice, he no longer clings to his rights and defends them at all costs. He is absolutely free from possessions and bound to Christ alone. Again, his witness to this exclusive adherence to Jesus creates the only workable basis for fellowship, and leaves the aggressor for him to deal with.
The only way to overcome evil is to let it run itself to a stand-still because it does not find the resistance it is looking for. Resistance merely creates further evil and adds fuel to the flames. But when evil meets no opposition and encounters no obstacle but only patient endurance, its sting is drawn, and at last it meets an opponent which is more than its match. Of course this can only happen when the last ounce of resistance is abandoned, and the renunciation of revenge is complete. Then evil cannot find its mark, it can breed no further evil, and is left barren.

Related topics