Augustine and Aquinas 155never on the basis of personal, particular, or emotional premises.
Men and states have the right to self-defense and all other rights
which the natural law and our natural reason dictate— life,
property, freedom, equality before the law, and moderation on
the part of the ruler and those ruled.
St. Thomas Aquinas, a thirteenth-century Christian, restated
the political philosophy of Aristotle in the light of that tradition.
He did not compromise Christian theology nor Aristotelian
philosophy, rather he married the two. As in all marriages, there
are some disagreements and some minor incompatibilities—but
it was a good marriage and it has lasted.