human situations, these principles must be diluted in order to become operative. What we end up with in such cases is a kind of lesser justice, better suited to the conditions of this life: justitia minor huic vitae competens (spir. et litt. 36.65; O’Donovan 1980, 141). For this reason, and contrary to the stand taken by the ancient and medieval promoters of what has been labeled “political Augustinianism” (Arquillière 1934), there is in Augustine’s view no
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