When Human Law is NOT in Accord with the Eternal Law: St. Thomas Aquinas on Tyrannicide, Revolt, and Obedience to Unjust Laws.
When thinking about government and law and obedience or disobedience to government and law and, even, any act to overthrow a government, St. Thomas Aquinas, Universal Doctor of the Catholic Church, demanded that we think about the roots of all law, since law is that by which the rational mind orders itself to its proper ends. In order to conceptualize how law plays a role in our human and civic lives, we have to, first, understand the hierarchy of types of law. We cite here, the information from the Summa Theologiae , I-II, Q. 90: Eternal Law: This is the Plan, in the Divine Mind, by which God ordains all things that he has created to their proper, divinely determined, end. This type of law is "eternal" because it is part of the divine mind, which itself is eternal. It is unchanging, just as God Himself is eternally unchanging and utterly perfect. Natural Law: This is the orientation that God impresses upon the natures that He creates. This is an internal law of orientati