Cacciaguida

Defending the 12th century since the 14th; blogging since the 21st.

Catholicism, Conservatism, the Middle Ages, Opera, and Historical and Literary Objets d'Art blogged by a suburban dad who teaches law and writes stuff.


"Very fun." -- J. Bottum, Editor, FIRST THINGS

"Too modest" -- Elinor Dashwood

"Perhaps the wisest man on the Web" -- Henry Dieterich

"Hat tip: me (but really Cacciaguida)" -- Diana Feygin, Editor, THE YALE FREE PRESS

"You are my sire. You give me confidence to speak. You raise my heart so high that I am no more I." -- Dante

"Fabulous!"-- Warlock D.J. Prod of Didsbury

Who was Cacciaguida? See Dante's PARADISO, Cantos XV, XVI, & XVII.


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Monday, April 13, 2009
 
Pirates Killed, Captain Saved -- w00t!!

There is a tradition received from Roman law into the early modern yet Christian-influenced tradition of Grotuis and Vattel, a tradition towards which we should only with the greatest caution indulge a sense of superiority, that regarded pirates -- because of the self-expulsion from the civilized human community that knows the rule of law -- as latrunculi (a contemptuous diminutive of "thieves"), hostis humani generis (enemies of the human race), and eligible for summary execution.

The sagacious Prof. Mackubin Owens explains here.