the threefold truth. Therefore they
should be foregone in order to avoid scandal.

Obj. 3: Further, no temporal good is more necessary than food. But we
ought to forego taking food on account of scandal, according to Rom.
14:15: "Destroy not him with thy meat for whom Christ died." Much
more therefore should all other temporal goods be foregone on account
of scandal.

Obj. 4: Further, the most fitting way of safeguarding and recovering
temporal goods is the court of justice. But it is unlawful to have
recourse to justice, especially if scandal ensues: for it is written
(Matt. 5:40): "If a man will contend with thee in judgment, and take
away thy coat, let go thy cloak also unto him"; and (1 Cor. 6:7):
"Already indeed there is plainly a fault among you, that you have
lawsuits one with another. Why do you not rather take wrong? why do
you not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded?" Therefore it seems
that we ought to forego temporal goods on account of scandal.

Obj. 5: Further, we ought, seemingly, to forego least of all those
temporal goods which are connected with spiritual goods: and yet we
ought to forego them on account of scandal. For the Apostle while
sowing spiritual things did not accept a temporal stipend lest he
"should give any hindrance to the Gospel of Christ" as we read 1 Cor.
9:12. For a like reason the Church does not demand tithes in certain
countries, in order to avoid scandal. Much more, therefore, ought we
to forego other temporal goods in order to avoid scandal.

_On the contrary,_ Blessed Thomas of Canterbury demanded the
restitution of Church property, notwithstanding that the king took
scandal from his doing so.

_I answer that,_ A distinction must be made in temporal goods: for
either they are ours, or they are consigned to us to take care of
them for someone else; thus the goods of the Church are consigned to
prelates, and the goods of the community are entrusted to all such
persons as have authority over the common weal. In this latter case
the care of such things (as of things held in deposit) devolves of
necessity on those persons to whom they are entrusted, wherefore,
even as other things that are necessary for salvation, they are not
to be foregone on account of scandal. On the other hand, as regards
those temporalities of which we have the dominion, sometimes, on
account of scandal, we are bound to forego them, and sometimes we are
not so bound, whether we forego them by giving t