han lesser
evils. Now it is less sinful to keep back another's property than to
commit murder, of which a man is guilty if he fails to succor one who
is in extreme need, as appears from the words of Ambrose who says (Cf.
Canon _Pasce_ dist. lxxxvi, whence the words, as quoted, are taken):
"Feed him that dies of hunger, if thou hast not fed him, thou hast
slain him". Therefore, in certain cases, it is lawful to give alms of
ill-gotten goods.

_On the contrary,_ Augustine says (De Verb. Dom. xxxv, 2): "Give alms
from your just labors. For you will not bribe Christ your judge, not
to hear you with the poor whom you rob . . . Give not alms from
interest and usury: I speak to the faithful to whom we dispense the
Body of Christ."

_I answer that,_ A thing may be ill-gotten in three ways. In the
first place a thing is ill-gotten if it be due to the person from
whom it is gotten, and may not be kept by the person who has obtained
possession of it; as in the case of rapine, theft and usury, and of
such things a man may not give alms since he is bound to restore them.

Secondly, a thing is ill-gotten, when he that has it may not keep it,
and yet he may not return it to the person from whom he received it,
because he received it unjustly, while the latter gave it unjustly.
This happens in simony, wherein both giver and receiver contravene
the justice of the Divine Law, so that restitution is to be made not
to the giver, but by giving alms. The same applies to all similar
cases of illegal giving and receiving.

Thirdly, a thing is ill-gotten, not because the taking was unlawful,
but because it is the outcome of something unlawful, as in the case
of a woman's profits from whoredom. This is filthy lucre properly so
called, because the practice of whoredom is filthy and against the
Law of God, yet the woman does not act unjustly or unlawfully in
taking the money. Consequently it is lawful to keep and to give in
alms what is thus acquired by an unlawful action.

Reply Obj. 1: As Augustine says (De Verb. Dom. 2), "Some have
misunderstood this saying of Our Lord, so as to take another's
property and give thereof to the poor, thinking that they are
fulfilling the commandment by so doing. This interpretation must be
amended. Yet all riches are called riches of iniquity, as stated in
_De Quaest. Ev._ ii, 34, because "riches are not unjust save for
those who are themselves unjust, and put all their trust in them. Or,
according to Ambr