d by not cutting down fruit-trees of that country.

Reply Obj. 1: The Law excluded the men of no nation from the worship
of God and from things pertaining to the welfare of the soul: for it
is written (Ex. 12:48): "If any stranger be willing to dwell among
you, and to keep the Phase of the Lord; all his males shall first be
circumcised, and then shall he celebrate it according to the manner,
and he shall be as that which is born in the land." But in temporal
matters concerning the public life of the people, admission was not
granted to everyone at once, for the reason given above: but to some,
i.e. the Egyptians and Idumeans, in the third generation; while
others were excluded in perpetuity, in detestation of their past
offense, i.e. the peoples of Moab, Ammon, and Amalec. For just as one
man is punished for a sin committed by him, in order that others
seeing this may be deterred and refrain from sinning; so too may one
nation or city be punished for a crime, that others may refrain from
similar crimes.

Nevertheless it was possible by dispensation for a man to be admitted
to citizenship on account of some act of virtue: thus it is related
(Judith 14:6) that Achior, the captain of the children of Ammon, "was
joined to the people of Israel, with all the succession of his
kindred." The same applies to Ruth the Moabite who was "a virtuous
woman" (Ruth 3:11): although it may be said that this prohibition
regarded men and not women, who are not competent to be citizens
absolutely speaking.

Reply Obj. 2: As the Philosopher says (Polit. iii, 3), a man is said
to be a citizen in two ways: first, simply; secondly, in a restricted
sense. A man is a citizen simply if he has all the rights of
citizenship, for instance, the right of debating or voting in the
popular assembly. On the other hand, any man may be called citizen,
only in a restricted sense, if he dwells within the state, even
common people or children or old men, who are not fit to enjoy power
in matters pertaining to the common weal. For this reason bastards,
by reason of their base origin, were excluded from the _ecclesia,_
i.e. from the popular assembly, down to the tenth generation. The
same applies to eunuchs, who were not competent to receive the honor
due to a father, especially among the Jews, where the divine worship
was continued through carnal generation: for even among the heathens,
those who had many children were marked with special honor, as the
Philo