Albertus Magnus on Justice and Politics

Albertus Magnus, fresco in Treviso ca. 1350 by Tommaso da Modena

Justice is the goal and must also therefore serve as the internal measure of all politics… What is this justice? This is a subject of practical and reasoned inquiry; but in order that reason function properly, a process of continual renewal is necessary, because the victories of human interests and of power which turn reason blind to the needs of humankind also work the ethical blinding of justice; indeed, this is a failing so inherent in humanity that it cannot be averted. This is the point at which politics and faith must converge.

–Albertus Magnus, Liberum arbitrium (ca. 1270)(S.H. transl.) in: Alberti Magni Opera Omnia edenda curavit Institutum Alberti Magni Coloniense Bernhardo Geyer præside (1951 ff.)