St. Isidore: "Natural law"

"NATURAL LAW is what is common to all peoples, and what is observed everywhere by the instinct of nature than by ordinance, as the marriage of man and woman, the begetting and rearing of children, the common possession of all things, the one freedom of all, and the acquisition of those things that are taken in the air, or on land, or on sea. Likewise the restoring of property entrusted or lent, and the repelling of violence by force. For this, or anything like this, is not considered unjust but natural and fair.”

~St. Isidore of Seville: Etymologies, 5, 5.

Page of Etymologiae, Carolingian manuscript (8th cent.),

Brussels, Royal Library of Belgium.