Patriarchs (Bible) the patriarchs or their descendants. This list, taken from the Book of Genesis, gives the details of that genealogy. Noah, father of Shem, Ham, and Japheth... Shem [was] an hundred years old, and begat Arphaxad two years after the flood ... Arphaxad lived five and thirty years, and begat Salah ... Salah lived thirty years, and begat Eber ... Eber lived four and thirty years, and begat Peleg ... Peleg lived thirty years, and begat Reu ... Reu lived two and thirty years, and begat Serug ... Serug lived thirty years, and begat Nahor ... Nahor lived nine and twenty
Ennoblement personal virtue: Shem, Ham and Japheth sprang from the same father, yet Ham was ignoble and King David rose from shepherd to become king through sheer faith and soldierly courage. Bartolus defined natural nobility by reference to Aristotle, who in his "Politics" explains how some are marked out for freedom by their virtues (and specifically by their capacity to rule), and are so distinguished from the mass of men whose talents fit them only for a servile role. Those free men whose virtues thus fit them to rule Bartolus defines as the natural nobility. With regard to natural nobility, Bartolus