Caput XX
God Alone Judges the Rulers
Subjects must not presume to judge their superiors, for God alone examines the lives of both rulers and the ruled, as shown when Christ overthrew the chairs of those selling doves.
And even if they are blameworthy — as is discussed in book 25 of the Moralia — subjects must take great care not to presume to judge their lives. They have God as their own judge, who through their masters indeed judges the life of the people, but through himself examines the deeds of the masters. Although even those subjects whom the masters now either neglect to examine or are unable to examine are, beyond any doubt, reserved for his judgment. For he indicates that prelates are to be judged by him alone, when with his own hand he overthrows the chairs of those selling doves.✦
Rulers Given in God’s Anger
If subjects find themselves under unworthy rulers, they must blame only themselves, since Scripture teaches that God gives such rulers in His anger because of the people’s sins.
If, however, rulers are born as subjects, let them accuse only themselves and not those rulers, since it is certainly their own fault that they are subjected to such people. For it is written: "I will give you kings in my fury" (Hosea✦ 13:11). And likewise: "God makes a hypocrite to reign on account of the sins of the people" (Job 34:30).✦
Discerning Reverence from Imitation
Since rulers are given according to the people’s merits, subjects must endure even blameworthy teachers while carefully distinguishing between revering the office and imitating the person.
If, then, it is God who is angry, and we receive rulers according to their merits, then in their conduct we gather what we ought to weigh by our own estimation — or of what merit we ourselves are. If, then, the life of teachers is rightly subject to blame, it is necessary that subjects endure them, even when they displease. But this must be carefully watched: that you do not desire to imitate the one you are bound to revere, nor scorn to revere the one you despise to imitate. For a subtle path of uprightness and humility is to be held: that the blameworthy deeds of teachers displease, yet in such a way that the mind of subjects does not withdraw from the reverence due to their office.
Humble Correction and the Danger of Presumption
Subjects may humbly suggest corrections to prelates, but must do so with humility; otherwise, even righteous intentions become prideful, as warned by the fate of Uzzah who presumed to steady the Ark.
It ought, however, to be humbly suggested by subjects, if perhaps what displeases in prelates can be corrected. And so what we feel must be said freely, and what we say must be put forward very humbly, lest even the right things we intend, by putting them forth proudly, we end up not doing rightly. That teachers ought not to be blamed by their subjects is well signified by the Ark of the Covenant — which represents those in authority — when it was tilted by the kicking oxen.✦ Because Uzzah the Levite, believing it was about to fall, refused to steady it — and soon received the sentence of death, struck on the shoulder by which he ought to have carried it according to the commandment of the law. For it is surely the case that when subjects, against the prelates whose commands they ought to bear, put forth the hand of submission, they are rejected from the lot of the living.✦
Read the original Latin
Qui et si reprehensibiles sunt, ut in libro XXV Moralium disputatur, magna cautela subditis cavendum est, ne vitam eorum judicare praesumant. Habent judicem suum Deum, qui per magistros quidem vitam judicat plebium, sed per semetipsum facta examinat magistrorum. Quamvis etiam subditi, quos modo magistri discutere vel negligunt, vel non possunt, ejus procul dubio judicio reserventur. Nam praelatos a se solo judicandos innuit, cum cathedras vendentium columbas sua manu evertit. Si autem rectores nati sunt, subditi seipsos tantum et non illos accusent, quia certe eorum culpa est quod talibus subjiciuntur. Scriptum quippe est: Dabo tibi reges in furore meo (Ose. XIII, 11). Et item: Regnare facit Deus hominem hypocritam propter peccata populi (Job XXXIV, 30).
Si ergo irascente Deo secundum merita rectores accipimus, in illorum actione colligimus quid ex nostra aestimatione pensemus, vel cujus meriti simus. Si ergo magistrorum vita jure reprehenditur, oportet ut eos subditi sufferant, etiam cum displicent. Sed hoc est solerter intuendum, ne aut quem venerari necesse est, imitari appetas, aut quem imitari despicis, venerari contemnas. Subtilis etenim via tenenda est rectitudinis et humilitatis, ut reprehensibilia magistrorum facta displiceant, quatenus mens subditorum a servanda magisterii reverentia non recedat. Debet tamen a subditis humiliter suggeri, si forte valeat in praelatis quod displicet emendari. Et libere ergo dicenda sunt quae sentimus, et valde humiliter promenda quae dicimus, ne et quae recta intendimus, haec elate proferendo, non recte faciamus. Quod enim magistri a subditis reprehendi non debeant, bene bobus calcitrantibus inclinata illa testamenti, quae rectores significat, arca figuravit. Quam quia casuram credens Oza levites erigere noluit, mox sententiam mortis accepit, in humero percussus, quo ex praecepto legis eam ferre debuerat: quia nimirum dum subditi contra praelatos, quorum imperia ferre debuerant, manum submissionis mittunt, a sorte viventium reprobantur.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Matt.21.12;John.2.15 — And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who were selling and buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who were selling doves. John.2.15 — And having made a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple—the sheep and the oxen—and he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables.
- ↩Hos.13.11 — I gave you a king in my anger, and I took him away in my wrath.
- ↩Job.34.30 — that he may not entice a godless man from the snares of the people
- ↩2Sam.6.6-2Sam.6.7;1Chr.13.9-1Chr.13.10 — When they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah reached out toward the ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen had stumbled. 2Sam.6.7 — But the anger of the LORD burned against Uzzah, and God struck him down there for his irreverence, and he died there beside the ark of God. 1Chr.13.9 — When they came to the threshing floor of Kidon, Uzza reached out his hand to steady the ark, because the oxen stumbled. 1Chr.13.10 — And the anger of the LORD burned against Uzzah, and He struck him down because he had put out his hand upon the ark; and he died there before God.
- ↩2Sam.6.6-2Sam.6.7;1Chr.13.9-1Chr.13.10 — When they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah reached out toward the ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen had stumbled. 2Sam.6.7 — But the anger of the LORD burned against Uzzah, and God struck him down there for his irreverence, and he died there beside the ark of God. 1Chr.13.9 — When they came to the threshing floor of Kidon, Uzza reached out his hand to steady the ark, because the oxen stumbled. 1Chr.13.10 — And the anger of the LORD burned against Uzzah, and He struck him down because he had put out his hand upon the ark; and he died there before God.
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