Liber III, Pars II — Quod expedit populo cum magna reverentia obedire regibus, et cum summa diligentia leges regias observare. Cap. XXXIV.

Liber III, Pars II — Quod expedit populo cum magna reverentia obedire regibus, et cum summa diligentia leges regias observare. Cap. XXXIV.

It follows that the people, as far as the present is concerned, can pursue three things if they obey their kings and leaders with great diligence and observe the royal laws, from which we can understand how useful and beneficial it is for the people to obey their kings and leaders and to observe the laws. First, it follows from this that the people attain virtues and the greatest goods. Second, from this arises the strength of the kingdom and the city. Third, from this comes peace and tranquility for the citizens, along with an abundance of external goods. The first way is thus clear. For, as was said previously, the intention of the legislator is to guide the citizens toward virtue. In a proper government, as the philosopher wishes, this is the case. Polit. The virtue of a good citizen and a good man is the same: it is through the same purpose and the same morals that someone is a good citizen, and a good man is indeed a good citizen if he obeys the ruler well and the one who has the authority to enact laws. Therefore, if the ruler governs the people entrusted to him rightly, because his intention is to guide others toward virtue, then the virtue of the one who possesses goodness and the good work must be present in a just regime, so that a good citizen is a good man; and whoever submits well to the king is a good man. If the king does not intend for those under him to be good and virtuous, he would no longer be a king but a tyrant; therefore, every citizen must intend to be good and virtuous, since the virtues are the greatest goods, and he must strive with utmost diligence to obey the king and not transgress his laws and commands, for royal obedience and observance of the laws are necessary for both nobles and commoners. Indeed, this is even more expedient for nobles than for commoners, as it is more fitting for them to be good and virtuous. The second way to investigate this same point is taken from the fact that the safety of the kingdom and the city arises from the king's obedience and the observance of the laws. Some indeed believe that observing the laws and obeying the king is a form of servitude. But according to the Philosopher. 5. Politics. This is not servitude, but freedom. For they are ignorant of what freedom is, saying that observing the laws and obeying kings is servitude. Since beasts are of a servile nature, the more one approaches a bestial nature, the more one is naturally a slave. To be indeed wicked and a instigator of war, and a disturber of peace, wanting to live without restraint and without law, according to the opinion of philosophers, and according to the saying of Homer, is to be more a beast than a man. Therefore, those who do not observe the laws, unwilling to obey kings and superiors, are more beasts than men: and consequently, they are more slaves than free. Therefore, the salvation of the kingdom and the city is secured if the inhabitants of the kingdom become free, if they obey the kings and observe the laws. How great a salvation arises in the kingdom from the obedience of the king is sufficiently shown, let the words of the philosopher be considered. Politics. He who compares a king to a kingdom does so as one compares a soul to a body. For just as the soul governs and sustains the body, so the king governs and sustains the kingdom; and just as the soul is the health and life of the body, so the king, if he rules rightly, is the health and life of the kingdom. Therefore, just as it is most harmful for the body to harm the soul and not to govern through it, so it is most harmful for the kingdom to disregard royal laws and legal precepts and not to be governed through the king. The third way to demonstrate this is taken from the fact that peace and tranquility of the citizens arise from royal obedience and from the observance of the laws, along with the abundance of external goods. For, as was said above, both laws and legislators have coercive power, just as kings and princes do: so that a person who is not deterred from wicked deeds by the loving admonitions of parents and friends may at least be restrained by the fear of punishment. For it was expedient for the kingdom and the city to have some king or principality, so that evildoers would not disturb the peace of the citizens. For every legislator should intend that the hearts of the citizens be tranquil, and that the citizens live peacefully and in harmony. Therefore, philosophers say that rulers relate to souls as medicine relates to bodies. It seems to be the case that legislators relate to souls in the same way that medicine relates to bodies. For just as a doctor aims to soothe the humors to prevent disease and conflict in the body, so a legislator seeks to calm the hearts and soothe the souls to prevent strife and discord in the kingdom or city. Thus, it is said first in Reth. What harms you is not only to act against the doctor's prescriptions, but also to become accustomed to disobeying the ruler. For the soul is a greater good than the body, and the peace of citizens and those who are in the kingdom is more important than the balance of humors or the health of bodies. Therefore, the people and all the inhabitants of the kingdom should diligently strive for royal obedience and the observance of laws, since from this arises such a great good as the peace and tranquility of those living in the kingdom. From this, abundance of external goods also arises. For when there is war in the kingdom, the land remains uncultivated, there are plunderings, and sterility arises, leading the inhabitants of the kingdom to poverty. If we consider how much good comes from a king, the people should strive to obey them, not only when the kings rule rightly, but even if they were to act tyrannically in some way. For it is more tolerable to endure some form of tyranny from a ruler than to suffer the evil that arises from the disobedience to the prince and from the transgression of his commands.