Liber I, Pars II — Quod maxime detestabile est, reges et principes esse parvificos, et quod decet eos magnificos esse. Cap. XX.

Liber I, Pars II — Quod maxime detestabile est, reges et principes esse parvificos, et quod decet eos magnificos esse. Cap. XX.

The philosopher touches on this. Ethics. There are six characteristics of a small-minded person: if they were present in kings, they would greatly undermine royal majesty. The first characteristic is that they lack in everything. This is evident from the very name itself. For a small-minded person is one who does small and defective things. The second characteristic is that if a small-minded person were to spend greatly for something small, they lose the great good. Hence it is proverbially said, 'Vile men lose marriages and feasts for the price of pepper.' When they don't make decent expenses for a grand feast, wanting to save on small costs, the whole feast becomes indecent. The third characteristic is that whatever a small-minded person does, they always do it slowly. For it seems to them that removing money from themselves is like cutting off limbs from their own body. Therefore, just as it is necessary for someone to be mutilated and to undergo that mutilation, and they delay and avoid it as much as they can, so too, when a small-minded person needs to make expenses, they still delay those expenses and avoid them as much as they can. The fourth characteristic is that a small-minded person does not consider how to perform great deeds, or how to make proper gifts, or how to hold decent weddings; instead, their entire focus is on how to make small expenses. For it is a characteristic of a small-minded person to value money more than the work itself. The fifth characteristic is that they always spend with sadness and pain. It was said that a small-minded person considers the external goods they possess as if they were incorporated into and essential to their very being. And because he is so affected by these things and clings to them, just as there results sadness and pain in the incision of the body due to the division of the continuous, so in the separation of money, which occurs through expenses, there is a kind of division of the continuous, since the miser considers his money as if it were incorporated and continuous with himself; he cannot spend it or remove it from himself without sadness and pain. The miser participates in this with the avaricious, for every miser is avaricious, just as every magnanimous person is generous. The sixth is that when a miser does nothing, it seems to him that he should always be doing greater things than he ought. It is said that a miser values money more than gifts and expenses, which are the works of virtue. For a miser considers what is of little value in the works of virtue and does not appreciate them. Therefore, if someone can barely give a little of his flesh, even if he receives much of what is worthless, it seems to him that he is giving more than he ought; a miser cannot make even a small expense for any work without always feeling that he should be doing greater things than he ought. Therefore, if it is detestable for royal majesty to fail in all things, to lose great goods for a little, to always delay, to do nothing promptly, and never to intend how to perform great works of virtue, but only how to spend a little, to always make expenses with sadness and pain; and when he does nothing, to believe he is doing great things, because all these things greatly detract from royal majesty, it is utterly detestable for a king to be a miser. However, that it is fitting for him to be magnificent is sufficiently proven by the preceding statements, in which we show around what things magnificence should exist. It was said that magnificence primarily pertains to divine works and to common matters; consequently, it also relates to worthy persons and to oneself. Since the king is the head of the kingdom and is an honorable, revered, and public person, and since it pertains to him to distribute the goods of the kingdom, it is fitting for him to be magnificent. For since he is the head of the kingdom and bears the mark of God, who is the head and prince of the universe, it especially pertains to him to conduct himself magnificently regarding sacred temples and in relation to the preparations for divine matters. Because he is a public person to whom the entire community and the whole kingdom are directed, it is especially fitting for him to conduct himself magnificently regarding common goods and concerning those things that pertain to the entire kingdom. Moreover, since it especially pertains to him to distribute the goods of the kingdom, it is entirely fitting for him to conduct himself magnificently toward worthy persons, to whom those goods rightly belong. Furthermore, since (as has been said) a royal person ought to be revered and worthy of honor, it pertains to the king to conduct himself magnificently toward his own person and toward those connected to him, such as his wife and children, by having honorable residences, conducting decent marriages, and exercising admirable military service.