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← Eruditio regum et principum (Education of Kings and Princes)/Book 1 · Eruditio regum et principum
Chapter 13ErudR.1.13

Nonum capitulum, de expositione hujus : Nec elevetur cor ejus in superbiam super fratres suos.

The Necessity of Humility for All

The chapter opens by commanding rulers not to let their hearts be lifted up in pride, and Augustine's warning is invoked: humility must accompany every good deed, for pride is a wandering leprosy that springs up even in rightly done works and destroys them.

It follows: Nor let his heart be lifted up in pride over his brothers. Here the practice of humility is set forth for kings and princes, which is held to be necessary for salvation not only to them but also to all people. Hence Augustine writes to Dioscorus in this way: Unless humility has gone before, accompanied, and followed all the good things we do well, and is set before us to contemplate — pride wrenches it all from our hand the moment we begin to rejoice over any good deed done. Other vices are to be feared in sins, but pride is to be feared even in things done rightly, lest those things which have been done rightly be lost through the desire for praise itself. Hence in Leviticus this plague is called a wandering and fleeting leprosy, which, torn out from one place, immediately springs up elsewhere, and shifting its seat, occupies no ground on which it can be more fully uprooted. It happens, you see, that someone boasts of their abstinence, but if the opportunity for fasting is taken away from that same person, they grow proud in their awareness of it, all while considering themselves a person of such great virtue — someone who really needed to be held in check. Then there are others, dissolute and idle, on whom even repeated and ever-renewed urgings can scarcely bring the force of canonical self-restraint to bear. Its cure is difficult, since it often arises from contrary causes.

The Folly of Worldly Pride

A king's pride in his purple robes is no different from a poor man's pride in his plain tunic — and worse, the king's dignity itself becomes the very source of his swelling.

Why should a king be proud of his purple robes, when a poor man in his plain brown tunic glories just as much? And what is worse, the king draws his increase from the very source that was thought to diminish him.12

True Honor Lies in Humility

Citing Sirach 3:18, the text teaches that the greater one's dignity, the deeper one's humility should be, for true honor consists not in rank itself but in the humble character of the one who holds it.

These things, however, are forbidden in a spiritual sense to those in authority, to whom humility is urged, because it is difficult enough that the rank of honor does not produce swelling pride in the mind of the one who presides; and so Ecclesiasticus says: The greater you are, humble yourself in all things. As though to say: let the measure of humility be proportionate to the greatness of one's dignity. Indeed, the humility of a person established in honors is the true honor of honor, and the true dignity of dignity. For every dignity is undeserving of the very name of dignity if it is treated with contempt. Hence that humble king says: Let the foot of pride not come to me, because severely are crushed those whose works were carried out in pride.✦ Whoever, then, loves the rank of their own high position, let them hold to the practice of humility in their character, lest, weighed down by the weight of swelling pride from the height of dignity, they fall.

David's Dance: The Pattern of Humility

From the fall of Lucifer and Tarquin the Proud to the rejection of Saul and the exaltation of David, the text traces how pride brings downfall and humility brings favor — culminating in David's dance before the Ark as a living image of the humble soul that reaches toward God on high while abasing itself on earth.

That first king, who stood above all the sons of pride — the more loftily he swelled against God, the more abjectly he was brought down to the lowest state. Tarquin the Proud, king of the Romans, was made the last of them, and in his place more worthy magistrates were appointed as an example of humility. Why was Saul, though more outstanding among the sons of Israel, rejected — and a shepherd chosen after the feasting to be king — unless it was because Saul's stubbornness or arrogance displeased the Lord? David, however, found favor in God's eyes by becoming humble. Dancing before the ark of the Lord, he says: "I will play and make myself even more worthless than I already am, and I will be humble in my own eyes before God, who chose me."✦ In this dance we now reach for the highest things, now return to the lowest — because when our minds go beyond ourselves toward God, God becomes sweet to us in that ecstasy of mind. But when the spirit turns back on itself, considering its own failings, it becomes worthless in its own eyes. Such are the dancers — also called jesters — with heads bowed low, feet raised upward, or standing on their hands, or walking, all to draw the eyes of those watching toward themselves. So the humble are raised toward heaven with their affections outstretched, and on earth they live with minds cast down, as if with bowed head.

The Beautiful Spectacle of Humility

The humble soul's self-abasement, though mocked by the world, is a beautiful spectacle before God and the angels, and those who fix their gaze on the eternal light are unmoved by the crowd's contempt.

This play, even if men regard it as something of a joke, is yet presented to God and the angels as a most beautiful spectacle. I believe, however, that those who direct the gaze of their mind toward seeing the ray of eternal light are only slightly moved by the words of the unlearned crowd.

The Ruler's Mean Between Pride and Contempt

A ruler must avoid not only arrogance but also the opposite extreme of contempt, and the text proposes to build up examples of contempt first before teaching the moderation between both.

I am not saying this because I want a ruler to avoid arrogance so thoroughly that he falls into contempt from the other direction — since both extremes need to be guarded against by a ruler, and each one must be moderated by the other.3 Let us first build up the web of contempt with examples, if you like, and then attach the lesson of moderation afterward.45

Public Dignity and Private Humility

Drawing on Roman law and the example of the philosopher Taurus, the text teaches that a ruler must be approachable yet not contemptible, honoring public rank in official settings while yielding precedence to natural relationships in private life.

In Roman law it is a settled principle that the person who administers justice should make himself approachable — granting access to those who seek it — and yet in such a way that he does not allow himself to be treated with contempt. Moreover, provincial governors are commanded not to let the people of their provinces slip into excessive deference born of familiarity, since from equal association there arises a rivalry over rank. In the same way, then, rulers ought to be mindful of their own position or private station, so that they do not disgrace the rank of public dignity.6 Hence Taurus, the Athenian philosopher, when he was visited by a provincial governor — the father — and by his son, who was himself also a governor, and when it was asked at length, by the consent of both father and son, which man's precedence ought to yield to the other, Taurus said: In public settings, and in matters pertaining to affairs of this kind, the governor ought to be honored before the other person; but in private matters, when the business at hand lies outside public life — take, for example, reaching agreement about a walk or a banquet — the father ought simply to be given precedence.78

The Physician of Souls: Severity and Love

A ruler must be both loved as a private person and feared in his public role, acting as a physician who uses the knife and cautery of punishment only when milder remedies fail, exercising pious cruelty to preserve the safety of the good.

What is the point of all this, unless it is so that a ruler puts on the role of a private person, letting humility be loved, and then represents the public role so that authority is feared — so that he does not show himself to be a Nero, ruling through fear, but a Trajan, or rather a Titus, called the delight of the world, ruling through generosity and love?910 Let him understand that he has been placed over his brothers as a lawgiver — I will use that term — so that he loves his brothers and corrects their errors, and, in the manner of physicians, when more serious diseases cannot be treated with milder remedies, he resorts to the cautery and the knife, if burning or cutting nevertheless proves necessary.1112 So it is that the ruler, pouring the severity of punishments into wounds, has raged against the wicked with a pious cruelty, so that even if medicine has no effect on the wicked, the safety of the good is nevertheless preserved in this way.131415

Gregory's Counsel: Balancing Vigor and Gentleness

Quoting Gregory the Great, the text teaches that discipline and gentleness must adorn each other, that love must not make soft nor vigor exasperate, and that a prince should grieve when compelled to punish, letting justice — not revenge — guide his hand.

Therefore, as an example of moderation, we append a saying of the blessed Gregory from the nineteenth book of the Moralia. "Let the vigor of discipline rule gentleness, and let gentleness adorn vigor, so that each may be commended by the other, and vigor may not be rigid, nor gentleness dissolute." And in the twentieth book, thus: "Let there be love, but not love that makes soft; let there be vigor, but not vigor that exasperates; let there be zeal, but not zeal that rages without restraint; let there be mercy, but not mercy that suffers more than is fitting."16 The same author, in the ninth homily of the second part on Ezekiel: "This belongs to the discipline of magistrates — to spare faults with discretion and to open the way with piety."17 Let the prince grieve, therefore, when vengeance is demanded by faults that require it to be carried out, and when he executes it, let the hand of justice serve — not the savage lust for revenge raging against blood. Whence the pagan poet says:

Mercy Established the Throne

A leader should be slow to punish and quick to reward, pained whenever harshness is required.

A leader is slow to punish but quick to reward, and is pained whenever he is compelled to be harsh.18

Mercy and Justice in Balance

Citing Proverbs 20:28, the text teaches that mercy and truth guard the king and his throne is established by clemency, and that a ruler must temper justice with mercy and mercy with justice, remembering always that he is but ashes and dust.

For mercy and truth guard the king, and his throne is established by clemency.✦ So let mercy temper justice, so that the law of clemency may be on his tongue; and so let justice temper mercy, so that his tongue may speak judgment.19 And if it should be necessary to lean more toward the other side, let a man remember that he is ashes and dust, and let him remember what is written: And his throne shall be established by clemency.✦✦20

Philip's Healing Hand

When Philip of Macedon learned that a distinguished soldier had become estranged through neglect, he refused to cut off the diseased limb and instead healed it through generosity, restoring the soldier's loyalty.

Philip, king of the Macedonians, when he had heard that Phicias, a soldier once distinguished, had become estranged from him in his heart — because, being destitute, he could scarcely feed his three daughters, and the king was doing nothing at all to help him — his friends warned him to beware of the man. Philip replied: "If I had a diseased part of my body, would I cut it off rather than heal it?" Then, having summoned the soldier and having understood the truth more fully, he generously came to the man's need, and he restored the soldier as a loyal man to himself — and found him to be so. For indeed, doctors treat exhausted limbs by restoring them, just as they treat overstuffed ones by draining them.

Trajan's Example and the Limits of Pagan Virtue

Trajan's admirable accessibility is praised, yet the text warns that pagan virtue without faith is diseased, and extends the musical metaphor: a ruler must tune the strings of governance with proper tension, for a broken string cannot be repaired.

We read that when Emperor Trajan was criticized for being too approachable, he gave this reply: he wanted to be the kind of emperor to private citizens that he would have wished emperors to be when he himself was a private citizen. That man — the best of the pagan emperors — was affable in speech, generous in bestowing benefits, just in judgment, and devoted in his affections. Yet what sort of piety is there without faith? It is as foolish as someone with diseased eyes wanting them gouged out rather than healed; if nails have grown too sharp, they should be trimmed back, not torn out. For if those who sing in the heart — like fiddlers, harpists, and other lute-players — call it harmony not when the heart-strings are broken but when they are stretched in proper proportion or relaxed, with what great care must a ruler govern himself, so that now by the rigor of justice, now by the remission of mercy, he may bring dissenting subjects back into unity and peace? As for the strings themselves, so that the proper pitch may be restored, it is safer to relax them than to stretch them too tightly, since with minds eased, the craftsman's skill moves toward the right tone, but with minds overstrained, it veers off toward nothing at all. But a string that has been broken cannot be repaired by any craft.

The Pride and Fall of Caligula and Nero

As cautionary examples, the text presents Caligula — who wished the Roman people had a single neck, profaned Jerusalem, and was killed by his own guards — and Nero, whose lust and cruelty knew no bounds of blood or decency.

And so that princes may more thoroughly abhor pride and tyranny, I will bring forward into the open an uncle and a nephew. Nero's uncle, Gaius Caligula — when peace was running riot throughout the world and all the things of God were silent from the face of Christ, now that the Wisdom of God had taken flesh — held the Roman empire. And he would cry out, "If only the Roman people had a single neck!" And because, with wars failing, no enemy could be found, he marched through Germany and Gaul.✦ But with the material for war lacking, the victory he achieved was a small one. Persecuting the Jews, he profaned the holy things of Jerusalem, filling that place with the filth of idols and commanding that he himself be worshipped as if he were God. He oppressed Pilate, the governor of Judea, with many torments, and Pilate, in despair, took his own life as a remedy for his troubles. But afterwards this same Gaius was killed by his own bodyguards. Let the seas tell of the poisons he had gathered, which were sunk in those waters, and how an infinite multitude of fish perished. Nero, the grandson of Gaius, the most cruel of men and the most dissolute among a host of beasts of burden, was swallowed up by such great lust that neither the bounds of any blood relationship could restrain him, nor even the bond of his mother.

Nero's Excess and Destruction

Nero's extravagance — fishing with gold nets, wearing each garment only once, traveling with a thousand wagons, singing while Rome burned, killing his own family, and extorting all merchants in a single day — is recounted as the ultimate portrait of tyrannical vanity.

I would go on at greater length, but a certain modesty holds me back here. So far had he given himself over to softness that he went fishing with nets of gold. He never put on any garment twice. He never traveled without a thousand wagons — if what is read about him is true — and he made a journey from the city of Rome lasting seven days and nights, an unbroken blaze of his own pleasure and cruelty, a spectacle that fed the royal gaze with light. And he himself, gazing from the highest tower of Maecenas, delighted by the beauty of the flames, sang out in theatrical fashion — so the story goes. Whatever the flames had spared, he tore down — boasting all the more shamelessly that he had turned a city of brick into a city of marble. He killed his mother, his brother, his sister, his relatives, and very many senators. In a single day, with tortures applied, he extorted the entire wealth of all merchants without exception.

The End of Tyrants and the Invitation to Read

Nero killed Peter and Paul and finally killed himself; the chapter closes by inviting the reader to consult secular historians — Orosius, Suetonius, Tacitus, Livy, and others — for further examples of tyrannies and their outcomes.

It killed Peter by crucifixion, Paul by the sword. But in the end, condemned because he had no enemy or friend to complain to — as was made clear above — he rushed upon himself and was killed. Let one who delights in seeing the tyrannies and proud acts of princes, and their outcomes, read about Ormesia — if that name is sound — Orosius, Trogus Pompeius, Josephus, Hegesippus, Suetonius, Quintus Curtius, Cornelius Tacitus, Titus Livius, Serenus and Tranquillus, and the rest, to recount whom is both tedious and superfluous.

Read the original Latin

Sequitur : Nec elevetur cor ejus in superbiam super fratres suos. Humilitatis exercitium regibus et principibus hic proponitur, quae non solum eis sed et omnibus ad salutem necessaria perhibetur. Unde Augustinus ad Dioscorum ita scribit : Nisi humilitas omnia quaecumque bene facimus et praecesserit et comitata et consecuta fuerit, et proposita, quam intueamur ±, jam nobis de aliquo bono facto gaudentibus, totum extorquet de manu superbia. Vitia quippe caetera in peccatis, superbia etiam in recte factis timenda est, ne illa quae recte facta sunt ipsius laudis cupiditate perdantur. Unde et pestis haec in Levitico lepra vaga et volatilis appellatur, quae hinc evulsa alibi protinus oritur, et sedes mutans nullam terrain occupât in qua plenius extirpetur. Contingit enim aliquem pro abstinentia gloriari, sed si eidem facultas substracta fuerit jejunandi, cognitione superbit, dum se tantae virtutis attendit quem opus fuerit refraenari. Alios vero dissohitos et desides, quibus stimulis etiam atque etiam additis vix canonica continentia valeat suaderi. Difticilis ejus curatio cum ex causis saepe contrariis oriatur.

Unde enim rex superbit in purpura, pauper in fusca tunicula gloriatur, et, quod est deterius, inde augmentum suscipit unde minui credebatur.

Haec autem spiritualiter principibus prohibetur, quibus humilitas suadetur, quia satis est difficile ut gradus honoris tumorem non pariât in animo praesidentis, et ideo Ecclesiasticus ait : Quanto magnus es, humilia te in omnibus. Ac si diceret : aequa sit mensura humilitatis secundum magnitudinem dignitatis. Humilitas siquidem hominis in honoribus constituti honor est honoris, et dignitas dignitatis. Nam omnis dignitas ipso nomine dignitatis indigna est, si illa dedighetur. Unde rex ille humilis : Non veniat, inquit, mihi pes superbiae, quia graviter sunt elisi quorum opéra in superbia IO gerebantur. Quisquis igitur gradum propriae celsitudinis amat, humilitatis cultum in moribus teneat, ne a dignitatis fastigio tumoris pondère pressus cadat.

Primus ille rex super omnes filios superbiae quanto sublimius contra Deum tumuit, tanto dejectius in infima " mit. Superbus Tarquinus Romanorum rex factus est ultimus, et ad humilitatis exemplum substituti sunt magis necessarii magistratus. Cur reprobatus est Saul in filiis Israël eminentior, et in regem de post fêtantes electus est pastor, nisi quia Saulis w Domino displicuit contumacia sive fastus ? David autem in ejus oculis factus humilis est acceptus. Saltans igitur ante archam Domini ait : Ludam, et vilior fiam plus quam factus sum, et ero humilis in oculis meis ante Deum qui elegit me. In saltu nunc summa petimus, nunc ad ima redimus ; quia tune mente excedimus Deo, nobis Deus in mentis excessu dulcescit, cum vero spiritus in seipsum revertitur defectus suos considerans, ipse sibi vilescit. Soient saltatores, qui et joculatores dicuntur, capite demisso, pedibus sursum erectis, vel stare manibus vel incedere, et in eos intuentium oculos provocare. Sic humiles in cœlum, protensis affectibus, elevantur et in terra, mente depressi, quasi demisso capite, conversantur.

Qui ludus etsi ab hominibus quasi ridiculum habeatur, tamen Deo et angelis ut pulcherrimum spectaculum exhibetur. Arbitror autem eos qui dirigunt mentis aspectum ad videndum radium lucis aeternae moveri modicum ad verba multitudinis imperitae.

Nec tamen ista protuli quia velim ut princeps eatenus vitet fastum arogantiae ut ex alio latere corruat in contemptum, cum utrumque sit principi praecavendum, et ex altero alterum temperandum. Cau telam contemptus exemplis si placet primitus astruamus, et temperantiae documentum postmodum subjungamus.

In jure romano cautum esse dinoscitur ut qui jus reddit se praebeat in adeundo facilem, ita tamen quod se contempni nullatenus patiatur. Praecipitur insuper ne provinciarum praesides provinciales admittant in ulterioris obsequium familiaritatis, eo quod ex conversatione aequali contentio nascitur dignitatis. Sic igitur principes debent attendere propriaé vel privatae conditionis statum quod non devenustent publicae dignitatis gradum. Hinc Taurus Atheniensis philosophus cum a pâtre praesidis Trecae provinciae et ab ejus filio, scilicet praeside, viseretur, et de consensu patris et filii ejus, praesidis, cujus prioratus deberet cedere diutius quaereretur, Taurus ait : In locis publicis, et quae ad hujusmodi pertinent praehonorandum rilium praesidem, sed in privatis rébus, cum extra rempublicam agitur, ut puta consensu de ambulatione, convivio, debere praeponi simpliciter genitorem.

Quorsum ista, nisi quia sic princeps personam privatam induat ut humilitas diligatur, sic publicam repraesentet quod auctoritas timeatur, nec sic Neronem se exhibeat per timorem, sed Trajanum, Tytum magis dictum, orbis delicias per munificentiam et amorem ? Sic se super fratres suos, ut legislatoris utar vocabulo, constitutum intelligat, ut fratres diligat et errores dirigat et, medicorum more, morbos graviores, quibus levioribus non potuerint medicari, cauterio succurrat et ferro, si tamen uri necesse fuerit aut secari. Sic poenarum acrimoniam infundens vulneribus, princeps pia crudelitate desaevit in malos, ut si medecina non habet effectum in malis, tamen sic persévérât incolumitas apud bonos.

Igitur temperaturae documentum subjungimus et verbum beati Gregorii de Moralium XIX libro assumimus. Regat, inquit, disciplinae vigor mansuetudinem, et mansuetudo ornet vigorem, et sic alterum commendetur ex altero, ut nec vigor sit rigidus, nec mansuetudo dissoluta. Et in libro XX ita : Sit amor, sed non e molliens, sit vigor, sed non exasperans, sit zelus, sed non immoderate saeviens, sit pietas, sed non plus quam expedit patiens. Idem in omelia IX secundae partis super Ezechielem : Hoc est magistratuum disciplinae, in culpis discrète parcere et pie reserare. Doleat ergo princeps cum vel vindicta, culpis exigentibus, facienda deposcitur, et, cum eam peragit, justitiae dextera famuletur, non libidinosae vindictae zelo feraliter in sanguinem debachetur. Unde ethnicus ait :

Est piger ad pœnam princeps, ad praemia velox, Quique dolet quotiens cogitur esse ferox.

Misericordia enim et veritas custodiunt regem et firmatur clementia tronus ejus. Sic misericordia temperet justitiam ut lex clementiae sit in lingua ejus; sic justitia misericordiam, ut loquatur judicium lingua ejus. Et si ad alterum magis inclinari oporteat, meminerit homo quia cinis et pulvis est, meminerit et quod scriptum est : Et firmabitur clementia tronus ejus.

Philippus, rex Macedonum, cum audisset Phiciam militem olim egregium sibi animo alienatum quod très filias inops vix aleret, et eura rex minime adjuvaret, monentibus amicis ut eum caveret : Quid ? inquit Philippus, si haberem aegram corporis partem, abscideremne potius quam curarem ? Deinde, milite accersito, et veritate plenius intellecta, munifice necessitati subvenit, et militem fidelem sibi restituit et invenit. Sic etenim medici membra exinanita curant refectione, sicut nimis repleta exinanitione.

Legitur imperator Trajanus arguentibus eum quod nimis esset comis, taie dédisse responsum : Talem velle se imperatorem esse privatis, quales imperatores sibi esse privatus optasset. Dicebat etiam vir ille, gentilium optimus augustorum, in verbis affabilis, munificus in beneficiis, in judiciis justus, in affectu pius, qualis est tamen pietas sine fide : quod insanum est habentem oculos lippientes si magis eos velit effodere quam curare ; si ungues acriores fuerint, resecandos esse, non avellendos. Si enim qui cantant in cordis ut viellatores, cytharedus et alii fidicines s, oberrantis cordae re vocant armoniam non cordis ruptis sed tensis proportionaliter vel remissis, quanta sollicitudine principem moderari oportet ut modo rigore justitiae, modo remissione misericordiae, subditos dissidentes in unanimitatem reducat et pacem ? Cordas etiam, ut sonus debitus revocetur, tutius est remitti quam perintentius protendantur *, cum animis remissis artificis peritia procedat ad sonum debitum, sed animis extensis declinetur ad nullum. Corda vero quae rumpitur nullo artifîcio reparatur.

Et ut principes magis abhorreant superbiam et tyrannidem, proferam in medium avunculum et nepotem. Avunculus ergo Neronis Gayus Caligula cum, luxuriante pace, per mundum a facie Christi silerent omnia, Dei jam Sapientia incarnata, romanum imperium obtinebat, et utinam romanus populus cervicem haberet unicam exclamabat, et quia deficientibus bellis non inveniebatur hostis, Germaniam peragravit et Galliam. Sed bellorum, déficiente belli materia, parva est Victoria consecuta. Judaeos persequens Jherosolimae sancta prophanavit, et locum replens illum spurcitiis ydolorum et se coli praecipiens quasi Deum. Pilatum Judaeae praesidem multis angoribus coartavit, qui desperans in suorum malorum] remedium manu propria se peremit. Sed postmodum idem Gaius a suis protectoribus est occisus. Veneficia quae congesserat enarrent maria quae in illa demersa sunt et periit multitudo piscium infinita. Nero, nepos Gaii, crudelissimus hominum et resolutissimus in numero jumentorum tanta est absorptus libidine ut nec ab ulla consanguinitatis eum contingente linea continuent, nec a matre.

Prosequerer amplius sed in hoc parco verecundiae. Tanta tamen est resolutus mollitie ut retibus piscaretur aureis. Nullam vestem bis induit. Numquam sine mille carucis, si verum est quod de ipso legitur, iter egit; urbis Romae per dies VII et noctes continuatum incendium voluptatis et crudelitatis suae fecit spectacu lum, quod regium pavit aspectum. Quod et ipse prospiciens de turre altissima Mecenatis, flammae laetus pulchritudine, ut dicebat, histrionice decantabat. Quod vero flammae superfuerat abstulit, jactans se impudentius quod ex latericia marmoream urbem ipse reddiderit. Matrem, fratrem, sororem et propinquos et senatorum plurimos interfecit. Negotiatorum omnium sub una die, tormentis adhibitis, omnem penitus censum extorsit.

Petrum cruce, Paulum gladio interemit. Sed in fine dampnatus, quod nec inimicum haberet nec amicum conquestus, sicut superius patuit, in seipsum irruens est occisus.

Tyrannides et superbias principum et eorum exitus quem videre delectat, légat de Ormesia mtcndi Orosium, Trogum Pompeium, Josephum, Hegesippum, Suetonium, Quintum Curcium, Cornelium Tacitum, Tytum Livium, Serenum et Tranquillum, et ceteros quos enarrare superfluum est et longum.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Ps.36.11;Prov.16.18 — Let not the foot of the arrogant tread upon me, nor the hand of the wicked drive me away. Prov.16.18 — Before destruction comes pride, and before a fall, a haughty spirit.
  2. ↩2Sam.6.14 — And David was dancing before the LORD with all his might, and David was wearing a linen ephod.
  3. ↩Prov.20.28 — Steadfast love and faithfulness guard the king, and by steadfast love his throne is upheld.
  4. ↩Gen.3.19 — By the sweat of your brow you shall eat bread, until you return to the ground, for from it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.
  5. ↩Prov.20.28 — Steadfast love and faithfulness guard the king, and by steadfast love his throne is upheld.
  6. ↩John.1.14 — And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, glory as of the only-begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Notes

  1. 1 ↩suscipit augmentum: 'takes up increase' — the sense is that the king's pride grows from the same place (his exalted station) where humility was expected to reduce him.
  2. 2 ↩minui credebatur: passive impersonal — 'was believed to be diminished,' i.e., his high rank was thought to be the very thing that should have made him smaller in his own eyes.
  3. 3 ↩fastum arogantiae rendered as 'arrogance' (lit. 'haughtiness of pride'); the paired structure fastum/ contemptum frames pride and contempt as opposing moral hazards.
  4. 4 ↩Cau telam is a contracted/exclamatory form (likely = Cave telam, 'Beware the web' or 'Guard against the snare'). Rendered as 'Let's first build up the web of contempt' taking telam as 'web/snare' and astruamus as 'build up/construct' — the author proposes assembling illustrative examples of contempt before turning to temperance.
  5. 5 ↩temperantiae rendered as 'moderation' rather than 'temperance' to match modern-readable register; the virtue sense is preserved.
  6. 6 ↩devenustent is a rare form (possibly de- + venusto); rendered as 'disgrace' based on context of dishonoring public rank.
  7. 7 ↩rilium is an uncertain form, possibly a scribal error; the sense appears to be 'of such persons' or 'of the other person,' rendered here contextually.
  8. 8 ↩praehonorandum is a rare compound gerundive; rendered as 'ought to be honored before.'
  9. 9 ↩Personam rendered 'role' (not 'mask' or 'person') to capture the Latin sense of a social station assumed or laid down.
  10. 10 ↩Pia crudelitate ('pious cruelty') in the following section is a deliberate paradox; the translation preserves the tension.
  11. 11 ↩Utar vocabulo rendered 'I'll use that term' to preserve the author's parenthetical self-awareness about borrowing the word 'lawgiver.'
  12. 12 ↩Cauterio et ferro ('cautery and the knife') is a medical metaphor for severe disciplinary measures; rendered concretely rather than euphemistically.
  13. 13 ↩Pia crudelitate ('pious cruelty') is a deliberate oxymoron: the ruler's harshness is framed as an act of devotion to the common good. The translation preserves the paradox rather than resolving it.
  14. 14 ↩Persévérât is a scribal variant, likely for persistat or perseveret; translated as 'is preserved' to convey the intended result sense.
  15. 15 ↩Incolumitas rendered 'safety' rather than 'security' or 'well-being' to keep the physical, bodily connotation of the Latin.
  16. 16 ↩The reading 'e molliens' (from softening) is uncertain; the sense is that love must not become enfeebling.
  17. 17 ↩'Reserare' (to open, unlock) is a rare verb; rendered here as 'to open the way' in the sense of restoring access or granting clemency.
  18. 18 ↩princeps rendered as 'leader' rather than 'prince' to fit the broader register of the Eruditio; ferox rendered as 'harsh' to capture the sense of severity in punishment rather than mere fierceness.
  19. 19 ↩The two balanced purpose clauses (ut…sit; ut…loquatur) describe the mutual calibration of mercy and justice in a ruler's speech — neither virtue canceling the other, but each restraining the other from excess.
  20. 20 ↩The phrase ad alterum magis inclinari is ambiguous: it may mean leaning more toward the other party in a dispute, or leaning more toward one virtue (mercy or justice) over the other. The mortification language that follows (ashes and dust) suggests the primary sense is: even when you must favor one side, remember your own frailty.

Eruditio regum et principum (Education of Kings and Princes) companion

Louis IX kept a daily rule of reading. Keep yours.

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