Capitulum secundum, ubi incipit pars illa quae est de disciplina potestatum et officialium, quae continet XVII capitula.
The Prince's Duty Over His Subjects
The chapter opens by identifying the discipline that princes owe to those under their care.
First, we see what discipline over their subjects requires of princes.
Turning from Self to Neighbor
Having treated reverence for God and care of self, the author now turns by God's grace to what concerns our neighbors, beginning with the discipline of those in authority.
Now that we have finished what we set out to say about reverence for God and care for ourselves—by the grace of God breathed down from heaven—let the pen now turn, in proper order, to what concerns our neighbors. First we must discuss the discipline of those in authority and of officials, and then the affection and protection owed to those under their care.
Royal Authority as Service and Discipline
Kings receive authority from the Lord to govern the people, but their duty is to do good rather than merely to rule; the higher the rank, the greater the obligation to maintain discipline, lest negligence make the ruler complicit in the sins of the governed.
The Lord therefore gave kings, in the church on earth, the authority to care for and govern the people. So the royal duty of diligence ought to be not so much about ruling over subjects as about doing them good—so that through the marks of authority received, it compels the beauty and rigor of church discipline to flourish.1 For as blessed Isidore writes: Within the church, secular powers would not be necessary unless it were for this—that what a priest cannot accomplish through the discourse of teaching, civil authority should command through the force of discipline; and those who, placed within the church, rise up against the faith and discipline of the church should be crushed by the rigor of kings and princes.2 For the more highly someone in secular life is raised by the eminence of worldly honor, the more it falls to that person to see that proper discipline is maintained both by himself and by his subjects. The purpose, then, of royal power is to restrain evil by fear—so that by pretending or covering up crimes, and not governing rightly, a king does not forfeit the name of king, and so that he does not incur guilt along with those he ought to have restrained.3 Whence Augustine, in the fifth book against Julian: If we allow those over whom we have authority to commit crimes before our very eyes, we will certainly be guilty along with them.4 From this it follows that each person ought to consider himself all the more humble in the private court of his own conscience, the more he sees himself placed in authority over many.5 For the opportunity to preside over a multitude ought to be an occasion for humility, not for arrogant elation—even though David grew proud in his vast number of people, and the Lord punished his pride by striking the people.6
When the People Suffer for the Prince's Sin
The common people pay the price for the madness of their rulers, and the hidden reason for their punishment is the sin of the prince to whom they are bound.
The multitude of the people has been struck down, so that whatever madness seizes the kings, it is the common folk who pay the price. Although the reason for punishing the people is considered more hidden, it is because on account of the sin of the prince—given the relationship and union of the people to the prince—the people are sometimes punished.7
The Head and the Limbs: A Chapter Heading
The second chapter is announced, showing that rulers should pour discipline into their subjects as the head does into the limbs.
The second chapter, which shows that rulers ought to pour discipline into their subjects as the head does into the limbs.
The Celestial Pattern for Earthly Rule
God, who shows no favoritism, justly established distinctions of authority after the Fall; as the heavenly hierarchy has its orders, so the earthly commonwealth has its ranks, with the king as head and priests as the heart, and a healthy head can cure the body's corruption while a diseased head endangers all.
And although with God there is no favoritism—for the Lord of all is one and the same, who by the price of his blood redeemed the barbarian together with the Latin, the Christian and the pagan alike—yet he redeemed the one through efficient grace, the other through sufficient grace. Still, after the sin of the first man, he justly imposed the penalty of servitude, rightly distinguishing between servants and masters, placing some beneath and setting others above, so that the license of those disposed to evil—that is, of subjects—might be restrained by the authority of rulers. So just as in the Church Triumphant we read of distinct orders, ranks, and offices—the legions of good spirits—so in the Church Militant we find among secular people distinctions among temporal lords, as it is written: 'Look and make it according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.'✦ But among these distinctions, the emperor or king excels in the privilege of dignity, just as in the heights of heaven the Seraphim hold the highest rank. This is why the king holds the place of the head in the commonwealth, subject to no one except to God and to those who, for God's sake, are said to exercise his authority or ministry on earth. Just as in the physical body the body is animated and governed by the soul, so in the mystical body the commonwealth is formed and shaped through Christ's vicars and the ministers of the Church, by salutary counsel and example. For it is impossible for anyone to govern authority well who is not guided by the counsel of God's commandments, which are revealed to us by the Lord through the ministry of the holy priests, who hold the place of the heart, just as kings hold the place of the head. Therefore, if the head of the commonwealth is firm and healthy, as it should be, the rising malice of corrupt humors from the lower parts of the body will either be thoroughly cured or held in check. But if the head is weak and infirm, it will not only be unable to drive away the ailments of the members, but will endanger the whole body by subjecting itself along with them.
The Diseased Head and the Tyrant's Betrayal
When the head spreads sickness through the body, the whole commonwealth falls apart; Plato teaches that a magistrate who oppresses his subjects is like a swollen head that cannot be borne by the limbs, and one who rages against those under his care is a guardian who slays his own ward with the sword given for defense.
For it generally happens that when the head spreads its own sickness through the body, the limbs waste away, the structure falls apart, and the harmony is broken—and the resulting suffering cannot be endured or cured, or at best only by inflicting the most severe pain on the limbs. Hence the opinion of Plato is recorded in secular writings: 'It is just the same,' he says, 'when a magistrate oppresses his subjects as when the head of the body swells up so that it cannot be borne by the limbs—either not at all, or only with great trouble.' And again, he says, 'When authority rages against its subjects, it is the same as if a guardian were to persecute his own ward—or slaughter him with his very own sword: the sword you received for the express purpose of defending that ward.'
Read the original Latin
Primum in quo ostenditur quod ad principes pertinet disciplina subditorum.
Postquam divina cœlitus aspirante gratia de reverentia Dei, de diligentia sui, propositum nostrum absolvimus, nunc ordine convenienti ad ea quae proximorum sunt convertatur stilus. Et primitus disserendum est de disciplina potestatum et officialium, deinde vero de affectu et protectione subditorum.
Dédit igitur Dominus in ecclesia militanti regibus principatum pro cura et regimine populorum. Unde non tam praeesse quam prodesse subjectis debet diligentiae sollicitudo regalis, ut per insignia potestatis acceptae vigere compellat pulcritudinem et rigorem ecclesiasticae disciplinae. Nam ut beatus scribit Ysidorus : Intra ecclesiam potestates necessariae non essent nisi ut, quod non valet sacerdos efficere per doctrinae sermonem, potestas hoc imperet per disciplinae terrorem, et qui intra ecclesiam positi contra fidem et disciplinam ecclesiae eriguntur, rigore regum et principum conterantur. Ouanto enim quis saecularis honoris amplius fastigio sublimatur, tanto magis eidem incumbit ut tam ab eo quam ab ejus subditis disciplina debita teneatur. Usus ergo regiae potestatis est ut malum timoré coherceat, ne simulando vel dissimulando crimina, non recte regendo, nomen regis amittat, et cum eis quos cohercere debuit reatum incurrat. Unde Augustinus, V libro contra Julianum : Nos certe si eos in quos nobis potestas est ante oculos nostros perpetrare scelera permittamus, rei cum jpsis erimus. Inde relinquitur unumquemque tanto apud secretum conscientiae suae magis se reputandum humilem quanto se constitutum viderit pluribus praesidentem. Humilitatis enim occasio debet esse non elationis supercilium multitudini praesidere ; licet David in populi multitudine superbierit et ejus superbiam Dominus in populi percussione puniverit.
Percussa est multitudo vb populi, ut Quicquid délirant reges, plectuntur Achivi.
Licet de punitione populi ratio secretior habeatur, quoniam pro peccato principis ex habitudine et unione populi ad principem populus quandoque punitur.
Capitulum secundum, in quo ostenditur quod principes debent disciplinam influere in subditos sicut caput in membra.
Et licet apud Deum non sit acceptio personarum, idem enim Dominus omnium, qui pretio sanguinis barbarum redemit simul et latinum, sicut christianum similiter et paganum, sed illum per efficientiam, illum vero per sufficientiam, tamen, post peccatum primi hominis pœnam justae intulit servitutis, inter servos et dominos juste discernens, illos subiciens, illos vero praeponens, ut licentia maie agendi, videlicet subditorum, coherceatur imperio dominorum. Unde sicut in ecclesia triumphanti distinctas legimus secundum ordines, gradus et officia, legiones spirituum bonorum, sic in ecclesia militante inter saeculares invenimus differentias temporalium dominorum, sicut scriptum est : Inspice et fac secundum exemplar quod tibi in monte monstratum est. Inter bas autem difterentias imperator aut rex dignitatis excellit privilegio, sicut in cœli fastigio Seraphim summus ordo. Inde est quod rex in re publica locum obtinet capitis, qui nulli subicitur nisi Deo et eis propter Deum qui vices ipsius aut ministeria dicuntur exercere in terris. Sicut in corpore phisico corpus ab anima vegetatur et regitur, sic in corpore mistico per Christi vicarios et ministros ecclesiae res publica monitis et exemplis salutaribus informatur. Impossibile est enim ut disponat quis salubriter principatum qui non agitur divinorum consilio praeceptorum, quae nobis revelantur a Domino per sanctorum ministeria sacerdotum, qui vicem obtinent cordis, sicut et reges capitis. Ergo si caput rei publicae firmum et sanum fuerit, sicut decet, de inferioribus corporis partibus ascendentes humorum malitias vel curabit penitus vel compescet. Quod si caput invalidum fuerit et infirmum, aegritudines membrorum non solum repellere non poterit, sed se cum periculo subiciet corpus totum.
Nam plerumque contingit ut caput dum suam aegritudinem diffundit in corpore, tabefiunt membra, compages solvitur armoniae, cujus magnitudinem passionis tolerari vel curari est impossibile, vel difficile sine dolore gravissimo facto membris. Unde Platonis fertur sententia saecularibus litteris : Perinde est, inquit, cum subditos opprimit magistratus, ac si caput corporis intumescat ut a membris aut omnino aut sine molestia ferri non possit. Et iterum cum in subditos, inquit, potestas saevit, idem est ac si tutor pupillum persequatur, vel eum suo mucrone jugules ob cujus defensionem tibi traditum gladium accepisti.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Exod.25.40 — See that you make them according to the pattern that is being shown you on the mountain.
Notes
- 1 ↩pulcritudinem (beauty/splendor) rendered as 'beauty' to capture the sense of the attractive excellence of discipline
- 2 ↩The passage quotes Isidore on the complementary roles of priestly teaching and secular enforcement. The Latin potestas shifts between singular and plural, referring to civil authority generally.
- 3 ↩timoré (abl. of timor) rendered as 'by fear' — the instrumental sense of using fear as a deterrent
- 4 ↩Direct quotation from Augustine, Contra Julianum, Book 5. The Latin eos in quos nobis potestas est is rendered as 'those over whom we have authority.'
- 5 ↩secretum conscientiae rendered as 'private court of his own conscience' — the metaphor of conscience as a hidden tribunal is preserved
- 6 ↩The reference is to David's census of Israel (2 Samuel 24 / 1 Chronicles 21), where David's pride in the size of his people led to divine punishment through a plague.
- 7 ↩The phrase ex habitudine et unione populi ad principem conveys the idea that the people share in the prince's guilt by virtue of their bond to him; the translation preserves this corporate-responsibility logic without softening it.
Eruditio regum et principum (Education of Kings and Princes) companion
Louis IX kept a daily rule of reading. Keep yours.
After day 21, Chosen Portion keeps the habit going with one historic devotional portion each morning, free on iOS.
Guibert formed Louis IX through short scheduled installments, and Chosen Portion delivers formation in the same daily-installment pattern.
- One reading and prayer per day, about 3 minutes
- Continue with 78 royal and monastic works after the plan ends
- Reflection questions suited to reading with a teen or small group