Sextum capitulum, de malis legibus tollendis quae fiunt in civitatibus et castellis, et bonis substituendis, ne sit populus sine lege.
The Ruler as Image of Divine Justice
The ruler, as servant of the public good and image of divine truth, wields the sword and staff of justice impartially, punishing the guilty without anger and confirming his decrees with the permanence of truth.
Since the ruler is therefore a servant of the public good and a servant of justice — an uncorrupted judge, whom the laws declare to hold public authority, and who is, in a certain way, an image of divine truth on earth — he bears a public role in that he punishes the injuries, losses, and crimes of all through the mediation of equity, holding the rod and staff, so that by the uprightness of truth and the strength of authority he may seize upon and correct the excesses of his subjects.✦ But his shield is also the shield of the weak, powerfully warding off the darts of evildoers on behalf of wrongs done to the innocent. And if we believe the apostle, it is not without cause that he is girded with the sword by which he sheds the blood of the guilty, and yet he is not a man of bloodshed; and frequently he puts men to death, yet he does not incur the name or guilt of murder.✦ For even if David is read as having been called a man of blood, this was not on account of his wars but on account of Uriah, as the great Augustine asserts. This is the sword of the dove, which contends without a weapon, strikes without anger, and, since it serves justice, does not incur the bitterness of guilt. For thus the ruler most rightly punishes, beyond all impulse of anger, according to the judgment of a gentle law, just as the law pursues offenses beyond any hatred of persons. Some he restrains by the gentleness of words, some he compels by the authority of decrees, and some he strikes down by the severity of the laws. Indeed, those decrees that are promulgated at the pleasure of the king or prince are observed inviolably, so that the utterance of truth may be confirmed forever.✦
The Sacred Oath of Law: Lycurgus and the Pirate
Through the example of Lycurgus, who bound his people by oath to preserve his laws unto death, and the pirate who answered Alexander that empire differs from robbery only in scale, the text teaches that without justice kingdoms are mere banditries.
Lycurgus, then, when he established laws in his own kingdom, bound the people to obedience toward their rulers, and the rulers to justice toward the people. And to give his laws a kind of permanence, he made the state swear an oath that they would change nothing in his laws until he returned. So he set out for Crete and lived in perpetual exile. When he died, he ordered his bones thrown into the sea, fearing that if they were carried back to Sparta, his former subjects would think themselves free to loosen the laws and disregard the sanctity of their oath. For when the justice of laws is stripped away, what are kingdoms but great banditries — just as, on the other hand, small banditries are kingdoms? Hence, with as much elegance as truth, a pirate captured by Alexander of Macedon answered when the king asked him why he kept the sea hostile. "And you," he said, "do the same to the whole world. But because I do it in a small ship, I am called a robber. You, however, because you do it with a great fleet, are called emperor."
Abolishing Evil Laws, Restoring Christ's Teaching
The ruler must examine and purge all customs and laws contrary to divine law, replacing them with Christ's teaching, for a people without law walks the many roads of perdition, whereas Christ Himself is the one royal way, the truth, and the life.
Let the ruler, then, consider the customs by which the citizens live and the laws by which the individual cities under his authority are governed, and whatever is found to be contrary to the divine law, let it be removed from their midst — no custom standing in the way, no length of time giving it force. And so let laws that are not lawful be abolished, and let those that accord with the teaching of Christ be put in their place, lest the common people live without the beauty of discipline, or the nation without law. For the wrath of the Lord is escaped under the tenfold strength of discipline. Let the undisciplined common people, then, take hold of discipline, lest at some point the Lord become angry. For discipline is the ordered correction of morals and the proper observance of the rules of the law. A people without law is one who does not keep the rightful decrees of rulers, who despises the enactments of the laws, and who therefore, through the various deviations of errors and the abuse of morals, falls into the snare of perdition. For then one walks through many roads of perdition when the one royal way — namely, the law of the Lord — is abandoned, the way by which one turns aside neither to the left nor to the right, about which Christ, who is the Son of the law, declares to everyone believing, for the sake of justice: I am the way, the truth, and the life.✦ If, however, Christ is the Son of the law, as the Apostle says, then it is certain that those who are without law live without Christ.✦
A Final Exhortation: Not Without Christ, Not Without the Law
With the Gospel now shining forth, the faithful are urged neither to live without Christ nor without His law, lest Christ in turn be without them in the age to come.
So let us not live without Christ or without the law, now that the Gospel is shining forth—lest Christ begin to be without us in the time to come.✦1
Read the original Latin
Cum igitur publicae utilitatis minister et aequitatis servus sit princeps, incorruptus judex, quem jura diffiniunt esse potestatem publicam, et in terris quamdam esse divinae ymaginem veritatis, in eo personam publicam gerit quod omnium injurias, dampna et crimina aequitate mediante punit, virgam habens et baculum, ut rectitudine veritatis et fortitudine potestatis excessus corripiat et corrigat subditorum. Sed et ejus clipeus est clipeus infirmorum, qui malignantium jacula potenter excipiat pro injuriis innocentium. Et, si credamus apostolo, non sine causa accingitur quo nocentium sanguinem fundit, nec tamen sit vir sanguinum, et fréquenter homines occidit, nec nomen incurrit homicidii vel reatum. Nam etsi David legatur vir sanguinum appellatus, non hoc propter bella, sed propter Uriam est, ut magnus asserit Augustinus. Hic est columbae gladius quae sine telle rixatur ; sine iracundia ferit, et, cum justitiae serviat, reatus amaritudinem non incurrit. Sic enim princeps rectissime punit praeter omnera iracundiae motum, secundum mansuetae legis arbitrium, quomodo lex culpas persequitur praeter odium personarum. Hos verborum benignitate compescit, hos edictorum auctoritate compellit, hos vero legum severitate percellit. Quae vero edicta de beneplacito regis aut principis promulgantur, inviolabiliter observantur, ut labium veritatis in perpetuum confirmetur.
Ligurgus enim in regno suo décréta constituens populum ad obsequia principum, principes vero ad justitiam pro populo confirmavit, et, ut aeternitatem suis daret legibus, jurejurando obligat civitatem nihil se mutaturos de legibus suis donec reverteretur. Profectus igitur Cretam in perpetuo exulavit, abicique moriens ossa sua in mare praecepit, ne relatis Lachedemonem solutos se subditi sui crederent tam in solvendis legibus quam in religione jurisjurandi. Remota enim legum justitia quid sunt regna nisi magna latrocinia, sicut e converso latrocinia parva regna ? Unde tam eleganter quam veraciter Alexandro Macedonum comprehensus pirata respondit, cum idem rex hominem interrogaret : Cur mare haberet infestum ? Et te, inquit, orbis terrarum, sed quoniam id ego exiguo navigio facio, latro vocor, tu vero, quia magna classe, diceris imperator.
Consideret ergo princeps consuetudines quibus scilicet vivunt cives, et leges quibus reguntur sub eo singulae civitates, et quod inventum fuerit divinae legi contrarium fiât de medio, nulla obstante consuetudine, nulla praescriptione temporis roboratum. Et sic leges non legitimae abrogentur, et quae Christi doctrinae consonant subrogentur, ne vivat plebs sine pulcritudine disciplinae aut populus sine lege. Ira enim Domini sub x disciplinae vigore evaditur. Appréhendât ergo plebs indisciplinata dis ciplinam, nequando Dominus irascatur. Est enim disciplina morum ordinata correctio, et debita regularum legis observatio. Populus vero sine lege est qui debita edicta principum non custodit, qui legum scita contempnit, et ideo per diversas errorum et abusionis morum orbitas laqueum perditionis incurrit. Tune enim per multas perditionis vias inceditur cum una regalis via, lex scilicet Domini, deseritur, per quam nec ad sinistram nec ad dextram declinatur, de qua Christus qui est filius legis ad justitiam omni credenti denuntiat : Ego sum via, veritas et vita. Si autem filius legis est Christus, ut ait Apostolus, qui sine lege sunt certum est quoniam sine Christo vivunt.
Non igitur sine Christo vel sine lege vivamus, choruscante jam Evangelio, ne sine nobis Christus esse incipiat in futuro.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Ps.23.4 — Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff — they comfort me.
- ↩Rom.13.4 — For he is God's servant for your good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is God's servant, an avenger for wrath against the one who practices evil.
- ↩Ps.45.2 — My heart is stirred by a noble theme; I address my work to the king; my tongue is the pen of a ready scribe.
- ↩John.14.6 — Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.'
- ↩Gal.4.4-Gal.4.5 — But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, Gal.4.5 — in order to redeem those under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.
- ↩John.14.6 — Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.'
Notes
- 1 ↩'choruscante' (from chorusco) is a rare/medieval form meaning 'shining forth' or 'gleaming'; the image is of the Gospel's light now radiating abroad. The final clause 'ne sine nobis Christus esse incipiat in futuro' is syntactically compressed: the sense is that if we live without Christ now, he will be absent from us in the future.
Eruditio regum et principum (Education of Kings and Princes) companion
Louis IX kept a daily rule of reading. Keep yours.
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