Secunda epistola, secunda pars principalis, quae est de disciplina. Primum capitulum, de desiderio bonae famae, quod est in principe origo justitiae et disciplinae.
The Need for Princely Discipline
The author transitions from discussing the discipline of officials to the discipline owed by rulers themselves.
We have touched on a few things regarding the discipline of authorities and officials. Now the time demands that we discuss something about the discipline they owe.1
The Prince Must First Be Healed
The prince must be free from the evils he is to correct in others, since teaching without example is a dead voice.
For it is necessary that the one who waits for the healer's care should reveal the disease. But because the prince ought to set a limit to those evils for the grace given to himself, it is therefore necessary that he himself be free from things of this kind. For a dirty hand does not wipe away mud, and a doctor suffering from a similar illness is not believed at all when he wants to cure others by that same condition — instead he is reproached: 'Physician, heal yourself.'✦2 Nor is preaching in letters fully believed unless it is sealed by the effectiveness of work, since teaching that examples do not confirm is a voice that is dead and not alive.3
The Good Name and Self-Governance
A prince should govern himself carefully and seek a good name so that others grow by his example and his dominion advances in glory.
A prince, then, should govern himself through careful watchfulness over his own conduct, as the saying goes, according to that rule from Deuteronomy, and it is still necessary that the fragrance of his good name be poured out upon others.✦4 The wise man says, 'Have concern for a good name.'5 For in this way others will grow by his example, and, with heavenly grace inspiring them, his dominion will advance in glory and honor.6
Aristotle's Counsel to Alexander
Aristotle instructs Alexander that true kingship requires obedience to divine law, and that the desire for a good name is the foundation of justice, confidence, and all civic virtues.
So Aristotle, in his letter to Alexander, instructs the prince this way: Whoever, he says, places his kingdom under the divine law is worthy to reign and to rule with honor. And a little later: I repeat what wise philosophers and those speaking under divine inspiration have said — that above all it befits royal majesty to comply with what is established in the law, not in outward show but in the clear evidence of deed, so that everyone may know he fears God Most High and is subject to divine power. For otherwise, when would people revere and fear a king, if they see him neither fearing nor revering God? If, then, he shows himself religious only in outward appearance while being a wicked doer — since it is hard to hide shameful deeds and escape the people's notice — he will be rejected by God and despised by men. His deed will be disgraced, his power diminished. Know this, O Alexander: the intellect is the head of rule. Its first instrument is the desire for a good name, since reason, through that desire, chooses the truth; and truth gives birth to the desire for justice; and justice gives birth to confidence; confidence, generosity; generosity, goodwill; goodwill, friendship; friendship, counsel and support.
The Desire for a Good Name as the Foundation of Rule
Rule sought for a good reputation is in harmony with reason and nature, but rule sought otherwise leads through envy to the dissolution of law and the destruction of cities.
It was through this desire that the world was established, and laws were given to humanity, and these are in harmony with reason and with nature. But if a rule is sought or gained for any reason other than a good reputation, the acquisition will be nothing but envy.7 Envy, in turn, breeds lies and slander; slander breeds hatred; hatred breeds injury; injury breeds stubbornness; stubbornness breeds anger; anger breeds resistance; resistance breeds enmity; enmity breeds war. And war dissolves the law and destroys cities — and all this is against the law of nature.8
The Fragrance of a Good Reputation in Christ
A good reputation spreads the fragrance of Christ, edifies neighbors through shining works, and makes the prince's justice visible as light in the darkness.
We have heard of a man without Christ who, though he is known to agree with apostolic teaching, spreads the fragrance of his own reputation through us in every place — for he says, 'He makes known the fragrance of his knowledge through us everywhere' — because we are the good odor of Christ to God.✦ For it tends to the glory of Christ, to setting an example, and to the profit of one's neighbor, to spread abroad a good reputation. 'So let your works shine,' says the Son of God, 'before men, so that they may glorify your Father.'✦ For just as light, by generating itself, multiplies until it fills the whole hemisphere, so the justice of the prince spreads itself abroad through fame and works, as it is written: 'Those who fear God will find a just judgment, and they will kindle justice like a light.' For take away the light, and all things will remain unknown in darkness. Bring forth the light, and all things shine forth in the light.
Read the original Latin
Tetigimus aliqua de potestatum et officialium disciplina. Nunc tempus exigit ut aliqua disseramus de eorum debita disciplina.
Necesse est enim ut morbum detegat qui operam medicantis expectat. Sed quia princeps pro data sibi gratia finem debet imponere malis istis, inde necesse est ut ipse ab hujusmodi sit immunis. Non enim manus sordida tergit lutum, et medico consimili aegritudine laboranti qua curare vult alios usquequaque non creditur, sed improperatur eidem : Medice, cura teipsum. Xec litteris praedicatoriis perfecte creditur nisi operis efficacia sigillentur, quoniam eruditio quam non confirmant exempla vox est mortua et non viva .
Princeps ergo per diligentem sui custodiam, sicut dictum est, secundum illam Deuteronomii regulam dirigatur, et nihilominus est necesse quod ad alios odor boni ejus nominis diffundatur. Curam, inquit sapiens, habe de bono no mine. Sic enim alii exemplo ejus proficient et, aspirante cœlesti gratia, perse ver abit ejus dominium in gloria et honore.
Unde Aristoteles, in epistola ad Alexandrum, principem instruit in hune modum. Quicumque rex, inquit, supponit regnum suum divinae legi, dignus est regnare et honorifice dominari. Et post pauca : Dico iterum illud quod sapientes philosophi et divinitus loquentes dixerunt, quod in primis deceat regiam majestatem obtemperare in legalibus constitutis, non in ficta apparentia sed in facti evidentia, ut cognoscant omnes ipsum timere Deum excelsum, et esse subjectum divinae potentiae. Tune enim soient homines revereri et timere regem, quando vident ipsum timere et revereri Deum. Si itaque tantum in apparentia religiosum se ostendat, et in operibus sit maleficus, cum difficile sit nefaria opéra celari et apud populum ignorari, a Deo reprobabitur et ab hominibus contempnetur. Infamabitur ejus factum, diminuetur ejus imperium. Scias, o Alexander, quod intellectus est caput regiminis. Hujus primum instrumentum est desiderium bonae famae, quoniam ratio per desiderium bonae famae eligit veritatem, et veritas générât desiderium justitiae, et justifia générât confidentiam, confidentia largitatem, largitas familiaritatem, familiaritas amicitiam, amicitia consilium etjuvamen.
Per hoc orbis fuit constitutus, et leges hominibus constitutae, et haec rationi conveniunt et naturae. Si aliter autem quam propter bonam famam regimen appetitur vel acquiritur, erit acquisitio invidiae. Invidia vero générât mendacium et detractionem, detractio odium, odium injuriam, injuria pertinaciam, pertinacia iracundiam, iracundia repugnantiam, repugnantia inimicitiam, inimicitia bellum, bel lum vero dissolvit legem et destruit civitates, et hoc contra jus naturae.
Audivimus hominem sine Christo qui cum apostolico concordare noscitur documento : Odorem, inquit, notitiae suae manifestât per nos in omni loco, quia Christi bonus odor sumus Deo. Cedit enim in Christi gloriam, in exemplum, in lucrum proximi, diffundere bonam famam. Sic luceant, inquit Dei filius, opéra vestra corum hominibus ut glorifîcent patrem vestrum. Sicut enim lux generando se multiplicat donec totum emisperium repleat, sic principis justitia per famam et opéra se dilatât, sicut scriptum est : Qui timent Deum invenient judicium justum, et justitiam quasi lumen accendent. Aufer enim lumen et cuncta in tenebris ignota manebunt. Profer lumen et omnia in luce clarescunt.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Luke.4.23 — And he said to them, "Doubtless you will tell me this parable: 'Physician, heal yourself. Whatever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in your hometown.'"
- ↩Deut.17.18-Deut.17.20 — And when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law, from the one kept before the Levitical priests. Deut.17.19 — And it shall be with him, and he shall read in it all the days of his life, so that he may learn to fear the LORD his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes by doing them. Deut.17.20 — so that his heart may not be lifted up above his brothers, and so that he may not turn aside from the commandment, either to the right or to the left, in order that he may prolong his days over his kingdom, he and his sons, in the midst of Israel.
- ↩2Cor.2.14 — But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him in every place.
- ↩Matt.5.16 — In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in the heavens.
Notes
- 1 ↩Debita disciplina — 'due discipline' or 'discipline owed' — carries a sense of obligation or duty incumbent on the officials; rendered as 'the discipline they owe' to preserve the normative force.
- 2 ↩The closing imperative 'Medice, cura teipsum' echoes Luke 4:23, where Jesus quotes the proverb 'Physician, heal yourself.' Candidate allusion pending Moses resolution.
- 3 ↩The source reads 'Xec' — treated as a scribal variant of 'Nec' (nor/not) and translated accordingly.
- 4 ↩The phrase 'odor boni nominis' (fragrance of a good name) draws on biblical sacrificial language (cf. the 'soothing odor' of sacrifices); the prince's good reputation is presented as something that must flow outward to others, not merely cultivated for himself.
- 5 ↩The source reads 'de bono no mine,' which appears to be a corrupt or variant reading for 'de bono nomine' (for a good name). The translation follows the most plausible intended sense. Cf. Ecclus. 41:12 or similar wisdom literature on guarding one's good name.
- 6 ↩The source reads 'perse ver abit,' which appears to be a corruption or variant of 'perseverat' (it will endure/continue) or a similar verb. The translation renders the most plausible intended sense: the prince's dominion will go forward or advance. The ablative absolute 'aspirante cœlesti gratia' is rendered as 'with heavenly grace inspiring them.'
- 7 ↩Invidia here carries the force of envy as a corrosive public vice, not merely private jealousy — the political sense fits the mirror-for-princes context.
- 8 ↩The chain of vices (invidia → mendacium → detractio → odium → injuria → pertinacia → iracundia → repugnantia → inimicitia → bellum) is rendered as a causal sequence with 'breeds' to preserve the generative force of the Latin. Jus naturae is rendered 'law of nature' in keeping with the natural-law tradition the text invokes.
Eruditio regum et principum (Education of Kings and Princes) companion
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