Sextum capitulum, de acceptione personarum quae impedit justitiam in judiciis.
The Call to Upright Justice
Having seen the inflexibility of judgment in the blessed spirits, the chapter turns to reprove those who fall from upright justice through external partiality or internal laxity.
Now that we have seen how inflexible judgment is in the blessed spirits, let us reprove those who fall away from the uprightness of justice — whether by an external motive, namely the acceptance of persons, or by an internal failing, namely their own laxity.12
Defining Person-Based Partiality
Person-based partiality is defined as preferring one person over another for unwarranted reasons, originating in corrupted inward judgment and manifesting outwardly in three ways: granting benefits, showing honor, and executing judgment.
Personal partiality is this: when one person is preferred over another for no good reason. This partiality starts inwardly, in the corrupted judgment of the mind, and is set in motion there; then outwardly, in action, it is carried to completion. This personal partiality is exercised in three ways: sometimes in granting a benefit, sometimes in showing honor, sometimes in carrying out judgment.
Partiality in Granting Benefits
Conferring spiritual benefits or church offices based on worldly prominence or kinship is a damnable injustice, for benefices belong to the poor and spiritual, not to the rich and carnal friends.
On the first kind, this is the principle to hold. If someone confers a spiritual benefit or an ecclesiastical office on the basis of a condition rooted in some worldly prominence — because, say, the one receiving it is a relative, or for some such reason — I believe that person is working a damnable injustice.3 Church benefices are meant to be given to the poor, not to the rich; to spiritual men, not to carnal friends — for it is written: Woe to those who build Zion with bloodshed!✦4
Partiality in Showing Honor
Honoring a rich man to avoid scandal differs from honoring him because wealth is thought to indicate worth; the latter is sinful, as James 2:2–4 condemns, since human opinion is false.
Regarding the second kind, which we have called the showing of honor, the rule must be this: If a rich man is honored simply because failing to do so would cause him to be scandalized, it is not so much that a sin is committed but that scandal is avoided; and for this good, the rich man — who is presumed to need more — is thus enticed. If, however, a man is honored in advance because he is rich — so that the richer he is, the better he is believed to be — and if from this kind of corrupted judgment outward honor proceeds while inwardly all is wrong, then sin is certainly committed, just as it is written: 'If a man with a gold ring and bright clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothes also comes in, and you pay attention to the one wearing the splendid garment and say to him, "You sit here in a good place," but to the poor man you say, "You stand over there," or "Sit under my footstool," do you not judge among yourselves and become judges with wicked thoughts?'✦ For false are the things that spring from human opinion.
Partiality in Executing Judgment
Judging unjustly—whether by verdict or by favoring a poor person precisely because of poverty—has no excuse, for Scripture commands not to show pity to the poor in judgment.
Regarding the third kind, which we have called the execution of judgment, the rule is this: anyone who judges unjustly — whether by delivering a verdict or by siding with the unjust cause of a poor person simply because that person is poor — has no excuse. As it is written: 'Nor shall you show pity to a poor person in judgment.'✦
Conclusion: Scripture's Condemnation of Partiality
The chapter closes by affirming that sacred Scripture remarkably condemns the partiality of persons.
And let these remarks on the partiality of persons be enough — how remarkably the sacred Scriptures condemn it.5
Read the original Latin
Postquam in beatis spiritibus inflexibile judicii vidimus, eos qui a rectitudine justitiae deficiunt, aut exteriori motivo, ut est personarum acceptio, vel interiori defectivo, ut est propria remissio, arguamus.
Est autem personae acceptio cum ex causa indebita persona personae praefertur. Haec in corrupto mentis judicio, interius habens originem, inchoatur, et inactu exterius consummz'tur Quae personae acceptio tripliciter exercetur : aliquando in beneficii collatione, aliquando in honoris exhibitione, aliquando in judicii executione.
Et de prima specie sic tenendum. Si quis spirituale contulerit beneficium, aut ecclesiasticam dignitatem, ratione conditionis fundatae super eminentiam aliquam temporalem, ut puto quia consanguineus ejus est ille cui confert, vel hujusmodi, puto quod damnabilem operatur iniquitatem. Ecclesiae enim bénéficia conferenda sunt pauperibus, non divitibus, viris spiritualibus, non amicis carnalibus, quia : Vae illis qui aedificant Syon in sanguinibus !
De secunda specie, quam honoris exhibitionem diximus, sic tenendum : Si dives aliquis honoratur, quia nisi hoc fieret scandâlizetur, citius non peccatur, sed scandalo parcitur, et ad hoc bonum dives qui magis indigere praesu mitur sic alicitur. Si vero praehonoratur quia dives, ut tanto credatur melior quanto ditior, et ex hujusmodi judicio corrupto interius procedat honor exterior, certum est quod peccatur, sicut scriptum est : Si introierit in conventum vestrum vir annulum habens aureum in veste candida, introierit autem et pauper in sordido habitu, et intendatis in eum qui indutus est veste praeclara et dixeritis ei : tu sede hic bene ; pauperi autem dixeritis : tu sta illic, aut sede sub scabello pedum meorum, nonne judicatis apud vosmetipsos et facti estis judices cogitationum iniquarum ? Falsa enim sunt quae ex opinione nascuntur hominum.
De tertia vero specie quam executionem judicii diximus, sic tenendum : Qui judicat injuste ferendo sententiam, vel sustinendo causam injustam pauperis, quia pauper est, non habet excusationem. Unde scriptum est : Pauperis quoque non misereberis in judicio.
Et haec de personarum acceptione sufficiant, quam mirabiliter sacrosanctae Scripturae condemnant.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Mic.3.10 — who builds Zion with bloodshed, and Jerusalem with injustice
- ↩Jas.2.2-Jas.2.4 — For if a man with a gold ring comes into your assembly in fine clothing, and a poor man in filthy clothing also comes in, Jas.2.3 — and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothing and say, 'You sit here in a good place,' and to the poor person you say, 'You stand there,' or, 'Sit at my feet,' Jas.2.4 — Have you not made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with wicked thoughts?
- ↩Exod.23.3 — And a poor person you shall not favor in his dispute.
Notes
- 1 ↩Personarum acceptio (acceptance of persons) is a standard theological term for showing partiality or favoritism in judgment, echoing scriptural language (cf. Romans 2:11, Ephesians 6:9). The phrase is preserved here in its technical sense.
- 2 ↩Propria remissio (one's own laxity/remission) refers to an interior softening or slackening of justice — a personal failure of rigor distinct from the external cause of favoritism.
- 3 ↩damnabilem iniquitatem rendered as 'damnable injustice' to preserve the grave moral force; the Latin suggests an injustice worthy of damnation, not merely a mild fault.
- 4 ↩Vae illis qui aedificant Syon in sanguinibus — candidate allusion to Micah 3:10 (Vae qui aedificatis Sion in sanguinibus); final resolution deferred to Moses stage.
- 5 ↩The relative clause introduced by 'quam' expresses degree: 'how remarkably' or 'how powerfully.' The subjunctive 'sufficiant' is jussive/optative: 'let these suffice.'
Eruditio regum et principum (Education of Kings and Princes) companion
Louis IX kept a daily rule of reading. Keep yours.
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