Ex quihus causis transferantur principatus
The Fragility of Earthly Power
History demonstrates that kingdoms are swiftly overturned by divine judgment when rulers succumb to injustice and pride.
And kingdoms. It’s a famous saying of Wisdom that a kingdom is transferred from one people to another because of injustices, injuries, insults, and various deceits. Don’t you see how quickly the throne of the first king of God’s people was overturned? Saul and Jonathan, along with the other sons, fell on the mountains because their sins demanded it, so that the throne of the one chosen from behind the nursing ewes might be established.1 Look through the series of all histories, and you’ll see the successions of kings cut short in a moment, as if at the very beginning of the loom, with the Lord leading the way. And the more illustrious kings have been, the more quickly their offspring are trampled if they have become puffed up against God. There is no wisdom, no prudence, and no counsel against the Lord—certainly, there is no strength either. If He rises up, if He pursues, it’s in vain to run to begged-for sacramental favors and to the defenses of fortifications, because there is no one who can rescue from His hand.2 Who was greater in Greece than Alexander? And yet, it wasn't his own son who is said to have succeeded him, but the son of a dancer. Who doesn't know the history of the house of Caesar? Rarely, if ever, did one of them leave a son as heir; and all of them, in a short time, after various perils and the slaughter of themselves and their own, were wiped out by diverse and often shameful deaths as if in a moment, and those who descended to the underworld had either enemies or strangers as their successors. What, I ask, overturns and transfers such powerful kingdoms so quickly? Certainly, it is the indignation of God, which manifold injustice provoked against itself. Injustice is, however (as the Stoics hold), a state of mind that banishes fairness from the realm of character. For that it deprives the soul of justice is made clear even by the privative particle of the name itself.
The Four Cardinal Virtues
Justice, prudence, temperance, and fortitude serve as the life-giving rivers that sustain the soul and the state against the decay of sin.
Justice consists primarily in this: that you do no harm, and that you use your human duty to stop those who do. But when you do harm, you're moving toward injustice. When you fail to stop those who do harm, you're serving injustice. Contumely, however, is when a swelling of the mind is accompanied by a clear act of injury against another. And so, one serves iniquity by insolently rising up against someone to whom reverence is owed, whether by the condition of their office or by the bond of our common nature. Deceit, as Aquilius defines it, is when one thing is done and another is pretended; it's certainly evil whenever it's done with the intention of causing harm. Deceit differs greatly from contumely, since the latter harms proudly and openly, while the former harms fraudulently and as if from an ambush. These are the things that, when they occur, overturn the thrones of all powers, because the glory of princes is perpetuated by their opposites. For deceit bears the mark of weakness, born as it is from an image of timidity, and it is deeply opposed to fortitude. Prudence restrains insult, constantly asking: 'Why should dust and ashes act with pride?' Temperance does not permit injury, unwilling to inflict upon another what one would not want inflicted upon oneself by another. And justice excludes injustice, always doing for another what one would want done for oneself by another. These are the four virtues that philosophers call cardinal, because they are believed to flow from the first fountain of honesty as if from primary streams, and to propagate from themselves the currents of all good things. Perhaps these are the four rivers that flow out from the paradise of God’s delights, so that they may irrigate the whole earth, that it might bring forth desirable fruit in its season. If only the streams of this fullness would flow to me from the fountain of life—I speak of divine grace—watering the earth of my dryness, so that as the fruit of good works grows, I might at least be able to turn aside the blow of the impending axe, which, because of my sins, has been placed at my root like the root of a fruitless tree! Any tree planted beside those waters does not wither; but that which they do not moisten even to the roots dissolves and perishes, dry as the dust that the wind drives from the face of the earth.
The Prince as the Head of the Body
A ruler is responsible for the health of the entire body politic, as the failure of the members reflects the negligence of the head.
I don't think this excludes leaders or those in power, because the glory of kings will be taken away if they are found to be unjust, injurious, insulting, or deceitful. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken. However, with all due respect to the understanding of the wise, I don't think it's irrelevant that he listed these vices in the plural, and in that very plurality, he prudently inserted a certain diversity. For he says, as mentioned before, that the kingdom will be transferred from nation to nation because of injustices, injuries, insults, and various deceits. But the fact that he added 'various' at the end should, I think, be applied generally to everything and understood broadly enough to refer not only to different kinds of vices, but also to embrace the various characters of people and all the ways these vices are committed by anyone. For a prince is held responsible for everything and seems to be the author of it all because, since he has the power to correct everything, he is deservedly a participant in those things he refused to amend. For since public power is, as we have said, a drain on the strength of all, it must provide for the safety of all its members so that it does not fail within itself. However many offices exist in the administration of the principate, that is how many members there are, as it were, of the principal body. As long as the ruler maintains the duties of each person in the integrity of virtue and the sweetness of a good reputation, he secures a kind of health and beauty for the members of the body. But when, through the negligence or dissimulation of the power in charge, there is a loss of virtue or reputation regarding these duties, it is as if diseases and stains settle upon its members. And the health of the head can't last long where the weakness of the members grows strong.
Read the original Latin
et regna. Celebre est illud Sapientiae, quia regnum a gente in gentem transferetur propter iniustitias et iniurias et contumelias et diuersos dolos. Nonne uides quam breui subuersum sit solium primi regis in populo Dei? Saul et lonathas cum ceteris filiis exigentibus culpis in montibus corruerunt ut thronus iUius qui de post fetantes electus est, firmaretur. Omnium historiarum percurre seriem et regum successiones in breui uidebis et quasi in exordio telae Domino praecidente succisas. Et quo reges fuerint clariores, eo citius, si aduersus Deum intumuerint, conculcatur semen eorum. Non est sapientia, non est prudentia, non est consilium contra Dominum, certe nec fortitudo. Si ille insurgit, si persequitur, ad emendicata sacramentorum suffragia et ad praesidia munitionum frustra decurritur, quia non est qui de manu illius possit eruere.
Quis Alexandro maior in Grecia"? Et tamen non suus legitur successisse sed filius saltatricis. Quis Cesareae domus seriem nescit? Rarus eorum aut nullus filium reliquit heredem, et omnes in breui post uaria pericula et caedes sui et suorum plurimas diuersis mortibus et fere ignominiosis quasi in momento deleti sunt et descendentes ad inferos successores habuerunt aut hostes aut ignotos. Quid obsecro tam potentia regna tam cito subuertit et transtulit? Certe indignatio Dei quam in se multiplex iniustitia prouocabat. Est autem (ut Stoicis placet) iniustitia mentis habitus quae a regione morum exterminat aequitatem. Animam namque priuare iustitia uel ex priuatiua particula nominis declaratur.
In eo autem maxime constat iustitia, si non noceas et ex officio humanitatis prohibeas nocentes. Cum uero noces, accedis ad iniuriam. Cum nocentes non impedis, iniustitiae famularis. Est autem contumelia, quando tumorem mentis in lesione alterius manifesta operis sequela comitatur. Eoque iniquitati seruit, quod in eum, cui reuerentia pro conditione officii uel naturae consortio debetur, insolenter insurgit. Dolus autem est (ut diffinit Aquilius) cum aliud agitur et aliud simulatur; malus utique, quotiens fit intentione nocendi. Differt autem plurimum dolus a contumelia, quoniam haec superbe et manifesto, ille fraudulenter et quasi ab insidiis nocet. Haec sunt quae, cum incurrunt, cathedras subuertunt a omnium potestatum, quia a contrariis perpetuatur principum gloria.
Dolus namque ex timiditatis imagine infirmitatis notam habet, et fortitudini plurimum aduersatur. Contumeliam prudentia reprimit, ingeminans iugiter: Quid in terram et cinerem superbit terra et cinis? Iniuriam temperantia non admittit, nolens inferre alii quod sibi noUet ab alio irrogari. Et iniustitiam iustitia excludit, usquequaque faciens alii quod faciendorum uellet ab alio fieri sibi ipsi. Hae sunt quattuor uirtutes, quas philosophi cardinales appellant, eo quod a primo fonte honestatis quasi primi riuuK manare credantur et de se bonorum omnium fluenta propagare. Haec forte sunt quattuor flumina, quae de paradiso deliciarum Dei egrediuntur, ut irrigent omnem terram, quo fruetum desiderabilem afferat in tempore suo. Vtinam et ad me de fonte uitae (diuinam gratiam loquor) huius plenitudinis pertranseant riuuli, ariditatis meae inebriantes terram, ut succreseente fructu bonorum operum, saltem declinare ualeam imminentis securis ictum, quae exigentibus culpis meis ad radicem meam quasi ad radicem infructuosae arboris posita est! Quodcumque lignum secus aquas istas positum est, non arescit; quod uero uel radicitus non humectant, dissoluitur et aridum perit tamquam puluis quem proicit uentus a facie terrae.
Hic quidem non duces exceptos arbitror, non potentes, quia regum gloria transferetur, si iniusti iniuriosi contumeliosi inuenti fuerint aut dolosi. Os siquidem Domini locutum est. Verumtamen, saluo intellectu sapientiorum, non ab re est (ut opinor) quod nomina uitiorum locutione plurali exposuit, et in ipsa pluraHtate diuersitatem quandam prudenter inseruit. Ait enim, ut praedictum est, quia regnum de gente in gentem transferetur propter iniustitias et iniurias et contumelias et diuersos dolos. Quod autem diuersos in fine subiecit, puto communiter ad omnia referendum et tam pleno concipiendum intellectu, ut non modo referatur ad diuersas species uitiorum sed et uarias figuras personarum complectatur et modos omnes quibus a quocumque haec uitia committuntur. Princeps enim tenetur de omnibus et oranium auctor esse uidetur quia, cum omnia possit corrigere, eorum merito particeps est quae noluit emendare. Cum enim potestas publica sit, ut praediximus, omnium uires exhaurit et, ne in se deficiat, incolumitatem omnium debet procurare membrorum. Quot autem in administratione principatus extant officia, tot sunt principalis corporis quasi membra.
Dum autem singulorum officia in integritat j uiriiutis et suauitate opinionis conseruat, quandam quasi membris sanitatem procurat et decorem. Cum uero ex negligentia aut dissimulatione potestatis circa officia sit uirtutis aut famae dispendium, quasi in membra eius morbi et maculae incumint. Xec diu subsistit ineolumitas capitis, ubi languor membrorum inualescit.
Notes
Policraticus companion
Study the argument weekly; pray the tradition daily
Pair the outline with the Chosen Portion app, which serves short daily portions from the same royal devotional tradition — free on iOS.
John of Salisbury argued that rulers must keep the law of God before their eyes daily; Chosen Portion gives modern readers that same daily discipline in five minutes a morning.
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- Discussion questions usable for a reading group from week one
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