Quod manus rei jfmblicae aut armata est aut
The Two Hands of the State
The state functions through both an armed hand for defense and an unarmed hand for justice, both of which require moral discipline.
The hand of the state is either armed or unarmed. The armed hand carries out military duties, while the unarmed hand is responsible for justice and serves without weapons. Neither is the state served solely by those who, equipped with helmets and armor, wield swords or any weapons against enemies, but also by the patrons of causes who, relying on glorious words, lift up the fallen and restore the weary. Tax collectors, attendants, and the staff of every judge also serve the state. There are different duties for peace and war, and it's necessary that each be fulfilled by different people. The armed hand is used only against the enemy, while the unarmed hand reaches out to the citizen. Moreover, discipline is necessary for both, because both are often marked by wrongdoing. The use of hands also signifies the head of its own body, because, as Wisdom says, an unjust king has all wicked ministers; and as the ruler of a city is, so are the inhabitants in it.
The Corruption of Unarmed Service
Officials and tax collectors must be strictly restrained from extortion, as their abuse of power under the guise of law is particularly heinous.
It's praiseworthy for those in authority to show restraint by keeping their own hands free from extortion and injury, while also holding back the hands of others. Yet the hands of both the armed and unarmed services are the hands of the prince; unless he restrains both, he's hardly showing restraint himself. In fact, the unarmed service must be kept in check even more strictly, because while the armed are commanded to abstain from extortion and plunder, the unarmed are also barred from accepting gifts. However, if a legitimate penalty is imposed on someone, or if what is legally established or permitted is demanded or accepted, it isn't punished or criticized at all. Whatever this may be, it doesn't qualify as extortion, nor does it fall under the category of a gift that officials are forbidden to accept. But because officials have more leeway—since they can plunder or harass private citizens under the pretext of their office—what they presume to do against their duty must be punished more severely. As the blessed Laurentius, Bishop of Milan, says: What is a tax collector? Isn't he the head of plunder and the law of violence? What is a tax collector? A predator without shame, a doctor of destruction. Isn't a tax collector more monstrous than a common thief? A thief steals out of fear, but this man does wrong with total confidence. A thief fears the traps of the law; this man considers whatever he does to be the law. The law deters a thief from what is forbidden, but this man twists the law to serve the wicked ends of his own malice. Who is more wicked than the one who uses the language of justice to condemn justice itself, and who uses the weapons of innocence to strip, wound, and kill the innocent? He uses the law to destroy the law, and while he forces others to follow it, he himself is lawless. Just as a magistrate, even when making an unjust ruling, is still speaking the law—focusing not on what he is actually doing, but on what he ought to be doing—so too a tax collector, even when doing wrong, seems to be fulfilling the law by focusing on the duties of his office rather than his own malice. But what is the duty of a tax collector? We learn from Luke that tax collectors came to John to be baptized by him, and they asked, 'Master, what shall we do?' And he answered them, 'Collect no more than what is appointed for you.' So, the tax collector's duty is to collect and receive only what has been established. Whatever is more than that comes from the evil of the one collecting and receiving, not from the one paying. This applies to the officials of all magistrates, so that nothing more may be demanded by them. Therefore, court officers may lawfully collect what is owed to them in fees, and military commanders of all ranks may justly receive their established salary. However, it isn't permitted to shake people down or harass them in order to extort gifts.
The Locusts of Injustice
The author compares corrupt officials to ravenous insects that devour the fruits of human labor, noting how they manipulate the law to silence dissent.
“Fire,” says blessed Job, “will consume the tents of those who gladly accept bribes.” Their assembly has conceived pain and brought forth iniquity, and its womb prepares deceit. The whole crowd of tax collectors, from the greatest to the least, is now given over to extortion rather than justice. They rage against the people so that what one leaves behind, the others don't hesitate to take, as if they were established for this very purpose according to the prophetic complaint: that the locust might eat what the caterpillar leaves behind. To give them greater license to do harm, one person piles up multiple offices, so that what he didn't take by one office, he might snatch away by another. Naturalists report that the caterpillar is born from the locust, and it is called by that name as long as it has no wings. Then, as its wings grow and it begins to fly, it is called a locust. When it can fly fully, it becomes a locust again; yet the caterpillar is much more burdensome than the locust or the winged insect, because it lacks wings and cannot quickly move away.1 And so, wherever it arrives, it consumes the crops entirely. Locusts and caterpillars do harm wherever they go, and perhaps in many places, but they are less destructive than the grub, which, once it settles, doesn't move until it has completely devoured the fruits of human labor. But among officials you'll find that same grub, caterpillar, and locust—one that harms those nearby and those far away, and once it settles on someone, it devours their fortune and doesn't leave until it has stripped them of all their assets. Who can count how many orphans they have officiously defrauded, how many fields they have unjustly seized, or how many people among us—stripped of their goods by the license of these men under the guise of religious life or some other pretext—they have turned not just into pilgrims and travelers, but into exiles? These things are happening openly now, and no governors or proconsuls stop them, because—as the saying goes—the crow congratulates the wolf on its work, and the corrupt judge applauds the minister of iniquity. This has become known to everyone through experience: princes whose partners are unfaithful are themselves companions of thieves; when they see them in the act of wrongdoing, they run with them, adding to the iniquity just to get their own share of the profit. If you have shown mercy to the poor, if you have wept for the decline of justice, if you have decided to help, or if you dare to stay silent so that you don't say 'Bravo, bravo' to everything they say or do, the Herodian accusers will make you answer for treason before the governor. If you don't agree with them in everything, you're contradicting Caesar; whatever they dictate, if it doesn't go or stand exactly as they say, it's treated as an attack on the person of the king and his crown. The clamor of officials will rise and redouble, growing to the very clouds as they repeat in a loud voice: 'We have found this man subverting the people, forbidding taxes to be paid to Caesar, and denying that Caesar is king, while claiming that everything is permitted to his ministers by right. We have found this man emptying out the established laws, introducing new ones, and holding ancient custom in contempt; we are witnesses to this.'
The Perversion of Justice
Corrupt officials create a false peace by weaponizing the law against the innocent, forcing the prince to choose between their tyranny and true justice.
If you try to clear your name, or argue anything for the sake of justice, or say that Christ is King—to whom we must obey rather than men—or if you bring up any privilege of His Church (since this is what they find most hateful), they will immediately start shouting and thundering: "What more evidence do you need? You yourselves have heard the blasphemy; anyone who claims such things is contradicting Caesar." But if a judge sees the innocence of the accused and, out of respect for justice, tries to overlook it, they will all cry out from every side: "If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar." So that the punishment of one may be the liberation of many, take him away and destroy him, so that Barabbas may live and thrive. For they are all like one body which, as their obvious deeds prove, is from their father the devil, whose members they are. The blessed Job spoke remarkably well of such people: "His body is like molten shields, and compacted with scales pressing against one another; one is joined to another, and not even a breath passes between them; one clings to another, and holding together, they will never be separated." They stand by one another, because they have gathered together against the Lord and against His Christ. They wield such authority that whatever they say carries as much weight as if it were found in the official records. Their testimony prejudices the truth. Only the prince has the authority to challenge their judgments. Unless the prince restrains them, even if everyone claims there is peace, it certainly isn't—or it’s the kind of peace that holds the most bitter of bitterness. While in other situations it’s lawful to repel force with force through legitimate self-defense, you aren't allowed to even whisper against those who shake you down, rob you, or torture you, because they appear to be ministers of the law. A person is excused for doing something to protect their own body; yet if they resist those who are dragging them away by any injury, they are judged worthy of any punishment. If they pull your hair until it's messy and ruined, if they pluck your beard, if they stretch your ears as if they were too short, if they slap you or strike you with a fist in their wickedness, or if they gouge out one of your eyes, endure it patiently, unless you would rather lose both; for they boast that whatever they presume to do is done by the right hand of Caesar. If you carry a weapon in your hand, if you refuse to offer your neck voluntarily, they strip your belly, expose your throat, stretch out your neck, and provoke you so that, if you dare, you might pierce Caesar's entrails with your weapon and strike Caesar in whatever way you please; for they boast that they are acting in the person of Caesar. But if this is the right hand of Caesar, what then will be the left? In truth, the faction of these men does not carry out justice but mocks it, and they do not fulfill the law but empty it of meaning, even though some fraudulently defend their own error with a savage prerogative of words against the spirit of the law; for they are wise in doing evil.2
The Prince’s Responsibility
The prince must restrain his ministers to protect the province, which is his own treasury, or face divine judgment for the destruction of his people.
While this plague is indeed destructive to the people of the provinces, it can be more destructive to no one than to the prince; for the goods of the provincials are the prince's own, since everything that belongs to the provincials is, by law, exposed to the prince's necessity and use. The entire province is like the prince's treasury, and whoever drains it sins most gravely against the prince whose resources they are diminishing. For the provincials are, in a sense, mere tenants; whenever the necessity of power demands it, they aren't so much the owners of their own property as they are its custodians. If, however, no urgent necessity exists, the provincials' goods should remain their own, and not even the prince himself may freely abuse them. For if it's in the public interest that no one should misuse their own property, it's certainly not permitted to abuse the property of others. But when a province has been exhausted by ministers of iniquity and crime, and by the satellites of Satan—those Herodian men—if a necessity then arises, whom will the prince use? Therefore, if he is wise, he will restrain their jaws with bit and bridle, so they cannot, like wolves driven by insatiable hunger, devastate and tear apart the province, and in doing injury to the prince, drain away the strength of the entire commonwealth. Otherwise, he himself will fall into poverty, becoming hateful to all the provincials, and will have to render an account to his own Judge in the strict examination regarding the works of his own hands and the injury done to the provincials, whom he unjustly—and, as it were, through fraud under the shadow of protection—despoiled and tore apart with an unarmed hand.
Read the original Latin
inermis; et quae sit inermis, et de officio eius, Manus itaque rei publicae aut armata est aut inermis. is Armata quidem est quae castrensem et cruentam exercet militiam; inermis quae iustitiam expedit et ab armis feriando iuris militiae seruit. Neque enim rei publicae militant soli illi qui galeis toracibusque muniti in hostes exercent gladios aut tela quaelibet, sed et patroni causarum qui gloriosae uocis confisi munimine lapsa erigunt, fatigata reparant; nec niinus prouident humano generi quam si laborantium uitam, spem posterosque armorum praesidio ab hostibus tuerentur. Militant et publicani apparitores et officiales omnium iudicum. Sicut enim alia sunt officia pacis, alia belli, ita eadem necesse est per alios et alios expediri. Armata itaque manus in hostem dumtaxat exercetur, at inermis extenditur et in ciuem. Porro utriusque necessaria est disciplina, quia utriusque solet insignis esse malitia. Vsus quoque manuum capitis sui protestatur imaginem, quia, ut ait Sapientia, rex iniquus omnes ministros impios habet; et qualis rector est ciuitatis, tales sunt et inhabitantea in ea, Oportet, inquit Perides, coUegam Soffoclem arguens, praetorem non modo manus sed oculos habere continentes.
Est autem praesidentium continentia illa laudabilis, cum ab exactionibus et iniuriis continent manus suas et cohibent alienas. Manus tamen utriusque militiae, armatae uidelicet et inermis, manus principis est; et nisi utramque cohibeat, parum continens est. Et quidem artius est compescenda inermis, eo quod cum armati praecipiantur abstinere ab exactionibus et rapinis, inermis etiam a muneribus arcetur. Si tamen pena alicui irrogatur legitima, si exigitur aut accipitur quod iure statutum est uel concessum, nequaquam punitur aut reprehenditur. Hoc enim quicquid sit, exactionis nomen non recipit; neque cadit in muneris rationem quod officiales accipere prohibentur. Quia uero officialium licentia maior est, dum sub praetextu officii spoliare possunt aut uexare priuatos, quod contra officium praesumunt pena feriendum est grauiori. Ait enim beatus Laurentius Mediolanensis episcopus: Quid est publicanus? Nonne caput rapinae et lex uiolentiae?
Quid est publicanus? Praedo sine pudore, medicus exterminii. Nonne immanior est furibus publicanus? Fur namque uel timens furatur; hic autem delinquit confidenter. Fur laqueos legis timet; hic quicquid fecerit legem putat. Lex furem deterret a ab illicitis; hic ad iniquum malitiae suae compendium legem trahit. Quis eo iniquior, qui uerbis iustitiae iustitiam dampnat,, et armis innocentiae spoliat, uulnerat, occidit innocentes? Lege utique legem perimit et, dum alios urget ad legem, exlex est.
Nam sicut praetor, etiam cum inique decernit, ius dicit, habito tamen re Sectu non ad id quod facit sed ad id quod facere debet; sic e Vublicanus, etiam cum delinquit, ius uidetur implere, habita t Wen officii, non malitiae ratione. Sed quod est officium publicani? Luca referente didicimus quia publicani uenerunt ad lohannem ut baptizarentur ab eo; et dixerunt: Magister, quid faciemus 'i Respondens autem dicebat illis: Nichil amplius quam quod constitutum est uobis exigatis. Ecce officium publicani exigere et recipere quod statutum est. Quicquid autemamplius est, a malo est exigentis et accipientis, non praebentis. Hoc autem ad omnium magistratuum officiales porrigitur, ut ab eis nichil amplius exigatur. Apparitores itaque licenter exigunt quod eis debetur ex sportulis, et omnium stratilatum ordines salarium constitutum iuste accipiunt. Concutere tamen et vexare non licet, ut extorqueantur et munera.
Ignis, inquit beatus lob, deuorabit tabernacula eorum qui munera libenter accipiunt. Concepit dolorem conuentus eorum et peperit iniquitatem, et uterus eius praeparat dolos. Publicanorum omnium a maximo usque ad minimum cetus concussioni nunc potius quam iustitiae uacat, et ita in populum debaccantur ut quod reliquit unus, alii non morentur auferre, ac si iuxta conquestionem propheticam ad hoc instituti sint, ut residuum locustae comedat brucus. Et, ut eis sit maior licentia nocendi, unus in se plura coaceruat officia, ut quod ab uno non accepit officio, tollat ab aHo. Tradunt phisiologi quod ex locusta nascitur brucus, qui ita uocatur quousque alas habeat. Exinde succrescentibus alis, cum ceperit uolitare, uocatur athelebus. Cum enim plenissime uolare poterit, efficitur locusta iterum; et multo grauior est brucus quam locusta et athelebus, quia ei desunt alae nec cito potest abscedere. Ideoque quocumque uenerit, fruges omnino consumit.
Lod custa tamen et athelebus quocumque uenerint nocent et forte in locis pluribus sed tamen minus bruco, qui cum insederit non mouetur, donec labores hominum omnino exhauriat. At in officialibus eundem brucum, athelebum inuenies et locustam, qui propinquis noceat et remotis, et illius, cui semel insederit, fortunam deuoret, nec ante abscedat quam omnes eius auferat facultates. Quis numerare potest quot pupillos officiosissime circumscripserit et quot uenales iniuria fecerit agros et quot apud nos licentia istorum suis nudatos bonis sub imagine religionis alioue praetextu non tam Romipetas et peregrinos quam exules fecerit? Vtique iam fiunt ista palam, nec eos praesides aut proconsules cohibent, quia (ut dici solet) operibus lupi a congratulatur coruus, et ministro iniquitatis impius iudex applaudit. Hoc autem omnibus his usu innotuit, principes quorum infideles sunt, socii furum, quos cum in maleficio uiderint, currunt cum eis, adicientes iniquitatis partem ut lucri quamcumque recipiant portionem. Si misertus fueris pauperis, si occasum iustitiae fleueris, si decreueris subuenire, si obmutire audes, ut ad singula quae dicunt aut faciunt non dixeris: Euge euge, accusantibus Herodianis lesae maiestatis reddes coram praeside rationem. Cui nisi in omnibus adquieueris, Cesari contradices, et quicquid dictet, nisi sic eat et nisi sic stet, est in personam regis contraque h coronam. Consurget, ingeminabitur, et usque ad nubes inualescet ofilcialium clamor replicantium uoce magna: Hunc inuenimus subuertentem populum et prohibentem tributa dari Cesari negantemque Cesarem regem esse et ministris eius uniuersa de iure licere; hunc inuenimus euacuantem patemas leges, nouas introducentem, et uetustissimae consuetudinis contemptorem; huius rei testes sumus.
Quod si tuam purgare uolueris innocentiam aut pro iustitia quicquam astruere, si Christum dixeris regem esse, cui magis oporteat quam hominibus obediri, si Ecclesiae eius (quoniam hoc odiosissimum est) aliquod protuleris priuilegium, continuo uociferantes intonabunt: Quid amplius desideratis testes ecce uos ipsi audistis blasphemiam; quisquis asserit talia, contradicit Cesari. Si uero iudex innocentiam uidens iustitiamque reueritus dissimulauerit, undique conclamabunt: Si hunc dimittis, non es amicus Cesaris. Vt umus pena liberatio sit multorum, tolle et dele hunc ut uiuat et ualeat Barrabas. Omnes enim simt quasi corpus unum quod, sicut manifesta conuincunt opera, ex patre diabolo est, cuius isti sunt membra. Egregie quidem de istis beatus lob ait: Corpus illius quasi scuta fusilia et compactimi squamis se prementibus; una uni coniungitur, et ne spiraculum quidem incedit per eas; una alteri coherebit, et tenentes se nequaquam separabuntur. Assistunt sibi, quia conuenerunt in unum aduersus Dominum et add uersus Christum eius. Tantaque uigent auctoritate ut quicquid dixerint ita obtineat ac si inueniatur in actis. Attestatio eorum ueritati praeiudicat.
Non est praeter principem cui liceat obuiare eorum sententiis. Nisi eos princeps coherceat, licet omnes dicant quia pax est, non est utique pax, aut illa pax sola est in qua est amaritudo amarissima. Nam cum alias habita moderatione inculpatae tutelae uim ui repellere liceat, concutientibus spoliantibus torquentibus his mutire non licet; iuris etenim uidentur esse ministri. Excusatur qui aliquid ob tutelam proprii corporis fecerit; si tamen quauis iniuria trahentibus his restiterit, dignus pena qualibet iudicatur. Si crinem turbatum et turpatum protrahit, si barbam uellit, si aures quasi a nimium breues producit, si dat alapam aut percutit pugno impie, si alterum eruit oculum, sustine patienter, nisi utrumque malis amittere; quia quicquid praesumunt, Cesaris dextra factum iactitant. Si telum manu gestas, si spontaneam detrectas praebere ceruicem, uentrem nudat, ostentat iugulum, ceruicem extendit, et te prouocat ut, si audes, Cesaris intestina telo rimeris et quo libuerit modo maniun mittas in Cesarem; se enim personam Cesaris gerere gloriatur. At si haec est dextera Cesaris, quaenam sinistra erit? Profecto factio istorum non iustitiam exequitur sed illudit, et non implefc sed euacuat legem, licet nonnuUi seua praerogatiua uerborum aduersus mentem legis suum fraudulenter tueantur errorem; sapientes enim sunt ut faciant mala.
Cum uero prouincialibus sit haec pestis perniciosa, nulli pemiciosior potest esse quam principi; bona siquidem prouincialium principis sunt; ad necessitatem et usum principis omnia quae prouincialium sunt, de iure exponuntur. Prouincia tota quasi archa principis est, quam quisquis exhaurit, grauissime delinquit in principem cuius extenuat facultates. Nam prouinciales quasi quidam superficiarii sunt et, quotiens usus exigit potestatis, rerum suarum non tam domini sunt quam custodes. Si uero necessitatis non incumbit articulus, sua sint prouincialium bona sua, quibus nec ipse princeps licenter abutitur. Si enim expedit rei publicae ne quis re sua male utatur, abuti aliena usquequaque non licet. At cum per ministros iniquitatis et sceleris et satellites Sathanae, uiros Herodianos, fuerit exhausta prouincia, si necessitas imminet, quibus utetur princeps? Proinde, si sapit, in camo et freno maxillas eorum constringet, ne more luporum quos improba uentris agit ingluuies, uastare possint et lacerare prouinciam et in iniuriam principis quasi uires totius rei publicae exhaurire. Alioquin et ipse in egestatem incidet, prouincialibus omnibus odiosus, redditurus suo iudici rationem in districto examine de operibus manuum suarum et de lesione prouincialium, quos iniuste et quasi per fraudem sub umbra tuitionis manu spoliauit et lacerauit inermi.
Notes
Policraticus companion
Study the argument weekly; pray the tradition daily
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