Quare cingulo priuentur milites, et quod ex
The Symbolism of the Military Belt
The military belt represents both the authority of the sword and the obligation of labor, and those who fail in their duty are rightly stripped of this honor.
A soldier who has been dismissed no longer has any business with a sword or weapon, which is why the sword is attached to the belt. Sometimes soldiers are stripped of their military belt because of their own misconduct, especially in cases involving sacrilege. It was established by ancient law, and not abolished by the new, that anyone who breaks their military oath and attacks the religion they profess must be punished by the loss of their belt. They say Julius used this edict to restrain his soldiers; when they entered the city, they weren't permitted to plunder the people or the temples of the gods—a point he later threw in their faces when a mutiny was brewing. They had sworn to the Roman gods and citizens that they wouldn't attack those they had taken an oath to defend. Likewise, during the Dardanian war near Dyrrachium, Gaius Curio saw that one of his five legions was mutinous. He ordered them to march unarmed and without belts in front of the armed army and forced them to cut straw; on the final day, he made the unbelted soldiers dig a trench in the same way. No pleas from the legion could persuade him not to lower its standards and abolish its name, and he distributed the soldiers as reinforcements to other legions. Those who had been forced to lose their belts weren't reinstated until their virtuous actions distinguished them above the rest. The soldiers who had been sent away to Sicily after retreating from the Battle of Cannae asked the consul Marcus Marcellus to be led into battle. He consulted the Senate, and they refused to allow the public interest to be entrusted to those who had deserted it. Still, Marcellus let him do as he saw fit, though he established a rule that none of them would be exempt from duty, receive any reward or honor, or be sent back to Italy as long as the Carthaginians remained in the region. But while they were stripped of their belts, they didn't advance in rank, enjoy military privileges, or have any dealings involving a sword or weapon. And so, by the wise decree of our ancestors, the sword was attached to the belt so that, with the honor of the belt conferred, it would be understood that the power of the sword itself had also been granted. And anyone who approaches military service is rightly adorned with the belt, because the necessity of his office requires him to be ready for the duties of the state; for it is customary to be belted when one has urgent tasks to perform, and he who is given leave may be unbelted. Hence the saying in the Book of Kings: 'Let not him who is belted boast as he who is unbelted,' because the anxiety of impending labor doesn't allow for the freedom to boast, and the liberty of leisure and the security of rest often breed arrogance. The belt, therefore, is a sign of labor, and labor is the merit of honor, so that it may be clear to all that whoever refuses to undertake the labor required by military service carries the honor of the sword in his military belt in vain. The significance of the belt itself is also empty unless labor strengthens and solidifies its trustworthiness. You may see many swelling with the honor of the belt, but unless they fulfill that honor with laborious merit, it's the same as if someone were selling foam instead of solid substance.
The Gravity of Abuse and Sacrilege
Abusing military power is a grave sin, particularly when it involves sacrilege or attacks against the Church, which warrant the most severe penalties.
Anyone who abuses the power they've been granted certainly deserves to lose their privilege. A person abuses their position either by failing to do what they should or by doing what they shouldn't; and since both are wrong, it's commonly said that a sin of commission is graver than a sin of omission. Someone who fails to fulfill their duty is at fault, but anyone who does the opposite is clearly sinning. After all, black is more opposed to white than 'not-white' is, and sadness attacks joy more directly than hope or fear do—since neither hope nor fear falls into the category of joy, nor are they its primary opponents. Indeed, someone abuses their military belt just as much by failing to meet the requirements of their oath as someone who actively attacks that oath. Yet the one who attacks is more at fault, just as a true enemy is more hateful than a lazy soldier. Therefore, anyone who uses military arms to attack the commonwealth and the defenseless is most justly stripped of their rank, just like someone who has taken on the guise of an enemy. But above all others, those who commit sacrilege and those who attack the Church of God through various disturbances are punished more severely by divine and human law; for them, the law prescribes not the cutting off of hands, but the death penalty.
The Prince's Duty and Divine Judgment
Princes must exercise justice against the wicked, lest they face the sharper, divine sword of the Son of Man, for those who mock their consecration are truly cursed.
Even if Cicero and Demosthenes were to take up their defense, and even if Quintilian were to sharpen his tongue and exhaust the full strength of his genius for them, if the laws have been upheld—which, after God, rests in the hands of the prince—they won't be able to protect their fortunes and their heads from being struck down by legitimate punishment. But if a prince doesn't wield his sword against such people, he undoubtedly provokes against himself the two-edged sword that the Son of Man carries in his mouth—the sword that is living and effective, that pierces through body and soul, and sends them into hell. Every other sword and every other armor is dull, fragile, fluid, and weak compared to that one, which grace alone constructs in the workshop of good merits. Yet there are many who, by the clamor of their evil deeds, seem to protest that when they offered their belt of knighthood to the altar to be consecrated, they came with the intention of declaring war not only on the altar and its ministers, but even on God, who is worshipped there. I would more easily believe that these men were cursed for their malice than that they were consecrated for a legitimate knighthood.
Read the original Latin
auctoratus non habet aliquod cum gladio teloue commercium, et quare gladius insertus est cingulo. Fit interdum ut ex delicto suo priuentur milites militiae cingulo, in his maxime ubi sacrilegia committuntur. Veteri namque iure statutum est et nouo non est abolitum ut qui non seruato militiae sacramento religionem quam profitetur impugnat cinguli amissione multetur. Fertur hoc edicto lulius compescuisse militem suum, quando urbem ingressis non licuit homines spoliare aut templa deorum, quod ei postmodum ingrauescente seditione improperauit; numinibus namque Romanis ciuibusque iurati impugnare non poterant quos sa;ramento militiae susceperant defendendos. Sic quoque Gaius Curio bello Dardanico circa Dirachium, cum unam de quinque legionibus seditiosam uidisset, eam procedere iussit inermem discinctamque in conspectu armati exercitus stramenta coegit secare, postremo autem die similiter fossam discinctos milites facere; nullisque precibus legionis impetrari ab eo potuit ne signa eius summitteret nomenque aboleret; milites autem in supplementum aHarum legionum distribuit. Non enim restituebantur qui menierant priuari cingulo, antequam eos prae ceteris uirtutum merita insignirent. Milites qui, ex Cannensi pugna cedentes, in Ciciliam fuerant relegati postulauerant a Marco Marcello consule ut in pra lium ducerentur. Ille senatum consuluit, senatusque negauit placere sibi eis committi rem publicam qui eam deseruissent.
Marcello tamen permisit facere quod uideretur; lege tamen praescripta ne quis eorum munere uacaret neue donaretur praemio aut honore aut reportaretur in Italiam, dum Peni in ea fuissent. Dum uero cingulo spoliati sunt, eis nec era procedunt, nec militaribus priuilegiis gaudent nec habent aliquod cum gladio teloue commercium. Ideoque prouida constitutione maiorum est gladius insertus cingulo ut collato honore cinguli potestas quoque ipsius gladii aliquatenus intelligatur coUata. Et recte cingulo decoratur ad militiam quisquis accedit, quia eum expeditum esse ad munia rei publicae officii sui necessitas exigit Accingi namque solet cui a gerenda imminent; et cui uacatio datur licet esse discinctum. Vnde illud in libro Regnorum: Non aeque glorietur accinctus ut discinctus; quia solicitudo laboris imminentis gloriandi licentiam non admittit et otiandi libertas et securitas quietis plenunque extoUentiam parit. Cingulum ergo indicium est laboris, labor honoris meritum, ut liqueat omnibus quod qui laborem indictum militiae subire detrectat, honorem gladii in militari cingulo frustra portat. Ipsius quoque cinguli cassa est significatio nisi fidem eius roboret et solidet labor. Videas multos cinguli honore tumentes, sed nisi honorem laboriosa impleant merita idem est ac si pro solida substantia quis uenditet spumam.
Profecto dignus est priuilegium perdere qui concessa sibi abutitur potestate. Abutitur autem quis uel non faciendo quod oportet uel faciendo quod fieri non oportet et, cum utrumque sit malum, ut dicitur, peccatum delicto grauius esse solet. Delinquit enim qui non implet officium; sed plane peccat quisquis committit contrarium. Albo siquidem nigrum ♦magis opponitur quam non album, et tristitia letitiam magis impugnat quam spes aut timor, quae neque in letitiae rationem cadunt nec ei maxime aduersantur. Et cingulo quidem abutitur tam ille qui non implet quod oportet ex militiae sacramento tamquam ille qui impugnat militiae sacramentum. Delinquit tamen grauius qui impugnat, sicut hostis uerus ignauo milite odibilior est. Vnde qui rem publicam et inermem manum militaribus armis impugnat iustissime exauctoratur, tamquam ille qui figuram hostilem induerit. Sed prae ceteris omnibus diuino et humano iure grauius feriuntur sacrilegi et hi qui uariis perturbationibus impugnant Ecclesiam Dei, quibus lex non praecisionem dexterarum sed penam irrogat capitalem.
Si patrocinium illorum assumant Cicero et Demostenes, si in defensione eorum linguam acuat et totius ingenii sui uires exhauriat Quintilianus, si iura uiguerint, quod post Deum in manu principis est, fortunas eorum et capita quin legitimis suppliciis feriantur tueri non poterunt. Quod si gladium suum iiduersus tales non exerit princeps, in seipsum prod culdubio prouocat gladium bis acutum quem in ore suo gerit Filius hominis, gladium utique qui uiuus et efficax est, qui corpus findit et animam et mittit in gehennam; ad quem obtusus est omnis gladius et omnis armatura fragilis fluida et infirma praeter illam quam sola construit gratia in bonorum fabrica meritorum. Sunt tamen plurimi qui malorum clamore operum, quando militiae consecrandi cingulum altari obtulerunt, uidentur protestari se eo tunc animo accessisse ut altari et ministris eius sed et Deo, qui ibi colitur, bellum denuntiarent. Facilius crediderim hos malitiae execratos quam ad legitimam militiam consecratos.
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