Quae res malos principes faciat.
Why Good Rulers Become Wicked
The author introduces the problem of wicked rulers and lists the causes that corrupt even good rulers, including royal license, abundance, depraved companions, and ignorance of public affairs.
Now, though, the order of things demands that we also touch briefly on wicked rulers, since we have already said certain things useful for the scepters of the commonwealth and necessary for good ones. The first question asked is: what makes even good rulers become wicked? To answer that: first, royal license; second, an abundance of things, since the sheer abundance of things itself becomes the cause of wickedness; furthermore, depraved friends, detestable followers, grasping eunuchs, and courtiers who are either foolish or loathsome — through all of whom forgetfulness of God's commands takes root even in that ruler who seemed to be good; and finally, what cannot be denied, ignorance of public affairs.
The Court's Conspiracy to Deceive
Corrupt courtiers conspire to deceive the ruler, keeping him ignorant of truth and leading him to make unjust appointments, so that even a good emperor becomes wretched when true things are silenced in his presence.
From this, four or five of them come together and form a single plan to deceive the emperor or king. They say what should be approved; the emperor, shut up at home, does not know the truth. He is forced to know only what those men tell him. He appoints as judges people who should not become judges. He removes from public office the very people who ought to hold it. For this reason, even a good, cautious, and excellent emperor is sold off and becomes wretched by that very fact, when true things are kept silent in his presence.
The Crushing of Truth and Piety
Through turbulent disorder, both piety toward God and truth itself are crushed when detraction prevails and detractors are trusted, corrupted by love of falsehood and hatred of truth.
From this, too, through turbulent lack of discipline, both the piety that cultivates God and truth itself are often crushed, when detraction widely prevails, when detractors are believed as worthy of faith — people whom a twin plague most bitterly corrupts: love of falsehood and hatred of truth.
Abundance Overthrows Power
Excessive abundance overthrows rulers like a whirlwind, turning those who began as gold in sacred conduct into vile lead and fruitful vines into wild, rejected growth.
Like a headlong whirlwind, an excessive abundance of things overthrows those in power; those who at first stand out as good through their rule often become evil in the end, with a profane outcome. Those who had been gold in sacred conduct soon shrink like vile lead, and those who were fruitful vines in their joy run wild like a rejected wild vine.
The Blindness of the King
Greedy friends deceive the incautious lord, and honors, gold, riches, flattery, treacherous intimates, pomp, and power blind the eyes of the king so that he cannot perceive falsehood.
Greedy friends with a crafty mind deceive the incautious lord, and so with many deceits the best of men becomes doubtful and stumbling like a reed, and the wretched man is ignorant of the falsehoods. Nor do the lights of truth shine for the lord, for honors, gold, riches, clouds, faults, a woman's flattering pleasure, dear treacherous ones, pomp, and power blind the eyes of the king.
Read the original Latin
Nunc autem ordo exposcit, ut de malis etiam principibus aliqua nos breviter perstringamus, quoniam de bonis quaedam utilia sceptrisque rei publicae necessaria diximus. Ubi primo quaeritur, quae causa etiam ex bonis malos principes faciat. Ad quod dicendum: iam primum regalis licentia, deinde rerum copia, cum ipsa abundantia rerum causa malorum fiat, amici praeterea improbi, satellites detestandi, eunuchi avarissimi, aulici vel stulti vel detestabiles, per quos omnes etiam in illo dominatore, qui videbatur bonus esse, nascitur oblivio mandatorum Dei, postremo, quod negari non potest, rerum publicarum ignorantia. Hinc colligunt se quatuor vel quinque atque unum consilium ad decipiendum imperatorem seu regem capiunt. Dicunt quid probandum sit; imperator, qui domi clausus est, vera non novit, cogitur hoc tantum scire, quod illi locuntur, facit iudices, quos fieri non oportet, amovet a re publica, quos debeat optinere. Unde etiam bonus et cautus et optimus venditur imperator, qui hoc ipso miser efficitur, cum apud ipsum vera reticeantur. Hinc saepe tumultuosa indisciplinatione et Dei cultrix pietas et veritas opprimitur, cum multum derogatio praevaleat quando derogatores creduntur fide digni, quos gemina pestis corrumpit acerbissima, amor videlicet falsitatis et odium veritatis.
Tamquam praecipitans turbo regentes Subvertit nimium copia rerum, Qui primumque boni regmine clarent, Fiunt saepe mali fine profano; Sacris qui fuerant moribus aurum, Mox plumbo similes viliter horrent, Et, qui vitis erant ubere laeti, Agrescunt veluti spreta labrusca. Incautum dominum mente strophosa Fallunt praecupidi sic et amici, Multis unde dolis optimus ille Anceps fit titubans sicut harundo, Ignoratque miser figmina falsi, Nec lucent domino lumina veri; Nam caecant oculos regis honores, Aurum, divitiae, nubila, mendae, Vultus feminei blanda voluptas, Cari falsidici, pompa, potestas.
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