Quod necesse est homines simul viventes ab aliquo diligenter regi
What Is a King?
The author defines kingship by arguing that just as a ship needs a helmsman, human life needs a guide toward its end, and in solitude each person would be a self-ruling king under God through the light of reason.
But the starting point of our purpose must be taken from here: let's set forth what is meant by the title "king." Now in all things directed toward some end, where the process can go either rightly or wrongly, there needs to be something guiding it so that the proper end may be reached directly. For a ship driven in different directions by the force of different winds would never reach its intended destination unless it were steered toward port by a helmsman's skill. But there is some end toward which a person's whole life and activity are directed, since it is through the intellect that a person acts, and it is clearly in view of an end that the intellect operates. But people proceed toward their intended end in many different ways, as the very diversity of human pursuits and activities makes clear. Therefore a person needs someone to guide them toward the end. Now there is by nature inborn in every person a light of reason by which their own actions may be directed toward the end. And if it were fitting for a person to live all alone, as it is for many animals, they would need no other guide toward the end, but each one would be a king under God the supreme King, insofar as, through the light of reason divinely given to them, they would direct themselves in their own actions.
Made for One Another
Human beings are naturally social and political animals more than all other creatures, because nature left man unarmed and entrusted him with reason, which requires the help of others to supply the needs of life.
It is natural for man to be a social and political animal, living in a group — even more so than all other animals, as natural necessity itself makes clear. Nature has provided other animals with food, coats of hair, and defenses like teeth, horns, and claws, or at least the speed to flee. But man has been given none of these things by nature; instead, he's been given reason, through which he could provide all of them for himself by the work of his hands — though one man alone isn't enough to produce them all. One man by himself can't adequately manage his own life. So it's natural for man to live in the company of others. What's more, other animals have an inborn instinct for everything that's useful or harmful to them — a sheep naturally judges the wolf to be an enemy. Some animals even recognize, by natural instinct, certain medicinal herbs and other things they need to survive. Man, however, has only a general natural knowledge of the things he needs — as if by reason he could move from broad principles to an understanding of the particular things necessary for human life.
The Gift of Speech and Fellowship
Because one person cannot discover everything through reason alone, humans must live together and help one another, a truth shown most clearly by the gift of speech and confirmed by the scriptural counsel that two are better than one.
But it's not possible for one person to reach all these things through their own reason alone. So it's necessary for a person to live among others, so that one can be helped by another and different people can be engaged in discovering different things through reason — for instance, one person in medicine, another in this, another in that. This is shown most clearly by the fact that it's proper to human beings to use speech, through which one person can fully express their thoughts to others. Other animals do express their feelings to one another in a general way — a dog shows anger through barking, and other animals express their feelings in various ways. So a person is more communicative toward another than any other social animal seems to be — like a crane, an ant, or a bee. Considering this, Solomon says in Ecclesiastes✦ (4:9): 'It is better to be two than one.'✦ For they have the benefit of mutual society.✦
Why a Multitude Needs a Ruler
Because human beings live in community, there must be someone who governs the multitude for the common good, since private and communal goods differ and require a distinct ruling cause to hold the whole together.
If it's natural for human beings to live in the society of many, then there must be among them something by which the multitude is ruled. For when many people exist and each one provides for what suits himself, the multitude would scatter in different directions unless there were also someone taking care of what pertains to the good of the multitude — just as the body of a human being or of any animal would waste away unless there were some common ruling power in the body directing it toward the common good of all its members. Considering this, Solomon says: where there is no governor, the people will scatter.✦ This happens for a good reason: what is proper to each and what is common are not the same. In what is proper, they differ; in what is common, they are united. But different things have different causes. Therefore, besides what moves each individual toward his own proper good, there must be something that moves toward the common good of the many. That is why, in all things that are ordered into a unity, something is found that rules the others.
Rule Written into Creation
The pattern of one ruling over many runs through all of creation: heavenly bodies govern earthly ones, the soul rules the body, reason governs the passions, and the heart or head moves the limbs, showing that every multitude requires a governing element.
In the whole system of bodies, other bodies are governed through the first body — that is, the heavenly one — by a certain order of divine providence, and all bodies are governed through a rational creature. In a single human being, too, the soul rules the body, and among the soul's own faculties, the irascible and the concupiscible are ruled by reason. Likewise, among the members of the body there is one principal member that moves all the others — the heart, for instance, or the head. Therefore there must be some governing element in every multitude.
Read the original Latin
Principium autem intentionis nostrae hinc sumere oportet, ut quid nomine regis intelligendum sit, exponatur. In omnibus autem quae ad finem aliquem ordinantur, in quibus contingit sic et aliter procedere, opus est aliquo dirigente, per quod directe debitum perveniatur ad finem. Non enim navis, quam secundum diversorum ventorum impulsum in diversa moveri contingit, ad destinatum finem perveniret nisi per gubernatoris industriam dirigeretur ad portum. Hominis autem est aliquis finis, ad quem tota vita eius et actio ordinatur, cum sit agens per intellectum, cuius est manifeste propter finem operari. Contingit autem diversimode homines ad finem intentum procedere, quod ipsa diversitas humanorum studiorum et actionum declarat. Indiget igitur homo aliquo dirigente ad finem. Est autem unicuique hominum naturaliter insitum rationis lumen, quo in suis actibus dirigatur ad finem. Et si quidem homini conveniret singulariter vivere, sicut multis animalium, nullo alio dirigente indigeret ad finem, sed ipse sibi unusquisque esset rex sub Deo summo rege, in quantum per lumen rationis divinitus datum sibi, in suis actibus se ipsum dirigeret.
Naturale autem est homini ut sit animal sociale et politicum, in multitudine vivens, magis etiam quam omnia alia animalia, quod quidem naturalis necessitas declarat. Aliis enim animalibus natura praeparavit cibum, tegumenta pilorum, defensionem, ut dentes, cornua, ungues, vel saltem velocitatem ad fugam. Homo autem institutus est nullo horum sibi a natura praeparato, sed loco omnium data est ei ratio, per quam sibi haec omnia officio manuum posset praeparare, ad quae omnia praeparanda unus homo non sufficit. Nam unus homo per se sufficienter vitam transigere non posset. Est igitur homini naturale quod in societate multorum vivat. Amplius: aliis animalibus insita est naturalis industria ad omnia ea quae sunt eis utilia vel nociva, sicut ovis naturaliter aestimat lupum inimicum. Quaedam etiam animalia ex naturali industria cognoscunt aliquas herbas medicinales et alia eorum vitae necessaria. Homo autem horum, quae sunt suae vitae necessaria, naturalem cognitionem habet solum in communi, quasi eo per rationem valente ex universalibus principiis ad cognitionem singulorum, quae necessaria sunt humanae vitae, pervenire.
Non est autem possibile quod unus homo ad omnia huiusmodi per suam rationem pertingat. Est igitur necessarium homini quod in multitudine vivat, ut unus ab alio adiuvetur et diversi diversis inveniendis per rationem occupentur, puta, unus in medicina, alius in hoc, alius in alio. Hoc etiam evidentissime declaratur per hoc, quod est proprium hominis locutione uti, per quam unus homo aliis suum conceptum totaliter potest exprimere. Alia quidem animalia exprimunt mutuo passiones suas in communi, ut canis in latratu iram, et alia animalia passiones suas diversis modis. Magis igitur homo est communicativus alteri quam quodcumque aliud animal, quod gregale videtur, ut grus, formica et apis. Hoc ergo considerans Salomon in Eccle. IV, 9, ait: melius est esse duos quam unum. Habent enim emolumentum mutuae societatis.
Si ergo naturale est homini quod in societate multorum vivat, necesse est in hominibus esse per quod multitudo regatur. Multis enim existentibus hominibus et unoquoque id, quod est sibi congruum, providente, multitudo in diversa dispergeretur, nisi etiam esset aliquis de eo quod ad bonum multitudinis pertinet curam habens; sicut et corpus hominis et cuiuslibet animalis deflueret, nisi esset aliqua vis regitiva communis in corpore, quae ad bonum commune omnium membrorum intenderet. Quod considerans Salomon dicit: ubi non est gubernator, dissipabitur populus. Hoc autem rationabiliter accidit: non enim idem est quod proprium et quod commune. Secundum propria quidem differunt, secundum autem commune uniuntur. Diversorum autem diversae sunt causae. Oportet igitur, praeter id quod movet ad proprium bonum uniuscuiusque, esse aliquid quod movet ad bonum commune multorum. Propter quod et in omnibus quae in unum ordinantur, aliquid invenitur alterius regitivum.
In universitate enim corporum per primum corpus, scilicet caeleste, alia corpora ordine quodam divinae providentiae reguntur, omniaque corpora per creaturam rationalem. In uno etiam homine anima regit corpus, atque inter animae partes irascibilis et concupiscibilis ratione reguntur. Itemque inter membra corporis unum est principale, quod omnia movet, ut cor, aut caput. Oportet igitur esse in omni multitudine aliquod regitivum.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Eccl.4.9 — Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil.
- ↩Eccl.4.9 — Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil.
- ↩Eccl.4.9 — Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil.
- ↩Prov.11.14 — Where there is no guidance, a people falls, but in an abundance of counselors there is safety.
On Kingship, to the King of Cyprus (De regno ad regem Cypri) companion
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