Quis modus gubernandi competat regi, quia secundum modum gubernationis divinae: qui quidem modus gubernandi a gubernatione navis sumpsit initium, ubi et ponitur comparatio sacerdotalis navis sumpsit initium, ubi et ponitur comparatio sacerdotalis dominii et regalis
Governance and Its End
Governance is defined as leading governed things to their due end, illustrated by the ship's pilot who both preserves and guides it to harbor.
Just as the founding of a city-state or kingdom is fittingly drawn from the pattern of the world's founding, so too the method of governance must be taken from governance itself. It should be considered in advance, however, that to govern is to fittingly lead what is governed to its proper end. So too a ship is said to be governed when, through the sailor's skill, it is led unharmed on a straight course to harbor. If therefore something is ordered toward an end outside itself, as a ship is toward a harbor, it will belong to the governor's duty not only to keep the thing unharmed in itself, but also to lead it further to that end. If on the other hand there were something whose end lay not outside itself, the governor's concern would be only this: to keep that thing unharmed in its own perfection. And yet, although nothing like this is found in created things — since after God himself, who is the end of all things, nothing is ordered toward an external end without interference — care for what is directed outward is nevertheless hindered in many ways by all manner of distractions. For there may well be one person whose task it is to see that a thing is preserved in its being, and another whose task is to bring it to a higher perfection — as is clearly seen in the very ship from which the method of governance is drawn. For the woodworker has the task of repairing anything in the ship that has broken, but the sailor has the task of bringing the ship safely to harbor.
The Many Cares of Human Life
Various caretakers serve different human needs, but because mortal life looks toward the blessedness of God after death, a higher spiritual care is required.
The same thing happens with a human being. A doctor makes sure a person's life is kept in health; a steward, that the necessities of life are supplied; a teacher, that the person comes to know the truth; and a moral instructor, that the person lives according to reason. Now if a human being were not ordered to any outward good beyond the self, these kinds of care would be enough. But there is a certain outward good for a person as long as they live in this mortal life—namely, the final blessedness that is looked for in the enjoyment of God after death. As the Apostle says: As long as we are in the body, we are away from the Lord. So the Christian, to whom that blessedness was won through Christ's blood and who has received the Spirit's pledge to obtain it, needs another kind of spiritual care by which they may be guided to the harbor of eternal salvation—and this care is provided to the faithful through the ministers of Christ's Church. So the same judgment must apply to the end of the whole community as to the end of one person. If, then, a person's end were some good existing within the person, and likewise the last end of a community were that the community acquire such a good and abide in it—and if that last end, of either one person or a community, were physical life and bodily health—then the task would belong to a physician.
The Purpose of the Community
The gathered community exists to live virtuously together, and through virtue is directed toward the enjoyment of God as its ultimate end.
If, however, the ultimate purpose were the abundance of riches, the king would be a kind of steward of the community. But if the good of knowing the truth were such that a community could attain it, the king would hold the office of a teacher. It seems, however, that the purpose of a gathered community is to live according to virtue. For people are gathered together so that they may live well alongside one another — something no one could achieve by living all alone. Now a good life is a life lived according to virtue. Therefore, a virtuous life is the purpose of human society. The evidence for this is that only those who share with one another in living well are truly members of a gathered community. For if people came together merely to live, then animals and slaves would also be part of civil society. But if it were to acquire wealth that everyone together carried on trade in a single city, then only those who are counted as part of one community under the same laws and the same governance for living well would belong to it, just as we see happening. But because a person living according to virtue is directed toward a higher purpose, which consists in the enjoyment of God — as we have already said above — the purpose of the human community must be the same as the purpose of each individual person.
The King Who Is God
Since divine enjoyment exceeds human power, this rule belongs to Christ alone, who is both king and priest, and from whom a royal priesthood flows.
So the ultimate end of a gathered community is not to live by virtue, but to reach divine enjoyment through a virtuous life. Indeed, if this end could be reached by the power of human nature, it would necessarily fall to the king's office to direct people to this end. This is the one we mean when we call a king the person entrusted with supreme governance over human affairs. Rule is more exalted when it is ordered toward a higher end. For the one concerned with the ultimate end is always found commanding those who carry out the things directed to that ultimate end. A pilot responsible for managing a voyage tells the shipbuilder what kind of ship should be made fit for sailing. A civil ruler using weapons tells the smith what weapons should be forged.1 But because a person does not attain the end of divine enjoyment by human power, but by divine power, as the apostle says — 'the grace of God is eternal life' — leading to that end will not belong to human rule, but to divine rule.✦2 This kind of rule, then, belongs to the king who is not only human but also God — to our Lord Jesus Christ, who made people sons of God and brought them into heavenly glory. This, then, is the rule entrusted to him, and it will not be corrupted. Because of this he is called not only priest but king in the sacred Scriptures, as Jeremiah says: 'He will reign as king, and he will be wise.' From him a royal priesthood is derived.3
Kings Subject to Priests
Under the New Law the ministry of the kingdom is entrusted to priests, especially the Roman pontiff, so Christian kings must be subject to them.
And what is more, all the faithful in Christ, insofar as they are his members, are called kings and priests. The ministry of this kingdom, then — so that spiritual matters might be set apart from earthly ones — is entrusted not to earthly kings but to priests, and especially to the supreme priest, the successor of Peter, the vicar of Christ, the Roman pontiff, to whom all the kings of the Christian people must be subject, just as they are to the Lord Jesus Christ himself. For in this way those to whom the care of the ultimate end belongs ought to be subject to those to whom the care of the preceding ends belongs, and to be directed by that authority. Because, therefore, the priesthood of the Gentiles and the whole worship of divine things existed to acquire temporal goods — and all of these are ordered toward the common good of the people, upon which the king's care fittingly rests — the priests of the Gentiles were appropriately subject to kings. But because under the Old Law earthly goods were promised — not by demons, but by the true God — to be shown to a devout people, so also in the Old Law we read that priests were subject to kings. But in the New Law the priesthood is higher, through which people are led onward to heavenly goods; and so under the law of Christ kings ought to be subject to priests. For this reason, wondrously done through divine providence, it came about that in the city of Rome — which God had foreseen would be the principal seat of the Christian people — this custom gradually took root, that the rulers of cities would be subject to priests. Just as Valerius Maximus reports, our state has always held that all things should be placed after religion, even in matters where the highest majesty wished its honor to be seen.
Sacred Authority Serves Divine Order
Rulers rightly serve sacred authority, as shown even among pagan peoples where priests held legislative power under divine providence.
So they never doubted that sacred authority was right to serve — judging that in human affairs it would secure steadfast rule, if only it had served divine power well and faithfully.4 Because it was also destined to come about that in Gaul the religious life of the Christian priesthood would flourish most greatly, God permitted that even among the pagan Gauls — whose priests they called Druids — these priests should define the law of the whole of Gaul, as Julius Caesar reports in the book he wrote on the Gallic War.5
Read the original Latin
Sicut autem institutio civitatis aut regni ex forma institutionis mundi convenienter accipitur, sic et gubernationis ratio ex gubernatione sumenda est. Est tamen praeconsiderandum quod gubernare est, id quod gubernatur, convenienter ad debitum finem perducere. Sic etiam navis gubernari dicitur dum per nautae industriam recto itinere ad portum illaesa perducitur. Si igitur aliquid ad finem extra se ordinetur, ut navis ad portum, ad gubernatoris officium pertinebit non solum ut rem in se conservet illaesam, sed quod ulterius ad finem perducat. Si vero aliquid esset, cuius finis non esset extra ipsum, ad hoc solum intenderet gubernatoris intentio ut rem illam in sua perfectione conservaret illaesam. Et quamvis nihil tale inveniatur in rebus post ipsum Deum, qui est omnibus finis, erga id tamen, quod ad extrinsecum ordinatur, multipliciter cura impeditur a diversis. Nam forte alius erit qui curam gerit ut res in suo esse conservetur; alius autem ut ad altiorem perfectionem perveniat: ut in ipsa navi, unde gubernationis ratio assumitur, manifeste apparet. Faber enim lignarius curam habet restaurandi si quid collapsum fuerit in navi, sed nauta sollicitudinem gerit ut navem perducat ad portum.
Sic etiam contingit in homine. Nam medicus curam gerit ut vita hominis conservetur in sanitate; oeconomus, ut suppetant necessaria vitae; doctor autem curam gerit ut veritatem cognoscat; institutor autem morum, ut secundum rationem vivat. Quod si homo non ordinaretur ad aliud exterius bonum, sufficerent homini curae praedictae. Sed est quoddam bonum extrinsecum homini quamdiu mortaliter vivit, scilicet ultima beatitudo, quae in fruitione Dei expectatur post mortem. Quia, ut apostolus ait: quamdiu sumus in corpore, peregrinamur a domino. Unde homo Christianus, cui beatitudo illa est per Christi sanguinem acquisita, et qui pro ea assequenda spiritus sancti arrham accepit, indiget alia spirituali cura per quam dirigatur ad portum salutis aeternae; haec autem cura per ministros Ecclesiae Christi fidelibus exhibetur. Idem autem oportet esse iudicium de fine totius multitudinis, et unius. Si igitur finis hominis esset bonum quodcumque in ipso existens, et regendae multitudinis finis ultimus esset similiter ut tale bonum multitudo acquireret et in eo permaneret; et si quidem talis ultimus sive unius hominis sive multitudinis finis esset corporalis, vita et sanitas corporis, medici esset officium.
Si autem ultimus finis esset divitiarum affluentia, oeconomus rex quidam multitudinis esset. Si vero bonum cognoscendae veritatis tale quid esset, ad quod posset multitudo pertingere, rex haberet doctoris officium. Videtur autem finis esse multitudinis congregatae vivere secundum virtutem. Ad hoc enim homines congregantur ut simul bene vivant, quod consequi non posset unusquisque singulariter vivens; bona autem vita est secundum virtutem; virtuosa igitur vita est congregationis humanae finis. Huius autem signum est quod hi soli sunt partes multitudinis congregatae, qui sibi invicem communicant in bene vivendo. Si enim propter solum vivere homines convenirent, animalia et servi essent pars aliqua congregationis civilis. Si vero propter acquirendas divitias, omnes simul negotiantes ad unam civitatem pertinerent, sicut videmus eos solos sub una multitudine computari qui sub eisdem legibus et eodem regimine diriguntur ad bene vivendum. Sed quia homo vivendo secundum virtutem ad ulteriorem finem ordinatur, qui consistit in fruitione divina, ut supra iam diximus, oportet eumdem finem esse multitudinis humanae qui est hominis unius.
Non est ergo ultimus finis multitudinis congregatae vivere secundum virtutem, sed per virtuosam vitam pervenire ad fruitionem divinam. Siquidem autem ad hunc finem perveniri posset virtute humanae naturae, necesse esset ut ad officium regis pertineret dirigere homines in hunc finem. Hunc enim dici regem supponimus, cui summa regiminis in rebus humanis committitur. Tanto autem est regimen sublimius quanto ad finem ulteriorem ordinatur. Semper enim invenitur ille, ad quem pertinet ultimus finis, imperare operantibus ea quae ad finem ultimum ordinantur; sicut gubernator, ad quem pertinet navigationem disponere, imperat ei, qui navem constituit, qualem navem navigationi aptam facere debeat; civilis autem qui utitur armis, imperat fabro, qualia arma fabricet. Sed quia finem fruitionis divinae non consequitur homo per virtutem humanam, sed virtute divina, iuxta illud apostoli: gratia Dei, vita aeterna, perducere ad illum finem non humani erit, sed divini regiminis. Ad illum igitur regem huiusmodi regimen pertinet, qui non est solum homo sed etiam Deus, scilicet ad dominum nostrum Iesum Christum, qui homines filios Dei faciens in caelestem gloriam introduxit. Hoc igitur est regimen ei traditum quod non corrumpetur, propter quod non solum sacerdos, sed rex in Scripturis sacris nominatur, dicente Ieremia: regnabit rex, et sapiens erit; unde ab eo regale sacerdotium derivatur.
Et quod est amplius, omnes Christi fideles, in quantum sunt membra eius, reges et sacerdotes dicuntur. Huius ergo regni ministerium, ut a terrenis essent spiritualia distincta, non terrenis regibus sed sacerdotibus est commissum, et praecipue summo sacerdoti, successori Petri, Christi vicario, Romano pontifici, cui omnes reges populi Christiani oportet esse subditos, sicut ipsi domino Iesu Christo. Sic enim ei, ad quem finis ultimi cura pertinet, subdi debent illi, ad quos pertinet cura antecedentium finium, et eius imperio dirigi. Quia igitur sacerdotium gentilium et totus divinorum cultus erat propter temporalia bona conquirenda, quae omnia ordinantur ad multitudinis bonum commune, cuius regi cura incumbit, convenienter sacerdotes gentilium regibus subdebantur. Sed et quia in veteri lege promittebantur bona terrena non a Daemonibus, sed a Deo vero religioso populo exhibenda, inde et in lege veteri sacerdotes regibus leguntur fuisse subiecti. Sed in nova lege est sacerdotium altius, per quod homines traducuntur ad bona caelestia: unde in lege Christi reges debent sacerdotibus esse subiecti. Propter quod mirabiliter ex divina providentia factum est ut in Romana urbe, quam Deus praeviderat Christiani populi principalem sedem futuram, hic mos paulatim inolesceret ut civitatum rectores sacerdotibus subiacerent. Sicut enim Valerius maximus refert, omnia post religionem ponenda semper nostra civitas duxit, etiam in quibus summae maiestatis decus conspici voluit.
Quapropter non dubitaverunt sacris imperia servire, ita se humanarum rerum habitura regimen existimantia, si divinae potentiae bene atque constanter fuissent famulata. Quia vero etiam futurum erat ut in Gallia Christiani sacerdotii plurimum vigeret religio, divinitus est permissum ut etiam apud Gallos gentiles sacerdotes, quos Druidas nominabant, totius Galliae ius definirent, ut refert Iulius Caesar in libro quem de bello Gallico scripsit.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Rom.6.23 — For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Notes
- 1 ↩The Latin is a single long sentence with two analogies; split into three English sentences for readability while preserving the logical chain and the semicolon-linked comparisons.
- 2 ↩Quoted phrase 'gratia Dei, vita aeterna' echoes Romans 6:23; treated as a candidate allusion for later resolution.
- 3 ↩The Jeremiah quotation is a candidate allusion; exact wording does not map cleanly to a single Vulgate verse and is left unresolved for later review.
- 4 ↩The clause 'ita se humanarum rerum habitura regimen existimantia' is compressed: 'thinking it would hold the governance of human affairs.' 'Steadfast rule' renders regimen constanter famulata; the thought is that sacred authority, by being faithfully devoted to divine power, positions itself to govern human affairs firmly.
- 5 ↩religio rendered 'religious life' per lexeme policy (monastic/devotional practice sense), though here it refers to the spread of Christian priestly practice in Gaul.
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