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← On Kingship, to the King of Cyprus (De regno ad regem Cypri)/Book 1 · De Regno — Liber 1
Chapter 9DeRegno.1.9

Qualis est verus finis regis, qui movere debet ipsum ad bene regendum

The King as God's Servant

Worldly honor is an insufficient reward for a king, who should expect recompense from God, as even unjust rulers receive temporal wages for their service.

Since, therefore, worldly honor and the glory of men is not a sufficient reward for a king's anxious care, it remains to be asked what kind of reward would be sufficient for it. It is fitting, however, that a king should look to God for his reward. A servant expects a reward from his lord for his service; but a king, by governing his people, is a servant of God — as the apostle says that all authority is from the Lord God, and that he is God's servant as an avenger in wrath against the one who does evil — and in [the book of]✦ Wisdom. that kings of God are described as servants. Kings should, then, expect a reward from God for their rule. God sometimes rewards a king's service with temporal goods, but those rewards are shared by good and evil alike; hence the Lord in Ezek.✦ says: Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon made his army labor hard against Tyre, and neither he nor his army received any wages from Tyre for the service they rendered me against it — that is, by the service in which, as the apostle says, authority is God's servant as an avenger in wrath against the one who does evil — and afterward he added concerning the reward: Therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will give Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon the land of Egypt, and he will plunder its spoils, and it will be wages for his army.✦

The Promise of an Eternal Crown

Good kings who rule with pious intention are promised not an earthly but an eternal reward—happiness itself—which reason shows to be the proper recompense of virtue.

So if the Lord rewards unjust kings — those who fight against God's enemies, not out of any intention to serve God, but to carry out their own hatreds and desires — with such great payment that he grants them victory over their enemies, subdues kingdoms under them, and sets forth spoils to be plundered, what will he do for good kings, who rule God's people with a pious intention and attack his enemies? He promises them not an earthly but an eternal reward — and not in anyone else but in himself — as Peter, shepherd of God's people, says: "Tend the flock that is among you, so that when the prince of shepherds, that is, the king of kings, Christ, comes, you may receive the unfading crown of glory," about which Isaiah says: "The Lord will be a garland of exultation and a diadem of glory to his people."✦✦ This, however, is shown by reason. For it is instilled in the minds of all who use reason that the reward of virtue is happiness. For the virtue of each thing is described as that which makes its possessor good and renders its work good. Now each person, working well, strives to attain what is most deeply instilled in desire; and this — to be happy — is what no one can fail to want. This reward of virtue, therefore, is rightly awaited — the reward that makes a person happy. But if working well is the work of virtue, and the work of a king is to rule his subjects well, then this too will be the king's reward: that which makes him happy.

Why No Earthly Good Can Satisfy

Happiness is the ultimate end of desire, the perfect good that leaves nothing further to be desired, yet no earthly thing can fulfill this because all earthly goods are fleeting and insatiable.

We should consider what this is from what follows. Now we call happiness the ultimate end of our desires. The movement of desire does not go on to infinity; for natural desire would be empty, since infinite things cannot be passed through. But since the desire of an intellectual nature is for the universal good, only that good can truly make one happy, the attainment of which leaves no further good to be desired: hence happiness is also called the perfect good, as it were comprehending all desirable things in itself. But no earthly good is of this kind: for those who have riches desire to have more, and the same is evident in other things. And even if they do not seek more, they still desire that what they have may endure, or that other things may take their place. For nothing lasting is found in earthly things; therefore no earthly thing can satisfy desire. Therefore no earthly thing can make one happy, so as to be a fitting reward for a king.

Augustine on the Happy Prince

Since a person's final perfection depends on something higher than earthly things, no created good can make one blessed; Augustine teaches that Christian princes are happy only through justice, self-rule, and love of eternal happiness.

Furthermore, the final perfection of any thing, and its complete good, depends on something higher, because even physical things themselves are made better by the addition of better things, but worse if they are mixed with what is inferior. For if gold is mixed with silver, the silver becomes better, while the same silver is made impure by the admixture of lead. But it is well established that all earthly things lie below the human mind. But the beatitude of a person is their final perfection and complete good, which everyone desires to reach. Therefore nothing earthly can make a person blessed, and so no earthly thing is a sufficient reward for a king. For as Augustine says, we do not call Christian princes happy because they reigned longer, or left their sons to rule as emperors after a peaceful death, or subdued the enemies of the state, or were able to guard against and crush citizens who rose up against them; rather, we call them happy if they reign justly, if they prefer to reign over their own desires rather than over any peoples whatsoever, if they do everything not out of a burning desire for empty glory, but out of love for eternal happiness.1 Such Christian emperors we say are happy in hope now, and afterwards in reality when what we expect has come. But no other created thing makes a person blessed and can be decreed as a reward for a king.

God Alone Fills the Heart

Because the human mind's source and cause is God alone, only God can quiet human desire and make a person happy, as David testifies in seeking nothing apart from God.

Everything stretches out in desire toward its own source, from which its very being is caused. Indeed, the cause of the human mind is none other than God, who makes it in his own image.✦ God alone, therefore, is the one who can quiet the desire of a human being and make that person happy, and be a fitting reward for a king. Furthermore, the human mind is capable of knowing the universal good through the intellect and of desiring it through the will; but the universal good is found nowhere except in God.2 Therefore, nothing can make a human being happy by fulfilling their desire except God, of whom it is said in the Psalm:✦ Who fills your desire with good things; therefore, a king ought to establish his reward in this.✦ King David, considering this, said: What have I in heaven, and apart from you, what have I desired upon earth?✦ Answering this question afterward, he adds: But for me, to cling to God is good, and to place my hope in the Lord God.✦

Everlasting Salvation and True Glory

The king's reward is the everlasting salvation that makes one a citizen and child of God, a glory born of inward conscience and divine testimony, which even brings un sought human glory as it did for Solomon.

He himself is the one who gives salvation to kings — not merely the temporal salvation by which he commonly saves humans and beasts of burden, but also that salvation of which he speaks through Isaiah: 'My salvation will be everlasting,' the salvation by which he saves people, leading them to the equality of angels.✦ In this way, then, it can be shown that the reward of a king is honor and glory. For what worldly and fleeting honor could be comparable to this one, that a person might be a citizen and household member of God, and reckoned among God's children, and obtain the inheritance of the heavenly kingdom with Christ? This is the honor that King David, desiring it and marveling at it, was speaking of when he said: 'Exceedingly honored are your friends, O God.' And besides, what glory of human praise can be compared to this — a glory that is not brought forth by the deceitful tongue of those who flatter, nor by the mistaken opinion of people, but is produced from the testimony of an inward conscience and confirmed by the testimony of God, who promises his confessors that he will confess them in the glory of the Father before the angels of God? Those who seek this glory find it, and they obtain the glory of people, which they do not even seek — following the example of Solomon, who not only received from the Lord the wisdom he sought, but was also made glorious above other kings.

Read the original Latin

Quoniam ergo mundanus honor et hominum gloria regiae sollicitudini non est sufficiens praemium, inquirendum restat quale sit eidem sufficiens. Est autem conveniens ut rex praemium expectet a Deo. Minister enim pro suo ministerio praemium expectat a domino; rex autem, populum gubernando, minister Dei est, dicente apostolo quod omnis potestas a domino Deo est, et quod est Dei minister vindex in iram ei qui male agit; et in Lib. Sap. reges Dei esse ministri describuntur. Debent igitur reges pro suo regimine praemium expectare a Deo. Remunerat autem Deus pro suo ministerio reges interdum temporalibus bonis, sed talia praemia sunt bonis malisque communia; unde dominus Ezech. dicit: Nabuchodonosor rex Babylonis servire fecit exercitum suum servitute magna adversus Tyrum, et merces non est reddita ei nec exercitui eius de Tyro, pro servitute qua servivit mihi adversus eam, ea scilicet servitute qua potestas, secundum apostolum, Dei minister est, vindex in iram ei qui male agit; et postea de praemio subdidit: propterea haec dicit dominus Deus: ecce ego dabo Nabuchodonosor regem Babylonis in terra Aegypti, et diripiet spolia eius, et erit merces exercitui eius.

Si ergo reges iniquos contra Dei hostes pugnantes, licet non intentione serviendi Deo sed sua odia et cupiditates exequendi, tanta mercede dominus remunerat ut de hostibus victoriam tribuat, regna subiiciat et spolia diripienda proponat, quid faciet bonis regibus, qui pia intentione Dei populum regunt et hostes impugnant? Non quidem terrenam, sed aeternam mercedem eis promittit, nec in alio quam in se ipso, dicente Petro pastoribus populi Dei: pascite qui in vobis est gregem domini, ut cum venerit princeps pastorum, id est rex regum, Christus, percipiatis immarcescibilem gloriae coronam, de qua dicit Isaias: erit dominus sertum exultationis et diadema gloriae populo suo. Hoc autem ratione manifestatur. Est enim mentibus omnium ratione utentium inditum, virtutis praemium beatitudinem esse. Virtus enim uniuscuiusque rei describitur, quae bonum facit habentem, et opus eius bonum reddit. Ad hoc autem quisque bene operando nititur pervenire, quod est maxime desiderio inditum; hoc autem est esse felicem, quod nullus potest non velle. Hoc igitur praemium virtutis convenienter expectatur quod hominem beatum facit. Si autem bene operari virtutis est opus, regis autem opus est bene regere subditos, hoc etiam erit praemium regis, quod eum faciat esse beatum.

Quid autem hoc sit, hinc considerandum est. Beatitudinem quidem dicimus ultimum desideriorum finem. Neque enim desiderii motus usque in infinitum procedit; esset enim inane naturale desiderium, cum infinita pertransiri non possint. Cum autem desiderium intellectualis naturae sit universalis boni, hoc solum bonum vere beatum facere poterit, quo adepto nullum bonum restat quod amplius desiderari possit: unde et beatitudo dicitur bonum perfectum, quasi omnia desiderabilia in se comprehendens. Tale autem non est aliquod bonum terrenum: nam qui divitias habent, amplius habere desiderant, et simile patet in caeteris. Et si ampliora non quaerunt, desiderant tamen ut ea permaneant, vel alia in locum eorum succedant. Nihil enim permanens invenitur in rebus terrenis, nihil igitur terrenum est quod quietare desiderium possit. Neque igitur terrenum aliquod beatum facere potest, ut possit esse regis conveniens praemium.

Adhuc: cuiuslibet rei finalis perfectio et bonum completum ab aliquo superiore dependet, quia et ipsa corporalia meliora redduntur ex adiunctione meliorum, peiora vero, si deterioribus misceantur. Si enim argento misceatur aurum, argentum fit melius, quod ex plumbi admixtione impurum efficitur. Constat autem terrena omnia esse infra mentem humanam. Beatitudo autem est hominis finalis perfectio et bonum completum ad quod omnes pervenire desiderant. Nihil igitur terrenum est quod hominem possit beatum facere; nec igitur terrenum aliquod est praemium regis sufficiens. Non enim, ut Augustinus dicit, Christianos principes ideo felices dicimus, quia diutius imperarunt, vel imperatores filios morte placida reliquerunt, vel hostes reipublicae domuerunt, vel cives adversum se insurgentes et cavere et opprimere potuerunt; sed felices eos dicimus si iuste imperant, si malunt cupiditatibus potius quam gentibus quibuslibet imperare, si omnia faciunt non propter ardorem inanis gloriae, sed propter charitatem felicitatis aeternae. Tales imperatores Christianos felices dicimus, interim spe, postea re ipsa futuros, cum id quod expectamus advenerit. Sed nec aliquid aliud creatum est, quod beatum hominem faciat et possit regi decerni pro praemio.

Tendit enim uniuscuiusque rei desiderium in suum principium, a quo esse suum causatur. Causa vero mentis humanae non est aliud quam Deus, qui eam ad suam imaginem facit. Solus igitur Deus est qui hominis desiderium quietare potest, et facere hominem beatum, et esse regi conveniens praemium. Amplius: mens humana universalis boni cognoscitiva est per intellectum, et desiderativa per voluntatem; bonum autem universale non invenitur nisi in Deo. Nihil ergo est quod possit hominem beatum facere, eius implendo desiderium, nisi Deus, de quo dicitur in Psalm. : qui replet in bonis desiderium tuum; in hoc ergo rex suum praemium statuere debet. Hoc igitur considerans David rex dicebat: quid mihi est in caelo et a te quid volui super terram? Cui quaestioni postea respondens, subiungit: mihi autem adhaerere Deo bonum est et ponere in domino Deo spem meam.

Ipse enim est qui dat salutem regibus, non solum temporalem, qua communiter salvat homines et iumenta, sed etiam eam de qua, per Isaiam dicit: salus autem mea in sempiternum erit, qua homines salvat, eos ad aequalitatem Angelorum perducens. Sic igitur verificari potest quod regis praemium sit honor et gloria. Quis enim mundanus et caducus honor huic honori similis esse potest, ut homo sit civis et domesticus Dei, et inter Dei filios computatus haereditatem regni caelestis assequatur cum Christo? Hic est honor quem concupiscens et admirans rex David dicebat: nimis honorati sunt amici tui, Deus. Quae insuper humanae laudis gloria huic comparari potest, quam non fallax blandientium lingua, non decepta hominum opinio profert, sed ex interioris conscientiae testimonio producitur et Dei testimonio confirmatur, qui suis confessoribus repromittit quod confiteatur eos in gloria patris coram Angelis Dei? Qui autem hanc gloriam quaerunt, eam inveniunt, et quam non quaerunt gloriam hominum, consequuntur, exemplo Salomonis, qui non solum sapientiam, quam quaesivit, accepit a domino, sed factus est super reges alios gloriosus.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Rom.13.1-Rom.13.4 — Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except by God, and the authorities that exist have been appointed by God. Rom.13.2 — Therefore the one who resists the authority has opposed the ordinance of God, and those who have opposed will receive judgment on themselves. Rom.13.3 — For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to evil. Do you wish to have no fear of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from it. Rom.13.4 — For he is God's servant for your good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is God's servant, an avenger for wrath against the one who practices evil.
  2. ↩Ezek.29.18-Ezek.29.20 — Son of man, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon made his army labor hard against Tyre. Every head was made bald, and every shoulder was rubbed raw. Yet he had no wages for himself or his army from Tyre for the labor he performed against it. Ezek.29.19 — Therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am giving the land of Egypt to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he shall carry off her multitude, and plunder her spoil and seize her booty, and it shall be wages for his army. Ezek.29.20 — I have given him the land of Egypt as his wages for the labor he performed — the work they did for me — declares the Lord GOD.
  3. ↩Ezek.29.18-Ezek.29.20 — Son of man, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon made his army labor hard against Tyre. Every head was made bald, and every shoulder was rubbed raw. Yet he had no wages for himself or his army from Tyre for the labor he performed against it. Ezek.29.19 — Therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am giving the land of Egypt to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he shall carry off her multitude, and plunder her spoil and seize her booty, and it shall be wages for his army. Ezek.29.20 — I have given him the land of Egypt as his wages for the labor he performed — the work they did for me — declares the Lord GOD.
  4. ↩1Pet.5.2-1Pet.5.4 — Shepherd the flock of God among you, exercising oversight not under compulsion but willingly, according to God; not for dishonest gain but eagerly. 1Pet.5.3 — not lording it over those entrusted to you, but becoming examples to the flock. 1Pet.5.4 — And when the Chief Shepherd is revealed, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.
  5. ↩Isa.28.5 — On that day the LORD of hosts will be a crown of beauty and a diadem of glory to the remnant of his people.
  6. ↩Gen.1.26 — Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."
  7. ↩Ps.73.28;Ps.103.5 — But as for me, the nearness of God is my good; I have made the Lord GOD my refuge, that I may proclaim all your works. Ps.103.5 — who satisfies your life with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.
  8. ↩Ps.103.5 — who satisfies your life with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.
  9. ↩Ps.73.25 — Whom have I in heaven but you? And with you I desire nothing on earth.
  10. ↩Ps.73.28 — But as for me, the nearness of God is my good; I have made the Lord GOD my refuge, that I may proclaim all your works.
  11. ↩Isa.51.6 — Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look at the earth beneath; for the heavens will vanish like smoke, and the earth will wear out like a garment, and its inhabitants will die in like manner; but my salvation will be forever, and my righteousness will not be abolished.

Notes

  1. 1 ↩The charitatem here is rendered as 'love' following the lexeme policy default for charitas, though the theological-virtue sense of charity is clearly in view; a reviewer may prefer 'charity' or a dual gloss.
  2. 2 ↩Cognoscitiva and desiderativa are rare medieval formations; rendered as 'capable of knowing' and 'capable of desiring' (or simply 'desiring') to convey the mind's twofold orientation toward the good.

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