CAPUT XVII. Qui imperatorum vel regum veraciter felices dici possint et debeant.
CAPUT XVII. Qui imperatorum vel regum veraciter felices dici possint et debeant.
We've put this little work together, most excellent king, out of love for your salvation, humbly asking that you would gladly be willing to read and hear it—as has already been said above—so that from now on I may write still more gladly and more often, with a ready spirit, to Your Serenity whatever I come to recognize as belonging to the salvation of your soul and the honor of the kingdom. Yet I've judged it right and fitting to finish this little work not with my own words, but with those of the blessed Augustine, that outstanding teacher, so that in them you may clearly see which emperors, and which kings, can and ought to be called happy. He writes, then, in Book 5 of The City of God (Ch.1 24), among other things, as follows: "Nor do we now call certain Christian emperors happy because they reigned a long time, or left sons as emperors by a peaceful death, or subdued the enemies of the state, or were able both to guard against and to crush hostile citizens who rose against them. For these things, and other gifts or consolations of this toilsome life, certain worshipers of demons have also been allowed to receive—people who do not belong to the kingdom of God, to which these Christian rulers do belong; and this has been done by His mercy, so that those who believe in Him would not desire such things from Him as if they were the highest goods. But we call them happy if they rule justly; if, amid the lofty praise of those who honor them and the excessively humble deference of those who greet them, they are not puffed up, but remember that they are human beings; if they make their power a servant to His majesty, above all for spreading the worship of God; if they fear, love, and worship God; if they love more that kingdom where they are not afraid to have others share it with them; if they are slow to avenge and ready to forgive; if they exercise that same vengeance for the necessity of governing and protecting the commonwealth, not to feed the hatreds of personal enmity; if they grant that same pardon not so that wickedness goes unpunished, but in hope of correction; if what they are often forced to decree harshly they make up for with the gentleness of mercy and the generous giving of benefits; if their self-indulgence is restrained in proportion as it could more freely run wild; if they would rather rule their own base desires than any nations whatever; and if they do all this not from a hunger for empty glory, but from love of eternal happiness; if, for their own sins, they do not neglect to offer to their true God the sacrifice of humility, compassion, and prayer.2 Such Christian emperors we call happy—for the present in hope, and afterward to be so in very fact, when what we are waiting for has come."3 Thanks be to God.
Read the original Latin
Hoc opusculum, optime rex, ob amorem salutis vestrae digessimus, humiliter deprecantes ut illud, sicut jam in praecedentibus dictum est, libenter legere et audire dignemini, quatenus libentius atque frequentius deinceps serenitati vestrae ea quae ad salutem animae vestrae et honorem regni pertinere cognovero, alacri animo scribam. Quod tamen opusculum non meis, sed beati Augustini doctoris eximii verbis finiendum ratum dignumque duxi, ut in eis perspicue cognoscatis qui imperatores, quive reges felices dici possint et debeant. Scribit autem in libro V de Civitate Dei (Cap. 24), inter caetera, ita: « Neque nunc nos Christianos quosdam imperatores ideo felices dicimus, quia vel diutius imperarunt, vel imperatores filios morte placida reliquerunt, vel hostes reipublicae domuerunt, vel inimicos cives adversus se insurgentes, et cavere, et opprimere potuerunt. Haec enim et alia vitae hujus aerumnosae vel munera vel solatia quidam etiam cultores daemonum accipere meruerunt, qui non pertinent ad regnum Dei, quo pertinent isti; et hoc ipsius misericordia factum est, ne ab illo ista, qui in eum crederent, velut summa bona desiderarent: sed felices eos dicimus, si juste imperant, si inter linguas sublimiter honorantium, et obsequia nimis humiliter salutantium non extolluntur, sed se homines esse meminerunt: si suam potestatem ad Dei cultum maxime dilatandum, majestati ejus famulam faciunt; si Deum timent, diligunt, colunt; si plus amant illud regnum, ubi non timent habere consortes: si tardius vindicant, facile ignoscunt; si eamdem vindictam pro necessitate regendae tuendaeque reipublicae, non pro saturandis inimicitiarum odiis, exerunt: si eamdem veniam non ad impunitatem iniquitatis, sed ad spem correctionis indulgent: si quod aspere plerumque coguntur decernere, misericordiae lenitate et beneficiorum largitate compensant: si luxuria tanto eis est castigatior, quanto possit esse liberior: si malunt cupiditatibus pravis, quam quibuslibet gentibus imperare; et si haec omnia faciunt non propter ardorem inanis gloriae, sed propter charitatem felicitatis aeternae; si pro suis peccatis, humilitatis, et miserationis, et orationis sacrificium Deo suo vero immolare non negligunt. Tales Christianos imperatores dicimus esse felices, interim spe, postea re ipsa futuros, cum id quod exspectamus advenerit. » Deo gratias.
Notes
- 1 ↩Citation is split across s3–s4 in the source; rendered to preserve the printed sentence break.
- 2 ↩charitatem felicitatis aeternae rendered as 'love of eternal happiness' (charitas/love policy); miserationis as 'compassion' to distinguish from misericordia ('mercy') earlier in the sentence.
- 3 ↩Closing quotation mark placed here for English readability; the source prints the closing guillemet on s7 before Deo gratias.
On the Institution of a King (De institutione regia) companion
Rule yourself daily, not just on retreat
Chosen Portion turns the mirror into a daily practice — a short reading and examining question each morning before you lead anyone.
Chosen Portion makes the mirror daily: the ruler-formation questions this collection preserves become a two-minute morning examination in the app.
- A daily formation reading drawn from centuries of counsel to those in authority
- One pointed examination question a day — two minutes, before the meetings start
- Track your practice over weeks and watch the examined life become a habit