Quod populi felicitas sit rex bonus, infelicitas rex malus
The Name and Office of a King
Drawing on Saint Cyprian, the text defines the king's name and office as a divinely entrusted rule that demands personal virtue and justice, and warns of the ruin that comes when a king fails to govern rightly.
Saint Cyprian shows in his book On the Degrees of Abuses (chapter 9) what the name of a king means, and what happiness belongs to the peoples under them if a good king rules over them by God's grace, and what unhappiness belongs to the peoples under them if a bad king rules over them by his own fault. The name of a king, he says, in its proper sense carries this meaning: that he should discharge the duty of a ruler toward all those under him. But how will he be able to correct others, who does not correct his own character, lest it be unjust? For in the justice of the king his throne will be exalted, and in truth the governance of the peoples will be made firm (Prov. 16).✦ 16). The justice of a king, truly, is this: to oppress no one unjustly through power, to judge justly between a man and his neighbor without partiality toward persons, to be a defender of strangers, orphans, and widows, to restrain thefts, to punish adulteries, not to exalt the unjust, not to nourish the shameless and actors, to destroy the wicked from the land, not to allow parricides and perjurers to live, to defend churches, to nourish the poor with alms, to appoint the just over the affairs of the kingdom, to have as counselors elders, wise men, and sober men, not to attend to the superstitions of magicians, soothsayers, and pythonesses, to defer anger, to defend the fatherland bravely and justly against adversaries, to trust in God through all things, not to exalt the mind through prosperities, to endure all adverse things patiently, to hold the Catholic faith in God, not to allow his sons to act impiously, to devote himself to prayers at fixed hours, and not to taste food before the fitting hours. Woe to the land whose king is a boy, and whose princes eat in the morning (Eccles. 10:16).✦ 10:16).
The Fruit of Justice and the Scourge of Injustice
Just rule brings present prosperity, heavenly hope, and the comprehensive peace of peoples, while unjust rule unleashes public disorder, dynastic ruin, and every form of calamity, as shown in Solomon's sin and David's justice.
These things bring prosperity to the kingdom in the present age, and lead the king toward better, heavenly kingdoms. But whoever does not govern the kingdom according to this law will surely endure many adversities of rule. For this reason the peace of peoples is often broken, and offenses are stirred up from within the kingdom; the fruits of the land are diminished, and the service of peoples is hampered; many and varied sorrows taint the prosperity of the kingdom; the deaths of loved ones and children bring sadness; the incursions of enemies ravage the provinces on every side; beasts tear apart the herds of cattle and flocks; storms of spring and winter are thrown into turmoil, and they hinder the fertility of the land and the bounty of the sea; and sometimes lightning strikes burn up the crops, the flowers of trees, and the vine-shoots.1 Above all, the injustice of the king darkens not only the face of his present rule, but also his own sons and grandsons, so that they would not hold the inheritance of the kingdom after him. For on account of Solomon's sin the Lord scattered the kingdom of the house of Israel from the hand of his sons, and on account of the justice of King David he left a lamp for his descendants forever in Jerusalem (3 Kings 12:16).✦2 (1 Kings 12:16). See how much the justice of the king avails in this age — it is clear to all who look upon it. For the peace of peoples is the protection of the fatherland, the safety of the common people, the fortification of the nation; care for the sick, joy of all, temperateness of the air, serenity of the sea, fertility of the earth, comfort of the poor, inheritance of children, and for the king himself the hope of future blessedness.
The King's Future Accountability
The chapter closes with a solemn warning that the king's high place in human authority will become the measure of his punishment if he fails to practice justice, and that every sinner he tolerated below will rise against him in eternal judgment.
But let the king know this: just as he was placed first on the throne of human authority, so too, if he does not practice justice, he will hold first place in punishment. For indeed, every sinner he has kept under himself in the present age, he will keep above himself, unappeasable, in that future punishment. »
Read the original Latin
De nomine regis, et quae sit felicitas populis sibi subjectis, si gratia Dei bonus rex super eos regnaverit, et quae sit infelicitas populis sibi subjectis, si malus suo vitio rex super eos regnaverit, sanctus Cyprianus in libro de gradibus Abusionum ostendit (cap. 9): « Nomen, inquiens, regis intellectualiter hoc retinet, ut subjectis omnibus rectoris officium procuret. Sed qualiter alios corrigere poterit, qui proprios mores, ne iniqui sint, non corrigit? quoniam in justitia regis exaltabitur solium, et in veritate solidabitur gubernaculum populorum (Prov. XVI). Justitia vero regis est, neminem injuste per potentiam opprimere, sine personarum acceptione inter virum et proximum suum juste judicare, advenis et pupillis et viduis defensorem esse, furta cohibere, adulteria punire, iniquos non exaltare, impudicos et histriones non nutrire, impios de terra perdere, parricidas et perjurantes vivere non sinere, ecclesias defendere, pauperes eleemosynis alere, justos super regni negotia constituere, senes et sapientes et sobrios consiliarios habere, magorum et hariolorum, pythonissarumque superstitionibus non intendere, iracundiam differre, patriam fortiter et juste contra adversarios defendere, per omnia in Deo confidere, prosperitatibus animum non elevare, cuncta adversa patienter tolerare, fidem catholicam in Deum habere, filios suos non sinere impie agere, certis horis orationibus insistere, ante horas congruas cibum non gustare. Vae enim terrae cujus rex puer est, et cujus principes mane comedunt (Eccle. X, 16).
Haec regni prosperitatem in praesenti faciunt, et regem ad coelestia regna meliora perducunt. Qui vero regnum non secundum hanc legem dispensat, multas nimirum adversitates imperii tolerabit. Idcirco enim pax saepe populorum rumpitur, et offendicula etiam de regno suscitantur, terrarum quoque fructus diminuuntur, et servitia populorum praepediuntur, multi et varii dolores prosperitatem regni inficiunt, charorum et liberorum mortes tristitiam conferunt, hostium incursus provincias undique vastant, bestiae armentorum et pecorum greges dilacerant, tempestates veris et hiemis turbantur, terrarum quoque fecunditatem et maris ministeria prohibent, et aliquando fulminum ictus segetes et arborum flores et pampinos exurunt. Super omnia vero regis injustitia, non solum praesentis imperii faciem fuscat, sed etiam filios suos et nepotes, ne post se regni haereditatem teneant, obscurat. Propter piaculum enim Salomonis regnum domus Israel Dominus de manu filiorum ejus dispersit, et propter justitiam David regis lucernam de semine ejus semper in Jerusalem reliquit (III Reg. XII, XVI). Ecce quantum justitia regis saeculo valet, intuentibus perspicue patet. Pax enim populorum est, tutamen patriae, immunitas plebis, munimentum gentis; cura languorum, gaudium hominum, temperies aeris, serenitas maris, terrae fecunditas, solatium pauperum, haereditas filiorum, et sibimetipsi spes futurae beatitudinis.
Attamen sciat rex quod, sicut in throno hominum primus constitutus est, sic et in poenis, si justitiam non fecerit, primatum habiturus est. Omnes namque, quoscunque peccatores sub se in praesenti habuit, supra se modo implacabili in illa poena futura habebit. »
Scripture echoes
- ↩Prov.16.12 — It is an abomination for kings to do wickedness, for the throne is established by righteousness.
- ↩Eccl.10.16 — Woe to you, O land, whose king is a youth, and whose princes feast in the morning.
- ↩1Kgs.12.16 — When all Israel saw that the king would not listen to them, the people answered the king, saying, "What share do we have in David? We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse. To your tents, O Israel! Now look to your own house, David." So Israel went to their tents.
Notes
- 1 ↩The long polysyndetic catalogue of calamities is rendered with repeated 'and' to preserve the rhetorical force of the Latin's accumulation of disasters.
- 2 ↩piaculum rendered as 'sin' rather than 'atonement' in context of Solomon's transgression; the term carries the sense of a guilt-offense requiring satisfaction.
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