Quod leges a principe justo sunt in quolibet vindicandae
Princes Must Not Grant Blood Freely
Innocent I teaches that princes must not freely allow the death of the baptized guilty, but must refer crimes to judges for lawful judgment.
Likewise, the same Saint Innocent, in his own Decrees, to the same Exsuperius (epist. 11): "This is what you wanted to investigate: whether it's freely granted to those dictating prayers that, after baptismal regeneration, they should demand someone's death or blood from princes on account of guilt — something princes never grant without conditions, but they always refer matters entrusted to them or crimes to the judges, so that, once the cause is examined, whatever was delegated to the inquirer may be adjudicated: either absolution or condemnation is pronounced according to the nature of the case, and while the authority of the laws is exercised against the impious, the ruler will go unpunished.
A Lawless People Walks to Destruction
Cyprian's twelfth abuse describes a lawless people who abandon God's straight law and so walk many paths of destruction.
And from this, Saint Cyprian (book On Abuses century , chapter 12): "The twelfth step of abuse is a people without law, who, while they despise edicts and decrees of the laws, fall into the snare of destruction by going through various paths of error. Surely many paths of destruction are then walked when the one royal way — that is, the law of God, which turns aside neither to the right nor to the left — is abandoned through negligence.
A People Without Law Is Without Christ
A people without law is a people without Christ, so believers must not be without Christ in this passing age.
So a people without a law is a people without Christ. So let us not be without Christ in this passing time, lest Christ, without us, begin to be so in the age to come.1
Kings Reign Through Christ's Wisdom
Christ himself declares that through his wisdom kings reign and lawmakers decide what is just.
And Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God, says: Through me kings reign, and those who establish laws decide what is just. Prov. 8:15.
Just Laws Must Be Enforced in Every Case
Augustine teaches that once laws are established, judges must judge according to them, and just laws must be enforced universally.
And Saint Augustine, in his book On True Religious Life, shows that the laws of rulers are to be kept.2 In these temporal laws, he says, although human beings pass judgment on them when they first establish them, still, once they have been established and confirmed, it will not be permissible for a judge to pass judgment on them, but only to judge according to them. Therefore, just laws, whether promulgated by the people or established by a ruler justly and reasonably, are to be enforced in every case.
Read the original Latin
Item idem sanctus Innocentius in Decretis suis ad eumdem (epist. 11): « Illud, inquit, sciscitari voluisti, an preces dictantibus liberum concedatur, utique post baptismi regenerationem, a principibus poscere mortem alicujus, vel sanguinem de reatu: quam rem principes nunquam sine conditione concedunt, sed ad judices commissa ipsa vel crimina semper remittunt, ut, causa cognita, vindicentur quaecunque quaesitori fuerint delegata: aut absolutio, aut damnatio pro negotii qualitate profertur, et dum legum in impios exercetur auctoritas, erit dictator immunis. » Et hinc sanctus Cyprianus (lib. de Abus. saec. , c. 12): « Duodecimus, inquit, abusionis gradus est populus sine lege, qui dum edicta et legum scita contemnit, per diversas errorum vias eundo perditionis laqueum incurrit. Utique multae perditionis viae tunc inceduntur, cum una regalis via, lex Dei videlicet, quae neque ad dexteram neque ad sinistram declinat, per negligentiam deseritur.
Igitur populus sine lege, populus sine Christo est. Non fiamus ergo sine Christo in hoc tempore transitorio, ne sine nobis Christus esse incipiat in futuro. » Et Christus Dei virtus et Dei sapientia dicit: Per me reges regnant, et conditores legum justa decernunt (Prov. VIII, 15). Et sanctus Augustinus in libro de vera Religione leges principum servandas ostendit (cap. 30): « In istis, inquiens, temporalibus legibus, quanquam de his homines judicent cum eas instituunt, tamen cum fuerint institutae atque firmatae, non licebit judici de ipsis judicare, sed secundum ipsas. » Igitur aut a populo promulgatae justae leges servandae, aut a principe juste ac rationabiliter sunt in quolibet vindicandae.
Notes
- 1 ↩The antithesis 'sine Christo ... sine nobis Christus' is compressed in English; the warning is that if we separate ourselves from Christ now, he will be separated from us in the future.
- 2 ↩religio rendered 'religious life' in this Augustinian title context, following the lexeme policy preference for ordered devotional practice.
On the Person and Ministry of the King (De regis persona et regio ministerio) companion
Keep the examination going after day 7
Chosen Portion delivers a short historic devotional reading and prayer to your phone every morning — free.
The same counsel Hincmar prepared for a reigning king arrives as short daily portions in Chosen Portion, so leaders can pray through the whole treatise a few minutes at a time.
- A 5-minute reading and prayer each morning, drawn from 1,000 years of royal devotional texts
- Continue Hincmar's leadership examination with daily portions from the full 34-chapter treatise
- Set one reminder once; a fresh portion is ready every day at the time you choose