Magnae potentiae argumentum est recta administratio
Power Proven by Right Use
Temporal power is shown to be a good when it is rightly ordered and exercised with inner restraint, lest it inflate the mind.
Great temporal power is known to come from the right administration of rule — as Saint Gregory says in his Morals (book 26, Moral. 19), chapter 19) — that same temporal power, which has its merit with God from the right administration of rule. Power is good when it keeps its proper order, but it needs the ruler's careful life to be used well. So the one who exercises it well is the one who both knows how to hold it in check and knows how to fight against it. The one who exercises it well is the one who knows how to be raised up through it over faults, and knows how to be composed with it in equality with others. The human mind is often inflated even when it rests on no authority at all — how much more does it rise to arrogance when power is added to it?
The Ruler as Servant and Example
The ruler must wield outward authority as God's servant for justice while preserving inward humility so that subjects both fear and imitate what is good.
And yet, it's being prepared with a fitting readiness for correcting the vices of others. And so through Paul it's said: For he is God's servant, an avenger to execute wrath on the one who does evil (Rom.✦ 13, 4). So when the ministry of temporal power is undertaken, the greatest care must be kept watch, so that each one may know both to draw from it what helps and to overcome what tempts (ibid.). . Let us hold on to outwardly what we have undertaken for the benefit of others; let us hold on to inwardly what we feel about our own worth. But still, with certain outward signs breaking through, let those who are entrusted to us not fail to recognize that we are such people in our own eyes as well: so that they may both see in our authority what they should fear, and recognize in our humility what they should imitate. With the authority of governance preserved, let us return to our heart without stopping, and let us consider carefully that we are created equally with everyone else, not set above others in a worldly way.
David's Humble Heart in Power
David models how to bear great power without pride, repeatedly offering the sacrifice of a humble heart before God.
For the more power stands out before others, the more it ought to be pressed down within, lest it overwhelm your thinking, lest it seize your mind with self-delight, lest your mind, now subject to the lust of dominating, no longer be able to govern the very power to which it has subjected itself. David knew well how to govern the power of his kingdom: he overcame the exaltation of that very power by pressing it down, saying, "Lord, my heart has not been exalted." (Psalm 130:1). And whoever added these words in the very growth of his humility: "My eyes were not exalted," and then added, "Nor did I walk in great things." And still examining himself with the keenest scrutiny, he says, "Nor in wonders beyond me." And even draining out all his own thoughts from the depths of his heart, he subjoins, saying, "If I have not thought humbly, but have exalted my soul." (verse 2). Behold, the sacrifice of humility offered from the innermost heart he frequently repeats, and again and again by confessing he does not cease to offer it, and speaking of it in many ways he shows it to the eyes of his Judge.
The Rare Virtue of Humble Greatness
True greatness in power is found when the mighty remain humble, serving others rather than lording over them, and so imitate God.
What is this? And how had he known that this sacrifice would be pleasing to God, when he was immolating it in his sight with such a repeated outcry? Unless it's that pride tends to be close to the powerful, and arrogance is almost always joined to lives of abundance — because an excess of moisture often produces the hardness of a swelling.1 But it's a remarkable thing, when humility of character reigns in the hearts of the great. So it must be weighed: when the powerful are wisely humble, they reach the summit of a virtue that seems, as it were, far removed from them, and by this virtue they the more quickly please the Lord — because the sacrifice the powerful offer to him is one the powerful can scarcely find. For the most refined art of living is this: to hold the summit, to restrain glory — to indeed be in power, yet not to know oneself as powerful; to acknowledge oneself as powerful for dispensing good things, but to be ignorant of all the strength you have for demanding back what harms. Therefore it is rightly said of such people: God does not reject the powerful, since he himself is powerful (Job 36:5).✦ For the one who longs to imitate God is the one who administers the peak of power, intent on others' benefit and not elated by his own praise — who, placed over others, seeks to be of service, not to be in charge.
Stripping Away False Exaltation
Pride's swelling is condemned, not power itself, so rulers must renounce self-inflicted elation and recognize their authority as God's gift.
It's the swelling of pride, not the order of power, that stands accused. God grants power, but the elation of power is something the malice of our own mind invents. So let's strip away what we've added from ourselves, and recognize as good only what we possess through God's giving. »
Read the original Latin
Quod ex bona administratione regiminis magna esse cognoscitur potentia temporalis: « Magna est, inquit beatus Gregorius in libro Moralium (lib. XXVI Moral. , cap. 19) potentia temporalis, quae habet apud Deum meritum suum de bona administratione regiminis. Bona est ordine suo potentia, sed cauta regentis indiget vita. Igitur bene hanc exercet, qui et retinere illam noverit, et impugnare. Bene hanc exercet, qui scit per illam super culpas erigi, et scit cum illa caeteris aequalitate componi. Humana etenim mens plerumque extollitur, etiam cum nulla potestate fulcitur: quanto magis in altum se erigit, cum se ei etiam potestas adjungit?
Et tamen corrigendis aliorum vitiis apta exsecutione praeparatur. Unde et per Paulum dicitur: Minister enim Dei est, vindex in iram ei qui male agit (Rom. XIII, 4). Cum ergo potentiae temporalis ministerium suscipitur, summa cura vigilandum est, ut sciat quisque et sumere ex illa quod adjuvat, et expugnaro quod tentat (ibid.) . Teneamus ergo exterius quod pro aliorum utilitate suscepimus, teneamus interius quod de nostra aestimatione sentimus. Sed tamen decenter quibusdam erumpentibus signis, tales nos apud nos esse ipsi etiam qui nobis commissi sunt non ignorent: ut et de auctoritate nostra quod formident videant, et de humilitate quod imitentur agnoscant. Servata autem auctoritate regiminis, ad cor nostrum sine cessatione redeamus, et consideremus assidue quod sumus aequaliter cum caeteris conditi, non quod temporaliter caeteris praelati.
Potestas enim quanto exterius eminet, tanto premi interius debet, ne cogitationem vincat, ne in delectatione sui animum rapiat, ne jam sub se mens eam regere non possit, cui se libidine dominandi supponit. Bene David regni potentiam regere noverat, qui elationem ejusdem potentiae semetipsum premendo vincebat, dicens: Domine, non est exaltatum cor meum (Psal. CXXX, 1). Quique in ejus humilitatis augmento subjunxit: neque elati sunt oculi mei, atque addidit: Neque ambulavi in magnis. Et adhuc semetipsum subtilissima inquisitione discutiens ait: Neque in mirabilibus super me. Omnesque etiam cogitationes suas a fundo cordis exhauriens, subjungit, dicens: Si non humiliter sentiebam, sed exaltavi animam meam (ibid. , 2). Ecce humilitatis hostiam ab intimo cordis oblatam crebro replicat, et iterum atque iterum confitendo offerre non cessat, eamque multipliciter loquens Judicis sui oculis ostentat.
Quid est hoc? et quomodo istud sacrificium Deo placere cognoverat, quod in conspectu ejus tanta iteratione vocis immolabat? nisi quod vicina esse superbia potentibus solet, et pene semper rebus affluentibus elatio sociatur, quia et saepe humoris abundantia duritiam dat tumoris. Mirum vero est, cum in cordibus sublimium regnat humilitas morum. Unde pensandum est quia potentes quique, cum humiliter sapiunt, culmen extraneae quasi longe positae virtutis attingunt, et recte hac virtute Dominum quantocius placant, quia illud ei sacrificium potentes offerunt, quod potentes vix invenire possunt. Subtilissima namque ars vivendi est, culmen tenere, gloriam reprimere: esse quidem in potentia, sed potentem se esse nescire: ad largienda bona potentem se agnoscere, sed ad repetenda noxia omne quod potenter valet ignorare. Recte itaque de talibus dicitur: Deus potentes non abjicit, cum et ipse sit potens (Job XXXVI, 5). Deum quippe imitari desiderat, qui fastigium potentiae, alienis intentus utilitatibus, et non suis laudibus elatus, administrat: qui praelatus caeteris prodesse appetit, non praeesse.
Tumoris namque elatio, non ordo potestatis, in crimine est. Potentiam Deus tribuit, elationem vero potentiae malitia nostrae mentis invenit. Tollamus ergo quod de nostro contulimus, et bona sunt quae Deo largiente possidemus. »
Scripture echoes
- ↩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.
- ↩Job.36.5 — Behold, God is mighty and does not despise—mighty in strength of understanding.
Notes
- 1 ↩humoris/tumoris: medical metaphor drawn from humoral theory; 'moisture' and 'swelling' preserve the physical image for a moral point about how inner 'abundance' (of wealth, success, praise) breeds a hardened arrogance.
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