Nihil felicius quam si regnent regnandi scientiam habentes
The Source of True Blessedness in Kingship
Augustine's witness from The City of God establishes that the highest blessedness for rulers is to govern with divine mercy and true knowledge.
Nothing is more blessed in human affairs than to reign—with God showing mercy—while possessing the knowledge of how to reign, drawn from Augustine's book The City of God (Book V, chapter 24): V, c. 24): 'Those who are endowed with true piety live well: if they have the knowledge of how to govern peoples, nothing is more blessed in human affairs than, with God showing mercy, holding authority.'
The Marks of a Blessed Christian King
A single extended sentence enumerates the virtues—justice, humility, mercy, self-mastery, and devotion to God—that characterize a truly blessed Christian ruler.
We say that Christian kings are blessed if they reign justly; if they are not puffed up amid tongues that honor them on high and greet their attendance with excessive humility, but remember that they are human beings; if they extend their authority above all to spread the worship of God, making it serve his majesty; if they fear, love, and worship God; if they love that kingdom more, where they are not afraid to have equals; if they avenge slowly and readily forgive; if they exercise that same vengeance out of the necessity of governing and protecting the commonwealth, not to satisfy the hatreds of their enmities; if they grant that same pardon not for the impunity of wickedness, but for the hope of correction; if, when harsh measures force them often to render decisions, they compensate with the gentleness of mercy and the generosity of good deeds; if self-indulgence is the more strictly restrained in them, the more freely it could be allowed; if they would rather master their own corrupt desires than rule over any nations at all; and if they do all these things, not for the heat of empty glory, but for the love of eternal happiness; if they do not neglect to offer to their true God the sacrifice of humility, mercy, and prayer for their sins.
Blessed in Hope and in Reality
The chapter concludes by affirming that such kings are blessed now in hope and will be blessed in fullness at the coming of what is awaited.
Such Christian kings we say to be blessed—blessed in hope now, and in reality later, when what we look for arrives. »
Read the original Latin
Nihil felicius esse rebus humanis quam regnare, miserante Deo, scientiam regnandi habentes, ex libro Augustini de Civitate Dei (lib. V, c. 24): « Qui vera pietate praediti bene vivunt, si habeant scientiam regendi populos, nihil felicius rebus humanis, quam si Deo miserante habeant potestatem. Nos Christianos reges ideo felices dicimus, si juste regnant, 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 coguntur plerumque decernere, misericordiae lenitate et beneficiorum largitate compensant; si luxuria tanto eis est castigatior, quanto posset 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 reges dicimus esse felices, interim spe, postea re ipsa potituros, cum id quod exspectamus advenerit. »
On the Person and Ministry of the King (De regis persona et regio ministerio) companion
Keep the examination going after day 7
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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
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