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Chapter 26ViaRegia.1.26

De non consentiendo adulatoribus

The Danger of the Flattering Tongue

The king is warned to identify and reject the ruinous influence of flatterers who disguise their malice with sweet words.

For flatterers are used to urging the powerful who go along with them to return evil for good—men who prepare eternal fire for themselves and bring ruin and harm on those they flatter. Remember carefully, most discerning king, to avoid them; examine sharply and cautiously who they are; and do not deign to consent to such people in any way or under any agreement, so that those who sweet-talk and praise you do not turn you aside from the royal road and make you set the steps of your work on a path that is not straight.✦ For of such flatterers it is written: An unjust man sweet-talks his friend and leads him along a path that isn't good.✦1 Again, of princes who consent to flatterers it is written: A prince who gladly listens to a lying word has all his servants as wicked men.✦ Likewise concerning flatterers: A deceitful tongue doesn't love the truth, and a slippery mouth works ruin.✦ Likewise concerning those who consent: An evil man obeys an unjust tongue, and a deceitful man yields to lying lips.✦ So you, most illustrious king, beware of the slippery and deadly ruin of flatterers, and don't let their unsound deceptions trick you under the mask of friends.2 Hear what is written about them: The pretender deceives his friend with his mouth.✦ Likewise of them it is written: Those who call you blessed—they themselves deceive you; they throw the path of your feet into confusion.✦

Testing the Heart Through Praise

Praise serves as a crucible for the soul, and the wise king must prioritize truth-tellers over those who offer empty, destructive flattery.

As for how you should act among people like these, the Holy Spirit warns you through Scripture: "As silver is tested in the crucible and gold in the furnace, so a person is tested by the mouth of the one who praises him."✦ See what a just and upright prince is found to be amid the tongues of those who praise and flatter: brighter than silver and clearer than gold.✦ These things will come to him if he has kept in accord with divine Scripture, which says: "Kings desire just lips; the one who speaks what is right will be guided."✦3 Pay careful attention, king: if the one who speaks what is right is guided in the presence of the Most High King, then in your presence, too, the one who speaks honest words rather than flattery ought to be guided. So drive persuasive and deceptive talk away from your ears; spit out the smooth tongue of flatterers: for they sound good, but they deceive badly; they sing sweetly, but they stain badly; they promise sweet things, but they destroy the soul.

Read the original Latin

Solent namque adulatores ad reddendum malum pro bono sibi consentientes incitare potentes, qui et sibi aeternum praeparent incendium, et illis perniciei inferant detrimentum; quos diligenter, discretissime rex, vitare memento, et qui sint illi acutissime et caute discutito, et talibus nullo modo nulloque pacto consentire digneris, ne te lactantes atque laudantes a via divertant regia, et gressum operis tui in via faciant ponere non recta. De talibus enim adulatoribus scriptum est: Vir iniquus lactat amicum suum, et ducit eum per viam non bonam. Iterum de principibus qui consentiunt adulatoribus scriptum est: Princeps qui libenter audit verbum mendacii, omnes ministros habet impios. Item de adulatoribus: Lingua fallax non amat veritatem: et os lubricum operatur ruinas. Item de consentientibus: Malus obedit linguae iniquae: et fallax obtemperat labiis mendacibus. Tu ergo, clarissime rex, cave adulatorum lubricas mortiferasque ruinas, et ne sub amicorum specie illorum te decipiant male sanae fallaciae. Audi quid de illis scriptum est: Simulator ore decipit amicum suum. Item de illis scriptum est: Qui beatos vos dicunt, ipsi vos decipiunt; semitam pedum vestrorum conturbant.

Te ergo quid inter tales agere debeas, Spiritus sanctus per divinam Scripturam admonet dicens: Quomodo probatur in conflatorio argentum, et in fornace aurum: sic probatur homo ore laudantis.

Ecce qualis inter laudantium adulantiumque linguas justus et rectus invenitur princeps scilicet lucidior argento et clarior auro. Haec illi tamen evenient, si divinae concordaverit Scripturae, ubi ait: Voluntas regum labia justa: qui recta loquitur dirigetur. Diligenter attende, rex, et vide si in conspectu summi regis ille dirigitur qui recta loquitur, debet et in conspectu tuo ille dirigi qui non adulantia sed vera loquitur verba. Respue ergo ab auribus tuis suasorios deceptoriosque sermones; respue blandam adulantium linguam: bene etenim sonant, sed male decipiunt; suaviter cantant, sed male maculant; promittunt dulcia, sed perdunt animam.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Ps.34.12;Prov.17.13;Rom.12.17 — Come, children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the LORD. Prov.17.13 — Whoever returns evil for good, evil will not depart from their house. Rom.12.17 — Repay no one evil for evil, but take thought for what is good in the sight of all people.
  2. ↩Prov.16.29 — A man of violence entices his neighbor and leads him in a way that is not good.
  3. ↩Prov.29.12 — If a ruler listens to falsehood, all his servants become wicked.
  4. ↩Prov.10.31-Prov.10.32 — The mouth of the righteous brings forth wisdom, but the perverse tongue will be cut off. Prov.10.32 — The lips of the righteous know what is acceptable, but the mouth of the wicked, perversity.
  5. ↩Prov.17.4 — A wicked person listens to a deceitful tongue; a liar gives ear to a destructive speech.
  6. ↩Prov.11.9 — With his mouth the godless one destroys his neighbor, but by knowledge the righteous are delivered.
  7. ↩Isa.3.12 — My people—your leaders are children, and women rule over them. My people, your guides lead you astray, and the way of your paths they swallow up.
  8. ↩Prov.27.21 — A crucible for silver and a furnace for gold, and a man by the praise he receives.
  9. ↩Prov.27.21 — A crucible for silver and a furnace for gold, and a man by the praise he receives.
  10. ↩Prov.16.13 — Kings take pleasure in honest speech; the one who speaks uprightly is loved.

Notes

  1. 1 ↩lactat is metaphorical flattery/cajolery ("sweet-talks"), not literal nursing.
  2. 2 ↩male sanae fallaciae: rendered "unsound deceptions" (literally "badly sound/unhealthy fallacies").
  3. 3 ↩Source reads dirigetur ('will be guided/directed'), not the common Vulgate reading diligetur ('will be loved') at Prov 16:13; translated as given.

Via Regia (The Royal Road) companion

Rule yourself daily, not just on retreat

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