The Ruler Should Be Humble with the Good and Stern Against Vice

The ruler should be, through humility, a companion of those who live good lives, and, through zeal for righteousness, stern against the vices of evildoers. So in nothing should he put himself above the good, and yet, when the fault of the wicked requires it, he should at once be aware of the power of his higher place. In this way, while among those under him who live well he sets aside his rank and counts them as his equals, he will not be afraid to carry out the laws of uprightness toward the perverse. For, as I remember saying in my book of Morals, it is clear that nature made all men equal; but guilt, through the varying order of their merits, puts some below others. Yet this very difference, which has come about through vice, is ordered by divine judgment: since all men cannot stand on an equal footing, one should be ruled by another. That is why all who are over others ought to consider in themselves not the authority of their rank but the equality of their condition, and should rejoice not in being over people but in doing them good. Indeed, our ancient fathers are said to have been not kings of men but shepherds of flocks. And when the Lord said to Noah and his sons, “Increase and multiply, and fill the earth,” he at once added, “And let the fear of you and the dread of you be on all the beasts of the earth.” So it appears that while the fear and the dread are ordered to be on the beasts of the earth, they are forbidden to be on men. For man is by nature set above the brute beasts, but not above other men. That is why he is told that he is to be feared by the beasts, but not by men; since to wish to be feared by one’s equal is to be proud against nature. And yet rulers must be feared by their subjects when they find that God is not feared by them, so that those who have no dread of divine judgments may at least be afraid to sin through human dread. Superiors are not at all proud in seeking to inspire this fear, for in it they seek not their own glory but the righteousness of those under them. In demanding fear of themselves from people who live perversely, they lord it, as it were, not over men but over beasts; for so far as those under them are beastlike, they ought to be kept down by fear. [a]

But a ruler, from the very fact that he stands above others, is commonly lifted up with pride of thought. Everything serves his need. His commands are carried out quickly, just as he wishes. All his subjects praise whatever he has done well, but they have no authority to speak against what he has done wrong, and they commonly praise even what they ought to have rebuked. And so his mind, led astray by what is offered to him in abundance from below, is lifted up above itself. Surrounded outwardly by boundless favor, he loses his inward sense of the truth. Forgetting himself, he pours himself out on the voices of other people, and believes himself to be what he outwardly hears himself called, rather than what he ought inwardly to have judged himself to be. He looks down on those under him, and does not recognize them as his equals in the order of nature. Those he has surpassed in the accident of power he believes he has surpassed in the merits of his life as well, and he thinks himself wiser than all whom he sees he outranks. He sets himself up in his own mind on a lofty height, and though he is bound together with others in the same condition of nature, he scorns to look at others from the same level. So he even comes to be like the one of whom it is written, “He beholds every high thing; he is king over all the children of pride.” Indeed, aiming at a height that is his alone, and despising the fellowship of the angels, he says, “I will set my seat in the north, and I will be like the Most High.” So by a marvelous judgment he finds within himself a pit to fall into, while outwardly he raises himself on the summit of power. For he is made like the apostate angel when, though he is a man, he scorns to be like men. [d]

So Saul, after the merit of his humility, swelled with pride at the height of his power. For his humility he was chosen; for his pride he was rejected. The Lord bears witness to this when he says, “When you were little in your own sight, did I not make you the head of the tribes of Israel?” Before, he had seen himself as little in his own eyes; but once he was propped up by earthly power, he no longer saw himself as little. Setting himself above others because he had more power than all of them, he thought himself great above all. Yet in a wonderful way, when he was little to himself he was great to God, and when he seemed great to himself he was little to God. So it commonly happens that while the mind is puffed up by the great number of those under it, it is corrupted into a flood of pride, the very summit of power acting as go-between for its desires. And in truth, he orders this power well who knows both how to hold it and how to fight against it. He orders it well who knows how to rise above wrongdoing by means of it, and how, while holding it, to put himself on an equal footing with others. For the human mind is commonly lifted up even when no authority supports it; how much more does it raise itself on high when authority lends it support! Still, he handles this authority rightly who knows how, with anxious care, to take from it what is helpful and to reject what tempts; to see himself on a level with others while he holds it, and yet, in his zeal to punish, to set himself above those who sin.

We will understand this distinction more fully if we look at the examples given by the first pastor. Peter had received from God the chief rule of the holy church. Yet when Cornelius, who was acting well, threw himself humbly down before him, Peter refused to accept excessive reverence, saying, “Stand up; do not do this; I myself am also a man.” But when he discovered the guilt of Ananias and Sapphira, he soon showed with how great a power he had been raised above all others. By his word he struck down their life, which he had found out by the insight of his spirit. Against sins he remembered that he was chief within the church, though he did not acknowledge this before his brothers who acted well, when honor was eagerly paid him. In the one case, holiness of conduct earned fellowship as an equal; in the other, zeal to punish brought into view the just claims of authority. Paul too did not regard himself as set above his brothers who acted well, when he said, “Not that we have dominion over your faith, but we are helpers of your joy.” And he immediately added, “For by faith you stand,” as if to explain what he meant: “This is why we have no dominion over your faith, because by faith you stand; for we are your equals in that in which we know you stand.” He did not regard himself as set above his brothers when he said, “We became little children among you,” and again, “but ourselves your servants through Christ.” But when he found a fault that needed correcting, he immediately remembered that he was a master, saying, “What do you want? Shall I come to you with a rod?” [f]

Supreme rule, then, is well ordered when the one who presides lords it over vices rather than over his brothers. But when superiors correct their erring subordinates, it remains for them to take anxious care that, while by right of their authority they strike faults with due discipline, they still, by guarding humility, recognize themselves as on a level with the very brothers they correct. In fact, it is usually fitting that in our silent thought we should even set the brothers we correct above ourselves. For their vices are struck through us with the vigor of discipline, but for the vices we ourselves commit we are not torn by so much as a word of rebuke. So we are bound all the more before the Lord, the more we sin among men without punishment; but our discipline makes those under us all the freer from divine judgment, because it does not leave their faults without retribution here. So humility should be kept in the heart, and discipline in action. And all the while there is need of shrewd insight, lest by guarding the virtue of humility too much, the just claims of government are relaxed; and lest a superior who lowers himself more than is fitting become unable to hold the lives of those under him within the bond of discipline. Let rulers, then, keep up outwardly what they take on for the good of others, and keep inwardly what makes them fearful in judging themselves. Yet let even their subjects perceive, from certain signs that show themselves fittingly, that they are humble within; so that the subjects may both see in their authority something to fear, and recognize in their humility something to imitate. Therefore let those who preside work without ceasing that, the greater their power is seen to be outwardly, the more it is kept down inwardly within themselves: that it does not conquer their thought, that the heart is not carried away into delight in it, lest the mind become unable to control what, in its lust for domination, it submits itself to. For lest the heart of a ruler be betrayed into pride by delight in personal power, a certain wise man rightly says, “They have made you a leader: do not lift yourself up, but be among them as one of them.” Hence Peter too says, “Not as being lords over God’s heritage, but being made examples to the flock.” [h]

Hence the Truth himself, urging us on to a higher merit of virtue, says, “You know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and those who are greater exercise authority over them. It will not be so among you. But whoever wants to be greater among you, let him be your attendant; and whoever wants to be first among you, let him be your servant; just as the Son of Man came not to be waited on, but to serve.” Hence too he shows what punishments await the servant who has grown proud by taking on government, saying, “But if that evil servant says in his heart, ‘My lord is delaying his coming,’ and begins to beat his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunken, the lord of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him, and at an hour that he does not know, and will cut him in pieces, and assign him his portion with the hypocrites.” For he is rightly counted among the hypocrites who, under pretense of discipline, turns the ministry of government into domination.

And yet sometimes the wrongdoing is more serious if, among perverse people, equality is kept up more than discipline. Eli, because he was overcome by false affection and would not punish his erring sons, struck himself down along with his sons before the strict judge with a cruel doom. For this reason the divine voice said to him, “You have honored your sons more than me.” Hence too he rebukes the shepherds through the prophet, saying, “What was broken you have not bound up, and what was cast away you have not brought back.” One who had been cast away is brought back when someone who has fallen into sin is called back to a state of righteousness by the vigor of pastoral care. And a bandage binds a fracture when discipline subdues a sin, so that the wound does not bleed to death for want of being pressed tight by the severity of restraint. But often a fracture is made worse when it is bound carelessly, so that the cut hurts more for being bound too tightly. So when a wound of sin in those under us is checked by correction, even restraint must temper itself with great care, so as to use the rights of discipline against wrongdoers in a way that keeps the tender heart of loving-kindness. Care should be taken that a ruler shows himself to his subjects as a mother in loving-kindness and as a father in discipline. And all the while it must be watched with anxious caution that discipline is not rigid, nor loving-kindness lax. For, as we have said before in our book of Morals, much is lacking to both discipline and compassion if one is had without the other. Rulers ought to have toward their subjects both compassion that is justly considerate and discipline that is lovingly severe.

This is why, as the Truth teaches, the half-dead man is brought into the inn by the care of the Samaritan, and both wine and oil are applied to his wounds: the wine to make them smart, the oil to soothe them. Whoever oversees the healing of wounds must apply in wine the sting of pain, and in oil the softness of loving-kindness, so that through the wine what is festering may be cleaned out, and through the oil what can be healed may be soothed. Gentleness, then, is to be mixed with severity; a kind of compound is to be made of both, so that subjects are neither made raw by too much harshness nor slackened by too much kindness. According to the words of Paul, this is well signified by the ark of the tabernacle, in which, together with the tablets, there was a rod and manna. For if, with knowledge of Holy Scripture, there is in the good ruler’s breast the rod of restraint, there should also be the manna of sweetness. Hence David says, “Your rod and your staff, they have comforted me.” With a rod we are struck; with a staff we are held up. If, then, there is the restraint of the rod for striking, there should also be the comfort of the staff for supporting. So let there be love, but not weakening; let there be vigor, but not exasperating; let there be zeal, but not burning beyond measure; let there be pity, but not sparing more than is fitting; so that, as justice and mercy blend together in supreme rule, the one at the head may both soothe the hearts of his subjects while making them afraid, and yet, while soothing them, hold them to reverent awe.