Pastoral Rule, Dialogues & Letters 17

Let the ruler be, through humility, a companion to those who do well, but, against the vices of offenders, erect through zeal for righteousness; so that in nothing may he prefer himself to the good, and yet, when the fault of the perverse demands it, may at once recognize the power of his own priority, to the end that, suppressing his honour, he may reckon himself equal to well-living subjects, and yet may not fear to exercise the rights of rectitude toward the perverse. For as I remember to have said in the books of the Morals (Moralia, Book 21, ch. 10, now n. 22), it is clear that nature begot all men equal, but, by a varying order of merits, fault sets some below others. Yet this very diversity which arose from vice is dispensed by the divine judgment; so that, since not every man is able to stand equally, one may be governed by another.

Hence all who preside ought to weigh not the power of rank, but the equality of condition; nor should they rejoice to be over men, but to profit them. For our ancient fathers are recorded 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 (Genesis 9:1), He at once added: And let the fear of you and the dread of you be upon all the beasts of the earth (Genesis 9:2). Whose fear and dread, since it is commanded to be over the beasts of the earth, is assuredly forbidden to be over men. For man is set by nature above the brute beasts, but not above other men;

and therefore it is said to him that he should be feared by the beasts and not by men, because it is against nature to be proud, to wish to be feared by an equal. And yet it is necessary that rulers be feared by their subjects, when they perceive that God is not feared by them at all; so that those who dread not the divine judgments may at least fear to sin through human dread. For by no means do those set in authority grow proud from this fear thus sought, wherein they seek not their own glory, but the righteousness of their subjects. For in that they exact fear from those who live perversely, they lord it, as it were, not over men, but over beasts, because indeed, in that part in which their subjects are bestial, they ought also to lie prostrate under dread.

But very often, by the very fact that the ruler is preeminent over others, he swells with elation of thought; and while all things lie subject to his use, while his commands are swiftly fulfilled according to his wish, while all subjects extol with praises whatever things are well done, but by no authority contradict things ill done, while very often they praise even what they ought to have reproved, the mind, seduced by these things that lie beneath, is exalted above itself; and while outwardly it is surrounded by immense favour, inwardly it is emptied of truth, and, forgetful of itself, scatters itself into the voices of others, and believes itself to be such as it hears itself to be without, not such as it ought to have discerned itself to be within. It despises its subjects, and does not recognize them as equal to itself in the order of nature;

and those whom he has surpassed by the lot of power, he believes himself to have transcended also by the merits of life. He reckons himself to be more wise than all whom he sees himself to be more able than. For he sets himself, in his own esteem, upon a certain summit, and he who is bound by an equal condition of nature with the rest disdains to regard the rest as his equals; and thus he is led even to the likeness of him of whom it is written: He beholds every high thing, and he himself is king over all the children of pride (Job 41:34). He who, coveting a singular summit and despising the social life of the angels, said: I will set my seat toward the North, and I will be like the Most High (Isaiah 14:13-14). By a wondrous judgment, therefore, he finds within a pit of dejection, while without he exalts himself upon the summit of power.

For he is made like the apostate angel, while man disdains to be like men. Thus Saul, after the merit of humility, grew into the swelling of pride by the height of power: through humility indeed he was set on high, through pride he was rejected, the Lord bearing witness, who says: When you were little in your own eyes, did I not make you the head among the tribes of Israel? (1 Samuel 15:17). He had first seen himself little in his own eyes, but, propped up by temporal power, he no longer saw himself little. For preferring himself to the comparison of the rest, because he was more able than all, he esteemed himself great above all. Yet by a wondrous manner, when he was little in his own sight, he was great before God; but when he appeared great in his own sight, he was little before God.

Therefore, very often, while the mind is puffed up by the abundance of subjects, it is corrupted into a flux of pride, the very summit of power acting as a seducer. He indeed rules that power well who knows both how to hold it and how to fight against it. He rules it well who knows how through it to be raised above faults, and knows how, with it, to be set on equality with the rest. For the human mind is very often exalted, even when it is supported by no power; how much more does it raise itself on high, when power too is joined to it? Yet he rightly dispenses that power who knows solicitously both to take from it what helps, and to war against what tempts, and to see himself equal with the rest even while having it, and yet to set himself, with zeal for vengeance, before sinners.

But we recognize this discretion more fully if we behold the examples of the chief Shepherd. For Peter, holding by God's authorship the primacy of holy Church, refused to be venerated immoderately by Cornelius, who did well and prostrated himself humbly before him, and acknowledged himself equal to him, saying: Rise, do it not, for I myself also am a man (Acts 10:26). But when he found the fault of Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:5), he soon showed with how great power he had grown above the rest. For by his word he struck the life of those whom he detected by his searching spirit: and he acknowledged himself supreme within the Church against sins, which, when honour was vehemently rendered to him before well-doing brethren, he did not acknowledge.

There the holiness of his action merited the communion of equality; here the zeal of vengeance opened up the right of power. Paul knew not himself to be set above the well-doing brethren, when he said: Not that we have dominion over your faith, but are helpers of your joy (2 Corinthians 1:24). And he at once added: For by faith you stand. As if to lay open what he had brought forth, saying: Therefore we have not dominion over your faith, because by faith you stand; for we are equal to you in that in which we know you to stand. As if he knew not himself to be set above the brethren, when he said: We were made little ones in the midst of you (1 Thessalonians 2:7). And again: But ourselves your servants through Christ (2 Corinthians 4:5).

But when he found a fault that ought to be corrected, he at once acknowledged himself to be a master, saying: What will you? Shall I come to you with a rod? (1 Corinthians 4:21). The highest place, therefore, is well governed when he who presides has dominion over vices rather than over the brethren. But when the prelates correct offending subjects, it remains necessary that they attend solicitously, so that they may indeed strike the faults by the right of power through the debt of discipline, but through the keeping of humility may acknowledge themselves equal to the very brethren who are corrected: although very often it is even fitting that, in silent thought, we prefer to ourselves those same persons whom we correct.

For their vices are struck through us by the vigour of discipline, while in those things which we ourselves commit, we are not lacerated even by the reproach of a word from anyone. Therefore we are the more bound before the Lord, the more we sin unpunished before men. But our discipline renders our subjects so much the freer before the divine judgment, the more it here does not leave their faults without punishment. Humility, therefore, is to be kept in the heart, and discipline in the deed. And amid these things it is to be skillfully observed, lest, while the virtue of humility is immoderately guarded, the rights of governance be loosed; and lest, while any prelate casts himself down more than is fitting, he be unable to bind the life of his subjects under the bond of discipline.

Let rulers, therefore, hold outwardly what they undertake for the benefit of others; let them keep inwardly what they dread concerning their own estimation. Yet by certain signs decently breaking forth, let even the subjects perceive that they are humble in their own regard, so that they may both see in their authority what they should fear, and recognize in their humility what they should imitate. Let those who preside, therefore, strive without intermission that, the more their power is beheld outwardly as great, the more it be pressed down inwardly within them, lest it overcome their thought, lest it snatch the mind into delight of itself, lest already the mind be unable to rule it under itself, to which it subjects itself through lust for domination.

For lest the mind of the one presiding be snatched away to the elation of his power by delight, it is rightly said through a certain wise man: They have made you a leader; be not lifted up, but be among them as one of them (Sirach 32:1). Hence also Peter says: Not lording it over the clergy, but being made a pattern of the flock (1 Peter 5:3). Hence, through herself, Truth, provoking us to higher merits of virtue, says: You know that the princes of the Gentiles have dominion over them, and they that are greater exercise power upon them. It shall not be so among you; but whosoever will be greater among you, let him be your minister; and he that will be first among you, shall be your servant: even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister (Matthew 20:25ff.).

Hence it is that He indicates, concerning the servant lifted up by the government he had undertaken, what torments await him afterward, saying: But if that evil servant shall say in his heart: My lord delays his coming, and shall begin to strike his fellow servants, and shall eat and drink with drunkards; the lord of that servant shall come in a day that he hopes not, and at an hour that he knows not, and shall divide him, and shall appoint his portion with the hypocrites (Matthew 24:48ff.). For he is justly reckoned among the hypocrites who, out of a pretence of discipline, turns the ministry of governance into a use of domination; and yet sometimes a graver offence is committed if, among the perverse, equality is guarded more than discipline.

For because Eli, overcome by false piety, was unwilling to strike his offending sons, he struck himself down together with his sons by a cruel condemnation before the strict Judge (1 Samuel 4:17-18). For hence it is said to him by the divine voice: You have honoured your sons more than me (1 Samuel 2:29). Hence He rebukes shepherds through the prophet, saying: That which was broken you have not bound up, and that which was cast away you have not brought back (Ezekiel 34:4). For the cast-away is brought back when anyone fallen in fault is recalled to the state of righteousness by the vigour of pastoral solicitude. And a bandage binds up the fracture when discipline presses down the fault, lest the wound flow on unto destruction, if the severity of strictness does not restrain it.

But often it is broken worse when the fracture is incautiously bound up, so that it feels the rent more grievously, if the bandages bind it immoderately. Hence it is necessary that, when the wound of sin in subjects is restrained by correcting, the strictness itself also be moderated with great solicitude, so that it may so exercise the rights of discipline against offenders as not to lose the bowels of pity. It is indeed to be taken care of that pity show the ruler to be a mother to his subjects, and discipline a father. And amid these things it is to be provided with solicitous circumspection, lest either strictness be rigid, or pity be lax. For as we have already said in the books of the Morals (Book 20 of the Morals, n. 14, ch. 8, and epistle 25, book 1),

discipline or mercy is much destitute, if one is held without the other. But toward his subjects there ought to be in rulers both a mercy justly taking counsel, and a discipline piously raging. Hence it is that, as Truth teaches (Luke 10:34), by the care of the Samaritan the half-dead man is led into the inn, and wine and oil are applied to his wounds, so that by the wine the wounds may be bitten, by the oil soothed. For it is necessary that whoever presides over the healing of wounds apply in the wine the biting of pain, in the oil the softness of pity, so that by the wine the putrid parts may be cleansed, and by the oil the healable soothed. Gentleness, therefore, is to be mingled with severity;

some temperament is to be made of both, so that subjects be neither exulcerated by too much harshness, nor loosened by too much kindness. This, according to Paul's voice (Hebrews 9:4), that ark of the tabernacle well signifies, in which, with the tablets, there is at once the rod and the manna; because, along with the knowledge of sacred Scripture in the breast of a good ruler, if there is the rod of strictness, let there be also the manna of sweetness. Hence David says: Your rod and your staff, they have comforted me (Psalm 23:4). For by the rod we are struck, by the staff we are sustained. If, therefore, there is the strictness of the rod that strikes, let there be also the consolation of the staff that sustains. Let there be, then, love, but not softening; let there be vigour, but not exasperating; let there be zeal, but not immoderately raging;

let there be pity, but not sparing more than is expedient; so that, while justice and clemency mingle themselves together in the citadel of governance, he who presides may both, by terrifying, soothe the hearts of his subjects, and yet, by soothing, bind them to the reverence of fear.