Moralia in Job 1081

Verse 18. — Who says to a king, You are an apostate; who calls leaders impious. 52. He is an apostate who presides over others not to profit them, but to dominate them. — Often we have known that very many who preside exact from their subjects an inordinate fear of themselves, and wish to be venerated not so much on account of the Lord as in place of the Lord. For within themselves they exalt themselves with swelling of heart, and despise all their subjects in comparison with themselves, and do not counsel by condescending, but oppress by domineering, because indeed they raise themselves with lofty thought, and do not acknowledge themselves equal to those over whom they happen to preside. Against this swelling it is said through the book of Ecclesiasticus: They have made you a leader; be not lifted up, but be among them as one of them (Ecclus. 32:1).

This swelling the Lord, rebuking it in shepherds through the prophet, says: But you ruled over them with harshness, and with power (Ezek. 34:4). For the very good things which they say to their subjects, they bring forth by domineering rather than by counseling, because indeed they consider themselves debased to say anything to them as if on equal terms. For they rejoice in the singularity of eminence, and not in the equality of condition. But because the Lord subtly weighs these swelling hearts of rulers, well is it said against them: Who says to a king, You are an apostate. For each proud ruler slips into the fault of apostasy as often as, delighting to preside over men, he rejoices in the singularity of his own honor.

For he considers not under whom he is, and exults that he is as it were not equal to his equals. But whence does this root of vices sprout up in the heart of those who rule, except from the imitation of him who, despising the fellowships of the angels, said: I will ascend above the height of the clouds, and I will be like the Most High (Isa. 14:14)? Because, therefore, each ruler, as often as he is exalted in that he rules others, so often is separated by the fall of pride from the service of the highest Ruler; and when he despises subjects equal to himself, he does not acknowledge over himself the dominion of Him under whom all are equal, rightly is it said: Who says to a king, You are an apostate. Section 53.

He is impious, if by the example of his own pride he drags his subjects headlong. — But because when they preside by domineering, they draw their subjects to impiety by the example of their pride, it is aptly added: Who calls leaders impious. For they would lead them to the way of piety, if they showed examples of humility to the eyes of their subjects. But a leader is impious who strays from the path of truth; and while he himself rushes headlong, he invites his followers to the precipices. A leader is impious who by the examples of his swelling shows the way of error. Paul feared to be a leader of impiety, when he repressed the loftiness of his own power, saying:

Nor seeking glory from men, neither from you, nor from others, though we might have been a burden as the apostles of Christ, but we were made little ones in the midst of you (1 Thess. 2:6-7). He had been made a little one in their midst, because he feared lest, if among the disciples he claimed the honor of his eminence, he should show examples of elation. He feared indeed lest, while he himself sought for himself the power of pastoral might, the subject flock should follow through the precipices, and he who had undertaken the office of piety should lead his followers to impiety. 54. Let him shine before his subjects with the splendor of virtues. Let him correct their faults prudently and humbly. — Whence it is necessary that he who presides should carefully attend to what examples he offers to his subjects;

and let him know that he ought to live in proportion to how many he presides over; and let him vigilantly take heed lest he swell in that he is set over others; lest he exact the rights of his due power too immoderately; lest the right of discipline be changed into the rigor of pride; and lest, from that whence he could restrain his subjects from perversity, he should rather pervert the hearts of those who behold him; lest, as has been said, he become a leader of impiety through the office of piety. But he ought not to undertake the leadership of men, who knows not how to go before men by living well; lest he who is chosen for this, that he may correct the faults of others, himself commit what he ought to have cut away.

Let those, therefore, who preside look around on this side and on that, so that they may live for themselves and for their subjects: that they may hide the good which they do within the bosom of the mind, and yet from it impart examples of right working to the advancement of their followers; that, observing the faults of their subjects, they may correct them, and yet not swell through the force of that same censure; that they may leniently bear certain things when corrected, and yet not by that same leniency dissolve the bonds of discipline; that they may overlook certain things by tolerating them, and yet not permit them to grow by overlooking them. These things are laborious, and, unless divine grace supports, difficult to keep. Rightly indeed is it said concerning the coming of the strict Judge through the book of Wisdom:

He will appear horribly and swiftly, for a most severe judgment shall be made upon those who preside (Wisd. 6:6). Because, therefore, very often through the power of governance one breaks out into the fault of elation, and before the strict Judge that very elation is reckoned as impiety, well is it said of the Lord through Elihu: Who calls leaders impious. For while they are proud of that very leadership, they draw their subjects to impiety by their own example. 55. Judging others, let him continually set himself before the supernal Judge. Power received is to be esteemed not an honor, but a burden. Ambition brings infinite evils. Pastoral care is neither to be embraced through cupidity, nor deferred through fear.

— Whence it is greatly to be taken care of, that he who is set over men to govern them should, within the secret chamber of his mind, preside on the seat of humility. And while he who judges is attended by others from without, let him with vigilant eye incessantly regard by which Judge he himself shall one day stand to be judged concerning these things, so that the more anxiously he now trembles before Him whom he sees not, the more securely he may look upon Him when he shall see Him. Let him therefore weigh, who perhaps scarcely suffices for satisfying the strict Judge concerning his own soul alone, that in proportion as he presides over subjects to be governed, at the time of rendering account before Him, so to speak, he alone has that many souls. Which thought indeed, if it continually broils the mind, presses down all swelling of pride.

And the provident ruler will now be called neither an apostate king nor an impious leader, in proportion as to him, by anxious thought, the power which has been received is esteemed not an honor, but a burden. For he to whom it now pleases to be a judge, to that same one it will not then please to see the Judge. For the faults cannot be numbered which are perpetrated through love of holding power. But then only is power well administered, when it is retained not by loving, but by fearing. And that it may be able to be rightly ministered, it behooves first that not cupidity, but necessity, should impose it. But when received, it ought neither to be deserted through fear, nor embraced through lust; lest either one worse be proud as it were out of humility, if by fleeing he despise the order of the divine dispensation;

or he cast off the yoke of the supernal Ruler, in that it delights him to be set over others in a private governance. Power, therefore, when it is received, is not to be loved out of lust, but to be endured out of long-suffering, so that from thence it may then be salutarily light toward judgment, whence now it makes itself patiently heavy toward ministry.