VERSE 30. — 'Who makes a hypocrite to reign because of the sins of the people.' Let those who are subject to evil rulers impute it to their own fault. Because of the sins of the peoples the Antichrist shall reign. — For Judea was unwilling that a true king should reign over her, and therefore, her merits demanding it, she received a hypocrite, just as Truth itself also says in the Gospel: 'I am come in the name of my Father, and ye received me not; if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive' (John v, 43). And as Paul says: 'Because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved, therefore God shall send them the working of error, that they should believe a lie' (2 Thess. ii, 10). In that, therefore, which is said:
'Who makes a hypocrite to reign because of the sins of the people,' the very head of all hypocrites, the Antichrist, may be designated. For that seducer will then feign sanctity, that he may draw men to iniquity. But because of the sins of the people he is permitted to reign, because assuredly then those are preordained under his governance who before the ages are foreknown as worthy of his dominion, who by their subsequent sins demand that they be disposed under him by preceding judgments. That the Antichrist then reigns over the impious, therefore, is not from the injustice of the One judging, but from the fault of the one suffering it;
although very many both did not see his rule, and yet by the condition of their sins are subject to his rule, because even him whom they by no means behold ruling over them, they undoubtedly reverence by living perversely. Are they not his members, who through the appearance of an affected sanctity desire to be seen as what they are not? For he principally assumes hypocrisy who, though he is a damned man and a wicked spirit, lies that he is God. But without doubt from his body there now come forth those who hide their iniquities under the covering of sacred honour, that by profession they may desire to be seen as what they refuse to be in works. For because it is written:
'Everyone who commits sin is the servant of sin'—the more freely they now carry out the perverse things they will, the more stubbornly they are bound to his servitude (John viii, 34). But let no one who suffers such a ruler accuse him whom he suffers, because assuredly it was of his own merit to lie subject to the dominion of a perverse ruler. Let him therefore accuse rather the fault of his own work than the injustice of the one governing. For it is written: 'I will give thee kings in my fury' (Hosea xiii, 11). Why then do we despise those set over us, whose rule over us we receive out of the Lord's fury? If therefore, God being angry, we receive rulers according to our merits, in their action we gather what we should weigh out of our own estimation.
Although very often even the elect are subjected to the reprobate. Whence David also for a long time endured Saul (1 Sam. xviii, 11); but by the subsequent fault of adultery it is betrayed that he was then worthy to be pressed down by so great harshness of a superior. Sometimes for the offences of the flock a good shepherd is made perverse. — Thus, then, personal characters of rulers are given according to the merits of subjects, so that often those who seem good are, on receiving governance, presently changed; just as Sacred Scripture reported of that same Saul, that he changed his heart along with his dignity. Whence it is written: 'When thou wast little in thine own eyes, did I not make thee head among the tribes of Israel?' (1 Sam. xv, 17).
Thus, according to the qualities of subjects, the deeds of rulers are disposed, so that often for the evil of the flock even the life of a truly good shepherd falls into sin. For that David, praised with God attesting, that prophet privy to the mysteries on high, being puffed up by the fear of a sudden self-exaltation, sinned by numbering the people, and yet the people, while David sinned, received the punishment (2 Sam. xxiv, 9). Why this? Because, namely, the hearts of rulers are disposed according to the merit of the peoples. But the just Judge corrected the fault of the sinner from the animadversion upon those very ones for whose cause he had sinned. But because he himself, being proud by his own will, was not free from fault, he also himself received the punishment of his fault.
For the raging wrath, which bodily struck the people, laid low also the ruler of the people with an inmost grief of heart. And it is certain that the merits of rulers and of peoples are so mutually connected, that often from the fault of shepherds the life of the peoples becomes worse, and often by the merit of the peoples the life of shepherds is changed. [Vel. XXI.] Subjects should tolerate even bad prelates, if they can with faith unharmed. Humility the teacher of rectitude. — But because rulers have their own Judge, it is a great caution of subjects not rashly to judge the life of those who govern. For not in vain did the Lord by Himself pour out the money of the money-changers, and overturn the seats of those selling doves (Matt. xxi, 12);
signifying assuredly that through the masters He indeed judges the life of the peoples, but through Himself He examines the deeds of the masters. Although even the base things of subjects, which by the masters are either dissembled or cannot be judged, are without doubt reserved to His judgment. Therefore, while the matter is transacted with faith unharmed, it is a merit of virtue if whatever belongs to the superior is tolerated. Yet it ought to be humbly suggested, if perchance what displeases may be amended. But it must be most carefully guarded, lest an inordinate defence of justice pass over into pride, lest, while rectitude is incautiously loved, humility itself, the very teacher of rectitude, be lost; lest anyone despise him who is set over him, whom perchance it happens that he reprehends in some action.
Against this swelling of pride, the mind of subjects is tamed to the guarding of humility, if one's own infirmity is unceasingly attended to. For we neglect truly to examine our own strength; and because we believe stronger things of ourselves, we therefore judge strictly those who are set over us. For the less we recognize ourselves, the more we see the faults of those whom we strive to reprehend. These several evils are such as are often committed by subjects against prelates, often by prelates against subjects, because both those who preside deem all subjects less wise than they themselves are, and again those who are subject judge the actions of their rulers, and think that, if it happened to them to hold the governance, they could have acted better.
Whence it often comes about both that rulers less prudently see the things that ought to be done, because the very cloud of self-exaltation darkens their eyes; and sometimes he who is a subject does, when he has become a prelate, that which formerly, being a subject, he used to censure; and because he perpetrates the very things which he had condemned, at least because he judged, let him blush. Therefore, just as prelates must take care lest a superior position exalt their hearts by the estimation of singular wisdom, so subjects must provide lest the deeds of their rulers displease them. [Vet. XXII.] Bad shepherds are to be honoured, not imitated. — But if the life of masters is justly reprehended, it behooves that subjects, even when they are displeased, venerate them. [Rec.
XV.] But this must be skillfully attended to, lest either you desire to imitate him whom it is necessary to venerate, or you disdain to venerate him whom you despise to imitate. For a subtle way of rectitude and of humility must be held, so that the reprehensible deeds of masters may displease in such a way that the mind of subjects does not depart from the reverence to be preserved for the office of mastership. This is well expressed in the drunken Noah, whose more shameful parts, laid bare, the good sons covered by coming with averted faces (Gen. ix, 21). For we are said to 'avert ourselves from' that which we reprobate. What is it, then, that the sons, coming with averted faces, cover the shameful parts of their father with a cloak thrown over their backs, except that to good subjects the evils of their superiors so displease that nevertheless they conceal these from others?
They carry the covering with averted faces, because, judging the deed and venerating the office, they are unwilling to see what they cover. [Rec. XVI.] To despise shepherds who occupy themselves with temporal things is even to accuse God. The power of governance cannot be ministered without the pursuit of temporal care. — But there are some who, if they have begun even a little in spiritual conversation, as soon as they observe their rulers doing temporal and considering earthly things, presently accuse the order of the supernal disposition, because those have by no means been well set over them for ruling, through whom examples of a lowly conversation are displayed. But these assuredly, while they neglect to temper themselves from the reprehension of their rulers, by the demanding merits of their own fault, go on even to the reprehension of the Creator:
whose dispensation, assuredly, is recognized as the more right by the humble, precisely where it is judged as not right by the exalted. For because the power of governance cannot be ministered without the pursuit of temporal care, sometimes Almighty God, by a wondrous dispensation of His mercy, that the tender minds of spiritual men may be kept disjoined from earthly care, lays the burden of governance upon hard and laborious hearts, so that those tender ones may lie hidden from this world the more securely, the more these hard ones willingly toil in earthly solicitudes. For in the discharge of the burden undertaken, even for the very advantages of subjects, hard are the ways of worldly servitude. How much we owe to those who, by occupying themselves with the care of temporal things, free us from it.
— And often, as has been said, the merciful God, the more He loves to keep His own, the more solicitously He hides them from external actions. For often too the head of a household directs his servants to that labour from which he keeps his refined sons; and thence the sons are without vexation, kept comely, whence the servants are befouled in the dust. How rightly this is done in the Church by divine agency is signified by the very construction of the tabernacle. For to Moses it is commanded by the divine voice that, to cover the inner Holy of Holies, veils be woven of fine linen, scarlet, and hyacinth, and it was ordered that, to protect the tabernacle, he stretch out veils of goats' hair and skins, which assuredly might bear either the rains, or the winds, or the dust (Exod. xxvi, 1).
What, then, do we understand by the skins and haircloths with which the tabernacle is covered, but the coarse minds of men, which sometimes in the Church, by God's hidden judgment, though they be hard, are set in front? Because they do not fear to serve temporal cares, it behooves that they bear the winds and rains of temptations from the adversities of this world. But what is signified by the hyacinth, scarlet, and fine linen, but the lives of the saints, tender yet bright? Which, while it is cautiously hidden in the tabernacle under the haircloths and skins, keeps for itself its integral beauty. For that in the interior of the tabernacle the fine linen may shine, the scarlet gleam, the hyacinth glow with an azure colour, above them the skins and haircloths bear the showers, the winds, and the dust.
Those, therefore, who advance by great virtues in the bosom of the holy Church, ought not to despise the life of their superiors, when they see them free for exterior things, because this very fact—that they themselves securely penetrate the inner things—is from the help of those who nearer at hand labour against the storms of this world. For what grace of its own whiteness would the fine linen retain, if the rain touched it? Or what of splendour and brightness would the scarlet or the hyacinth show, if the dust it received befouled it? Let there be, therefore, above, a weave of haircloth strong against the dust; let there be, below, a hyacinthine colour apt for beauty. Let those adorn the Church who are free only for spiritual things; let those cover the Church whom even the labour of corporeal things does not weigh down.
Let him, therefore, who already spiritually shines within the holy Church by no means murmur against his ruler who transacts exterior things. For if thou securely within glowest red like the scarlet, why dost thou accuse the haircloth by which thou art protected? [Vet. XXIII.] God ordains the depraved examples of prelates for the punishment of proud subjects. When the prophets seem to curse, they foretell. — But it is asked by certain persons why, while for the very advantage of subjects rulers serve too much in temporal cares, many in the Church grow slack by their example. And who would deny that this is very true, when he sees earthly things more solicitously cared for by shepherds than heavenly ones?
But neither are these things unjust, if, as we said above, the affairs of those presiding are disposed according to the merits of subjects. For faults perpetrated secretly and willingly demand that depraved examples be set forth even by shepherds, so that by a just judgment he who as a proud man strays from the way of God may, in the way by which he walks, stumble even through the guidance of the shepherd. Whence also through the prophet it is said, out of the zeal of one foretelling, not out of the wish of one cursing: 'Let their eyes be darkened, that they see not, and bow down their back always' (Ps. lxviii, 24). As if he should say:
Let those who preside over the actions of human life as if over routes to be foreseen not have the light of truth, so that the subjects also who follow, bent down by the burdens of their own iniquities, may lose every state of rectitude. This we without doubt know was done in Judea, when at the very coming of our Redeemer the crowd of the Pharisees and priests closed the eyes of the mind against the true light, and the people, walking through the examples of their superiors, erred in the darkness of unbelief. In what sense God makes a hypocrite to reign. — But it can reasonably be asked how in this place it is said that the Lord makes a hypocrite to reign, when concerning this matter He specially complains through the prophet, saying: 'They have reigned, but not by me;
they set up princes, but I knew it not' (Hosea viii, 4). For who, rightly perceiving, would say that the Lord does what He by no means knows? But because to know is, for God, to approve; not to know is to reprobate; whence to certain ones whom He reprobates He says: 'I know not whence ye are, depart from me all ye workers of iniquity' (Luke xiii, 27); and sometimes to do, for God, is that which He forbids to be done, permitting it in His wrath; whence He asserted that He hardened the heart of the king of Egypt (Exod. iv, 21), because, namely, He permitted it to be hardened;—in a wondrous manner the Lord both makes hypocrites to reign and knows it not: He makes by allowing, He knows not by reprobating. Whence it is necessary that for everything which in this life is coveted, the inner will be first sought.
When the ear of the human heart desires to perceive that will, let it know that this sounds not in words, but in things. When, therefore, a place of governance is offered to be governed, each man must first discuss within himself whether his life agrees with such a light, whether his action does not dissent from the honour, lest afterwards the just Ruler of all not hear his prayers in tribulation, precisely because the very beginnings of that man's honour, from whom the tribulation arises, are themselves ignorant of Him.