Bellarmine · De Controversiis · On the Members of the Church · On the Laity or Secular Persons (Book III)
Chapter 1: The Order of the Whole Disputation
Our translation, from the Latin of the Opera Omnia (Paris: Vivès, 1870–74), vol. III, De Laicis sive Saecularibus (De Membris Ecclesiae, Book III), On the Laity or Secular Persons (On the Members of the Church, Book III). The Latin source text is public domain; this English rendering is released with the site. Scripture quotations follow Bellarmine's Vulgate citations, rendered in Douay-Rheims wording where he quotes exactly. Click “Show the Latin” for the original (raw OCR of the scan; scanning errors remain — the scan itself is the authority).
We have discoursed of two members of the Church, that is, of the Clergy and of the Monks; it remains for us to speak of the third, that is, of the Laity, or secular persons, and at the same time of the members cut off from the Church, that is, of heretics — all of which can be brought back to the disputation on the political magistrate.
This whole Disputation is contained in six questions. For first we must treat of political power itself; then of its office in political matters; thirdly, of its office in the cause of religion.
On the first there are two questions. The first: whether that power is a good thing, and therefore lawful for Christians. The second: whether it is lost through sin.
On the second there are two questions. The first, on the office of the magistrate in preserving the commonwealth from the wickedness of the citizens by laws and judgments, both civil and criminal — that is, whether it is lawful for Christians to make laws, exercise judgments, and strike the guilty with the sword, which are the proper acts of the magistrate. The second, on the office of the magistrate in protecting the commonwealth from external enemies — that is, whether it is lawful for Christians to wage wars; and to this we will add, as it were a corollary, on account of Luther: whether it is lawful to war against the Turks.
On the third there are two other questions. The first, whether the care of religion pertains to the magistrate; or whether he may permit each one to believe as he will. The second, whether the magistrate ought to punish heretics judged and condemned by the Church, both in their books and in their goods and in their persons, even unto death.
Show the Latin (Vives edition, OCR)
CAPUT PRIMUM. Ordo totius Disputationis. Disseruimus de duobus membris Ecclesiae, id est, Clericis, et Monachis, superest ut di¬ camus de tertio, id est, de Laicis, sive saecu¬ laribus, et simul de membris ab Ecclesia praecisis, id est, de haereticis, quae omnia ad disputationem de Magistratu politico revo¬ cari possunt. Tota haec Disputatio sex quaestionibus continetur. Primum enim, de ipsa politica potestate agendum est. Deinde, de officio ejus in rebus politicis. Tertio, de officio ejus in causa religionis. De Primo sunt quaestiones duae. Prima, An ista potestas sit res bona, et proinde Christianis licita. Secunda, An per pecca- ’tum amittatur. De Secundo sunt duae quaestiones. Prima, de officio Magistratus in conservanda Repu- blica ab improbitate civium per leges, et judicia, tam civilia, quam criminalia, id est : An liceat Christianis leges condere, judicia exercere et gladio ferire noxios, qui sunt actus proprii Magistratus. Secunda, de offi¬ cio Magistratus in protegenda Repub. ab hostibus externis, id est : An liceat Christia¬ nis bella gerere, et huic addemus quasi co¬ rollarium propter Lutherum: An liceat bel¬ lare contra Tureas. De Tertio sunt alia? duie questiones. Prima, An ad Magistratum pertineat cura religionis ; An vero permittere possit, ut quisque credat, ut voluerit. Secunda, An Magistratus debeat haereticos ab Ecclesia judicatos et damnatos punire, tam in libris eorum, quam in facultatibus, et in personis, etiam usque ad mortem.