Bellarmine · De Controversiis · On the Members of the Church · On the Laity or Secular Persons (Book III)
Chapter 5: The Same Asserted from the End of the Principate
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).
The third argument is drawn from the end. The political principate is so natural and necessary to the human race that it cannot be removed without nature itself being destroyed. For it is the nature of man to be a sociable animal; for the beasts indeed are so furnished by nature that each can suffice for itself, but man needs so many things that he can in no way live alone. For the beasts are born clothed and armed, and have their estimative power so determined toward all that befits them that naturally, without any teacher, they at once know how to build nests, seek food, and even make medicine for themselves; but man is born without clothes, without a house, without food, needy of all things. And although he has hands and reason, by which he can prepare all instruments, yet each thing requires a long time — and so long that it is impossible for one man to suffice for all — especially since we are born unskilled, and the arts are learned by teaching rather than by experience. Therefore it is necessary that we live together, and that one help another.
Besides, even if each could suffice for himself for living, yet he could never suffice for protecting himself from the assault of wild beasts and robbers; but for this it is necessary to come together and, with joined forces, to resist. And even if he could suffice for himself against enemies too, yet he would always remain unskilled and destitute of wisdom and justice and many other virtues — whereas we are born chiefly to exercise the mind and the will. For the sciences and arts were discovered over a long time and by many, and cannot be learned without a teacher; and justice can be exercised only in society, since it is a virtue establishing equity among many.
Finally, the gift of speaking and hearing, that is, of distinctly perceiving words, to what end was it given to man, if he ought to live solitary? And so Aristotle rightly says (Book I of the Politics, chapter 2) that man is by nature a civil animal, more than are bees and cranes and whatever animals; and that whoever lives solitary is either a beast or a god, that is, either less or greater than man. Nor is this against our hermits. For those who lived wholly solitary — as Paul the first hermit, Mary Magdalene, Mary of Egypt, and any others there be — can be said to have had something more than man, not by nature but by grace; for not without a miracle were they fed by God, as is well known. But the rest, though they dwelt in solitude, yet frequently came together and were subject to their abbots, as we showed in the disputation On Monks.
Now if human nature requires social life, it certainly requires also government and a ruler; for it is impossible for a multitude to subsist long unless there be one who holds it together and to whom the common good is a care — just as in each one of us, unless there were a soul which held together and joined the parts and the faculties and the contrary elements of which we consist, all would at once be dissolved. Whence Proverbs 11: “Where there is no governor, the people shall fall.” Further, society is an ordered multitude; for a confused and dispersed multitude is not called a society; and what is order but a certain series of inferiors and superiors? Necessarily, therefore, rulers must be had, if there is to be a society.
By this argument the third argument of the Anabaptists is solved; for they assume a falsehood when they say that political government was permitted to the Jews on account of their imperfection, but does not befit us, because the anointing teaches us of all things. For the anointing teaches this first of all, that it is necessary to have a ruler; nor does it suffice to know all things, but it is necessary also to do and prepare many things which we cannot do without the help of others.
And besides, from this it is deduced to be false what Marcus Tullius says (in the first book On Invention): that there was once a time when men wandered after the manner of beasts, and then, persuaded by a certain wise and eloquent man by the force of eloquence, came together and lived together. Which same thing even in this time all are wont to say who undertake to praise eloquence. But in truth there never was, nor could be, such a time. For Adam was most wise, and without doubt did not permit men to wander after the manner of beasts; and Cain his son even built a material city; and before Cain and Adam there were none. But it is no wonder that Cicero and other heathen say such things; for the heathen, because they thought the world had been from eternity, and yet saw that all the arts were new and that no memory existed beyond a few years, thence suspected that for a very long time men had lived after the manner of beasts, and that only the memory existed of deeds done from that time when men began to dwell together. But the Christians, who from the testimony of God have learned that the world was created not yet six thousand years ago, and that the first men at once began to have cities, may well marvel why any dare to say that for a very long time men lived without a ruler and without cities after the manner of beasts.
Show the Latin (Vives edition, OCR)
CAPUT Y. Idem asseritur ex fine principatus. «• Tertia ratio ducitur a fine. Principatus politicus adeo naturalis, et necessarius est humano generi, ut tolli non possit quin na¬ tura ipsa destruatur. Hominis enim natura est, ut sit animal sociabile ; nam bruta qui¬ dem sunt a natura ifa instructa, ut possint sibi singula sufficere, homo autem tam mul¬ tis rebus indiget, ut solus vivere nullo modo possit. Nam bruta nascuntur vestita, et ar¬ mata, et sestimativam habent ita determi¬ natam ad omnia, quae sibi conveniunt, ut naturaliter sine ullo doctore statim nove¬ rint nidos aedificare, alimenta quaerere, et medicinam etiam sibiipsis facere; ait homo nascitur sine vestibus, sine domo, sine ali¬ mentis, omnium rerum egenus ; et quam¬ quam habet manus, et rationem, quibus omnia . instrumenta parare potest, tamen singula longum tempus requirunt, et adeo longum, ut sit impossibile sibi unum homi¬ nem sufficere ad omnia ; praesertim cum nascamur rudes, et artes magis doctrina, quam experientia discantur; ergo nccesse est, ut simul vivamus, et unus alium juvet. Praeterea, etiamsi quisque sufficeret sibi ad vivendum, tamen numquam sufficeret ad protegendum se ab impetu ferarum, et latronum, sed ad hoc necesse est convenire, ct collatis viribus resistere ; et licet sufficeret sibi etiam contra hostes, tamen semper ma¬ neret rudis, et expers sapientia3, et justitiae, multarumque aliarum virtutum , cum ta- (1) Prov. XI, 14. 10 LIBER III. men ad hoc nati simus, utmentemet volun¬ tatem praecipue exerceamus. Nara scientiae, et artes longo tempore, et a multis inventae sunt, et sine doctore percipi non possunt : justitia autem non nisi in societate exerceri potest, cum sit virtus constituens aequita¬ tem inter plures. Denique, donum loquendi, et audiendi, id est, percipiendi distincte verba, quorsum homini collatum est, si debeat solitarius vi¬ vere? Itaque recte Aristoteles lib. I. politi¬ corum, cap. 2. dicit, hominem natura civile esse animal, magis quam sint apes, et grues, et quaecumque animalia, etsi quis solitarius vivat aut esse bestiam, aut Deum, id est, aut minus, aut majus homine, neque id est con¬ tra Eremitas nostros. Nam qui penitus solita¬ rii vixerunt, ut Paulus primus Eremita, Maria Magdalena, Maria Aegyptiaca, et si qui sunt alii, dici possunt aliquid amplius homine habuisse, non natura, sed gratia ; nam non sine miraculo alebantur a Deo, ut notum est; Caeteri autem etsi in solitudine degerent, tamen frequentes simul conveniebant, et Ab¬ batibus suis subjecti erant, ut in disputatione de Monachis demonstravimus. Jam vero, si natura humana socialem vi¬ tam requirit, certe requirit etiam regimen, et rectorem; nam impossibile est multitudinem diu consistere, nisi sit, qui eam contineat, et cui sit curae bonum commune : sicut in unoquoque nostrum nisi esset anima quae contineret et conjungeret partes, et poten¬ tias, et elementa contraria, ex quibus cons¬ tamus, statim omnia solverentur. Unde Pro- verb. XI: Ubi non est gubernator populus cor¬ ruet (J). Deinde societas est multitudo ordinata, non enim dicitur societas multitudo confusa, et dispersa; ordo autem quid aliud est, quam series quaedam inferiorum et su¬ periorum? Necessario igitur rectores haben¬ di sunt, si societas futura est. Ex hac ratione solvitur tertium argu¬ mentum Anabaptistarum ; falsum enim assumunt, cum dicunt, regimen politicum permissum Judaeis ob imperfectionem eorum, nobis autem non convenire, quia unctio do¬ cet nos de omnibus : nam unctio hoc in primis docet esse necessarium, habere rec¬ torem; nec sufficit scire omnia, sed oportet etiam multa facere, et parare, quae non pos¬ sumus sine aliorum auxilio. Et praeterea hinc deducitur falsum esse, quod M. T. dicit in primo de inventione, fuisse olim tempus, quo homines vagarentur more bestiarum, deinde a sapiente quodam et eloquente homine vi eloquentiae persuasos convenire, et simul vivere. Quod idem etiam hoc tempore dicero solent quicumque elo¬ quentiam laudandam suscipiunt. At revera numquam fuit, nec esse potuit, tale tempus. Nam Adam sapientissimus fuit, et sine du¬ bio non permisit homines vagari more bes¬ tiarum, et Cain filius ejus aedificavit etiam civitatem materialem : ante Cain, et Adam nulli fuerunt. Sed non mirum Ciceronem et alios Ethnicos talia dicere; nam Ethnici quia putabant mundum fuisse ab aeterno, et ta¬ men videbant omnes artes esse novas, et non exstare memoriam nisi paucorum an¬ norum, inde suspicati sunt, longissimo tem¬ pore homines vixisse more ferarum, et solum exstare memoriam rerum gestarum ab eo tempore, quo coeperunt homines simul de¬ gere. Sed Christiani, qui ex testimonio Dei didicerunt, mundum creatum fuisse ante annos nondum sexies millenos, et primos homines urbes continuo habere coepisse , mirum profecto est, cur dicere audeant, lon¬ gissimo tempore homines sine rectore, et sine civitatibus more ferrarum vixisse.