Bellarmine · De Controversiis · On the Members of the Church · On the Laity or Secular Persons (Book III)
Chapter 17: That the Judgment Concerning Religion Does Not Pertain to the Magistrate
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).
There follows the fifth question, on the office of the political magistrate in the cause of religion. There are three errors in this part. The first is of those who attribute too much to magistrates — as Brentius (in the Prolegomena), Philip [Melanchthon] (in the Commonplaces, chapter on the magistrate), and others, who will have kings to be not only the guardians and defenders of religion, but also its judges and masters. For they say that it pertains to them, as to the chief members of the Church, to judge the controversies of faith, to preside over general Councils, to appoint ministers and pastors, and the like.
Against this error we have disputed much in the controversies On the Judge of Controversies, On the Supreme Pontiff, and On Councils, where we showed that kings have the first place among Christians as they are Christian men, that is, as they are citizens of the earthly city, not as they are citizens of the Saints and of the household of God, and as they are members of the Church. For thus the first place is held by the bishops, and chiefly the supreme Pontiff; the second by priests; the third by deacons and other ecclesiastical ministers; the last by the laity, among whom kings and princes too are numbered.
Whence Chrysostom (homily 83 on Matthew), addressing the deacons: “If some commander, if a consul himself, if he who is adorned with a diadem, approach unworthily, restrain and coerce him; thou hast greater power than he.” And Gelasius (in the letter to the Emperor Anastasius): “Thou knowest, most clement son, that although thou dost preside over the human race in the dignity of earthly things, yet thou devoutly submittest thy neck to those who preside over divine things, and awaitest from them the causes of thy salvation; and in receiving the heavenly Sacraments, and in disposing them as is fitting, thou knowest that thou oughtest, by the order of religion, to be subject rather than to preside. Thou knowest, therefore, that among these things thou dependest on their judgment, and that they cannot be reduced to thy will.”
Finally, Christ committed the Church to be ruled to Peter and the bishops, not to Tiberius and his prefects; and for 300 years, without any Christian kings — except very few, who either reigned for a very short time, as Philip Caesar, or only in some province, as Lucius King of the Britons — the Church was excellently governed by bishops and priests alone. See the rest in the places cited.
Show the Latin (Vives edition, OCR)
CAPUT XVII. Ad magistratum non pertinere judicium de Religione. Quinta sequitur quaestio de officio magistra¬ tus politici in causa religionis. Tres in hac parte sunt errores. Primus eorum, qui nimis multum tribuunt magistratibus, ut Brentii in Prolegomenis, Philippi in Locis, capite de magistratu, et aliorum, qui reges esse vo¬ lunt non solum custodes et defensores reli¬ gionis, sed etiam judices et magistros. Di¬ cunt enim ad eos, ut ad praecipua Ecclesiae membra pertinere, judicare controversias CAPUT XVIII. 33 fidei, praesidere Conciliis generalibus, cons¬ tituere ministros, et pastores, et similia. In quem errorem multa disputavimus in controversiis de judice controversiarum, de summo Pontifice, et de Conciliis; ubi osten¬ dimus reges habere primum locum inter Christianos , ut Christiani homines sunt, id est, ut sunt cives terrenae civitatis, non ut sunt cives Sanctorum, et domestici Dei, ac ut Ecclesiae meiUbra sunt. Sic enim primum locum habent Episcopi, et praecipue summus Pontifex , secundum Presbyteri , tertium Diaconi, aliique ministri Ecclesiastici, ulti¬ mum Laici, inter quos etiam Reges et Prin¬ cipes numerantur. Unde Chrysostomus homil. 83. in Mat¬ thaeum alloquens Diaconos : « Si Dux quis¬ piam, si Consul ipse, si is, qui diademate ornatur, indigne adeat, cohibe, et coerce, majorem tu illo habes potestatem. » Et Ge- lasius inepist. ad Anastasium Imperatorem : « Nosti, inquit, fili clementissime, quod li¬ cet praesideas humano generi dignitate re¬ rum terrenarum, tamen praesulibus divina¬ rum devotus colla submittis, atque ab eis causas tuae salutis exspectas, inque sumen¬ dis coelestibus Sacramentis, eisque ut com¬ petit disponendis, subdi te debere cognoscis religionis ordine , potius quam praeesse. Nosti itaque inter haec ex illorum' te pendere judicio, non illos ad tuam redigi posse vo¬ luntatem. » Denique , Christus Ecclesiam regendam Petro et Episcopis commisit, non Tiberio, et ejus praefectis, et per annos 300, sine ul¬ lis regibus Christianis, exceptis paucissimis, qui vel brevissimo tempore imperarunt, ut Philippus Caesar, vel solum in aliqua pro¬ vincia, ut Lucius Rex Britannorum, Ecclesia a solis Episcopis et Presbyteris optime gu¬ bernata est. Vide caetera locis citatis.