Opuscula Kingship
Chapter 8
That the king should look to God for adequate reward
Therefore, since worldly honor and human glory are not a sufficient reward for royal cares, it remains to inquire what sort of reward is sufficient.
It is proper that a king look to God for his reward, for a servant looks to his master for the reward of his service. The king is indeed the minister of God in governing the people, as the Apostle says: There is no authority except from God (Rom 13:1) and God’s minister is the servant of God to execute his wrath on the wrongdoer (Rom 13:4). And in the Book of Wisdom, kings are described as being ministers of God (Wis 6:5). Consequently, kings ought to look to God for the reward of their ruling.
Now God sometimes rewards kings for their service by temporal goods, but such rewards are common to both the good and the wicked. Hence the Lord says to Ezechiel: Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon made his army labor hard against Tyre; every head was made bald and every shoulder was rubbed bare; yet neither he nor his army got anything from Tyre to pay for the labor that he had performed for me against it (Ezek 29:18), namely, for that service by which power is the minister of God and the avenger to execute wrath upon him who does evil (Rom 13:4). Afterwards he adds, regarding the reward: Therefore, thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will give the land of Egypt to Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon; and he shall carry off its wealth and despoil it and plunder it; and it shall be the wages for his army (Ezek 29:19).
Therefore, if God recompenses wicked kings who fight against the enemies of God, though not with the intention of serving him but to execute their own hatred and cupidity, by giving them such great rewards as to yield them victory over their foes, subject kingdoms to their sway, and grant them spoils to rifle, what will he do for kings who rule the people of God and assail his enemies from a holy motive? Indeed, he promises them not an earthly reward, but an everlasting one, and in none other than in himself. As Peter says to the shepherds of the people: Tend the flock of God that is your charge. . . and when the chief Shepherd is manifested, that is, Christ the King of kings, you will obtain the unfading crown of glory (1 Pet 5:2, 4). Concerning this, Isaiah says: The Lord of hosts will be a crown of glory and a diadem of beauty to his people (Isa 28:5).
This is also clearly shown by reason. It is implanted in the minds of all who have the use of reason that the reward of virtue is happiness. The virtue of anything whatsoever is explained to be that which makes its possessor good and renders his deed good. Moreover, everyone strives by working well to attain what is most deeply implanted in desire: namely, to be happy. No one is able not to wish this. It is therefore fitting to expect as a reward for virtue that which makes man happy. Now, if to work well is a virtuous deed, and the king’s work is to rule his people well, then that which makes him happy will be the king’s reward. What this is has now to be considered.
Happiness, we say, is the ultimate end of our desires. Now the movement of desire does not go on to infinity, else natural desire would be vain, for infinity cannot be traversed. Since, then, the desire of an intellectual nature is for universal good, that good alone can make it truly happy which, when attained, leaves no further good to be desired. Hence happiness is called the perfect good inasmuch as it comprises in itself all things desirable. But no earthly good is such a good. They who have riches desire to have more, they who enjoy pleasure desire to enjoy more, and the like is clear for the rest: and if they do not seek more, they at least desire that those they have should abide or that others should follow in their stead. For nothing permanent is found in earthly things. Consequently, there is nothing earthly which can calm desire. Thus, nothing earthly can make man happy, so that it may be a fitting reward for a king.
Again, the last perfection and perfect good of anything one chooses depends upon something higher, for even bodily things are made better by the addition of better things and worse by being mixed with baser things. If gold is mingled with silver, the silver is made better, while by an admixture of lead it is rendered impure. Now all earthly things are beneath the human mind; but happiness is the last perfection and the perfect good of man, which all men desire to reach. Therefore, there is no earthly thing which could make man happy, nor is any earthly thing a sufficient reward for a king. For, as Augustine says, We do not call Christian princes happy merely because they have reigned a long time, or because after a peaceful death they have left their sons to rule, or because they subdued the enemies of the state, or because they were able to guard against or to suppress citizens who rose up against them. Rather, we call them happy if they rule justly, if they prefer to rule their passions rather than nations, and if they do all things not for the love of vainglory but for the love of eternal happiness. Such Christian emperors we say are happy, now in hope, afterwards in very fact when that which we await shall come to pass. But neither is there any other created thing which would make a man happy and which could be set up as the reward for a king. For the desire of each thing tends towards its source which causes its being. But the cause of the human soul is none other than God, who made it to his own image. Therefore, it is God alone who can still the desires of man, and make him happy, and be the fitting reward for a king.
Furthermore, the human mind knows the universal good through the intellect, and desires it through the will: but the universal good is not found except in God. Therefore, there is nothing which could make man happy, fulfilling his every desire, but God, of whom it is said in the Psalm: Who satisfies your desire with good (Ps 103 [102]:5). In this, therefore, should the king place his reward. Thus King David, with this in mind, said: Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing upon earth that I desire besides you (Ps 73 [72]:25) and he afterwards adds in answer to this question: It is good for me to adhere to my God and to put my hope in the Lord God (Ps 73 [72]:28). For it is he who gives salvation to kings, not merely temporal salvation by which he saves both men and beasts together, but also that salvation of which he says by the mouth of Isaiah: But my salvation shall be forever (Isa 51:6), that salvation by which he saves man and makes them equal to the angels.
It can thus also be verified that the reward of the king is honor and glory. What worldly and frail honor can indeed be likened to this honor, that a man be made a fellow citizen with the saints and member of the household of God (Eph 2:19), numbered among the sons of God, and that he obtain the inheritance of the heavenly kingdom with Christ? This is the honor of which King David, in desire and wonder, says: Your friends, O God, are made exceedingly honorable (Ps 138:17). And further, what glory of human praise can be compared to this, not uttered by the false tongue of flatterers nor the fallacious opinion of men, but issuing from the witness of our inmost conscience and confirmed by the testimony of God, who promises to those who confess him that he will confess them before the angels of God in the glory of the Father? They who seek this glory will find it and they will win the glory of men which they do not seek: witness Solomon, who not only received from the Lord wisdom which he sought, but was made glorious above other kings.