Commentaria in Exodum
Hence morally St. Gregory, part 2 of the Pastoral Rule, chap. 7, teaches what a ruler ought to be: “Let the ruler,” he says, “not lessen the care of inward things by the occupation of outward, nor abandon the provision of outward things by the occupation of inward: lest either, given up to outward things, he fall from the inmost, or, occupied with the inward alone, he fail to bestow on his neighbours what he owes outwardly.” Hence also St. Augustine, Question 68: “We are taught here by Jethro,” he says, “to empty a mind too intent on human actions for God.”
21. AND PROVIDE OUT OF ALL THE PEOPLE ABLE MEN.—So read the Hebrew, Chaldee, Septuagint and the Roman Latin; not wise, as the Plantin editions have: for in Hebrew it is men of virtue, that is, men strong in mind, brave and magnanimous, who fear not the countenance of the great and powerful, so as to accept persons in judgment and pervert judgment, but fear the one God the Judge of judges, and King of kings. So the Emperor Frederick III, asked whom of his people he held dearest, answered: “Those who fear not me more than God.” Such a judge was Job, chap. 29: “I broke the jaws of the wicked man,” he says, “and out of his teeth I took away the prey.” This is what Ecclesiasticus admonishes, chap. 7:6: “Seek not to be made a judge, unless thou have strength enough to extirpate iniquities: lest thou fear the person of the powerful, and lay a stumblingblock for thy integrity.” Nay Epictetus thus addresses the judge: “As a goose is not terrified by clamour, nor a sheep by bleating, so let not the voice of the foolish multitude terrify thee.” Wherefore the Emperor Trajan, appointing a magistrate and judge, and handing him the sword according to custom, said: “Use this for me as long as I command what is just; but if unjust, use it against me.” So Christian courtiers and generals resisted their Emperors, commanding the worship of idols and sacrifices, even unto death and martyrdom. So St. Sebastian resisted Diocletian, St. Eustace Hadrian, St. Theodore Licinius, St. Gallican Julian, Maurice and the Theban legion Maximian.
That Moses also required wise judges is plain Deut. 1:13: for not all the qualifications of judges that Jethro laid down are enumerated here; nor is there doubt for anyone that in a judge are required both knowledge and prudence, and virtue and constancy of mind.
For Charles V said truly, when he heard of the death of Thomas More, who, a man most wise, was Chancellor of England and a Martyr: “In More king Henry VIII cut off the head of all England.”
IN WHOM THERE IS TRUTH,—not so much of doctrine, or even of life, as of justice (for of this chiefly is the discourse here), that is, just men: so the Septuagint; who deceive no one, but do what they have promised, and what is equitable and prescribed by the laws. Whence follows: “That hate covetousness,” who namely take no gifts, lest they be taken by them, to violate the law. Louis XI, king of France, said that he abounded in all things at court, except one; asked what that was, he said: Truth. Hippocrates, in his epistle to Philopoemen, depicts truth as a beautiful woman, tall, simply adorned, illustrious and splendid, the orbs of whose eyes shone with pure light, so that they seemed to imitate the brightness of the stars. Again truth has been held the daughter of time, and the mother of virtue. Plutarch in his Questions says that the Romans had Saturn as parent and god of truth; he adds the reason: “Is it because, as the Philosophers think, Saturn is time? and truth is found in time: or rather because Saturn was most just, and chiefly cultivated truth?” Hence Democritus too wrote that truth lies hidden in the bottom of a well; and then (the high priest) had on his breast: “Doctrine and Truth”; whence also the judges among the Egyptians wore a sapphire from the neck, on which was inscribed truth, of which chap. 28, verse 30.
23. IF THOU DO THIS, THOU SHALT FULFIL (thou canst fulfil: for this is a potential future) THE COMMANDMENT OF GOD, AND SHALT BE ABLE TO BEAR HIS PRECEPTS,—that is, to sustain; in Hebrew it is, God will command (thee), and thou shalt be able to stand, that is, thou shalt be able to satisfy the precepts of God concerning the government of the whole people.
Let those follow this wise counsel of Jethro who wish to govern rightly: namely that they share the burden with others, and commit lesser matters to others, that they themselves may be able to watch over graver matters and the whole community, and at the same time attend to God and prayer; for they are as it were Atlases, who, resting upon God, ought to bear the burden of the whole people on their shoulders; for it is preposterous, foolish and unjust, if a ruler so occupies himself with lesser matters, or others’, or external, that he must neglect, or discharge perfunctorily, greater, proper and domestic ones.
24. MOSES DID ALL THINGS THAT HE HAD SUGGESTED.
A proverb is: “Day brings truth to light and leads it forth.” Giraldus, Syntagma 4, testifies that judges of old, when dead, were sculptured in such a way that from the neck to the breast Truth hung suspended, with eyes lowered.—Moses therefore chose lower magistrates fit for deciding matters, but with the consent of the people, and seriously admonished them of their office. See Deut. 1, from verse 9 to 19, where these things are more fully recounted. Cajetan notes that princes ought chiefly to look for and require these five endowments in those whom they set over others, namely first, magnanimity; second, fear of God; third, wisdom; fourth, justice; fifth, abstinence from gifts.
25. AND CHOOSING OUT OF ALL ISRAEL ABLE MEN, HE APPOINTED THEM RULERS OF THE PEOPLE, AND TRIBUNES.—“Tribunes” in Hebrew are chiliarchs, or leaders, namely of a thousand families: for in so beautiful an order were these magistrates instituted for the relief of Moses, that the tens were subject to the fifties, these to the centurions, the centurions to the tribunes, or chiliarchs; so that each tribune had under him ten centurions, a centurion had under him two captains of fifty, a captain of fifty presided over five
So Plato used to say: “For rulers there is no better kind of estate than the familiarity of those who know not how to traffic.” Hence also Isaias, chap. 1, verse 23, reproving the Jerusalemites after he had said: “Thy princes are faithless, companions of thieves,” presently adds the cause: “They all love bribes.” On the contrary Samuel, the best of judges, thus pleads with his people with a free countenance: “If I have taken a bribe at any man’s hand, speak, and I will despise it this day, and will restore it to you,” 1 Kings gold, or clothing of any man have I coveted, as you yourselves know.” So Alcamenes son of Telecrus, a Spartan, asked why he had not accepted gifts offered by the Messenians, answered: “Because if I had accepted, I could not have had peace with the laws”; signifying that those gifts are not to be accepted which are wont to hurt the laws and the Republic: Plutarch is witness in his Laconian Sayings. Let Confessors have these endowments of judges, who are judges in the forum of the soul. In sign of this, the ancient priest, who was judge, had inscribed— so that appeal was made from the captains of fifty to the centurions, from these to the tribunes, and from the tribunes finally to Moses. Our version calls chiliarchs tribunes, because this was anciently the highest magistrate (for tribunes of the plebs were equal to consuls, and were as it were consuls of the plebs) among the Roman people, as also in the army; but our colonels or chiliarchs of the army we rightly call tribunes.