Chapter LXV.

Moreover, we are to despise ingratiating ourselves with kings or any other men, not only if their favour is to be won by murders, licentiousness, or deeds of cruelty, but even if it involves impiety towards God, or any servile expressions of flattery and obsequiousness, which things are unworthy of brave and high-principled men, who aim at joining with their other virtues that highest of virtues, patience and fortitude.  But whilst we do nothing which is contrary to the law and word of God, we are not so mad as to stir up against us the wrath of kings and princes, which will bring upon us sufferings and tortures, or even death.  For we read:  “Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers.  For there is no power but of God:  the powers that be are ordained of God.  Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God.”1883    Rom. xiii. 1, 2.  These words we have in our exposition of the Epistle to the Romans, to the best of our ability, explained at length, and with various applications; but for the present we have taken them in their more obvious and generally received acceptation, to meet the saying of Celsus, that “it is not without the power of demons that kings have been raised to their regal dignity.”  Here much might be said on the constitution of kings and rulers, for the subject is a wide one, embracing such rulers as reign cruelly and tyrannically, and such as make the kingly office the means of indulging in luxury and sinful pleasures.  We shall therefore, for the present, pass over the full consideration of this subject.  We will, however, never swear by “the fortune of the king,” nor by ought else that is considered equivalent to God.  For if the word “fortune” is nothing but an expression for the uncertain course of events, as some say, although they seem not to be agreed, we do not swear by that as God which has no existence, as though it did really exist and was able to do something, lest we should bind ourselves by an oath to things which have no existence.  If, on the other hand (as is thought by others, who say that to swear by the fortune of the king of the Romans is to swear by his demon), what is called the fortune of the king is in the power of demons, then in that case we must die sooner than swear by a wicked and treacherous demon, that ofttimes sins along with the man of whom it gains possession, and sins even more than he.

Ἡμῖν μέντοι γε καταφρονητέον ἐξευμενισμοῦ ἀνθρώ πων καὶ βασιλέων, οὐ μόνον ἐὰν διὰ μιαιφονιῶν καὶ ἀσελγειῶν καὶ ὠμοτάτων πράξεων ἐξευμενιζώμεθα αὐτούς, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐὰν διὰ τῆς εἰς τὸν θεὸν τῶν ὅλων ἀσεβείας ἤ τινος μετὰ δουλοπρεπείας καὶ ταπεινότητος φωνῆς, ἀλλοτρίας ἀνδρείων καὶ μεγαλοψύχων ἀνδρῶν καὶ τὴν καρτερίαν ὡς μεγίστην ἀρετὴν συναναλαβεῖν ταῖς ἄλλαις ἐθελόντων. Ἔνθα μέντοι οὐδὲν ἐναντίον πράττομεν νόμῳ καὶ λόγῳ θεοῦ, οὐ μεμήναμεν οὐδ' ὁρμῶμεν καθ' ἑαυτῶν ἐγείρειν βασιλέως ἢ δυνάστου θυμόν, ἐπὶ αἰκίας καὶ βασανιστήρια ἢ καὶ θανάτους ἡμᾶς φέροντα. Ἀνέγνωμεν γὰρ καὶ τὸ "Πᾶσα ψυχὴ ἐξουσίαις ὑπερεχούσαις ὑποτασσέσθω. Οὐ γάρ ἐστιν ἐξουσία εἰ μὴ ὑπὸ θεοῦ, αἱ δὲ οὖσαι ὑπὸ θεοῦ τεταγμέναι εἰσίν· ὥστε οἱ ἀνθεσ τηκότες τῇ ἐξουσίᾳ τῇ τοῦ θεοῦ διαταγῇ ἀνθίστανται". Ἐν μέντοι γε τοῖς εἰς τὴν πρὸς Ῥωμαίους ἐξηγητικοῖς, ὡς δυνατὸν ἦν ἡμῖν, ἐπὶ πλεῖον καὶ ταῦτα τὰ ῥήματα ποικίλως ἐξητάσαμεν· νῦν δ' αὐτὰ εἰς τὸ προκείμενον ἁπλούστερον κατὰ τὴν κοινοτέραν ἐκδοχὴν παρειλήφαμεν, ἐπείπερ φησὶν ὁ Κέλσος· Οὐδὲ τούτους ἄνευ δαιμονίας ἰσχύος τῶν τῇδε εἶναι ἠξιωμένους. Καὶ ἐπεὶ πολὺς ἦν ὁ λόγος ὁ περὶ τῆς τῶν βασιλευόντων καὶ δυναστῶν καταστάσεως, πολλῆς ζητήσεως οὔσης κατὰ τὸν τόπον διὰ τοὺς ὠμότερον καὶ τυραννικώτερον ἄρξαντας ἢ τοὺς ἐκ τοῦ ἄρχειν ἐπὶ θρύψιν καὶ τρυφὴν ἐξοκείλαντας, διὰ τοῦτο ἐπὶ τοῦ παρόντος τὸ πρόβλημα ἐξετάσαι ὑπερε θέμεθα. Τύχην μέντοι βασιλέως οὐκ ὄμνυμεν ὡς οὐδ' ἄλλον νομιζόμενον θεόν· εἴτε γάρ, ὡς ὠνόμασάν τινες, ἐκφορὰ μόνον ἐστὶν ἡ τύχη ὁμοίως δοκήσει καὶ διαστάσει, οὐκ ὄμνυμεν τὸ μηδαμῶς ὂν ὡς θεὸν ἢ ὅλως ὑφεστηκὸς καὶ δυνάμενόν τι ποιῆσαι, ἵνα μὴ τὴν ὀμοτικὴν δύναμιν εἰς ἃ μὴ δεῖ παραλαμβάνωμεν, εἴτε καί–ὥς τισιν ἔδοξεν εἰποῦσι· τοῦ Ῥωμαίων βασιλέως τὸν δαίμονα ὀμνῦσιν οἱ τὴν τύχην αὐτοῦ ὀμνύοντες–δαίμων ἐστὶν ἡ ὀνομαζομένη τύχη τοῦ βασιλέως, καὶ οὕτως ἀποθανητέον ἐστὶ μᾶλλον ἡμῖν ὑπὲρ τοῦ μὴ ὀμόσαι μοχθηρὸν δαίμονα καὶ ἄπιστον, πολλάκις συνεξαμαρτάνοντα ᾧ ἔλαχεν ἀνθρώπῳ ἢ καὶ πλέον αὐτοῦ ἁμαρτάνοντα.