S. Hellmann (ed.), Sedulius Scottus, Quellen und Untersuchungen 1.1 (Munich, 1906), pp. 19–106 (partial). Rendered into English; the manuscript sigla (A, F, P, B, C) and Hellmann’s source-notes are condensed — “C” denotes the Irish collection of canons, “K” the parallels found by Klein.

Preface of the Following Work #

(In verse.)

Every ministry which stands pre-eminent in the world must be governed by art, and the gifts of art are many. By art the all-creating Lord made the lands, the sea, the stars, the heavens; by art He rules the whole fair world; by excellent arts the wisdom of the Thunderer on high set man over all the animals of the earth. Art steers the chariot, art rightly guides ships, and the triumphal business of war looks to art. So too the commonwealth needs the help of art, that it may be happy under a good ruler and a blessed people. For this reason, running through the heavenly meadows of books, I have gathered for you, renowned king, flowery garlands to adorn the diadem of your mind, and to glorify the sceptres that rule by Christ’s will; with my thumb I have plucked the salvation-bearing herbs of divine doctrine into baskets fragrant with nard. Take the waters from the liquid fountains of Israel, that they may sate your thirsting palate with their sweet dew! For the glory of kings, beside their shining sceptred pedigrees, are the doctrines of the Lord, the examples of those of old, and the famous deeds of noble princes throughout the world. May your victorious commonwealth flourish by these arts and be happily governed for many years, until you ascend into the starry hall where the everlasting glory of the just rulers holds sway.

HERE ENDS THE PREFACE.

With You is the beginning, with You, O Christ the King, the end; be You, O God, the Alpha and the Omega of Your servant’s work.

Here Begin the Chapters of the Same Book #

I. That a pious ruler, on receiving royal power, ought first to dedicate worthy honours to God and to the holy churches. II. How the orthodox king ought first to rule himself. III. By what art and industry a passing kingdom may be made stable. IV. That royal power is to be adorned not so much by riches and confidence of strength as by wisdom and the cultivation of piety. V. How much care of holy rule is to be shown by him toward his wife, children and household. VI. What counsellors and friends a good prince ought to have. VII. What things make bad princes. VIII. On greedy and impious kings, and how many evils or divine punishments follow the people and themselves through them. IX. On the peaceful and merciful king, and on whom benefits should be conferred. X. By how many columns the kingdom of a just king is sustained. XI. That a good prince ought to favour ecclesiastical causes with benevolent and attentive solicitude; and on synodal assemblies. XII. That it is glorious for a pious ruler to obey the most wholesome admonitions and reproofs of the bishops. XIII. On the good ruler’s reasonable zeal mingled with piety. XIV. That the Christian leader should trust not in his own or his men’s strength, but in the Lord. XV. That when the crash of hostile wars threatens, divine help is to be implored. XVI. On adversities, if they should perchance occur. XVII. On not being proud after peace has been offered even by enemies, or after enemies have been overthrown. XVIII. That thanksgivings and benevolent prayers are to be rendered to God after peace or victory. XIX. That the privileges of holy mother Church are to be preserved by the pious ruler, and worthy prelates and ministers appointed to the churches. XX. How great ignominy attends the proud, and what and how great glory accompanies orthodox princes here and hereafter.

Here Begins the Book of Sedulius on Christian Rulers and the Fitting Rules by Which the Commonwealth Is Rightly to Be Governed #

Chapter One #

When a Christian ruler has taken up the royal sceptre and the helm of the kingdom, he ought first of all to render thanksgiving and worthy honours to Almighty God and to Holy Church. For the commonwealth is then most beautifully consecrated in its beginning when royal solicitude and sacred devotion are kindled together by fear and love of the supreme King above, and when with provident counsel the glorious advantage of the Church is procured — so that he whom the royal purple and the other insignia of kingship outwardly adorn is inwardly adorned by praiseworthy vows toward God and His holy Church. For doubtless one ascends conspicuously to the height of an earthly kingdom when with pious zeal the glory and honour of the Almighty King are treated of. Therefore let the pious prince earnestly strive to obey the will and the holy precepts of the supreme ruler of all, by whose heavenly will and ordination he does not doubt he has ascended to the summit of rule — the apostle bearing witness, who says: “There is no power but of God; and the powers that be are ordained of God.” As much, therefore, as a good ruler knows himself to be ordained by God, so much does he watch with pious solicitude to dispose and weigh all things ordinably before God and men according to the balance of righteousness. For what are the rulers of the Christian people but ministers of the Almighty? And a fitting and faithful minister is one who with sincere devotion does what his lord and master has commanded him. Hence the most pious and glorious princes rejoice to be called and to be ministers and servants of the Most High rather than lords or kings of men. Hence blessed David, king and outstanding prophet, often names himself the servant of the Lord; and the renowned Solomon his son also, beseeching the Almighty, says among other things: “Listen to the prayer of Your servant and to his supplications, O Lord my God; hear the hymn and the prayer which Your servant prays before You this day, that Your eyes may be open upon this house night and day, upon the house of which You said: My name shall be there.” Hence also the great emperor Constantine, of most celebrated memory, when the mystery of the saving cross and the catholic faith had been received and perfected, and religion was greatly flourishing along with his glad empire — not arrogant toward himself, rendered thanks to the Almighty, because God had deigned to have him as a fitting minister of His counsel. See, the most eminent emperor rejoiced more that he had been God’s minister than that he had held earthly empire. Hence he himself, because he had been a minister of the heavenly will, extended a peaceful kingdom from the British sea to the lands of the East; and because he had subjected himself to the Almighty, all the hostile wars waged under him he overcame in power and in faith. He built churches with ample wealth and enriched Christ’s churches. Hence heavenly grace granted him to have triumphal victories, because doubtless sacred rulers, the more they humbly subject themselves to the King of kings, ascend the more loftily to the eminence of glorious dignity. But who would not wonder at what honours the aforementioned Solomon rendered to the Lord after receiving the sceptre of the kingdom by God’s authorship — with what wise devotion he built the temple of the Lord and marvellously adorned it, how many peaceful sacrifices he offered to God? Hence he received the fruit of his devotion and prayer, as the Lord, appearing to him, spoke saying: “I have heard your prayer and your supplication which you have prayed before Me; I have hallowed this house which you have built, to put My name there for ever, and My eyes and My heart shall be there all days. And you, if you will walk before Me as your father walked in simplicity of heart and in equity, and will do all that I have commanded you, and keep My ordinances and My judgements, I will set the throne of your kingdom over Israel for ever, as I spoke to David your father, saying: there shall not fail you a man of your stock upon the throne of Israel.” Therefore if that king Solomon, for his sacred devotion and for the building of a terrestrial house of the Lord, merited so great a glory of reward, how inestimable a palm of glory will he have who, a ruler beloved of God, has adorned the Holy Church, which is the spiritual tabernacle of the living God? But let us conclude what we have briefly said in prose with some sweetness of verses:

Whoever bears the noble sceptre of a flowering realm, Let him first bring vows and prayers to the High-Throned, In whose sacred power are all sceptres, And the peace of nobles, the life and safety of leaders. For the royal honour and radiant diadem of the kingdom Is holy fear and love of the High-Throned God. As lilies adorn the flower-bearing milk-white field, As the rose blushes with purple-hued face, So the just ruler grows green with the flower of virtues And brings forth sacred fruits in the citadel of the mind. Fair purple adorned king Solomon, And the shining sceptres of his father David; So may He grant you the sceptre and the kingdom’s glory, And may bright prayers raise your name to the stars. (The verses occur only in MS P.)

Chapter Two #

How the orthodox king ought first to rule himself. — For “king” (rex) is named from “ruling” (regendo); a king cannot rightly be so called who does not first correct himself. Therefore let the ruler learn to rule himself, and so be able to rule others well; let him show forth magnificent works of his purpose outwardly, so that he who shines inwardly before the Lord with devoted will may gleam outwardly before the people in word and deed. He ought to keep a threefold rule: terror, ordination, and love; for unless he is loved and feared alike, his ordination can in no wise stand. Let him therefore by benefits and affability take care to be loved, and by just punishments strive to be feared — not for his own injury but for God’s law. He ought to be humble in his own eyes, as it is written: “They have made you ruler; be not exalted, but be among them as one of themselves”; and he must rule not only men justly but also the passions of his own body and soul, that he may rightly be named ruler — as a certain sage says: “He will be a king who does rightly; he who does not, will not be one.” Let him therefore be most prudent in counsel, in speech now terrible as reason demands, more often affable with gracious sweetness; a victor over lust, over pride and mad ferocity; a friend of the good, an enemy of tyrants, a foe of crimes, a foe of vices; in war most wary, in peace most constant; most proved in faithful promises; putting divine before human things; deterring his subjects from evil, inviting them to good; rewarding with abundance, freeing with indulgence beyond measure; making of bad men good, and of good men the best. Let him be holy and useful to the commonwealth, commendable for clemency, conspicuous in every goodness, distinguished in piety, fortitude, chastity and justice; a most excellent man most worthy of the princely summit; having the fear of God always before his eyes, and weighing just judgements according to the decrees of the Almighty, who gives salvation to kings and does whatever He wills in heaven and on earth.

(The verses here in MS P, “Qui regit affectus…”, praise him who rules the affections of his mind and so keeps his own realm.)

Chapter Three #

The wise have judged that the kingdom of this fleeting world is like the turning of a revolving wheel. For as every turning wheel now casts down what is on top and now lifts up what is cast down, so earthly royal glory sustains sudden risings and sudden falls; from which it has not true honours but imaginary and swiftly fleeing ones. For that is the true kingdom which endures for ever; but this, because it is transitory and falling, shows not the truth but a certain mediocre likeness of the true and ever-abiding kingdom. As the bow of heaven, painting a various ornament with its curving bend, quickly flees away, so doubtless the dignity of worldly glory, though adorned at present, is swiftly fugitive. By what art, then, and industry, and with what solicitude is this instability restrained to some likeness of stability? Perchance by the violent fortitude of arms, or by the peaceful concord of tranquillity, is an earthly kingdom stabilised? But again, in those very arms and crashes of wars a great instability is discerned. For what is more uncertain and unstable than the chances of war, where there is no sure end of laborious struggle, no sure victory, and often the loftier are overcome by the lower; sometimes evils fall equally on both sides, and those who presumed they would have victory in the end have nothing but calamitous misery? And how many evils arise under the feigned name of peace, who can explain — when even that peace which was believed stable and firm between good men is sometimes turned by the depraved counsels of the wicked into deadly tempests of discord, from where even in transitory peace great instability is seen? What then remains, but that the king’s heart and the whole confidence of his hope be fixed not in the fortitude of arms and men nor in the fallacy of transitory peace, but in the clemency of the Almighty, who knows how to make stable the kingdom He has given, whether in adversity or in prosperity? Let therefore the prince’s heart and his faithful devotion in the ministry of rule not desert Him by whom so great and glorious a ministry was given — lest perchance that supreme Ruler, angered, withdraw from him the benefit He had given, if He perceives him unfaithful whom He ordained as a faithful minister. For if an earthly king can take away a power given to any man unfaithful to him, and bestow it on another whom he finds more faithful, how much more is the heavenly Ruler of all — whom no clouds of perfidy can deceive — able to withdraw His benefits from the reprobate and bestow them on others whom He knows to be fitting ministers of His will? From where that impious Saul, king of Israel, was deprived of kingdom and of life, because he was not a faithful minister before the Lord; but the Almighty found David, a chosen man after His own heart, whom for this reason He raised to the summit of royal power, because foreknowing him to be a faithful minister He chose him. Therefore let the prudent ruler strive to make his heart stable in the grace of the Most High, if he desires that the transitory kingdom committed to him should have some likeness of stability; and since the Lord to whom he ought to cling with affection of heart is just and merciful, let him show works of mercy manifoldly, that he may reap great glory of reward; let him love and keep justice, but repudiate unjust and malign works in his subjects, and correct them with a praiseworthy zeal which is according to knowledge. While he is stable in the divine precepts, his kingdom is more and more established in this world and is led by heavenly help to the eternal joys of stability.

(Verses follow, only in P: “As the wheel’s round turns with swift return, / And presses to the depths the parts it raises to the heights / By its rapid axle’s mutability…” — so kingdoms rise and fall; but he whose heart is fixed on the celestial realm has true stability.)

Chapter Four #

That royal power is to be adorned not so much with riches and confidence of strength as with wisdom and the cultivation of piety. — Since the Almighty has ordained that the royal dignity should be adorned with sacred study and the love of wisdom, how happy and blest is that king who, besides the trappings of the realm, seeks the adornment of wisdom! For wisdom illuminates the ruler to the knowledge of truth, enriches him with praiseworthy conduct, and makes him shine among men. This it is that beatifies its lovers with heavenly grace, and makes them firm as the starry firmament, as it is written: “The just shall shine like stars, and they that are wise as the firmament.” This exalted Solomon above all the kings of the earth, because he loved it from his youth and became a lover of its beauty. Hence, as is read in the Books of Kings, the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night, saying: “Ask what you will that I give you.” When Solomon, being a boy, asked for a docile heart that he might judge the Lord’s people and discern between good and evil, he received this answer from the Lord: “Because you have asked this thing, and have not asked for yourself many days nor riches nor the lives of your enemies, but have asked wisdom for yourself to discern judgement, see I have done according to your word” — and He gave him also riches and glory beyond all kings. And so may that wisdom rule your race, as it adorned the descendants of Abraham, born of a generous stock.

Chapter Five #

How much care of holy rule is to be shown toward the wife, children and household. — A pious and wise king exercises the ministry of ruling in three ways: first himself, then those joined to him — namely his wife, children and household — and thirdly the people subject to him. Doing this he treasures up for himself a twofold palm of glory: that while he is good and holy in himself, he makes good and holy those joined to him — according to the psalmist who says: “With the holy you shall be holy, and with the innocent man you shall be innocent,” and the rest. For it does not suffice to have one’s own honour unless he be adorned also by the modesty of a chaste and pure wife, and of sons and companions and ministers — David saying: “He who walks in the spotless way, he ministered to me.” For as the lily of the field is beautified by the manifold comeliness of other herbs and violets, and as the moon shines the more graciously for the splendour of the surrounding stars, so surely the just and wise king is adorned by the company of other good men. Let him therefore perspicaciously procure that he have as wife not only one noble, beautiful and rich, but one chaste, prudent and tractable in holy virtues. For as much as a wife is by right the more closely joined, so much does she become either noxious by the gall of malice or honey-sweet by the sweetness of her ways. For a foolish woman is the ruin of the house, the failing of riches, the satiety of the unrighteous, the dwelling of all evils and vices — one who adorns her face outwardly with various superstitions, but knows not how to adorn the inward beauty of her soul. Whom she loves today, she hates tomorrow; and as someone says: “A faithless wife is a shipwreck of affairs to her husband.” So on the contrary a chaste and prudent woman, attendin_ g disciplinably to useful things, with humble countenance and cheerful speech governs her children and household in peace; and for her husband’s safety, if need be, sets her own soul against death, and keeps the riches which are her husband’s with a good name. Who was her friend yesterday is also her friend today. Thus she herself becomes the increase of riches and the establishment of the house, the joy of her husband, the beauty of the family and the dwelling of all virtues. The queen also showed her care for the weak in the highest degree — using not servants nor other ministers, but acting by herself, coming to their dwellings and giving each what he needed. Thus also running through the guest-houses of the churches she ministered to the sick with her own hands, wiping their pots, tasting the broth, offering spoons, breaking bread and serving foods, rinsing the cup and doing all other things which servants and ministers are custom solemnly to perform. To those who tried to restrain her from such things she said: “To distribute gold is the work of empire; but I for that very empire offer this work to Him who bestows on me all good things.” For she often said to her husband: “You must always be thinking, husband, what you once were and what you now are. If you always think this, you will not be ungrateful to your Benefactor, but you will lawfully govern the empire you have received and will appease the Author of these things.” By such speeches she offered to her spouse as it were an excellent usefulness and abundance of virtue.

(Verse: “A pious and wise king reigns with a threefold rule — / Himself, his own, and his subjects.”)

Chapter Six #

In human affairs no art is more difficult, as they say, than amid the most turbulent tempests of this world’s storms to command well and to govern the commonwealth with foresight. But this art then arrives at its perfection when the commonwealth itself has prudent and excellent counsellors. A threefold rule is to be observed in counsels. The first is that divine counsels be preferred to human, since one must obey God rather than men. If therefore anyone disposes and desires to steer the ship of the commonwealth happily like a good helmsman, let him not negligently guard the excellent counsels of the Lord which are revealed in the sacred scriptures. The second rule of counsels is that the provident ruler should rest not so much on his own counsel as on that of his most prudent men. Hence that was always the emperor Antoninus’s chief maxim in counsel: “It is more just that I follow the counsel of so many such friends than that so many such friends follow my single will.” Solomon also attests this, saying: “Designs are dissipated where there is no counsel; but where there are many counsellors they are established,” and “there shall be safety where there are many counsels.” For the prudent man calls the prudent into counsel and does nothing without their counsel; but the fool thinks within himself and quickly does what he wills without the counsel of others. Further, the third norm to be kept in counsels is that the good ruler should not have deceitful and pernicious counsellors. For who ought to trust in the counsels of the malignant? For as ramparts through the fields, and snares in the streets, and traps where the feet of others are not suspected, so do the counsels of the impious, mixed with the gall of wickedness, evilly impede the just and holy in their journeys. For as good counsellors raise the commonwealth aloft, so bad ones hurl it down in ruinous calamity. Such counsellors therefore are to be rejected — not cruel men, not deceivers of their prince, but holy, continent, religious men, lovers of their prince, who do not themselves laugh at him nor wish him to be laughed at, who neither lie nor feign and never deceive, but are truthful, sober, prudent and in all things faithful to their prince. By such persons the commonwealth is made safe and the pious ruler’s fame and glory increases.

(Verse: “For a stable anchor remains in the heart and in faith; / Such men no treasures, no weights of gold can deceive, / Lest precious faith be wounded.”)

Chapter Seven #

Now the order of our matter demands that we touch briefly also on bad princes, since we have said some useful things necessary to the sceptres of the commonwealth concerning good ones. Here it is first asked what cause makes bad princes even out of good ones. To which it must be said: first royal licence, then abundance of things — since that very abundance of things becomes a cause of evils to those who use it badly; besides, wicked friends, detestable henchmen, most avaricious eunuchs, courtiers either foolish or detestable — through all of whom, even in that ruler who seemed to be good, there arises forgetfulness of God’s commandments; and lastly, what cannot be denied, ignorance of public affairs. Hence four or five gather themselves and form one counsel to deceive the emperor or king. They say what is to be approved; the emperor, who is shut up at home, knows not the truth; he is forced to know only what they tell him; he makes judges who ought not to be made, and removes from the commonwealth those whom he ought to keep. Thus even a good and wary and excellent emperor is sold, who by this very thing is made wretched — because the truth is kept silent in his presence. Hence often by tumultuous disorder both piety, the worshipper of God, and truth are oppressed, while detraction greatly prevails; for when detractors creep in…

Chapter Eight #

Now it seems fitting to discourse somewhat on impious rulers, so that when their malice, their most wretched end in this world, and their perpetual damnation are known, the prudent ruler may abstain from evil works, become warier and better, and earnestly strive to please the supreme Benefactor. For what are impious kings but the greater robbers of the earth, fierce as lions, ravening like bears? Of whom it is written: “A raging lion and a hungry bear — an impious prince over a poor people.” An impious king, having as it were the person of a lion, brings forth to every answer a bitter, wicked word without the counsel of the prudent, with all malice — humbling the good, exalting the bad; his days are shortened and his memory perishes with a noise; for he has sinned more than he was able. Such therefore are the friends of the wicked, enemies of the good, slaves of lust and avarice, slaves of all wickedness, ministers of the devil, always labouring and doing nothing, gluttons, the misery of the human race, fodder of eternal Gehenna — like the cedar suddenly exalted but soon plunged into deep Tartarus. Hence the psalmist says: “I saw the impious exalted and lifted up like the cedars of Lebanon; and I passed by, and lo, he was not; and I sought him, and his place was not found.” For they flourish like the herbs and the grass of the field, which today arises in comeliness and tomorrow withered is not found. Of whom it is said through the prophet: “They reigned, and not by Me; princes arose, and I knew them not” — who neither know nor will to walk in the right and royal way, but know how to turn aside to the right and to the left. To whom belongs that which the Lord speaks through Isaiah: “They have forsaken the Lord of hosts and walked in crooked ways.” Deceitful in counsels, savage and false in words, malign in works — whose end shall be according to their works. Of whom it is said through the same prophet: “The Lord of hosts devised this, to bring down the pride of all glory, and to reduce to ignominy all the renowned of the earth.” And blessed Job also: “The praise of the impious,” he says, “is short, and the glory of the hypocrite is as it were a point.” For this temporal life in comparison with eternity is compared to a smallest point. But woe to those who…

Chapter Nine #

Seven things are more beautiful than God’s other creatures, as the wise say… (among them): the sea’s variety, when the serenity of heaven resounds on the shores with gentle waves most beautifully; the chorus of the just dwelling in one faith; a peaceful king in the glory of his kingdom, when in the royal hall he bestows many benefits by the gifts shown and handed over. For the just and peaceful king distributes goods with a glad countenance, diligently ponders each one’s case, and not despising the weak and poor of the people, with the counsel and judgement of the elders and prudent speaks true judgements — humbling the bad and exalting the good. His days will be extended in glory, and his memory will remain for ever. A peaceful prince is like a flowery and fertile paradise nearby, and like a fair vine abounding in copious fruit — putting to flight all discord from the splendour of his countenance. While he embraces peace in the hall of his mind, doubtless he prepares a mansion for Christ, because Christ is peace and desires to rest in peace. Furthermore where peace is, truth is found in disputations and justice in works. As therefore a provident helmsman amid the dangers of the stormy sea…

Chapter Ten #

But amid these things this also is to be known: that, as [the wise declare], the kingdom of the just king is sustained by eight columns. The first column is truth in all royal affairs; the second, patience in every happening; the third, generosity in gifts; the fourth, persuadable affability; the fifth, correction of the bad; the sixth, gentleness toward the good and benevolence toward all; the seventh, light taxation upon the people; the eighth, equity in judgement between the powerful and the lowly.

(Verse: “So the just ruler stands upon his own columns: / Truth first, and patience bearing all things well, / Largess the third, the fourth persuasive mildness, / The fifth restrains the bad with wondrous zeal; / The sixth is gentleness, the seventh equity / Between the mighty and the humble; the eighth, / Light tribute on the folk. On these solid columns / The commonwealth stands firm, upheld and strong.”)

Chapter Eleven #

Since therefore the eminence of royal power is sustained by these eight columns, it is fitting that the good prince favour ecclesiastical causes with benevolent and attentive solicitude, and that he take care that synodal assemblies be held among all the orthodox princes of the churches. For when religious kings and faithful bishops come together in one, the utility of the whole Church is treated in common… The king ought to keep the oversight of ecclesiastical affairs, lest anything be done in them negligently or unworthily — remembering how the great emperor Constantine, of sacred memory, collected the bishops at Nicaea for the establishment of the faith, and how Theodosius and other catholic emperors convened synods for the good of the Church; being present at them in person where possible, and where absent lending the aid of his authority to their just decrees. Let him be munificent in generosity, swift in the zeal which is according to God…

Chapter Twelve #

It behoves the modest ruler, with the weight of humility, to obey the most wholesome admonitions and reproofs of the bishops. — For as the bow bent too far is broken, and as the mind raised on high without humility is overthrown, so the ruler who is not corrected by priestly admonition falls. The pious prince ought therefore to receive the reproofs of God’s priests not with irritation but with gratitude, recalling that the Lord Himself submitted to the censure of His own ministers — as David, the greatest of kings, was reproved by Nathan the prophet, and was not ashamed to confess his fault… For the proud hand of a ruler needs the healing of reproof, and it is glorious for him to be cured by the medicine of a bishop. He who hearkens to the priest’s warning hears Christ; he who despises it despises not the man but Him who sent him.

Chapter Thirteen #

It is not easy for men to avoid all the snares of the enemy. — The good ruler’s zeal must be reasonable and mingled with piety; for zeal without discretion is the ruin rather than the healing of the commonwealth. When orthodox rulers burn against the enemies of the Christian faith and doctrine, they ought to temper their zeal with the viscera of mercy, remembering that the Lord Himself rebuked the disciples who would have called down fire. The zeal which is “according to knowledge” corrects but does not destroy; it imitates the Saviour who came not to destroy souls but to save them.

Chapter Fourteen #

But since good rulers strive to quell in their adversaries the pride of arrogant tyranny, they ought to establish all their confidence not in themselves nor in the strength of their men, but in the power and grace of the Most High, because He alone is the powerful protector of all who trust in Him. From where it is said through the psalmist: “It is good to trust in the Lord rather than to trust in man; it is good to hope in the Lord rather than to hope in princes”; and elsewhere: “Put not your trust in princes, nor in the sons of men, in whom there is no salvation. His spirit shall go forth and return to his earth,” and the rest. Jeremiah also agrees with this, saying: “Lord, all who forsake You shall be confounded; they that depart from You shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the Lord, the vein of living waters. Cursed is the man who trusts in man, and makes flesh his arm, and whose heart departs from the Lord,” and the rest. (MS B adds here Jeremiah 17:6–10: “For he shall be like the tamarisk in the desert… I the Lord search the hearts and prove the reins…”) Therefore none ought to trust in man, nor presume on his power because no one can resist him. The silurus fish presumed that no one would cast the hook for him, that no one would spread the nets, and that if it fell in it would break them all — yet it did not escape the trident. And if anyone excelling in singular fortitude does not fear single foes on that account, the same must needs beware of many. For he who cannot be overcome by one is sometimes overcome by many. The elephant is great and is slain; the lion is strong and is killed; the tiger is strong and is slain. But it belongs to the prudent ruler even to fear or take precautions against inferiors, since superiors and stronger ones are often overcome by inferiors. How monstrous is the crocodile, intolerable in teeth and claws! Yet it is killed in the belly by the little beast the enhydris. The unicorn pierces the elephant with its horn; the formidable elephant fears the mouse; the lion, king of beasts, is killed by the scorpion’s small sting. Therefore let no one rashly presume on his own strength, nor trust in the fortitude and number of his men. Xerxes king of the Persians prepared for five years the war against Greece taken up from his father; this Xerxes is said to have had 700,000 armed men of his kingdom and 300,000 auxiliaries, 1,200 beaked ships and 3,000 transports — so that it was deservedly recorded of that incredible host and immense fleet that rivers scarce sufficed it for drink, lands for entry, seas for passage. But Leonidas, king of the Spartans, with four hundred… (the example continues.)

“Whoever has hoped in the Lord is not confounded; who has kept His commandments is not forsaken; who has invoked the Lord is not despised; for the Lord is gracious and merciful, and His hope is upon His saints.”

(Verses: “Whoever, strong in war, trusts in savage arms, / Falsely fixing his hope in himself or in his own, / He shall be likened to a trembling, unstable leaf / That hail has shaken, that the south wind moves. / His hauberk’s weave of rigid metal / Sways like a spider’s fragile web; / His sharp sword grows blunt as a leaden dirk, / His unfaithful shield protects not its lord; / The helmet’s guard weighs on him like a woollen helm, / The wound-dealing lance avails like a reed. / With such did aged Goliath, worthy of horror, exult — / Whom the stone shot from the sling felled by the foe; / His shield availed him not, nor his dread arms, / Nor did his threatening speech profit the Philistine. / If lion, if tiger are slain, if the crocodile…”)

Chapter Fifteen #

That when the crash of hostile wars threatens, divine help is to be implored. — (The chapter gathers the great examples:) …as we read that the blessed bishop Germanus, when he had come to Britain to combat the Pelagian heresy with Bishop Lupus, found the Britons pressed by the armies of the Picts and Saxons; and when the ferocious multitude of the enemy drew near, Germanus, himself the standard-bearer and leader of the battle, admonished all and proclaimed that with one shout they should answer his voice; and when the enemy, who believed themselves unexpected, were at hand, the priests thrice cried “Alleluia!” There followed one voice of all, and the enclosed mountains multiplied the lofty cry with echoing air. The hostile host was prostrated with terror, supposing not only the surrounding rocks but the very frame of heaven to be falling upon them; they fled in all directions, casting away their arms, and the river received many as they fled. Thus was victory obtained by faith and not by force, while Christ fought for His soldiers in the camp. The venerable days of Lent were also at hand, made the more religious by the presence of the priests, so that the peoples, instructed by daily preachings, flocked in rivalry to the grace of baptism; and a great multitude of the army sought the wave of the saving basin. A church of woven boughs was fitted up for the day of the Lord’s resurrection, and was disposed like a city in the field of the expedition. The army went forth drenched in baptism; the faith of the people burned hot, and the aid of the Godhead was awaited, the protection of arms being despised. (Hellmann notes this narrative is taken almost verbatim from Bede, Hist. eccl. I.20.)

Likewise Theodosius the emperor, when the terrible enemy pressed upon him and the provident ruler grieved over the storm of war, stretched forth his hands to heaven, and the Lord sent down heavenly vengeance upon the foe and destroyed them. Of whom a certain elegant poet says:

“O you too much beloved of God, for you the heavens fight, And the conspired winds come to your trumpets.” (Claudian, on the third consulship of Honorius.)

But what wonder if the great Lord works His marvels through the great elements, when He is declared to work stupendous miracles also in the tiniest of flying things? For ecclesiastical history relates that in the time of the emperor Constantius a king of the Persians named Sapor besieged with many thousands the city of Nisibis, which some call Antiochia Mygdonia, whose bishop and rector and leader was the holy Jacob, illumined by the rays of apostolic grace. At the same time therefore Ephrem, a wonderful man and noble writer among the Syrians, supplicated the most holy Jacob to come to the wall and, seeing the barbarians, hurl javelins of malediction against them. The venerable man therefore, being asked…

Chapter Sixteen #

But if to those who reign well and keep God’s precepts some adversities perchance occur in this world, they ought not at once, saddened, to flee from Him and despair of His help, but to act confidently and trust fully in God’s goodness. For this transitory life is all a trial for the just, in which prosperity sometimes harms more than adversity, because prosperity casts down God’s elect while adversity instructs them. For as the serenity is often restored out of the storms of adversity, so again the serene is changed into storms; such is the inconstancy of things. Therefore if some adversities occur, the provident governor of the commonwealth ought not at once to be broken by such whirlwinds of tempest, but contrariwise to be strengthened in the Lord with strong fortitude of mind, and to render thanks to the Almighty in adversities, who in prosperous successes gave thanks to the clemency of his Lord. For it is a small thing when we rejoice in God’s benefits which befall us — the gentile and the Jew and the publican and the heathen also do that. It is the proper virtue of Christians to render thanks to the Creator even in those things which are counted adverse, so that a glad mind breaks forth into the praise of God and we say: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. As it pleased the Lord, so has it been done; blessed be the name of the Lord.” For whenever any tribulation has occurred in the world, those who are good, like holy vessels, give thanks to God who deigns to chastise them; but those who are proud or luxurious or covetous blaspheme against God and murmur, saying: “O God, what so great evil have we done that we suffer such things?” But of good men in tribulation it is read in Job: “Blessed is the man who is corrected by the Lord. Therefore despise not the rebuke of the Lord, because He wounds and heals, He strikes and His hands make whole.” For with the gentle fomentations by which God often consoles us, He often joins also the most biting medicine of tribulation; and like a most clement physician, wishing to cut into the rotten flesh and burn the decayed wounds with the cautery, He does not spare, that He may spare; nor does He pity, that He may the more greatly pity. But sometimes wars and any adversities are more useful to us than peace and leisure, because peace makes us delicate, slack and timid, while war both sharpens the mind and persuades us to despise present things as transitory, and often by the disposition of heavenly grace begets the sweetest fruits of greater peace and concord. From where also the emperor Constantine said: “Sweeter are the friendships restored to concord after causes of enmity.” But whoever, a good and just ruler, desires to escape or triumphantly to conquer spiritual and carnal enemies and all adversities, let him be made armed and adorned with spiritual armaments — according to the apostle, clothed with the breastplate of justice, the helmet of hope, and protected by the shield of faith, let him gleam eminent with the sword of the divine word. For with these and such arms we most often read in many places of Scripture that holy and most illustrious kings of the earth were armed, overcame their adversaries, bore back ample trophies from the foe, and governed renowned kingdoms long and happily. As holy David — to omit others for brevity’s sake — endowed with spiritual arms, because he feared and loved the true God with his whole heart, escaped many dangers and often struck the Lord’s enemies with worthy vengeance.

(Verses: “As the moon’s globe grows now into a sphere, / Drawn by rays to shining roundness, / And now wanes with changing motion, / The horned orb; / So the realms of earth with twofold course / Grow in glory under prosperous fortune, / And now are diminished by adverse risings, / The palace sceptres…”)

(The prayer continues:) “…And by the sign of the cross, with radiant horn, / Show to the vows of the praying people / To overcome all the pride of enemies, / You reigning.”

Chapter Seventeen #

He who is a good prince is adorned with many praises of virtues, but above all with clemency, gentleness and tranquillity of soul — never admitting the tempest, but always embracing, as far as possible, the concord of peace, not only toward his own but also toward his enemies, whom by the example of patience and clemency the pious and magnanimous ruler ought to overcome — the psalmist bearing witness, who says: “With them that hated peace I was a peacemaker.” Therefore the prudent ruler always strives through the bond of peace to amplify, order and govern the empire, since peace is the tranquillity of order of all things, and the bond and increase of royal power. For as by discord the greatest things fall away, so by the concord of peace even the smallest things grow. Hence when Publius Scipio asked by what means Numantia had endured so long, formerly unconquered, or afterwards was overthrown, a certain Numantine, Tyrseus, answered: “Concord made it unconquered, discord its destruction.” For indeed the city of Numantia for fourteen years with only four thousand of its men not only sustained but even conquered forty thousand Romans. Concord represses dissensions, reduces harsh things to lenity, adversities to prosperity, enmities to the tranquillity of friendships; lovable among friends, impregnable to adversaries, desirable even to enemies. She is serene at home, victorious in battle, though she does not wish to be entangled in wars save when a most necessary and most just cause exacts it. But there are some who are so lifted up by the success of earthly felicity and the swelling of pride that they spurn the peace offered by enemies and [wage] unjust wars… (the extract breaks off here in mid-chapter.)

Appendix — from Hellmann’s Critical Study of Sedulius’s Sources #

(The file continues with part of Hellmann’s investigation, pp. 102–106, into the origin of the books Sedulius used. Translated:)

…here there was an Irish colony, to which he may have owed his exemplar. It is not without interest to observe the small shifts that can be registered within this circle: the tract “On the Twelve Abuses of the World” runs in the collection of the Irish canons under the name of Patrick; Sedulius quotes it as Augustinian. By “ecclesiastical history” the Irish canon collection understands Eusebius–Rufinus; Sedulius follows it, or rather its source, in his excerpts. But otherwise he denotes by that title outright the Historia Tripartita of Cassiodorus, which remained unknown to his Irish source. Are continental influences to be registered here? It is not impossible that the Irish, in order to naturalise that tract more easily on the mainland, provided it with the better-known and better-sounding name of Augustine instead of that of Patrick, and that corresponding changes were also made in the archetype; nor is it impossible that they learned to know Cassiodorus only on the Continent, and that he gradually pushed into the background the older account of church history customary among them.

Our investigation thus far has set aside the classical authors whom Sedulius could use, with the exception of the two grammarians Priscian and Charisius. His knowledge of ancient writers is not small: we found in his collections Frontinus, Vegetius, Valerius Maximus and Macrobius; we found above all Cicero represented, of whom Sedulius — not reckoning the Auctor ad Herennium, which he likewise held for Ciceronian — knows seven works: De Inventione, Pro Flacco, Pro Fonteio, the Philippics, In Pisonem, the Paradoxa, and the Tusculans. In this he stands beside Servatus Lupus, and directly after the presbyter Hadoard who, so far as we can see, possessed more of Cicero’s writings than any of his contemporaries.

With the question to whom Sedulius owed his access to these authors, we touch at the same time the problem of the preservation and transmission of Latin literature during the first centuries of the Middle Ages in general. The dogma which would describe the rescue of the classical treasures of learning as essentially a merit of the Irish can indeed no longer be maintained today in its full extent; but the circle of writings whose knowledge and transmission one would still leave to the Irish will have to be drawn much narrower than is usually done. V. Schultze attempted some years ago to give a wish of the Irish manuscripts preserved on the Continent. His compilation may have turned out ever so incomplete and gapped; the fact remains that the great majority of them contain patristic, not classical, literature — that the interest of the Irish was fixed mainly on theological questions; and where we meet them in possession of authors who were not, like the three great poets, ready to everyone’s hand, we shall not so much have to think that the newcomer opened a new author to the Frankish scholars, but rather that he made a borrowing from them. We may suppose that this will also have been the case with Sedulius. That his great countryman John Eriugena, in contrast to him, shows only slight acquaintance with Cicero’s writings proves that these at least did not belong to the Irish common stock.

We remarked earlier that within the old transmitted circle of Irish writings there occur small, almost imperceptible changes which we wished to ascribe to continental influences. If our conjecture is right, we have here an example of how — this time on a large scale — their horizon was extended on the mainland by acquaintance with the ancient writers. A counterpart we shall learn to know when we see how the scientific apparatus with which the Irish approached the treatment of the Pauline epistles was enriched on the Continent by the works of Frankish scholars, notably Alcuin.

In the view that Sedulius owed the greater part of his classical treasures to contact with the Continent, we shall now be further strengthened when we go through the manuscripts he used according to their provenance. Wherever such an examination is at all possible, we are always led into the neighbourhood of a — surely continental — archetype. At the same time we obtain an admittedly incomplete geographical survey of the connections which Sedulius maintained outward from his Liège seat.

With Vegetius one may most readily think of Irish intermediation. The manuscript which Sedulius used belonged, as Lang already remarked, to the worse and mutilated class ε; we need not yet assume that it was the same exemplar that lay before Frechulf of Lisieux; rather one may think of the Laudunensis: at Laon an Irish colony was gathered around Bishop Hincmar, and from there — this conjecture has been expressed above — Sedulius perhaps obtained his manuscript.

With the next writer we have to examine it is different. The two oldest manuscripts of Valerius Maximus, roughly contemporary with Sedulius — the Bernensis and the Laurentianus — derive from one and the same archetype that lay in a Loire monastery. Short as Sedulius’s excerpts from this writer are, they still show that his manuscript stood nearer to the Laurentianus. This was formerly at Stavelot; if it is younger than Sedulius, then he transplanted the Valerius Maximus from the Loire into Lorraine, where its use can still be traced considerably later; otherwise he was — what is actually more probable — prompted to occupy himself with this writer in Liège itself.

A second author leads us into the Liège region: the excerpts which Sedulius made from Lactantius show affinity with an admittedly younger manuscript now lying at Valenciennes, which comes from St Amand.

Unfortunately we cannot pronounce so definitely about the origin of the other manuscripts, above all those of Cicero: they can everywhere be ranged in the context of transmission known to us, but to fix their origin geographically is not possible. A partial exception is made by the Tusculans; for them Sedulius had before him, quite as did the presbyter Hadoard, a manuscript related to R (Parisinus lat. 6332) and G (Gudianus 294), but sharing some better readings with B (Brux. 5351, 5352). The Brussels codex once lay at Gembloux, and with that we are again led into the Liège region, which seems on the whole to have been a good soil for the transmission of Cicero: at Gembloux there was a second Cicero manuscript containing thirteen speeches; Parc (near Louvain) perhaps possessed an In Catilinam; in St James at Liège we found a manuscript of De Officiis; and in Liège itself Petrarch was still able to search for Cicero manuscripts with success in 1333.

(The extract ends here; Hellmann’s notes on the manuscripts of the individual excerpts follow in the edition.)