POLITICS METHODICALLY

SET FORTH,
AND ILLUSTRATED WITH
SACRED AND PROFANE
EXAMPLES

CHAPTER I

THE GENERAL ELEMENTS OF POLITICS

Politics is the art of associating (consociandi) men for the purpose of establishing, cultivating,
and conserving social life among them. Whence it is called 'symbiotics'. The subject matter of
politics is therefore association (consociatio), in which the symbiotes[1] pledge themselves each
to the other, by explicit or tacit agreement, to mutual communication of whatever is useful and
necessary for the harmonious exercise of social life.

The end of political 'symbiotic' man is holy, just, comfortable, and happy symbiosis,[2] a life
lacking nothing either necessary or useful. Truly, in living this life no man is self-sufficient
(), or adequately endowed by nature. For when he is born, destitute of all help, naked
and defenceless, as if having lost all his goods in a shipwreck, he is cast forth into the hardships
of this life, not able by his own efforts to reach a maternal breast, nor to endure the harshness of
his condition, nor to move himself from the place where he was cast forth. By his weeping and
tears, he can initiate nothing except the most miserable life, a very certain sign of pressing and
immediate misfortune.[3] Bereft of all counsel and aid, for which nevertheless he is then in
greatest need, he is unable to help himself without the intervention and assistance of another.
Even if he is well-nourished in body, he cannot show forth the light of reason. Nor in his
adulthood is he able to obtain in and by himself those outward goods he needs for a comfortable
and holy life, or to provide by his own energies all the requirements of life. The energies and
industry of many men are expended to procure and supply these things. Therefore, as long as he
remains isolated and does not mingle in the society of men, he cannot live at all comfortably and
well while lacking so many necessary and useful things. As an aid and remedy for this state of
affairs is offered him in symbiotic life, he is led, and almost impelled, to embrace it if he wants
to live comfortably and well, even if he merely wants to live. Therein he is called upon to
exercise and perform those virtues that are necessarily inactive except in this symbiosis. And so
he begins to think by what means such symbiosis, from which he expects so many useful and
enjoyable things, can be instituted, cultivated, and conserved. Concerning these matters we shall,
by God's grace, speak in the following pages.

{…} The symbiotes are co-workers who, by the bond of an associating and uniting agreement,
communicate among themselves whatever is appropriate for a comfortable life of soul and body.
In other words, they are participants or partners in a common life.

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This mutual communication,[8] or common enterprise, involves (1) things, (2) services, and (3)
common rights (jura) by which the numerous and various needs of each and every symbiote are
supplied, the self-sufficiency and mutuality of life and human society are achieved, and social
life is established and conserved. Whence Cicero said, 'a political community is a gathering of
men associated by a consensus as to the right and a sharing of what is useful.'[9] By this
communication, advantages and responsibilities are assumed and maintained according to the
nature of each particular association. (1) The communication of things (rei) is the bringing of
useful and necessary goods to the social life by the symbiotes for the common advantage of the
symbiotes individually and collectively. (2) The community of services (operae) is the
contributing by the symbiotes of their labours and occupations for the sake of social life. (3) The
communion of right (jus) is the process by which the symbiotes live and are ruled by just laws in
a common life among themselves.

{..} On the basis of the foregoing considerations, I agree with Plutarch that a commonwealth is
best and happiest when magistrates and citizens bring everything together for its welfare and
advantage, and neither neglect nor despise anyone who can be helpful to the commonwealth.[23]
The Apostle indeed advises us to seek and promote advantages for our neighbour, even to the
point that we willingly give up our own right, by which we guard against misfortune, to obtain a
great advantage for the other person.[24] For 'we have not been born to ourselves, inasmuch as our
country claims a share in our birth, and our friends a share'.[25] The entire second table of the
Decalogue pertains to this: 'you shall love your neighbour as yourself; 'whatever you wish to be
done to you do also to others', and conversely, 'whatever you do not wish to be done to you do
not do to others'; 'live honourably, injure no one, and render to each his due'.[26] Of what use to
anyone is a hidden treasure, or a wise man who denies his services to the commonwealth?

In light of these several truths, the question of which life is to be preferred can be answered. Is it
the contemplative or the active? Is it the theoretical and philosophical life or the practical and
political life? Clearly, man by nature is a gregarious animal born for cultivating society with
other men, not by nature living alone as wild beasts do, nor wandering about as birds. And so
misanthropic and stateless hermits, living without fixed hearth or home, are useful neither to
themselves nor to others, and separated from others are surely miserable. For how can they
promote the advantage of their neighbour unless they find their way into human society? [27] How
can they perform works of love when they live outside human fellowship? How can the church
be built and the remaining duties of the first table of the Decalogue be performed? Whence
Keckerman rightly says that politics leads the final end of all other disciplines to the highest
point, and thus builds public from private happiness.[28]

For this reason God willed to train and teach men not by angels, but by men.[29] For the same
reason God distributed his gifts unevenly among men. He did not give all things to one person,
but some to one and some to others, so that you have need for my gifts, and I for yours. And so
was born, as it were, the need for communicating necessary and useful things, which
communication was not possible except in social and political life. God therefore willed that
each need the service and aid of others in order that friendship would bind all together, and no
one would consider another to be valueless. For if each did not need the aid of others, what
would society be? What would reverence and order be? What would reason and humanity be?

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Everyone therefore needs the experience and contributions of others, and no one lives to himself
alone.

Thus the needs of body and soul, and the seeds of virtue implanted in our souls, drew dispersed
men together into one place. These causes have built villages, established cities, founded
academic institutions, and united by civil unity and society a diversity of farmers, craftsmen,
labourers, builders, soldiers, merchants, learned and unlearned men as so many members of the
same body. Consequently, while some persons provided for others, and some received from
others what they themselves lacked, all came together into a certain public body that we call the
commonwealth, and by mutual aid devoted themselves to the general good and welfare of this
body. And that this was the true origin first of villages, and then of larger commonwealths
embracing wide areas, is taught by the most ancient records of history and confirmed by daily
experience.[30]

{..}

Moreover, Aristotle teaches that man by his nature is brought to this social life and mutual
sharing.[30] For man is a more political animal than the bee or any other gregarious creature, and
therefore by nature far more of a social animal than bees, ants, cranes, and such kind as feed and
defend themselves in flocks. Since God himself endowed each being with a natural capacity to
maintain itself and to resist whatever is contrary to it, so far as necessary to its welfare, and since
dispersed men are not able to exercise this capacity, the instinct for living together and
establishing civil society was given to them. Thus brought together and united, some men could
aid others, many together could provide the necessities of life more easily than each alone, and
all could live more safely from attack by wild beasts and enemies. It follows that no man is able
to live well and happily to himself. Necessity therefore induces association; and the want of
things necessary for life, which are acquired and communicated by the help and aid of one's
associates, conserves it. For this reason it is evident that the commonwealth, or civil society,
exists by nature, and that man is by nature a civil animal who strives eagerly for association. If,
however, anyone wishes not to live in society, or needs nothing because of his own abundance,
he is not considered a part of the commonwealth. He is therefore either a beast or a god, as
Aristotle asserts.[31]

CHAPTERS II-III

THE FAMILY

Thus far we have discussed the general elements of politics. We turn now to types of association
or of symbiotic life. Every association is either simple and private,[1] or mixed and public.[2]

The simple and private association is a society and symbiosis initiated by a special covenant
(pactum) among the members for the purpose of bringing together and holding in common a
particular interest (quid peculiare). This is done according to their agreement and way of life,
that is, according to what is necessary and useful for organized private symbiotic life. Such an

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association can rightly be called primary, and all others derivative from it. For without this
primary association others are able neither to arise nor to endure.

The efficient causes of this simple and private association and symbiosis are individual men
covenanting among themselves to communicate whatever is necessary and useful for organizing
and living in private life. Whence arises the particular and private union and society among the
covenanters, whose bond (vinculum) is trust granted and accepted in their communication of
mutual aid, counsel, and right (jus).[3] And such an association, because it is smaller than a public
and universal one, also requires less extended communication, support, and assistance.

{..} There are two types of simple and private association. The first is natural, and the second is
civil.[6] The private and natural symbiotic association is one in which married persons, blood
relatives, and in-laws, in response to a natural affection and necessity, agree to a definite
communication among themselves. Whence this individual, natural, necessary, economic, and
domestic society is said to be contracted permanently among these symbiotic allies of life, with
the same boundaries as life itself, Therefore it is rightly called the most intense society,
friendship, relationship, and union, the seedbed of every other symbiotic association. Whence
these symbiotic allies are called relatives, kinsmen, and friends.

CHAPTER IV

THE COLLEGIUM

This completes the discussion of the natural association. We turn now to the civil association,
which is a body organized by assembled persons according to their own pleasure and will to
serve a common utility and necessity in human life. That is to say, they agree among themselves
by common consent on a manner of ruling and obeying for the utility both of the whole body and
of its individuals.[1]

This society by its nature is transitory and can be discontinued. It need not last as long as the
lifetime of a man, but can be disbanded honourably and in good faith by the mutual agreement of
those who have come together, however much it may have been necessary and useful for social
life on another occasion. For this reason it is called a spontaneous and merely voluntary society,
granted that a certain necessity can be said to have brought it into existence. For in the early
times of the world, when the human race was increasing and, though one family, yet dispersing
itself — since all persons could no longer be expected to live together in one place and family —
necessity drove diverse and separate dwellings, hamlets, and villages to stand together, and at
length to erect towns and cities in different places. Accordingly, 'when the head of the family
goes out of his house, in which he exercises domestic imperium, and joins the heads of other
families to pursue business matters, he then loses the name of head and master of the family, and
becomes an ally and citizen. In a sense, he leaves the family in order that he may enter the city
and attend therein to public instead of domestic concerns.'[2]

This is therefore a civil association. In it three or more men of the same trade, training, or
profession are united for the purpose of holding in common such things they jointly profess as
duty, way of life, or craft. Such an association is called a collegium,[3] or as it were, a gathering,

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society, federation, sodality, synagogue, convention, or synod. It is said to be a private
association by contrast with the public association.[4] The persons who unite in order to constitute
a collegium are called colleagues, associates, or even brothers. A minimum of three persons is
required to organize a collegium, because among two persons there is no third person to
overcome dissension. This is so even though two persons may be called colleagues so far as the
power and equality of office is concerned. Fewer than three, however, are able to conserve a
collegium.[5]

Whoever among the colleagues is superior and set over the others is called the leader of the
collegium, the rector or director of the common property and functions. He is elected by
common consent of the colleagues, and is provided with administrative power over property and
functions pertaining to the collegium. For this reason he exercises coercive power over the
colleagues individually, but not over the group itself. Therefore the president of a collegium is
superior to the individual colleague but inferior to the united colleagues, or to the collegium over
which he presides and whose pleasure he must serve....

We will consider first the communication of the colleagues, and their symbiotic right (jus
symbioticum) in this private and civil association, then the various types of the collegium.
Communication among the colleagues is the activity by which an individual helps his colleague,
and so upholds the plan of social life set forth in covenanted agreements. These covenants and
laws (pacta et leges) of the colleagues are described in their corporate books, which we call
Zunftbücher. Such communication pertains to (1) things, (2) services, (3) right, and (4) mutual
benevolence.

{..} The communication of services is determined by mutual agreement among the colleagues.
The communication of skilled services consists, for the most part, in promoting the duties,
business, and advantages of a craft, profession, or vocation, and in averting disadvantages. This
is done according to the manner that has been tacitly or explicitly agreed upon by the colleagues.
In this connection, the collegium bestows its approval on apprentices who have passed an
appointed examination in the art, craft, or trade that the collegium professes.

{..} Mutual benevolence is that affection and love of individuals toward their colleagues because
of which they harmoniously will and 'nill' on behalf of the common utility. This benevolence is
nourished, sustained, and conserved by public banquets, entertainments, and love feasts.

The types of collegia vary according to the circumstance of persons, crafts and functions. Today
there are collegia of bakers, tailors, builders, merchants, coiners of money, as well as
philosophers, theologians, government officials, and others that every city needs for the proper
functioning of its social life. Some of these collegia are ecclesiastical and sacred, instituted for
the sake of divine things; others are secular and profane, instituted for the sake of human things.
The first are collegia of theologians and philosophers. The second are collegia of magistrates and
judges, and of various craftsmen, merchants, and rural folk. The collegia of magistrates are of
particular importance because by their public power (jus potestatis) they set bounds for each and
every other collegium....[15]

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 CHAPTERS V-VI

THE CITY

With this discussion of the civil and private association, we turn now to the public association.
For human society develops from private to public association by the definite steps and
progressions of small societies. The public association exists when many private associations are
linked together for the purpose of establishing an inclusive political order (politeuma). It can be
called a community (universitas),[1] an associated body, or the pre-eminent political association.
It is permitted and approved by the law of nations (jus gentium), and is not considered dead as
long as one person is left. Nor is it altered by the change of individual persons, for it is
perpetuated by the substitution of others. Men assembled without symbiotic right (jus
symbioticum) are a crowd, gathering, multitude, assemblage, throng, or people. The larger this
association, and the more types of association contained within it, the more need it has of
resources and aids to maintain self-sufficiency as much in soul as in body and life, and the
greater does it require good order, proper discipline, and communication of things and services.

Political order in general is the right and power of communicating and participating in useful and
necessary matters that are brought to the life of the organized body by its associated members. It
can be called the public symbiotic right. This public symbiotic association is either particular or
universal. The particular association is encompassed by fixed and definite localities within which
its rights are communicated. In turn, it is either a community (universitas)[2] or a province.