Page:Readings in European History Vol 2.djvu/313

 The Ascendency of France under Louis XIV 275 sacrilege if they use for evil a power which comes from God. We behold kings seated upon the throne of the Lord, bear- ing in their hand the sword which God himself has given them. What profanation, what arrogance, for the unjust king to sit on God's throne to render decrees contrary to his laws and to use the sword which God has put in his hand for deeds of violence and to slay his children ! . . . ''The royal power is absolute. With the aim of making this The royal truth hateful and insufferable, many writers have tried to P ow ^ r 1S • 1 1 • absolute confound absolute government with arbitrary government. But no two things could be more unlike, as we shall show when we come to speak of justice. The prince need render account of his acts to no one. "I counsel thee to keep the king's commandment, and that in regard of the oath of God. Be not hasty to go out of his sight : stand not on an evil thing for he doeth whatsoever pleaseth him. Where the word of a king is, there is power : and who may say unto him, What doest thou ? Whoso keepeth the commandment shall feel no evil thing." * With- out this absolute authority the king could neither do good nor repress evil. It is necessary that his power be such that no one can hope to escape him, and, finally, the only pro- tection of individuals against the public authority should be their innocence. This conforms with the teaching of St. Paul : " Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power ? do that which is good."^ I do not call majesty that pomp which surrounds kings The real or that exterior magnificence which dazzles the vulgar. g; andeuro1 That is but the reflection of majesty and not majesty itself. Majesty is the image of the grandeur of God in the prince. /God is infinite, God is all. The prince, as prince, is not The whole the state is in him ; the will of all the people is included in the pr ince. his. As all perfection and all strength are united in God, so all the power of individuals is united in the person of the prince. What grandeur that a single man should embody so much !/ 1 Ecclesiasticus viii. 2-5. 2 Rom. xiii. 3.
 * " regarded as a private person : he is a public personage, all j^PJj 1 ^