Common law and privilege; Christ’s privileges and the temporal lord’s part; whether sin is a privilege

But because it seems from the words of the decree that the members [of the division] coincide, although the aspect is not different, it must therefore be noted that a law can be called common in two ways: namely, by objective obligation or by formal predication.¹ In the first 247way the most common law is that God is to be desired above all things, since it binds always not only every rational creature but every created substance. For God is the good which all things desire; and so all the other commandments of the decalogue are common laws objectively, since they necessarily bind all men. But laws common by predication are the species or genera of laws which are founded in their individuals, such as that a cleric should take care of his reputation, and similar genera, whether taken for the multitude of private laws or for universals predicated of their species as to their quiddityquiditas: quiddity.² And so these two kinds of law are not contrary in their analogue, since the canon defines public law as that which has been confirmed by the writings of the holy fathers; and this is known to fit every true privilege, just as the definitiondescripcio: definition of privilege fits common law.³ Hence that law which is common to a private part of the churchecclesia: church is a privilegeprivilegium / privilegiare / privilegiacio: privilege / to privilege / privileging with respect to its whole: as a law which is common to the individual persons of a given monastery of monks is a privilege to the whole house; and an endowmentdotacio: endowment in temporal things, if it is a law common to the whole possessionerpossessionati: the possessioners clergy and to its individual persons, is then a privilege with respect to the endowed person of the clergy, because it does not belong to the person of the clergy that lives without propertyexproprietarii / exproprietarie: the propertyless / without property, but privately to the former person.⁴ Since, therefore, according to the decree every private law is written in by the Holy Spirit, it is manifest that every private law is granted by a prince for the benefit of the church or of a person, because the works of the Trinity outwards are undivided. Now God knows not how to teach or give anything but what is beneficial; and so every created individual law is a privilege. And it is clear how one must speak logically of privileges, once the equivocation of the term has been exposed, as is fitting.⁵ To the second objectioninstancia; objectum: objection the assumptionassumptum: the assumption is denied, since Christ gave the church a twofold kind of privilege: one 248extrinsic, affirmative, negative or privative, as it is said in Matthew 10:9 how he privileged the disciples when he sent them to preach: "Do not," he says, "possess gold, nor silver, nor money in your purses." And positive bodily privileges he grants them, as is clear in Luke 10:7: "In the same house," he says, "remain, eating and drinking such things as they have: for the labourer is worthy of his hire." Now such privileges can be granted instrumentally and ministerially by a temporal lordtemporales domini: temporal lords; but there are spiritual privileges, of greater worth, which Christ granted his disciples before, as is clear in Matthew 10:8: "Heal," he says, "the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out devils."⁶ And such privileges of power are granted appropriately by the Lord; and although an earthly prince could not grant them, yet by granting temporal privileges he can, preparatorily, dispose [things] so that God grants the privileges of greater worth; as one who opens a window, or removes what hinders, is the occasion whereby the light of the sun is poured through the house.⁷

The perceptiblesensibilis: perceptible rites, therefore, which Christ instituted as efficacious signs of spiritual privilege are to be observed more diligently, since it is impossible that one who duly observes these perceptible privileges should not be privilegedprivilegium / privilegiare / privilegiacio: privilege / to privilege / privileging by God inwardly through privileges of greater worth. Therefore (as I said in the preceding chapter) they are to be observed more diligently than privileges devised by men, as is clear in the Lord’s parable of the Rechabites, who abstained from wine by the precept of their father Rechab (as [the prophet] sets it out, Jeremiah 35:8).⁸ And this is the reason why the privileges of Christ are to be heard more diligently, expounded more rightly and defended more carefully: because, as they are spurned by leaning on others, the Christian religion perishes. And so temporal lords are bound to defend the privileges 249of Christ, both positive and privative, and spiritedly to destroy all rites contrary to them.⁹

Hence it seems to me that the college of the aforesaid abbey should attend, first, to whether the privilege claimed is contrary to the privileges of Christ. Second, to what gain it will carry away from the privilege so defended; because undoubtedly, if it carries away from the privilege not merit with respect to God but barely the glory of the world, it carries away harm to the soul. Third, supposing that it carries away the salvation of the soul from the works of mercy granted to the refugees, it should attend, with its supporters, to [this]: that they should apply as much diligence, or greater, to defending the true privileges, which are more necessary.¹⁰ For often those deceived by the world blindly weigh the leaves above the fruit, the shadow above the light, indeed an itching temporal poison above everlasting salvation. To the third [objection] the answer isdicitur multipliciter: is said in many ways that a falsehood is assumed; for sin, since it is neither a private law nor granted by a prince, is not a privilege. For although the prince of this world stirs [men] up to sin, yet he cannot, any more than God can, grant licence for it; and if, per impossibile, he granted licence for it, even a pretended one, he would do this not for the advantage but for the harm of the one privileged.¹¹ Yet it is granted, from the immensity of the power of the true prince, that by reason of any sin whatever a true privilege is occasioned to the church of Christ, since "to them that fear God all things work together unto good" (Romans 8:28): not that sin is a privilege to them, but that the profit arising by occasionoccasionaliter: by occasion from sin turns to their privilege. And this is true not only of others’ sins but of the sins of their own which the predestinatepredestinatus, -i: the predestinate (sg. "a predestinate [person]") commit. Yet it is granted that punishment turns to privilege for the sons, since the sting of the flesh, given by God to the Apostle, turned for him to the exercise of virtue, as is clear in 2 Corinthians 12[:7].¹²

Hence the saints are more content with tribulation than with worldly prosperity, because of the security and the ampler fruit of merit; and the damned have a certain good beyond the good of nature, from the merit of Christ and their own just punishment; and this good, although it is a useful good to the blessed and an honourable one to the Lord who punishes, yet it does not seem to me that it is a useful or honourable privilege to them, but a good that mitigates malice, or however else it may more aptly be named. Hence, although it is a private law granted by a prince, yet it is not for the benefit of the person in whom it formally inheres. Nor do I contend [against it], but I grant, in an equivocal sense, that that damnation is a privilege to the blessed, since by reason of the just punishment of their enemies, who serve them perpetually, their joy is in a manner increased.¹³