For it is lawful for a
king, in the state over which he reigns, to command that which
neither he himself nor anyone before him had commanded. And if it
cannot be held to be inimical to the public interest to obey him
-- and, in truth, it would be inimical if he were not obeyed,
since obedience to princes is a general compact of human society
-- how much more, then, ought we unhesitatingly to obey God, the
Governor of all his creatures! For, just as among the authorities
in human society, the greater authority is obeyed before the
lesser, so also must God be above all.
16. This applies as well to deeds of violence where there is
a real desire to harm another, either by humiliating treatment or
by injury. Either of these may be done for reasons of revenge, as
one enemy against another, or in order to obtain some advantage
over another, as in the case of the highwayman and the traveler;
else they may be done in order to avoid some other evil, as in the
case of one who fears another; or through envy as, for example, an
unfortunate man harming a happy one just because he is happy; or
they may be done by a prosperous man against someone whom he fears
will become equal to himself or whose equality he resents.
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