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A TREATISE IN TEN BOOKS
ON LAWS AND GOD THE LAWGIVER
By the Reverend Father FRANCISCO SUÁREZ
of Granada, Member of the Society of Jesus
Primary Professor of Sacred Theology at the celebrated Academy of Coimbra
Dedicated to the Most Illustrious and Most Reverend
D. AFONSO FURTADO À MENDOÇA
Bishop of Ejea de los Cavaleiros
With Several Indexes
COIMBRA
By Privilege of His Catholic Majesty for Castile and Portugal From the Press of DIOGO GOMEZ DE LOUREYRO
In the Year of our Lord 1612
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Dedication
TO THE MOST ILLUSTRIOUS AND MOST REVEREND LORD, D. AFONSO FURTADO À MENDOÇA, BISHOP OF EJEA DE LOS CAVALEIROS, ETC.
When I was about to publish my book On Laws, most illustrious Protector, I did not deem it necessary to consider at any great length the question of what person I should select before all others as its patron, that I might commend it to his care, to be defended by his authority, or embellished by his nobility. For under no patronage could my work more happily or more safely see the light, than under that of one who caused the drafting of its first outlines, its growth into a volume, and its dissemination in printed form for the common use; since this book, the first and foremost of all the books which I have thus far published, had its origin in this kingdom [of Portugal], and is the native product of this most noble Academy. All the rest of my works were already printed, or taken from my dictation, or composed by night, in other places; and this one only, through your exhortations and at your instigation, was first composed and dictated at this distinguished seat of learning. For while you were at the helm of the University as its most equitable director, to the immense benefit of that institution, and with the overwhelming applause of the whole realm, you believed that it would be beneficial to the world of letters if I should set forth from the professorial chair, a common doctrine of laws, in such a way as to adapt it—in so far as my diligence [under these conditions] might make this possible, or usage so demanded—to the various individual branches; and therefore, you suggested that I should bend all my energies to that task, and persuaded me to obey the suggestion. Accordingly, I carried out the undertaking so gladly begun at your bidding, devoting to it—under the happy auspices of your good will—an unbroken
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period of two years’ dictated exposition; but I did not so perfect that first draft as to fit it for the light of publication. Accordingly, I have at last polished the rough copy with such care as lay within my power, having become, according to the advice of St. Paul and at your bidding, ‘all things to all men’, that I might profit them all; and, having constant regard to the bidding of your will, I have fashioned the treatise with such care, that those whose words and leadership I follow are of the opinion that it should be published. Thus it was that simple justice seemed not only to ask and to urge, but also to require and to command, that you who were the instigator and originator of this work, should also be its patron; that the book conceived at your command, composed under your protection, and produced for your pleasure, should also be published under your name; a circumstance so remarkable and so glorious that my work cannot fail to derive from it great splendour and charm.1 However, even if I were not sufficiently persuaded by the reason just set forth to dedicate these commentaries to you, how many other arguments present themselves which would in any case force me to adopt such a course, even though I were reluctant! For whether I turn my attention to the gifts with which heaven has endowed you, or to those which you have derived from your ancestors, or to those which are the products of your own labour or the acquisitions of your industry, all these attributes stand out in such dazzling splendour and shine in you with such majesty, that he who should demand greater adornments in a patron, or a stronger bulwark for his labour, might well be considered senseless. Who, indeed, can fail to see how bounteously the immortal will has imparted to your spirit those virtues which befit such a pontiff as even God Himself has painted in living colours and drawn in shining likeness. In the Hebrew High Priest and in his rich adornments, God portrayed the virtues and instilled the gifts of mind which He required also of Christian priestly dignitaries. Indeed, among all the ornaments adorning the priestly attire, that ornament held the chief
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place which was seen to be suspended upon the breast by golden chains, and on which were inscribed in large letters these two names: ‘Truth,’ and ‘Judgment’; as if the Eternal Will preferred before all the other virtues which should adorn a pontiff, as being the chief and most noteworthy, this: that the soul of a prelate should shine with a sincere love of truth and with justice uncorrupted and equitable. These two virtues dwell in you, most illustrious Bishop; not to mention, for the present, that quality of yours which I know not how to name, whether to call it beneficence or extravagance, liberality or prodigality—the quality which moves you to lavish your resources upon the poor, to spend them for the needy, to exert yourself in behalf of those who suffer, so that you are called ‘Father of those in need,’ a tribute that is in truth divine. As I have said, I choose to pass over such qualities as this, and many other bright adornments of your spirit. But there is no one who fails to see—no one, indeed, who does not marvel upon seeing—how the two virtues which in their singular beauty decorated the breast of the High Priest, shine out from you with rays still brighter. For it is even as St. John Chrysostom has well said (on Matthew, Homily XIII): ‘As a lamp that is lit cannot be hid; so it is impossible that a word of justice should be concealed.’ Wherefore, indeed—however desirable it might seem to you, or to other persons, that it should be possible to conceal the ornaments of justice and integrity of which you gave such illustrious proof at Coimbra as Rector of the University, at Madrid as Counsellor to the King, at Lisbon while presiding over the Supreme Tribunal,2 and finally, now, in the diocese of Ejea,3 which you rule so uprightly and govern so justly that you seem to bear that laudatory inscription ‘Truth and Judgment’ not lightly pendant from your breast but engraved deep within—however desirable, I repeat, this concealment may seem to you—it was fitting in the very name of judgment that my book On Laws
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should be dedicated to you. For Law is the sister of Justice, and both are included under one name, according to that passage from Isaias (Chap. xlv [, v. 19]): ‘[…] I am the Lord that speak justice, that declare truth’,4 with regard to which Cyril of Alexandria says [on Isaias, ibid.]: ‘He calls Law, Justice.’ So distinguished a devotee of Justice and the Laws cannot but welcome in a kindly spirit a treatise on the laws and on justice. And how can one whose reflections concerning the laws are so keen, one who observes them with such accuracy, fail to defend, in case of attack, a book which contains and expounds legal doctrine; how, if that book suffer from disparagement, can he fail to adorn it with praise? For you will be the more richly equipped to render this service, in that you are not only illustrious for the qualities bestowed upon you by high heaven and celestial power, but also exceedingly distinguished for these other gifts which by reason of the long-established prerogatives of noble blood have descended to you from your forebears, by so many illustrious titles. If any person desires to contemplate the glory of your lineage and the ancient5 line of your ancestral images, let him look upon all Portugal6—nay, more, let him survey the whole of Spain, which so radiates the lustre of your race, that the man who fails to perceive such splendour must be deemed blind. For who is a stranger to the name and the fame of the Furtados à Mendoça? Gladly would I linger over the exposition of this point (for what man can speak adequately, when on a theme so lofty?) did I not believe that to cast verbal lustre upon a family so glorious would be to enrich7 the sun with light, the seas with water; especially in view of the fact that you, most illustrious Bishop, nobly descended as you are, transcend your nobility of lineage