The Principles of Order

Given these presuppositions, it was right and proper to use ‘‘reason,’’ and to appropriate the findings of wise and prudent pagans where they did not contradict revelation, not only in the conduct of practical life, but also in order to elucidate matters of faith and doctrine: the reformers could not endorse either of these positions without qualification. The most important of the principles relevant to the respublica civilis, the “commonwealth” (subsequently ‘‘state’’) were a set of beliefs about good order so attuned to the common sense of the time and the philosophical orthodoxy over the ages that they were regarded as certain. Ignatius himself made clear, however, that the principles applied equally to the Society of Jesus, the church as a whole, the family, an army, or any other corporate association, private or public. The civil polity, like them, is not a mere aggregate but an ‘‘order’’ or ‘‘body,’’ with parts or ‘‘members’’ coordinated into a whole whose purposes override those of the parts. Subordination of individual utility to the common good is not natural to fallen man, whereas animal collectivities such as ant colonies and bee hives manage it effortlessly. It requires coordination and direction, and therefore rules or laws. Rules alone are, however, not enough, given their generality, the variability of circumstances, and because subjects do not always obey them. Coercive authority, and therefore hierarchy, relationships of super - and sub-ordination, command and obedience, are also needed. Authority and the hierarchy it entails are ‘‘natural’’ to the human condition, in the sense of being an unconditional requirement of the social existence natural to human beings. In addition, because God wills the preservation of the human race, he wills the necessary means that end demands. In that sense, and in no other, secular authority is by divine right. The same conclusion is confirmed by revelation, which teaches obedience to authority in the favorite proof-text of the age, Romans 13, and also I Peter 2, by salvation history, and by inference from the fourth commandment to honor one’s father and mother.