“Before all else the story of Christ must be firmly rooted in the mind of the prince.\u00a0 He should drink deeply of His teachings, gathered in handy texts, and then later from those very fountains themselves, whence he may drink more purely and effectively.\u00a0 He should be taught that the teachings of Christ apply to no one more than to the prince.” Desiderius Erasmus, The Education of a Christian Prince,<\/i> trans. Lester K. Born. (New York: Columbia, 1936), p. 148.<\/p>\n
This statement reflects Erasmus’ idealistic understanding of politics as the greatest writer among the\u00a0Christian humanists.\u00a0 Erasmus taught that a prince could rule most justly by following the teachings of Christ.\u00a0 The next paragraph in this very text demonstrates how Christian humanists combined Christian and classical ideas:<\/p>\n
“The great mass of people are swayed by false opinions and are no different from those in Plato’s cave, who took the empty shadows as the real things.\u00a0 It is the part of a good prince to admire none of the things that the common people consider of great consequence, but to judge all things on their own merits as ‘good’ or ‘bad.’\u00a0 But nothing is truly ‘bad’ unless joined with base infamy.\u00a0 Nothing is really ‘good’ unless associated with moral integrity.” Ibid.<\/p>\n
Similar to\u00a0Plato’s philosopher-kings, the virtuous prince must see beyond what the common people understand\u00a0as\u00a0important.\u00a0 Simply put, Moral integrity is the most significant characteristic of a leader.\u00a0 As we read in the\u00a0following paragraph:<\/p>\n
“Therefore, the tutor should first see that his pupil loves and honors virtue as the finest quality of all, the most felicitous, the most fitting of\u00a0a prince; and that\u00a0he loathes and\u00a0shuns moral turpitude as the foulest and most terrible of things.\u00a0 Lest the young prince\u00a0be accustomed to regard riches as an indispensable necessity, to be gained by right or wrong, he should learn that those are not true honors which are commonly acclaimed as such.\u00a0 True honor is that which follows on virtue and right action of its own will.\u00a0 The less affected it is, the more it\u00a0redounds to fame.\u00a0 The low pleasures\u00a0of the\u00a0people are so far beneath a prince, especially a Christian prince, that they hardly become any man.”Ibid.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
“Before all else the story of Christ must be firmly rooted in the mind of the prince.\u00a0 He should drink deeply of His teachings, gathered in handy texts, and then later from those very fountains themselves, whence he may drink … Continue reading