[ No introduction written yet. ]
"The King Has No Peer"
The king has no peer in his kingdom, because thus he would lose his headship, since an equal has no command over his equal. Again, and all the more strongly, he ought not to have a superior, nor to have anyone more powerful, because thus he would be inferior to his own subjects, and inferiors cannot be equal to the more powerful. Moreover, the king ought not be under man, but under God and under the law, because the law makes the king. Therefore let the king attribute to the law what the law has attributed to him, namely, domination and power. For there is no king where will rules and not law. And that he ought to be under the law, since he is the vicar of God, appears evidently through his likeness to Jesus Christ, Whose place he occupies on earth. Because the true mercy of God, when many ways were available to Him for the recovery of the human race, ineffably chose the most preferable way by which He would use not the force of power but the reason of justice for the destruction of the devil's work. And thus He wished to be under the law, that He might redeem those who were under the law. For He did not wish to use force, but judgment....
Neither the judges nor private persons can or ought to dispute about royal charters and the deeds of kings; nor, if some doubt arise in regard to them, can they interpret it. Also, in doubtful or obscure matters, or if any expression may contain two meanings, the interpretation and wish of the lord king ought to be awaited, since interpretation belongs to him whose it is to establish. And even if it is altogether false because of an erasure or because the seal affixed is forged, it is better and safer that the judgement proceed in the presence of the king himself. The king has a superior, namely, God. Likewise the law, through which he was made king. Likewise his court, namely, the counts and barons, because the counts are called, as it were, the partners of the king, and he who has a partner has a master. And therefore, if the king be without a bridle, that is without law, they ought to put a bridle on him, unless they themselves are, with the king, without a bridle.
Moreover, the king was created and chosen for this: that he should make justice for all, and that in him the Lord should sit, and that he himself should decide his judgment, and that he should sustain and defend what he has justly judged, because if there were no one to make justice peace could easily be wiped out, and it would be vain to establish laws and to do justice if there were no one to protect the laws. Moreover, since the king is vicar of God on earth, he ought to separate right from unright, fair from unfair, that all those who are subjected to him may live honestly and that no one may injure another, and to each may be rendered by a just award what is his own. But he ought to surpass all his subjects in power. Moreover, he ought to have no peer, still less a superior, especially in the administration of justice, that it may be said of him, "Our great lord, and his great virtue." Although in the receiving of justice he may be compared to the least person of his kingdom, although he excels all in power, yet since the heart of the king ought to be in the hand of God, lest his power be unbridled let him put on the bridle of temperance and the reins of moderation, lest if it be unbridled he be drawn towards injustice. For the king, since he is minister and vicar of God, can do nothing on earth save only that which is according to law, nor is this contrary to the saying that "what pleases the prince has the force of law"... that is, not what is rashly presumed to be the king's will but what has been duly defined with the counsel of his magnates, the king warranting its authority after deliberation and discussion upon it. Therefore his power is of right and not of unright, and since he is the author of right there ought not to be born occasion of unrights thence whence rights are born; and he who by virtue of his office must prohibit unright to others ought not to commit it himself.... Therefore the king ought to exercise the power of right as God's vicar and minister on earth because that power is from God above; but the power of unright is from the Devil and not from God, and the king will be the minister of that one of the two whose works he does. Therefore when he does justice he is the vicar of the Eternal King, but he is the Devil's minister when he falls into injustice. For a king (rex) is so called from ruling (regendo) well and not from reigning, because when he rules well he is a king, but he is a tyrant when he oppresses with violent domination the people entrusted to him. Therefore, let him temper his power by law, which is the bridle of power, that he may live according to the laws, since a human law has stated that laws bind the lawgiver himself....
