The Pilgrim City (continued)
THE PILGRIM CITY
behaviour disturb her peace and compromise her spiritual unanimity. His stance here, as it was in relation to our duty to obey the State, is more strictly religious than political. In the Bible, indeed, there are no instances of the apostles calling upon the State for help; but since the coming of Christ, the prophecy of the psalm has been fulfilled: 'Be wise now, therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Serve the lord with fear.' Once again, then, we note that rulers are obliged to serve the Church not insofar as they are rulers per se, but insofar as they are rulers who also happen to be Christians [173; 177-178]. Their duty to do so is not an indicator of the subjection of temporal rulers to the Church. It is the particular form, appropriate to their station in life, of the duty that we all have to serve the Church according to our abilities and opportunities. 'For a man serves God in one way insofar as he is a man, and in another way insofar as he is also a king. Insofar as he is a man, he serves Him by living faithfully; but insofar as he is also a king, he serves Him by enforcing with suitable rigour laws which command what is righteous and punish the reverse' [178].
In sum: Augustine's thinking on the subject of Church and State, and hence his bequest to the papalist writers of the middle ages, centres upon three broad principles; although these principles are expressed ad hoc and sometimes loosely and inconsistently. They are:
1. That politics is essentially a base and sin-laden activity, made necessary by the fact that man has estranged himself from God;
2. That the temporal and spiritual powers are separate, but that spiritual matters are inherently superior to temporal ones and take precedence over them in the event of conflict;
3. That the Church may call upon the secular authorities of the Christian State to deploy material force on her behalf, and that those authorities have a corresponding duty to respond: a duty which is, however, more properly religious than political. This duty extends not merely to defending the Church against enemies and criminals, but to coercing the doctrinally unsound; al-
23 Psalm 2:10-11.