§ 221. The Origin of the Church and the State

Christian doctrine teaches that God Himself founded the Church; but it likewise teaches that the state, too, has its origin in the design of God’s providence for the world. Both, then—the Church and the state—are divine institutions, and their purpose is the eternal and the temporal good of man.

Of the divine institution of the Church, Christian dogmatics speaks. It teaches us that Christ founded the Church, that she is a spiritual kingdom, that she is limited neither by time nor by place, that her purpose is the salvation of all people and their union with God, and that, in accordance with that purpose of hers, she disposes also of her own particular means, which are in every respect different from the means at the disposal of the secular power.[1] This dogmatic teaching about the Church, canon law accepts as an accomplished fact, and upon it develops the legal significance of the Church in the world. And just as Christian doctrine is complete in this, so it is complete also in its teaching about the state and about state authority.

God is not the creator of man alone, but is the creator of society as well; He implanted in the very nature of man a love for social life, He implanted in man the striving to unite with other people. In the creation of the woman, whom God gave as a companion to the first man, we already find the first act in God’s design for society. The bond between husband and wife, marriage, was the basis of the first social community, was the basis of the family. But that first family could not remain confined to the narrow circle of the husband and wife themselves and their immediate descendants, but had by nature to expand beyond the bounds of the family and gradually form itself into a great communal unit; and just as man was created in the image of God, and just as the chief purpose of the first man was to glorify his Creator, so too the chief purpose of the society that arose from that man is the very same; and this constitutes, already by the law of nature, the greatest need of society, the indispensable striving of all people. This striving of man’s, which God had implanted in his heart, was transformed, as a consequence of man’s fall, into a striving that, in God’s place, man should glorify himself. Thereby the original order of society was already disturbed, and man found himself left to himself and to his own fate. Society departed from the path God had marked out for it, and went along the path shown to it by its own limited reason, rushing toward an undetermined goal, exposed to the accidents of time. But God, by His eternal wisdom and boundless goodness, did not wish to leave man and society in such an undetermined state, but, taking pity on His creature, promised to send a Redeemer “when the times should be fulfilled”; and meanwhile, in place of the original constitution, He had already established, in the first family, the authority of the husband over the wife, and thereby the authority of the head of the family over all the other members of the family. By this, already immediately after man’s fall, and at the very beginning of social life in the world, the supreme authority of one over the rest was set in place, and the self-will of individuals was bounded by the will of the supreme authority of one. From the family, man’s rule begins to hold sway in the world—to rule by God’s express command, and in the name of God’s authority. The first family, then, laid the foundation of the state, having given to the state those very properties which it itself had received and possessed. And just as the constitution of the family rests on human law and is governed by human laws, while the supreme authority within it is exercised, by God’s command, by the head of the family, so too the state, which arose from the family, is in its constitution governed by human laws; but so that order might reign in that constitution of the state, so that the human laws on which that constitution rests might be directed toward the purpose marked out by God’s providence, God granted, as once to the first head of the family, so also to the state authority, the power—with a hand armed with the sword of justice and right—to lead people, in His name, along the good path.

What we have now said is a truth to which Holy Scripture, of both the Old and the New Testament, bears witness. “Let the living know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men, and gives it to whom He will,” says God by the mouth of the prophet Daniel.[2] “By me kings reign, and rulers decree justice; by me princes rule, and nobles, all the judges of the earth.”[3] “Hear therefore, O kings, and understand; learn, all you judges of the earth, that power is given you by the Lord, and might by the Most High.”[4] So, and to this effect, speaks the Holy Scripture of the Old Testament as well, pointing us to God, who set a ruler over every nation, of which Israel is a part.[5] And what the Old Testament Scripture teaches us here, Jesus Christ confirmed by His teaching and by His life; His apostles confirmed it; the Christian Church of all ages has confirmed it. Christ, Lord of heaven and earth, submits Himself to the authority of Pilate, for He acknowledges that the authority which Pilate exercises, he exercises because it has been given him by God: “You would have no power at all against me, except it were given you from above,” Christ answered Pilate, when the latter pointed to his own authority.[6] This thought of eternal truth the great apostle to the nations, Paul, developed in detail in his epistles. He writes to the Romans: “Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? Do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same: for he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, an avenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience’ sake.”[7] In the same sense the apostle Peter, too, writes in his first epistle: “Be subject to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme, or to governors, as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of them that do well; for so is the will of God.”[8] God, then, is the founder of every earthly kingdom, and for this reason every man, without exception, is obliged to submit to the state authority set over him, whatever the form and constitution of that authority may be. The purpose of every legislation, by its basic ordinance, consists in this, that justice should reign everywhere, and hence the establishment of that justice among people, in everything and in every matter, constitutes the first task of those to whom God has entrusted the government of earthly kingdoms. This teaching of the New Testament Scripture is the more significant in that the state authority of which Paul speaks was not Christian but heathen, and persecuted everyone who would not bow down to the pagan gods—and yet Scripture acknowledges that it is of God, and teaches Christians to submit to it, “for there is no power but of God, and the powers that be are ordained of God.” The Fathers of the Church, the interpreters of God’s word, proclaim with one voice the divine institution of state authority;[9] and among them Augustine expressly asserts that all earthly states are established by God’s providence.[10] This thought has entered into the human consciousness of all ages, and has permeated all rulers, past and present, who regard themselves as ruling “by the grace of God.” Acknowledging the divine institution of state authority, the Church prays every day, in her prayers, for the ruler of the country in question, as for God’s anointed, and at every Liturgy sets aside a special portion for his health and salvation.[11] And in her canonical ordinances she subjects both the faithful and the members of the clergy to the gravest spiritual penalties for any insult offered to God’s anointed.[12]

From what we have so far set out, the teaching of the Christian Church about the state and state authority is clear. Her divine institution is acknowledged, complete obedience to the state authority is proclaimed and enjoined, and every disobedience toward it, even the smallest, is condemned, without regard to the belief professed by the holder of that authority. This ordinance of the Church concerning obedience to state authority is general, and accordingly a breach of that obedience by Christian subjects, on the ground that the ruler does not profess their faith, can never, and in no case, be justified. “All the powers that be are ordained of God,” and the Christian, precisely because they are of God, is obliged, by the teaching of his Church, to acknowledge them without objection and to submit to them.