THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN
VOLUME 5
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
Jesus in the region of Caesarea Philippi. (cont.) Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 16
- Chapter 18 -
The legal dispute of Cyrenius and Roklus.
After that Roklus turns again to Cyrenius and says, "Lord, lord, lord, where is Mark, now our lord and master so that we can pay homage to him?"
2
Cyrenius says, "There is no need for that because homage full of empty words is of no use to him and he does not need other treasures, as he has more than enough of those.
3
The best homage to him will be to come to him with honest and open hearts at all times and bring forward your concerns; he will listen to you and set everything right! However, every lie discovered instantly by his perspicacity, he will punish fiercely and unrelentingly! Because it is the emperor's and also my serious wish to ban lies and deceit from the entire empire and only let pure truth paired with equally pure and unselfish love rule over all people far and wide that belong to Rome; only under the scepter of truth and love can people live truly happy. And who knows if it will not please me to introduce in the Roman Empire the very wise governance maxims of the northern king; I found them to be very wise and appropriate for the true, brotherly prosperity of the people of a great empire.
4
By means of such wise limitations truth and love must become second, true, and better nature of the people in a country! In my current opinion nothing abets lies, deceit, and selfishness more than unrestricted gaining. A wise restriction of this true father of lies, deceit, selfishness, pride, desire to rule, and mean remorselessness is truly priceless and I will soon send this opinion to the emperor for scrutiny. In the mean time I will introduce this Nordic way of governance at least in my sovereign governance area as soon as possible because it is truly as wise as if given by a god!"
5
Roklus says, "It is not quite unwise where it has been in place, even if just roughly, for many hundreds of years; but wanting to introducing it here in these lands leased to all sorts of noblemen will not be done so easily. A lot can be done with absolute power, but not quite everything because an emperor cannot annul overnight contracts he made with noblemen that are not completely powerless, but as a right given and set by him has to respect them until their stipulated (agreed upon) duration expires or the contracting party has not kept the stipulated obligations, either maliciously or due to ineptitude, which according to the type of the contract made annuls it either entirely or at least in part! Thus, as long as the emperor has leased the lands to certain noblemen and these have the right to make laws for the subjects on their lands, since they are paying a high enough price for it, the emperor must respect that set right. In a certain way we all live under Roman law if we commit a crime against the state, which is truly not the case with us; in all other respects we live under the laws of a particular lease holding nobleman, who during the stipulated lease period has to fully protect us from the despotic attacks of the emperor.
6
You know, high lord, lord, lord, we know our position very well and do not need any comment regarding it! We know our obligations towards Rome and towards our noblemen. Before claiming a right from you, we go to our nobleman. If he sends us to Rome, only then shall we come to you. That is why we think that for the time being it will not be so easy to introduce the Nordic king's wise governance norm in whole Palestine!"
7
Cyrenius says, now in a sort of excitement, "You are right that the stipulations of a contract have to be adhered to; but you have not thought about one thing, namely that in every land leasing contract the emperor has knowingly always reserved the right to unconditionally and immediately annul the contract if in his opinion he finds that necessary for the benefit of the regime. In such cases the leaseholder can only beseech a one-year compensation from the emperor, and from the moment of the announcement of this the regiment of the formerly leased land becomes subject to the emperor's will, and everyone has to comply with his laws. The leaseholder has the right, mercifully granted to him, to present the emperor with the notion that if he may keep his lease, he would renounce every right to make laws and would continue his governance according to the given imperial laws, whereupon the emperor declares the leasing contract as further valid if he so chooses; coercion is not possibly conceivable here, but the pure, freest mercy of the absolute ruler.
8
For Palestine even I have the same authority over every leaseholder and can instantly annul every lease! Therefore you are very mistaken if you think that the emperor will forgo any right and by that dig his own grave. Oh, every monarch is certainly wise enough not to give anyone in his empire a right that, if need be, he could not completely revoke the next moment just through his word!
9
An emperor can do anything he wants to do! He only cannot perform miracles and create a world; other than that he can achieve anything, abolish old laws and make new ones in return, - yes, he can even destroy the old gods along with their numerous temples and in return build a new and glorious temple for the one true God and no one will be allowed to say to him, 'Lord, lord, lord, what are you doing?!' And so he can proclaim the laws of the wise king in his whole empire as early as tomorrow. Who would want to and be able to oppose that, without being reached by the anger of the powerful emperor?!"