We should be especially impressed by the saintly kings in the Church Triumphant.  Although they became saints through fighting and conquering the temptations that we all must overcome, they did it under much more difficult circumstances. 

We ordinary “little guys” must, for example, fight gluttony.  But that vice is more difficult to fight when a man is king – having a king’s ability to obtain the most tempting delicacies.

Similarly, we ordinary “little guys” must fight impurity.  But that vice is more difficult to fight when a man is a king – having the ability to satisfy his unrestrained passions, even going to the extremes of King Henry the Eighth of England who founded the Anglican sect in his bedroom (one might say) because he was such a slave to lust.

We must fight pride, too.  As difficult as it is for us unimportant “nobodies” to fight pride, how much more difficult it is for a king to conquer pride when there are countless persons “lining up” to flatter him!

The children’s author, A.A. Milne, touches upon this flattery given to kings, in his poem, Teddy Bear, when he recounts how Winnie the Pooh came across the picture of a fat king who was flattered by his subjects.  Here is the excerpt from the poem:

One night it happened that [Pooh] took

A peep at an old picture-book,

Wherein he came across by chance

The picture of a King of France

 

(A stoutish man) and, down below,

These words: “King Louis So and So,

Nicknamed ‘The Handsome!’” There he sat,

And (think of it!) the man was fat!

 

Teddy Bear, by A.A. Milne

How difficult it must be for a king to learn the truth when his subjects are prone to conceal the truth from him and to flatter him!  Of course, the king’s own inclinations toward pride (and other vices) would be so quick to agree with that flattery.  Pride is so “intoxicating”, and what spiritual peril there is when a man is a king!

The above quote from Milne not only depicts a king who encounters “intoxicating” flattery which endangers the king’s soul by fostering pride, but this quote also shows the difficulty of acquiring the virtue of temperance under royal circumstances! 

On a more serious note (than Winnie the Pooh), Our Lord shows the same truth (quoted below), viz.,  that a king’s subjects flatter him and foster his pride.

The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and they that have power over them, are called beneficent.

St. Luke’s Gospel, 22:25.

Of course, not all kings are really beneficent (and probably few of them are).[1]  Nor does Our Lord say that they are beneficent.  What Our Lord is stating is that a person (such as a king) who has power over his people is flattered by them.  They give him compliments like “beneficent” to try to gain his favor or at least to avoid his disfavor.

It is already hard for us to objectively discern the truth about ourselves and about our own character.  How much more difficult is this same discernment for a man who is a king and is flattered by his subjects!

Further, being a king requires that he wield enormous power as part of his duty of state.  This might feel exhilarating to the king (or anyone) but it is spiritually hazardous.  For example, Queen Elizabeth I of England so craved royal power that she sold her soul in exchange for that power.  Here is what St. Alphonsus de Liguori said about her when he used her as a lesson:

A certain queen, blinded by the ambition of being a sovereign, said one day: “If the Lord gives me a reign of forty years, I shall renounce Paradise.” The unhappy queen reigned for forty years; but now that she is in another world, she cannot but be grieved at having made such a renunciation.  Oh! how great must be her anguish at the thought of having lost the kingdom of Paradise for the sake of a reign of forty years, full of troubles, of crosses, and of fears![2]

Just as it was shown above that a king has greater temptations to gluttony, lust, pride and ambition, so does he, likewise, to other sins.  A king’s circumstances place him in a much more difficult spiritual battle than ours.  We “little guys” find the allurements of all of those vices hard enough to fight, but how much harder do kings find the spiritual warfare in this life – with their greater temptations to sin! 

With all of this in mind, we see that we should greatly admire the kings who have fought the good fight and won!  Truly, they exemplify the man praised here:

Blessed is the rich man that is found without blemish: and that hath not gone after gold, nor put his trust in money nor in treasures.  Who is he, and we will praise him? for he hath done wonderful things in his life.  Who hath been tried thereby, and made perfect, he shall have glory everlasting.  He that could have transgressed, and hath not transgressed: and could do evil things, and hath not done them: therefore, are his goods established in the Lord, and all the church of the saints shall declare his alms.

Ecclesiasticus, 31:8-11.

With all of the moral dangers of being a king, truly a saintly king “hath done wonderful things in his life”!  He is worthy of our great admiration!

Let us have a greater appreciation for these saintly kings!  Let us also be more grateful that we are only insignificant “little guys” who are not assaulted by temptations as severe as those suffered by kings!