Baptized Kings

Explaining how spiritual lordship exceeds natural, Giles of Rome argues that the church makes kings through baptism and penance:

“Though the sacrament of baptism, which is the direct remedy against original sin, and through the sacrament of penance, which is the remedy against actual sin, you will be made a worthy lord and a worthy prince and possessor of things. And since these sacraments are not conferred except in the church and through the church, no one is made a worthy lord or a worthy prince or possessor of things except under the church and through the church. For no one can receive baptism unless he desires to subject himself to the church and to be a son of the church” (from that treasure-trove edited by O’Donovan and O’Donovan, From Irenaeus to Grotius: A Sourcebook in Christian Political Thought , 369).

Not only kings, but property owners are properly so only by baptism. Giles envisions an economy as well as a policy encompassed by the sacramental life of the church.