The Reign of Christ. Book Two. Chapter Fifty Three: Prefects Must Be Appointed for Skills and Labor

By Martin Bucer

16th Century, Protestant, Reformed, Western Christian

In Establishment, Magisterial Reformation, Work

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For this procedure of assigning citizens to definite virtuous and whole lives, whether philosophical or mechanical, and for their assignment to work useful to the commonwealth, it will be necessary to appoint guardians and overseers in charge of individual crafts and classes of skilled and unskilled laborers in order to make sure that everyone applies himself seriously to the skill or work for which he has been designated, either in order to learn it or to practice it. And in case any persons are found to have been negligent in their duty, if they were enrolled in the more liberal disciplines, either in the service of religion or that of the state, they should be reassigned to baser skills and tasks. Drones should not be tolerated in any class of citizens, least of all in the rank of clerics and of men of letters, who should outshine the other citizens also as examples of industry. (Plato, Republic III, 415 b-c.)

Source: Martin Bucer, De Regno Christi