Instrumentum

Instrumentum domesticum

In the essay Corban we mention that " There seems to be some archeological confusion about Corban as to it being catalogued under 'Inscriptions of a religious and public character’ or an "Instrumentum domesticum'."

"Instrumentum domesticum" refers to instruments, tools, and other artifacts intended for ordinary and domestic use (as opposed, for instance, to objects with religious, ceremonial, or monumental purposes). While, an Instrumentum regni is a Latin phrase that literally means "instrument of monarchy". Therefore it refers to an "instrument of government".

Of course in the kingdom of God the king is the head of each house and the queen is his spouse. In the great Domestic Relation of Husband and Wife the potestas of the Family includes the imperium.

It may have been inspired by Tacitus who said, "No better instrument of good government than being good friends".

Greek and Roman saw their relations with the gods in political and social terms. Despised a man's obsessive fear of the gods and the Romans called such fear of the gods superstitio which has been described as "mysterious" establishment of cause and effect. It is not that the cause and effect is nonrational but the rational is unknown. So what is called superstition is the fear of the unknown which in itself is not entirely unreasonable. The fear becomes " unjustified belief in supernatural or unseen causation leading to certain consequences of an action or event," when the fear takes on a life of its own in a habitual and obsessive manner.

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Ancient Greek historian Polybius described superstition in ancient Rome as an instrumentum regni used to maintaining the cohesion of the Empire.

Superstition has been described as the non-rational establishment of cause and effect.[210] Religion is more complex and is often composed of social institutions and has a moral aspect. Some religions may include superstitions or make use of magical thinking. Adherents of one religion sometimes think of other religions as superstition.[211][212] Some atheists, deists, and skeptics regard religious belief as superstition.

The Roman Catholic Church considers superstition to be sinful in the sense that it denotes a lack of trust in the divine providence of God and, as such, is a violation of the first of the Ten Commandments. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that superstition "in some sense represents a perverse excess of religion" (para. #2110). "Superstition," it says, "is a deviation of religious feeling and of the practices this feeling imposes. It can even affect the worship we offer the true God, e.g., when one attributes an importance in some way magical to certain practices otherwise lawful or necessary. To attribute the efficacy of prayers or of sacramental signs to their mere external performance, apart from the interior dispositions that they demand is to fall into superstition. Cf. Matthew 23:16–22" (para. #2111)

Instrumentum regni

Proverbs 6 warns us about being a surety for a friend in verse 1 "My son, if thou be surety for thy friend, [if] thou hast stricken thy hand with a stranger,"The bondage of Egypt was when the people became a surety of Pharaoh because the people ate at his table to provide them with their welfare according to his terms.

Instrumentum regni is used to express the exploitation of religion by State polity as a means of controlling the masses by "legal charity". The Instrumentum regni is the result of dissolving the separation of Church and State which also dissolves the bands which are the social bonds of a free society.

Polybius, in The Histories, VI 56 he states:

"I believe that it is the very thing which among other peoples is an object of reproach, I mean superstition, which maintains the cohesion of the Roman State. These matters are clothed in such pomp and introduced to such an extent into their public and private life that nothing could exceed it, a fact which will surprise many.

My own opinion at least is that they have adopted this course for the sake of the common people. It is a course which perhaps would not have been necessary had it been possible to form a state composed of wise men, but as every multitude is fickle, full of lawless desires, unreasoned passion, and violent anger, the multitude must be held in by invisible terrors and suchlike pageantry. For this reason I think, not that the ancients acted rashly and at haphazard in introducing among the people notions concerning the gods and beliefs in the terrors of hell, but that the moderns are most rash and foolish in banishing such beliefs." — Polybius

Proverbs 1:21 She crieth in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates: in the city she uttereth her words, [saying],

For the State to gain power there would be no better way than show the people that you are the "bonos amicos" or good friend of the people by first spreading amongst them "dainties and gratuities". Those dainties of the rulers are the "legal charity" which is a snare.

The early Church and the early Christian community refused to apply to the government of the world, to the Instrumentum regni, for free bread or other benefits offered by rulers who called themselves Benefactors but who exercise authority one over the other because Christ forbid His disciples to do so.

Polybius saw the downfall of the republic a 150 years before the first Emperor of Rome and 175 years before the birth of Jesus Christ and John the Baptist.

Some concluded from his writings that he saw the use or at least the practice of religion at that time as a "superstition". There were those who reduced the wisdom of the ages to more mindless superstitions by unmooring the precepts from the metaphors and allegories of the wise. They believed in the symbols of the ancient stories rather than their wisdom.

Polybius used the term to described what was seen as a mysterious establishment of "cause and effect" many did not understand by reason nor revelation.

He saw this "superstition in ancient Rome" as an "instrumentum regni" a term used by Tacitus meaning "instrument of rulers". Tacitus said there is "No better instrument of good government than being good friends" used to express the exploitation of a form of legal religion by State as a means of controlling the masses and weaken them to achieve political power and control.

Public religion and legal charity could make the people dependent upon the State while the people clung to the symbols rather than the essence of its meaning.

Instrumentum regni is discussed in the book The Cambridge History of Communism: Volume 1, World Revolution and Socialism in One Country 1917–1941. Silvio Pons, Stephen A. Smith

Socialism is the religion you get when you have no pure religion.

Ni single church has been more influential in the driving of people into the arms of socialism than the Church of Constantine and its daughters.

INSTRUMENTUM LABORIS

They recognize "a sharp decline in population whose social and human consequences are not being adequately taken into account" and "the number of children born and raised in “regular” families is in sharp decline." but they fail to realize that their abandonment of Pure Religion is the root cause.

"In dialoguing with the State and the related public entities, the Church is called to offer real support for decent jobs, just wages and a fiscal policy favouring the family as well as programmes of assistance to families and children. In this regard, laws protecting the family in relation to work are frequently wanting, particularly those affecting working mothers. Moreover, civil support and involvement on behalf of the family provides the Church with an opportunity for working together. Networking in this area with organizations which pursue similar goals is equally wise and productive." Section 71

They have so long taught the people by their own neglect to depend upon the socialist state that they are unable to connect that "In certain cultures, parents might ask for the sacraments for their children because of superstition or to avoid their remaining unbaptized and without a religion. In other circumstances, they have recourse to their local priests simply to receive financial and educational support."

"Christians, therefore, share a responsibility in promoting legislation and structures which foster a positive approach towards birth."

“Parents are called, as Saint Augustine once said, not only to bring children into the world but also to bring them to God, so that through baptism they can be reborn as children of God and receive the gift of faith” Pope Francis (LF, 43).

"The responses, therefore, recommend that Catholic schools be fostered and supported by the entire ecclesial community. Such is the case especially where the State is overly intrusive in the educational process, seeking to usurp the family’s responsibility." section 136

"Cardinal Walter Brandmüller, one of the two remaining dubia cardinals, today issued a strong critique of the Vatican’s working document (Instrumentum Laboris) for the upcoming Pan-Amazon Synod, calling it “heretical” and an “apostasy” from Divine Revelation. He called upon Church leaders to “reject” it with “all decisiveness.”"

More than "¾ of the Instrumentum Laboris – have, at the most, marginally anything to do with the Gospels and the Church" and sees its rhetoric and thinking " corresponded to the National-Socialist blood-and-soil myth."