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The Medieval Church · c. 855
On Christian Rulers
De Rectoribus Christianis
Sedulius Scottus · 9th century
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What it is
Advice to a king in alternating prose and verse: choose counsellors well, tax lightly, protect churches, and remember that a ruler's private vices become public disasters.
Why it lasted
A leading example of the mirror of princes, written by an Irish scholar working in the Frankish empire.
Where to read it
Public domain and free to read in full, though not held here. The archives below have it.
These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.
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