12. The fields, and the whole soil, and, if it can be managed, the
houses should be public property, that is, the property of him, who
holds the right of the commonwealth: and let him let them at a yearly
rent to the citizens, whether townsmen or countrymen, and with this
exception let them all be free or exempt from every kind of taxation in
time of peace. And of this rent a part is to be applied to the defences
of the state, a part to the king's private use. For it is necessary in
time of peace to fortify cities against war, and also to have ready
ships and other munitions of war.
13. After the selection of the king from one of the clans, none are to
be held noble, but his descendants, who are therefore to be
distinguished by royal insignia from their own and the other clans.
14. Those male nobles, who are the reigning king's collaterals, and
stand to him in the third or fourth degree of consanguinity, must not
marry, and any children they may have had, are to be accounted bastards,
and unworthy of any dignity, nor may they be recognized as heirs to
their parents, whose goods must revert to the king.
15. Moreover the king's counsellors, who are next to him in dignity,
must be numerous, and chosen out of the citizens only; that is
(supposing there to be no more than six hundred clans) from every clan
three or four or five, who will form together one section of this
council; and not for life, but for three, four, or five years, so that
every year a third, fourth, or fifth part may be replaced by selection,
in which selection it must be observed as a first condition, that out of
every clan at least one counsellor chosen be a jurist.
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