It is more serious to hurt Divine than temporal majesty.

Explanation

(English-origin maxim.) Offenses against God and the moral law are regarded as more grievous than offenses against temporal authority — the common law grades culpability by the dignity of the interest injured.

Where this applies

• A man commits perjury in court — an offense against temporal authority — but also blasphemes God while doing so; the common law treats the blasphemy as the graver offense.
• A thief who steals from a church is punished more severely than one who steals the same value from a merchant, because the offense against the sacred is weightier than the offense against the secular.
• A public official who violates both civil law and divine law in the same act faces the greater condemnation for the offense against God.