  However, since Scripture does have a positive socio-political function in promoting justice and charity, one might wonder how much authority the clergy has in public matters. Spinoza’s response is that “authority in sacred matters belongs wholly to the sovereign powers ” (Ch.  19, title). Like Hobbes, he embraces the Erastian position that religious law is realized through the will of the civil authority (TTP, Ch. 19). The crux of the single authority thesis is this: the sovereign is the sole civil and religious authority. Indeed, because piety consists in practicing justice and obedience, and because there is no standard of justice other than the will of the sovereign (TTP 19, 239ff; EIVP37S2), “it is also the duty of the sovereign authority alone to lay down how a person should behave with piety towards their neighbor, that is, to determine how one is obliged to obey God” (TTP 19, 242–3). The obvious, yet important, implication of the single authority thesis is that clerics are at best spiritual advisors with no real claim to political power. The problem of dual allegiances (divine and civil) is overcome, since the two authorities converge in the form of the sovereign.