Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus is a Latin phrase, meaning "Let justice be done, though the world perish". This sentence was the motto of Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor (1556-1564), used it as his slogan and it became an important rule to control the nation. Probably originating from Johannes Jacobus Manlius's book Loci Communes (1563). A maxim meaning that a just decision should be made at whatever cost in terms of practical consequences. An alternative phrase is Fiat justitia ruat caelum with means “Let justice be done, though the heavens may fall.”