The Prince
by Nicolo Machiavelli
Chapter XI
Concerning ecclesiastical principalities
It only remains now to speak of ecclesiastical
principalities, touching which all difficulties are prior to
getting possession, because they are acquired either by
capacity or good fortune, and they can be held without
either; for they are sustained by the ancient ordinances of
religion, which are so all-powerful, and of such a character
that the principalities may be held no matter how their
princes behave and live. These princes alone have states and
do not defend them; and they have subjects and do not rule
them; and the states, although unguarded, are not taken from
them, and the subjects, although not ruled, do not care, and
they have neither the desire nor the ability to alienate
themselves. Such principalities only are secure and happy.
But being upheld by powers, to which the human mind cannot
reach, I shall speak no more of them, because, being exalted
and maintained by God, it would be the act of a presumptuous
and rash man to discuss them.
Nevertheless, if any one should ask of me how comes it
that the Church has attained such greatness in temporal
power, seeing that from Alexander backwards the Italian
potentates (not only those who have been called potentates,
but every baron and lord, though the smallest) have valued
the temporal power very slightly--yet now a king of France
trembles before it, and it has been able to drive him from
Italy, and to ruin the Venetians--although this may be very
manifest, it does not appear to me superfluous to recall it
in some measure to memory.
Before Charles, King of France, passed
into Italy,1
this country was under the dominion of the Pope, the
Venetians, the King of Naples, the Duke of Milan, and the
Florentines. These potentates had two principal anxieties:
the one, that no foreigner should enter Italy under arms;
the other, that none of themselves should seize more
territory. Those about whom there was the most anxiety were
the Pope and the Venetians. To restrain the Venetians the
union of all the others was necessary, as it was for the
defence of Ferrara; and to keep down the Pope they made use
of the barons of Rome, who, being divided into two factions,
Orsini and Colonnesi, had always a pretext for disorder,
and, standing with arms in their hands under the eyes of the
Pontiff, kept the pontificate weak and powerless. And
although there might arise sometimes a courageous pope, such
as Sixtus, yet neither fortune nor wisdom could rid him of
these annoyances. And the short life of a pope is also a
cause of weakness; for in the ten years, which is the
average life of a pope, he can with difficulty lower one of
the factions; and if, so to speak, one people should almost
destroy the Colonnesi, another would arise hostile to the
Orsini, who would support their opponents, and yet would not
have time to ruin the Orsini. This was the reason why the
temporal powers of the pope were little esteemed in
Italy.
Pope Julius came afterwards and found
the Church strong, possessing all the Romagna, the barons of
Rome reduced to impotence, and, through the chastisements of
Alexander, the factions wiped out; he also found the way
open to accumulate money in a manner such as had never been
practised before Alexander's time. Such things Julius not
only followed, but improved upon, and he intended to gain
Bologna, to ruin the Venetians, and to drive the French out
of Italy. All of these enterprises prospered with him, and
so much the more to his credit, inasmuch as he did
everything to strengthen the Church and not any private
person. He kept also the Orsini and Colonnesi factions
within the bounds in which he found them; and although there
was among them some mind to make disturbance, nevertheless
he held two things firm: the one, the greatness of the
Church, with which he terrified them; and the other, not
allowing them to have their own cardinals, who caused the
disorders among them. For whenever these factions have their
cardinals they do not remain quiet for long, because
cardinals foster the factions in Rome and out of it, and the
barons are compelled to support them, and thus from the
ambitions of prelates arise disorders and tumults among the
barons. For these reasons his Holiness Pope Leo2
found the pontificate most powerful, and it is to be hoped
that, if others made it great in arms, he will make it still
greater and more venerated by his goodness and infinite
other virtues.
1 Charles VIII invaded Italy in
1494. Alexander the Sixth arose afterwards, who of all the
pontiffs that have ever been showed how a pope with both
money and arms was able to prevail; and through the
instrumentality of the Duke Valentino, and by reason of the
entry of the French, he brought about all those things which
I have discussed above in the actions of the duke. And
although his intention was not to aggrandize the Church, but
the duke, nevertheless, what he did contributed to the
greatness of the Church, which, after his death and the ruin
of the duke, became the heir to all his labours.
[back]
2 Pope Leo X was the Cardinal de'
Medici. [back]
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by Nicolo Machiavelli
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