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.
2 Pope Leo X was the Cardinal de'
Medici.
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by Nicolo Machiavelli
Chapter X
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