THE PRINCE
by Nicolo Machiavelli
Translated by W. K. Marriott
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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 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, 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. (Note
1)
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. (Note
2)
Before Charles, King of France,
passed into Italy, 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 Colonna, 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 [IV], 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 pope should
almost destroy the Colonna, 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. (Note
3)
Alexander VI 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. (Note
4)
Pope Julius came afterwards and
found the Church strong, possessing all the Romagna, the barons of
Rome reduced to impotence, and, through the chastisements 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 Colonna 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 Leo 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. (Note 5)
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