Machiavelli
The Prince
11 Of
Ecclesiastical Principalities
It
now remains only to us to speak of ecclesiastical principalities, with
regard to which the difficulties lie wholly before they are possessed.
They are acquired either by ability or by fortune; but are maintained
without either, for they are sustained by ancient religious customs, which
are so powerful and of such quality, that they keep their princes in power
in whatever manner they proceed and live. These princes alone have states
without defending them, have subjects without governing them, and their
states, not being defended, are not taken from them their subjects not
being governed do not resent it, and neither think nor are capable of
alienating themselves from them. Only these principalities, therefore, are
secure and happy. But as they are upheld by higher causes, which the human
mind cannot attain to, I will abstain from speaking of them; for being
exalted and maintained by God, it would be the work of a presumptuous and
foolish man to discuss them. However, I might be asked how it has come
about that the Church has reached such great temporal power, when,
previous to Alexander VI, the Italian potentates—and not merely the
really powerful ones, but every lord or baron, however
insignificant—held it in slight esteem as regards temporal power;
whereas now it is dreaded by a king of France, whom it has been able to
drive out of Italy, and has also been able to ruin the Venetians.
Therefore, although this is well-known, I do not think it superfluous to
call it to mind.
Before
Charles, King of France, came into Italy, this country was under the rule
of the Pope, the Venetians, the King of Naples, the Duke of Milan, and the
Florentines. These potentates had to have two chief cares: one, that no
foreigner should enter Italy by force of arms, the other that none of the
existing governments should extend its dominions. Those chiefly to be
watched were the Pope and the Venetians. To keep back the Venetians
required the alliance of all the others, as in the defence of Ferrara, and
to keep down the Pope they made use of the Roman barons. These were
divided into two factions, the Orsini and the Colonna, and as there was
constant quarreling between them, and they were constantly under arms,
before the eyes of the Pope, they kept the papacy weak and infirm. And
although there arose now and then a resolute Pope like Sextus, yet his
fortune or ability was never able to liberate him from these evils. The
shortness of their life was the reason of this, for in the course of ten
years which, as a general rule, a Pope lived, he had great difficulty in
suppressing even one of the factions, and if, for example, a Pope had
almost put down the Colonna, a new Pope would succeed who was hostile to
the Orsini, which caused the Colonna to spring up again, and he was not in
time to suppress them.
This caused
the temporal power of the Pope to be of little esteem in Italy. Then arose
Alexander VI who, of all the pontiffs who have ever reigned, best showed
how a Pope might prevail both by money and by force. With Duke Valentine
as his instrument, and seizing the opportunity of the French invasion, he
did all that I have previously described in speaking of the actions of the
duke. And although his object was to aggrandize not the Church but the
duke, what he did resulted in the aggrandizement of the Church, which
after the death of the duke became the heir of his labours. Then came Pope
Julius, who found the Church powerful, possessing all Romagna, all the
Roman barons suppressed, and the factions destroyed by the severity of
Alexander. He also found the way open for accumulating wealth in ways
never used before the time of Alexander. These measures were not only
followed by Julius, but increased the resolved to gain Bologna, put down
the Venetians and drive the French from Italy, in all which enterprises he
was successful. He merits the greater praise, as he did everything to
increase the power of the Church and not of any private person. He also
kept the Orsini and Colonna parties in the condition in which he found
them, and although there were some leaders among them who might have made
changes, there were two things that kept them steady: one, the greatness
of the Church, which they dreaded; the other, the fact that they had no
cardinals, who are the origin of the tumults among them. For these parties
are never at rest when they have cardinals, for these stir up the parties
both within Rome and outside, and the barons are forced to defend them.
Thus from the ambitions of prelates arise the discords and tumults among
the barons. His holiness, Pope Leo X, therefore, has found the pontificate
in a very powerful condition, from which it is hoped that as those Popes
made it great by force of arms, so he through his goodness and infinite
other virtues will make it both great and venerated.