'THE PRINCE' OF MACHIAVELLI.
The Sincerity of Machiavelli in this Essay--Machiavellism--His
deliberate Formulation of a cynical political Theory--Analysis of the
Prince--Nine Conditions of Principalities--The Interest of the Conqueror
acknowledged as the sole Motive of his Policy--Critique of Louis
XII.--Feudal Monarchy and Oriental Despotism--Three Ways of subduing a
free City--Example of Pisa--Principalities founded by
Adventurers--Moses, Romulus, Cyrus, Theseus--Savonarola--Francesco
Sforza--Cesare Borgia--Machiavelli's personal Relation to
him--Machiavelli's Admiration of Cesare's Genius--A Sketch of Cesare's
Career--Concerning those who have attained to Sovereignty by
Crimes--Oliverotto da Fermo--The Uses of Cruelty--Messer Ramiro d'
Orco--The pessimistic Morality of Machiavelli--On the Faith of
Princes--Alexander VI.--The Policy of seeming virtuous and
honest--Absence of chivalrous Feeling in Italy--The Military System of a
powerful Prince--Criticism of Mercenaries and Auxiliaries--Necessity of
National Militia--The Art of War--Patriotic Conclusion of the
Treatise--Machiavelli and Savonarola.
After what has been already said about the circumstances under which
Machiavelli composed the _Principe_, we are justified in regarding it as
a sincere expression of his political philosophy. The intellect of its
author was eminently analytical and positive; he knew well how to
confine himself within the strictest limits of the subject he had
chosen. In the _Principe_ it was not his purpose to write a treatise of
morality, but to set forth with scientific accuracy the arts which he
considered necessary to the success of an absolute ruler. We may
therefore accept this essay as the most profound and lucid exposition of
the principles by which Italian statesmen were guided in the sixteenth
century. That Machiavellism existed before Machiavelli has now become a
truism. Gian Galeazzo Visconti, Louis XI. of France, Ferdinand the
Catholic, the Papal Curia, and the Venetian Council had systematically
pursued the policy laid down in the chapters of the _Prince_. But it is
no less true that Machiavelli was the first in modern times to formulate
a theory of government in which the interests of the ruler are alone
regarded, which assumes a separation between statecraft and morality,
which recognizes force and fraud among the legitimate means of attaining
high political ends, which makes success alone the test of conduct, and
which presupposes the corruption, venality, and baseness of mankind at
large. It was this which aroused the animosity of Europe against
Machiavelli, as soon as the Prince attained wide circulation. Nations
accustomed to the Monarchical rather than the Despotic form of
government resented the systematic exposition of an art of tyranny which
had long been practiced among the Italians. The people of the North,
whose moral fiber was still vigorous, and who retained their respect for
established religion, could not tolerate the cynicism with which
Machiavelli analyzed his subject from the merely intellectual point of
view. His name became a byword. 'Am I Machiavel?' says the host in the
_Merry Wives of Windsor_. Marlowe makes the ghost of the great
Florentine speak prologue to the _Jew of Malta_ thus--
I count religion but a childish toy,
And hold there is no sin but ignorance.
When the Counter-reformation had begun in Italy, and desperate efforts
were being made to check the speculative freedom of the Renaissance, the
_Principe_ was condemned by the Inquisition. Meanwhile it was whispered
that the Spanish princes, and the sons of Catherine de' Medici upon the
throne of France, conned its pages just as a manual of toxicology might
be studied by a Marquise de Brinvilliers. Machiavelli became the
scapegoat of great political crimes; and during the religious wars of
the sixteenth century there were not wanting fanatics who ascribed such
acts of atrocity as the Massacre of S. Bartholomew to his venomous
influence. Yet this book was really nothing more or less than a critical
compendium of facts respecting Italy, a highly condensed abstract of
political experience. In it as in a mirror we may study the lineaments
of the Italian despot who by adventure or by heritage succeeded to the
conduct of a kingdom. At the same time the political principles here
established are those which guided the deliberations of the Venetian
Council and the Papal Court, no less than the actions of a Sforza or a
Borgia upon the path to power. It is therefore a document of the very
highest value for the illustration of the Italian conscience in relation
to political morality.
The _Principe_ opens with the statement that all forms of government may
be classified as republics or as principalities. Of the latter some are
hereditary, others acquired. Of the principalities acquired in the
lifetime of the ruler some are wholly new, like Milan under Francesco
Sforza; others are added of hereditary kingdoms, like Naples to Spain.
Again, such acquired states have been previously accustomed either to
the rule of a single man or to self-government. Finally they are won
either with the conqueror's own or with borrowed armies, either by
fortune or by ability.[1] Thus nine conditions under which
principalities may be considered are established at the outset.
[1] The word Virtù, which I have translated ability, is almost
equivalent to the Greek [Greek: _aretê_], before it had
received a moral definition, or to the Roman Virtus. It is very
far, as will be gathered from the sequel of the _Principe_,
from denoting what we mean by Virtue.
The short chapter devoted by Machiavelli to hereditary principalities
may be passed over as comparatively unimportant. It is characteristic of
Italian politics that the only instance he adduces of this form of
government in Italy is the Duchy of Ferrara. States and cities were so
frequently shifting owners in the sixteenth century that the scientific
politician was justified in confining his attention to the method of
establishing and preserving principalities acquired by force. When he
passes to the consideration of this class, Machiavelli enters upon the
real subject of his essay. The first instance he discusses is that of a
prince who has conquered a dominion which he wishes to unite as firmly
as possible to his hereditary states. The new territory may either
belong to the same nationality and language as the old possession, or
may not. In the former case it will be enough to extinguish the whole
line of the ancient rulers, and to take care that neither the laws nor
the imposts of the province be materially altered. It will then in
course of time become by natural coalition part of the old kingdom. But
if the acquired dominion be separate in language, customs, and
traditions from the old, then arises a real difficulty for the
conqueror. In order to consolidate his empire and to accustom his new
subjects to his rule, Machiavelli recommends that he should either take
up his residence in the subjugated province, or else plant colonies
throughout it, but that he should by no means trust merely to garrisons.
'Colonies,' he remarks, 'are not costly to the prince, are more
faithful, and cause less offense to the subject states; those whom they
may injure, being poor and scattered, are prevented from doing mischief.
For it should be observed that men ought either to be caressed or
trampled out, seeing that small injuries may be avenged, whereas great
ones destroy the possibility of retaliation; and so the damage that has
to be inflicted ought to be such that it need involve no fear of
vengeance.' I quote this passage as a specimen of Machiavelli's direct
and scientific handling of the most inhuman necessities of statecraft,
as conceived by him.[1] He uses no hypocritical palliation to disguise
the egotism of the conqueror. He does not even pretend to take into
consideration any interests but those of the ambitious prince. He treats
humanity as though it were the marble out of which the political artist
should hew the form that pleased his fancy best. He calculates the exact
amount of oppression which will render a nation incapable of resistance,
and relieve the conqueror of trouble in his work of building up a
puissant kingdom for his own aggrandizement.
[1] It is fair to call attention to the strong expressions used
by Machiavelli in the _Discorsi_, lib. i. cap. 18 and cap. 26,
on the infamies and inhumanities to which the aspirant after
tyranny is condemned.
What Machiavelli says about mixed principalities is pointed by a
searching critique of the Italian policy of Louis XII. The French king
had well-known claims upon the Duchy of Milan, which the Venetians urged
him to make good. They proposed to unite forces and to divide the
conquered province of Lombardy. Machiavelli does not blame Louis for
accepting this offer and acting in concert with the Republic. His
mistakes began the moment after he had gained possession of Milan,
Genoa, and the majority of the North Italian cities. It was then his
true policy to balance Venice against Rome, to assume the protectorate
of the minor states, and to keep all dangerous rivals out of Italy.
Instead of acting thus, he put Romagna into the hands of the Pope and
divided Naples with the King of Spain. 'Louis indeed,' concludes
Machiavelli, 'was guilty of five capital errors: he destroyed the hopes
of his numerous and weak allies; he increased the power, already too
great, of the Papacy; he introduced a foreign potentate; he neglected to
reside in Italy; he founded no colonies for the maintenance of his
authority. If I am told that Louis acted thus imprudently toward
Alexander and Ferdinand in order to avoid a war, I answer that in each
case the mistake was as bad as any war could be in its results. If I am
reminded of his promise to the Pope, I reply that princes ought to know
how and when to break their faith, as I intend to prove. When I was at
Nantes, the Cardinal of Rouen told me that the Italians did not know how
to conduct a war: I retorted that the French did not understand
statecraft, or they would not have allowed the Church to gain so much
power in Italy. Experience showed that I was right; for the French
wrought their own ruin by aggrandizing the Papacy and introducing Spain
into the realm of Naples.'
This criticism contains the very essence of political sagacity. It lays
bare the secret of the failure of the French under Charles, under Louis,
and under Francis, to establish themselves in Italy. Expeditions of
parade, however brilliant, temporary conquests, cross alliances, and
bloody victories do not consolidate a kingdom. They upset states and
cause misery to nations: but their effects pass and leave the so-called
conquerors worse off than they were before. It was the doom of Italy to
be ravaged by these inconsequent marauders, who never attempted by
internal organization to found a substantial empire, until the mortmain
of the Spanish rule was laid upon the peninsula, and Austria gained by
marriages what France had failed to win by force of arms.
The fourth chapter of the _Principe_ is devoted to a parallel between
Monarchies and Despotisms which is chiefly interesting as showing that
Machiavelli appreciated the stability of kingdoms based upon feudal
foundations. France is chosen as the best example of the one and Turkey
of the other. 'The whole empire of the Turk is governed by one Lord; the
others are his servants; he divides his kingdom into satrapies, to which
he appoints different administrators, whom he changes about at pleasure.
But the King of France is placed in the center of a time-honored company
of lords, acknowledged as such by their subjects and loved by them; they
have their own prerogatives, nor can the king deprive them of these
without peril.' Hence it follows that the prince who has once
dispossessed a despot finds ready to his hand a machinery of government
and a band of subservient ministers; while he who may dethrone a monarch
has immediately to cope with a multitude of independent rulers, too
numerous to extinguish and too proud to conciliate.
Machiavelli now proceeds to discuss the best method of subjugating free
cities which have been acquired by a prince. There are three ways of
doing it, he says. 'The first is to destroy them utterly; the second, to
rule them in your own person; the third, to leave them their
constitution under the conduct of an oligarchy chosen by yourself, and
to be content with tribute. But, to speak the truth, the only safe way
is to ruin them.' This sounds very much like the advice which an old
spider might give to a young one: When you have caught a big fly, suck
him at once; suck out at any rate so much of his blood as may make him
powerless to break your web, and feed on him afterwards at leisure. Then
he goes on to give his reasons. 'He who becomes the master of a city
used to liberty, and does not destroy it, should be prepared to be
undone by it himself, because that name of Liberty, those ancient usages
of Freedom, which no length of years and no benefits can extinguish in
the nation's mind, which cannot be uprooted by any forethought or by any
pains, unless the citizens themselves be broken or dispersed, will
always be a rallying-point for revolution when an opportunity occurs.'
This terrific moral--through which, let it be said in justice to
Machiavelli, the enthusiasm of a patriot transpires--is pointed by the
example of Pisa. Pisa, held for a century beneath the heel of
Florence--her ports shut up, her fields abandoned to marsh fever, her
civic life extinguished, her arts and sciences crushed out--had yet not
been utterly ruined in the true sense of depopulation or dismemberment.
Therefore when Charles VIII. in 1494 entered Pisa, and Orlandi, the
orator, caught him by the royal mantle, and besought him to restore her
liberty, that word, the only word the crowd could catch in his petition,
inflamed a nation: the lions and lilies of Florence were erased from the
public buildings; the Marzocco was dashed from its column on the quay
into the Arno; and in a moment the dead republic awoke to life.
Therefore, argues Machiavelli, so tenacious is the vitality of a free
state that a prudent conqueror will extinguish it entirely or will rule
it in person with a rod of iron. This, be it remembered, is the advice
of Machiavelli, the the Florentine patriot, to Lorenzo de' Medici, the
Florentine tyrant, who has recently resumed his seat upon the neck of
that irrepressible republic.
Hitherto we have been considering how the state acquired by a conqueror
should be incorporated with his previous dominions. The next section of
Machiavelli's discourse is by far the most interesting. It treats of
principalities created by the arms, personal qualities, and good fortune
of adventurers. Italy alone in the sixteenth century furnished examples
of these tyrannies: consequently that portion of the _Principe_ which is
concerned with them has a special interest for students of the
Renaissance. Machiavelli begins with the founders of kingdoms who have
owed but little to fortune and have depended on their own forces. The
list he furnishes, when tested by modern notions of history, is to say
the least a curious one. It contains Moses, Cyrus, Romulus, and Theseus.
Having mentioned Moses first, Machiavelli proceeds to explain that,
though we have to regard him as the mere instrument of God's purpose,
yet the principles on which the other founders acted were 'not different
from those which Moses derived from so supreme a teacher.' What these
men severally owed to fortune was but the occasion for the display of
the greatness that was in them. Moses found the people of Israel
enslaved in Egypt. Romulus was an exile from Alba. Cyrus had to deal
with the Persian people tired of the empire of effeminate Medes. Theseus
undertook to unite the scattered elements of the Athenian nation. Thus
each of these founders had an opening provided for him, by making use of
which he was able to bring his illustrious qualities into play. The
achievement in each case was afterwards due solely to his own ability,
and the conquest which he made with difficulty was preserved with ease.
This exordium is not without practical importance, as will be seen when
we reach the application of the whole argument to the house of Medici at
the conclusion of the treatise. The initial obstacles which an innovator
has to overcome, meanwhile, are enormous. 'He has for passionate foes
all such as flourish under the old order, for friends those who might
flourish under the new; but these are lukewarm, partly from fear of
their opponents, on whose side are established law and right, partly
from the incredulity which prevents men from putting faith in what is
novel and untried.' It therefore becomes a matter of necessity that the
innovator should be backed up with force, that he should be in a
position to command and not obliged to sue for aid. This is the reason
why all the prophets who have used arms to enforce their revelations
have succeeded, and why those who have only trusted to their personal
ascendency have failed. Moses, of course, is an illustrious example of
the successful prophet. Savonarola is adduced as a notable instance of a
reformer 'who was ruined in his work of innovation as soon as the
multitude lost their faith in him, since he had no means of keeping
those who had believed firm, or of compelling faith from disbelievers.'
In this critique Machiavelli remains true to his positive and scientific
philosophy of human nature. He will not allow that there are other
permanent agencies in the world than the calculating ability of resolute
men and the might derived from physical forces.
Among the eminent examples of Italian founders who rose to princely
power by their own ability or by availing themselves of the advantages
which fortune put within their reach, Machiavelli selects Francesco
Sforza and Cesare Borgia. The former is a notable instance of success
achieved by pure _virtù_: 'Francesco, by using the right means, and by
his own singular ability, raised himself from the rank of a private man
to the Duchy of Milan, and maintained with ease the mastery he had
acquired with infinite pains.' Cesare, on the other hand, illustrates
both the strength and the weakness of _fortuna_: 'he acquired his
dominion by the aid derived from his father's position, and when he lost
that he also lost his power, notwithstanding that he used every endeavor
and did all that a prudent and able man ought to do in order to plant
himself firmly in those states which the arms and fortune of others had
placed at his disposal.' It is not necessary to dwell upon the career of
Francesco Sforza. Not he but Cesare Borgia is Machiavelli's hero in this
treatise, the example from which he deduces lessons both of imitation
and avoidance for the benefit of Lorenzo de' Medici. Lorenzo, it must be
remembered, like Cesare, would have the fortunes of the Church to start
with in that career of ambition to which Machiavelli incites him. Unlike
Francesco Sforza, he was no mere soldier of adventure, but a prince,
born in the purple, and bound to make use of those undefined advantages
which he derived from his position in Florence and from the countenance
of his uncle, the Pope. The Duke Valentino, therefore, who is at one and
the same time Machiavelli's ideal of prudence and courage in the conduct
of affairs, and also his chief instance of the instability of fortune,
supplies the philosopher with all he needed for the guidance of his
princely pupil. With the Duke Valentino Machiavelli had conversed on
terms of private intimacy, and there is no doubt that his imagination
had been dazzled by the brilliant intellectual abilities of this
consummate rogue. Dispatched in 1502 by the Florentine Republic to watch
the operations of Cesare at Imola, with secret instructions to offer the
Duke false promises in the hope of eliciting information that could be
relied upon, Machiavelli had enjoyed the rare pleasure of a game at
political écarté with the subtlest and most unscrupulous diplomatist of
his age. He had witnessed his terrible yet beneficial administration of
Romagna. He had been present at his murder of the chiefs of the Orsini
faction at Sinigaglia. Cesare had confided to him, or had pretended to
confide, his schemes of personal ambition, as well as the motives and
the measures of his secret policy. On the day of the election of Pope
Julius II. he had laid bare the whole of his past history before the
Florentine secretary, and had pointed out the single weakness of which
he felt himself to have been guilty. In these trials of skill and this
exchange of confidence it is impossible to say which of the two
gamesters may have been the more deceived. But Machiavelli felt that the
Borgia supplied him with a perfect specimen for the study of the arts of
statecraft; and so deep was the impression produced upon his mind, that
even after the utter failure of Cesare's designs he made him the hero of
the political romance before us. His artistic perception of the perfect
and the beautiful, both in unscrupulous conduct and in frigid
calculation of conflicting interests, was satisfied by the steady
selfishness, the persistent perfidy, the profound mistrust of men, the
self-command in the execution of perilous designs, the moderate and
deliberate employment of cruelty for definite ends, which he observed in
the young Duke, and which he has idealized in his own _Principe_. That
nature, as of a salamander adapted to its element of fire, as of 'a
resolute angel that delights in flame,' to which nothing was sacred,
which nothing could daunt, which never for a moment sacrificed reason to
passion, which was incapable of weakness or fatigue, had fascinated
Machiavelli's fancy. The moral qualities of the man, the base
foundations upon which he raised his power, the unutterable scandals of
his private life, and the hatred of all Christendom were as nothing in
the balance. Such considerations had, according to the conditions of his
subject, to be eliminated before he weighed the intellectual qualities
of the adventurer. 'If all the achievements of the Duke are
considered'--it is Machiavelli speaking--'it will be found that he built
up a great substructure for his future power; nor do I know what
precepts I could furnish to a prince in his commencement better than
such as are to be derived from his example.' It is thus that
Machiavelli, the citizen, addresses Lorenzo, the tyrant of Florence. He
says to him: Go thou and do likewise. And what, then, is this likewise?
Cesare, being a Pope's son, had nothing to look to but the influence of
his father. At first he designed to use this influence in the Church;
but after murdering his elder brother, he threw aside the Cardinal's
scarlet and proclaimed himself a political aspirant. His father could
not make him lord of any state, unless it were a portion of the
territory of the Church: and though, by creating, as he did, twelve
Cardinals in one day, he got the Sacred College to sanction his
investiture of the Duchy of Romagna, yet both Venice and Milan were
opposed to this scheme. Again there was a difficulty to be encountered
in the great baronial houses of Orsini and Colonna, who at that time
headed all the mercenary troops of Italy, and who, as Roman nobles, had
a natural hatred for the Pope. It was necessary to use their aid in the
acquisition of Cesare's principality. It was no less needful to humor
their animosity. Under these circumstances Alexander thought it best to
invite the French king into Italy, bargaining with Louis that he would
dissolve his marriage in return for protection awarded to Cesare. The
Colonna faction meanwhile was to be crushed, and the Orsini to be
flattered. Cesare, by the help of his French allies and the Orsini
captains, took possession of Imola and Faenza, and thence proceeded to
overrun Romagna. In this enterprise he succeeded to the full. Romagna
had been, from the earliest period of Italian history, a nest of petty
tyrants who governed badly and who kept no peace in their dominions.
Therefore the towns were but languid in their opposition to Cesare, and
were soon more than contented with a conqueror who introduced a good
system for the administration of justice. But now two difficulties
arose. The subjugation of Romagna had been effected by the help of the
French and the Orsini. Cesare as yet had formed no militia of his own,
and his allies were becoming suspicious. The Orsini had shown some
slackness at Faenza; and when Cesare proceeded to make himself master of
Urbino, and to place a foot in Tuscany by the capture of Piombino--which
conquests he completed during 1500 and 1501--Louis began to be jealous
of him. The problem for the Duke was how to disembarrass himself of the
two forces by which he had acquired a solid basis for his future
principality. His first move was to buy over the Cardinal d'Amboise,
whose influence in the French Court was supreme and thus to keep his
credit for awhile afloat with Louis. His second was to neutralize the
power of the Orsini, partly by pitting them against the Colonnesi, and
partly by superseding them in their command as captains. For the latter
purpose he became his own Condottiere, drawing to his standard by the
lure of splendid pay all the minor gentry of the Roman Campagna. Thus he
collected his own forces and was able to dispense with the unsafe aid of
mercenary troops. At this point of his career the Orsini, finding him
established in Romagna, in Urbino, and in part of Tuscany, while their
own strength was on the decline, determined if possible to check the
career of this formidable tyrant by assassination. The conspiracy known
as the 'Diet of La Magione' was the consequence. In this conjuration the
Cardinal Orsini, Paolo Orsini, his brother and head of the great house,
together with Vitellozzo Vitelli, lord of Città di Castello, the
Baglione of Perugia, the Bentivoglio of Bologna, Antonio da Venasso from
Siena, and Oliverotto da Fermo took each a part. The result of their
machinations against the common foe was that Cesare for a moment lost
Urbino, and was nearly unseated in Romagna. But the French helped him,
and he stood firm. Still it was impossible to believe that Louis XII.
would suffer him to advance unchecked in his career of conquest; and as
long as he continued between the French and the Orsini his position was
of necessity insecure. The former had to be cast off; the latter to be
extirpated; and yet he had not force enough to play an open game. 'He
therefore,' says Machiavelli, 'turned to craft, and displayed such skill
in dissimulation that the Orsini through the mediation of Paolo became
his friends again.' The cruelty of Cesare Borgia was only equalled by
his craft; and it was by a supreme exercise of his power of
fascination that he lured the foes who had plotted against him at La
Magione into his snare at Sinigaglia. Paolo Orsini, Francesco Orsini,
duke of Gravina, Vitellozzo Vitelli, and Oliverotto da Fermo were all
men of arms, accustomed to intrigue and to bloodshed, and more than one
of them were stained with crimes of the most atrocious treachery. Yet
such were the arts of Cesare Borgia that in 1502 he managed to assemble
them, apart from their troops, in the castle of Sinigaglia, where he had
them strangled. Having now destroyed the chiefs of the opposition and
enlisted their forces in his own service, Cesare, to use the phrase of
Machiavelli, 'had laid good foundations for his future power.' He
commanded a sufficient territory; he wielded the temporal and spiritual
power of his father; he was feared by the princes and respected by the
people throughout Italy; his cruelty and perfidy and subtlety and
boldness caused him to be universally admired. But as yet he had only
laid foundations. The empire of Italy was still to win; for he aspired
to nothing else, and it is even probable that he entertained a notion of
secularizing the Papacy. France was the chief obstacle to his ambition.
The alarm of Louis had at last been roused. But Louis' own mistake in
bringing the Spaniards into Naples afforded Cesare the means of shaking
off the French control. He espoused the cause of Spain, and by
intriguing now with the one power and now with the other made himself
both formidable and desirable to each. His geographical position between
Milan and Naples enforced this policy. Another difficulty against which
he had to provide was in the future rather than the present. Should his
father die, and a new Pope adverse to his interests be elected, he might
lose not only the support of the Holy See, but also his fiefs of Romagna
and Urbino. To meet this contingency he took four precautions, mentioned
with great admiration by Machiavelli. In the first place he
systematically murdered the heirs of the ruling families of all the
cities he acquired--as for example three Varani at Camerino, two
Manfredi at Faenza, the Orsini and Vitelli at Sinigaglia, and others
whom it would be tedious to mention. By this process he left no scion of
the ancient houses for a future Pope to restore. In the second place he
attached to his person by pensions, offices, and emoluments, all the
Roman gentry, so that he might be able to keep the new Pope a prisoner
and unarmed in Rome. Thirdly, he reduced the College of Cardinals, by
bribery, terrorism, poisoning, and packed elections, to such a state
that he could count on the creation of a Pope, if not his nominee, at
least not hostile to his interests. Fourthly, he lost no time, but
pushed his plans of conquest on with utmost speed, so as, if possible,
to command a large territory at the time of Alexander's death.
Machiavelli, who records these four points with approbation, adds: 'He
therefore, who finds it needful in his new authority to secure himself
against foes, to acquire allies, to gain a point by force or fraud,
etc., etc., could not discover an ensample more vigorous and blooming
than that of Cesare.' Such is the panegyric which Machiavelli, writing,
as it seems to me, in all good faith and innocence, records of a man
who, taken altogether, is perhaps the most selfish, perfidious, and
murderous of adventurers on record. The only fault for which he blames
him is that he did not prevent the election of Pope Julius II, by
concentrating his influence on either the Cardinal d'Amboise or a
Spaniard.
It is curious to read the title of the chapter following that which
criticises the action of Cesare Borgia: it runs thus, 'Concerning those
who have attained to sovereignty by crimes.' Cesare was clearly not one
of these men in the eyes of Machiavelli, who confines his attention to
Agathocles of Syracuse, and to Oliverotto da Fermo, a brigand who
acquired the lordship of Fermo by murdering his uncle and benefactor,
Giovanni Fogliani, and all the chief men of the city at a banquet to
which he had invited them. This atrocity, according to Machiavelli's
creed, would have been justified, if Oliverotto had combined cruelty and
subtlety in proper proportions. But his savagery was not sufficiently
veiled; a prince should never incur odium by crimes of violence, but
only use them as the means of inspiring terror. Besides, Oliverotto was
so simple as to fall at last into the snare of Cesare Borgia at
Sinigaglia. Cesare himself supplies Machiavelli with a notable example
of the way in which cruelty can be well used. Having found the cities of
Romagna in great disorder, Cesare determined to quell them by the
ferocity of a terrible governor. For this purpose he chose Messer Ramiro
d' Orco, 'a man cruel and quick of action, to whom he gave the fullest
power.' A story is told of Messer Ramiro which illustrates his temper in
a very bizarre fashion: he one day kicked a clumsy page on to the fire,
and held him there with a poker till he was burned up. Acting after this
fashion, with plenipotentiary authority, Ramiro soon froze the whole
province into comparative tranquillity. But it did not suit Cesare to
incur the odium which the man's cruelty brought on his administration.
Accordingly he had him decapitated one night and exposed to public view,
together with the block and bloody hatchet, in the square at Cesena. Of
the art with which Cesare first reduced Romagna to order by the cruelty
of his agent, and then avoided the odium of this cruelty by using the
wretched creature as an appalling example of his justice and his power,
Machiavelli wholly approves. His theory is that cruelty should be
employed for certain definite purposes, but that the Prince should
endeavor to shun as far as possible the hatred it inspires. In justice
both to Machiavelli and to Cesare, it should be said that the
administration of Romagna was far better under the Borgia rule than it
had ever been before. The exhibition of savage violence of which
Machiavelli approves was perhaps needed to cow so brutalized a
population.
In those chapters which Machiavelli has devoted to the exposition of the
qualities that befit a Prince, it is clear that Cesare Borgia was not
unfrequentlv before his eyes.[1] The worst thing that can be said about
Italy of the sixteenth century is that such an analyst as Machiavelli
should have been able to idealize an adventurer whose egotistic
immorality was so undisguised. The ethics of this profound anatomist of
human motives were based upon a conviction that men are altogether bad.
When discussing the question whether it be better to be loved or feared,
Machiavelli decides that 'it is far safer to be feared than loved, if
you must choose; seeing that you may say of men generally that they are
ungrateful and changeable, dissemblers, apt to shun danger, eager for
gain; as long as you serve them, they offer you everything, down to
their very children, if you have no need; but when you want help, they
fail you. Therefore it is best to put no faith in their pretended love.'
This is language which could only be used in a country where loyalty was
unknown and where all political and social combinations were founded
upon force or convenience. Princes must, however, be cautious not to
injure their subjects in their honor or their property--especially the
latter, since men 'forget the murder of their fathers quicker than the
loss of their money.' Under another heading Machiavelli returns to the
same topic, and lays it down as an axiom that, since the large majority
of men are bad, a prince must learn in self-defense how to be bad, and
must use this science when and where he deems appropriate, endeavoring,
however, under all circumstances to pass for good.
[1] In a letter to Fr. Vettori (Jan. 31, 1514) he says: 'Il
duca Valentino, l' opere del quale io imiterei sempre quando
fossi principe nuove.
He brings the same desperate philosophy of life, the same bitter
experience of mankind, to bear upon his discussion of the faith of
princes. The chapter which is entitled 'How princes ought to keep their
word' is one of the most brilliantly composed and thoroughly
Machiavellian of the whole treatise. He starts with the assertion that
to fight the battles of life in accordance with law is human, to depend
on force is brutal; yet when the former method is insufficient, the
latter must be adopted. A prince should know how to combine the natures
of the man and of the beast; and this is the meaning of the mythus of
Cheiron, who was made the tutor of Achilles. He should strive to acquire
the qualities of the fox and of the lion, in order that he may both
avoid snares and guard himself from wolves. A prudent prince cannot and
must not keep faith, when it is harmful to do so, or when the occasion
under which he promised has passed by. He will always find colorable
pretexts for breaking his word; and if he learns well how to feign, he
will have but little difficulty in deceiving people. Among the
innumerable instances of successful hypocrites Machiavelli can think of
none more excellent than Alexander VI. 'He never did anything else but
deceive men, nor ever thought of anything but this, and always found apt
matter for his practice. Never was there a man who had greater force in
swearing and tying himself down to his engagements, or who observed them
less. Nevertheless his wiles were always successful in the way he
wished, because he well knew that side of the world.' It is curious that
Machiavelli should have forgotten that the whole elaborate life's policy
of Alexander and his son was ruined precisely by their falling into one
of their own traps, and that the mistake or treason of a servant upset
the calculations of the two most masterly deceivers of their age.[1]
Following out the same line of thought, which implies that in a bad
world a prince cannot afford to be good, Machiavelli asserts: 'It is not
necessary that a prince should be merciful, loyal, humane, religious,
just: nay, I will venture to say, that if he had all these qualities and
always used them, they would harm him. But he must _seem_ to have them,
especially if he be new in his principality, where he will find it quite
impossible to exercise these virtues, since in order to maintain his
power he will be often obliged to act contrary to humanity, charity,
religion.' Machiavelli does not advise him to become bad for the sake of
badness, but to know when to quit the path of virtue for the
preservation of his kingdom. 'He must take care to say nothing that is
not full of these five qualities, and must always appear all mercy, all
loyalty, all humanity, all justice, all religion, especially the last.'
On the advantage of a reputation for piety Machiavelli insists most
strongly. He points out how Ferdinand the Catholic used the pretext of
religious zeal in order to achieve the conquest of Granada, to invade
Africa, to expel the Moors, and how his perfidies in Italy, his
perjuries to France, were colored with a sanctimonious decency.
[1] Perhaps this is an indirect argument against the legend of
their death.
After reading these passages we feel that though it may be true that
Machiavelli only spoke with scientific candor of the vices which were
common to all statesmen in his age--though the Italians were so corrupt
that it seemed hopeless to deal fairly with them--yet there was a
radical taint in the soul of the man who could have the heart to cull
these poisonous herbs of policy and distill their juices to a
quintessence for the use of the prince to whom he was confiding the
destinies of Italy.[1] Almost involuntarily we remember the oath which
Arthur administered to his knights, when he bade them 'never to do
outrage nor murder, and always to flee treason; also by no means to be
cruel, but to give mercy unto him that asked mercy, upon pain of
forfeiture of their worship and lordship of King Arthur for evermore.'
In a land where chivalry like this had ever taken root, either as an
ideal or as an institution, the chapters of Machiavelli could scarcely
have been published. The Italians lacked the virtues of knighthood. It
was possible among them for the philosophers to teach the princes that
success purchased at the expense of honor, loyalty, humanity, and truth
might be illustrious.
It is refreshing to turn from those chapters in which Machiavelli
teaches the Prince how to cope with the world by using the vices of the
wicked, to his exposition of the military organization suited to the
maintenance of a great kingdom. Machiavelli has no mean or humble
ambition for his Prince: 'double will his glory be, who has founded a
new realm, and fortified and adorned it with good laws, good arms, good
friends, and good ensamples.' What the enterprise to which he fain would
rouse Lorenzo really is, will appear in the conclusion. Meanwhile he
encourages him by the example of Ferdinand the Catholic to gird his
loins up for great enterprises. He bids him be circumspect in his choice
of secretaries, seeing that 'the first opinion formed of a prince and of
his capacity is derived from the men whom he has gathered round him.' He
points out how he should shun flattery and seek respectful but sincere
advice. Finally he reminds him that a prince is impotent unless he can
command obedience by his arms. Fortresses are a doubtful source of
strength; against foreign foes they are worse than useless; against
subjects they are worthless in comparison with the goodwill of the
people: 'the best fortress possible is to escape the hatred of your
subjects.' Everything therefore depends upon the well-ordering of a
national militia. The neglect of that ruined the princes of Italy and
enabled Charles VIII. to conquer the fairest of European kingdoms with
wooden spurs and a piece of chalk.[2]
[1] In the _Discorsi_, lib. i. cap. 55, he calls Italy 'la
coruttela del mondo,' and judges that her case is desperate;
'non si può sperare nelle provincie che in questi tempi si
veggono corrotte, come è l' Italia sopra tutte le altre.'
[2] The references in this paragraph are made to chapters
xx.-xxiv. and chapter xii. of the _Principe_.
In his discourse on armies Machiavelli lays it down that the troops with
which a prince defends his state are either his own, or mercenaries, or
auxiliaries, or mixed. 'Mercenary and auxiliary forces are both useless
and perilous, and he who founds the security of his dominion on the
former will never be established firmly: seeing that they are disunited,
ambitious, and undisciplined, without loyalty, truculent to their
friends, cowardly among foes; they have no fear of God, no faith with
men; you are only safe with them before they are attacked; in peace they
plunder you; in war you are the prey of your enemies. The cause of this
is that they have no other love nor other reason to keep the field,
beyond a little pay, which is far from sufficient to make them wish to
die for you. They are willing enough to be your soldiers so long as you
are at peace, but when war comes their impulse is to fly or sneak away.
It ought to be easy to establish the truth of this assertion, since the
ruin of Italy is due to nothing else except this, that we have now for
many years depended upon mercenary arms.'[1] Here he touches the real
weakness of the Italian states. Then he proceeds to explain further the
rottenness of the Condottiere system. Captains of adventure are either
men of ability or not. If they are, you have to fear lest their ambition
prompt them to turn their arms against yourself or your allies. This
happened to Queen Joan of Naples, who was deserted by Sforza Attendolo
in her sorest need; to the Milanese, when Francesco Sforza made himself
their despot; to the Venetians, who were driven to decapitate
Carmagnuola because they feared him. The only reason why the Florentines
were not enslaved by Sir John Hawkwood was that, though an able general,
he achieved no great successes in the field. In the same way they
escaped by luck from Sforza, who turned his attention to Milan, and from
Braccio, who formed designs against the Church and Naples. If Paolo
Vitelli had been victorious against Pisa (1498), he would have held them
at discretion. In each of these cases it was only the good fortune of
the republic which saved it from a military despotism. If, on the other
hand, the mercenary captains are men of no capacity, you are defeated in
the field.
[1] See chapter xii. of the _Principe._
Proceeding to the historical development of this bad system, Machiavelli
points out how after the decline of the Imperial authority in Italy, the
Papacy and the republics got the upper hand. Priests and merchants were
alike unwilling to engage in war. Therefore they took mercenary troops
into their pay. The companies of the Sforzeschi and Bracceschi were
formed; and 'after these came all those others who have ruled this sort
of warfare down to our own days. The consequence of their valor is that
Italy has been harried by Charles, plundered by Louis, forced by
Ferdinand, insulted by the Swiss. Their method has been to enhance the
reputation of their cavalry by depressing the infantry. Being without
dominion of their own, and making war their commerce, a few foot
soldiers brought them no repute, while they were unable to support many.
Therefore they confined themselves to cavalry, until in a force of
20,000 men you could not number 2,000 infantry. Besides this they
employed all their ingenuity to relieve themselves and their soldiers of
fatigue and peril, by refraining from slaughter and from taking
prisoners without ransom. Night attacks and sorties were abandoned;
stockades and trenches in the camp were given up; no one thought of a
winter campaign. All these things were allowed, or rather introduced, in
order to avoid, as I have said, fatigue and peril. Whereby they have
reduced Italy to slavery and insult.' Auxiliaries, such as the French
troops borrowed by Cesare Borgia, and the Spaniards engaged by Julius
II., are even worse. 'He who wants to be unable to win the game should
make use of these forces; for they are far more dangerous than
mercenaries, seeing that in them the cause of ruin is ready made--they
are united together, and inclined to obey their own masters. Machiavelli
enforces this moral by one of those rare but energetic figures which add
virile dignity to his discourse. He compares auxiliary troops to the
armor of Saul, which David refused, preferring to fight Goliath with his
stone and sling. 'In one word, arms borrowed from another either fall
from your back, or weigh you down, or impede your action.' It remains
for a prince to form his own troops and to take the field in person,
like Cesare Borgia, when he discarded his French allies and the
mercenary aid of the Orsini captains. Republics should follow the same
course, dispatching, as the Romans did, their own citizens to the war,
and controlling by law the personal ambition of victorious generals. It
was thus that the Venetians prospered in their conquests, before they
acquired their provinces in Italy and adopted the Condottiere system
from their neighbors. 'A prince, therefore, should have but one object,
one thought, one art--the art of war.' Those who have followed this rule
have attained to sovereignty, like Francesco Sforza, who became Duke of
Milan; those who have neglected it have lost even hereditary kingdoms,
like the last Sforzas, who sank from dukedom into private life. Even
amid the pleasures of the chase a prince should always be studying the
geographical conformation of his country with a view to its defense, and
should acquire a minute knowledge of such strategical laws as are
everywhere applicable. He should read history with the same object, and
should keep before his eyes the example of those great men of the past
from whom he can learn lessons for his guidance in the present.
This brings us to the peroration of the _Principe_, which contains the
practical issue toward which the whole treatise has been tending, the
patriotic thought that reflects a kind of luster even on the darkest
pages that have gone before. Like Thetis, Machiavelli has dipped his
Achilles in the Styx of infernal counsels; like Cheiron, he has shown
him how the human and the bestial natures should be combined in one who
has to break the teeth of wolves and keep his feet from snares; like
Hephaistos, he has forged for him invulnerable armor. The object toward
which this preparation has been leading is the liberation of Italy from
the barbarians. The slavery of Israel in Egypt, the oppression of the
Persians by the Medes, the dispersion of the Athenians into villages,
were the occasions which enabled Moses and Cyrus and Theseus to display
their greatness. The new Prince, who would fain win honor in Italy and
confer upon his country untold benefits, finds her at the present moment
'more enslaved than the Hebrews, more downtrodden than the Persians,
more disunited than the Athenians, without a chief, without order,
beaten, despoiled, mangled, overrun, subject to every sort of
desolation.' Fortune could not have offered him a nobler opportunity.
'See how she prays God to send her some one who should save her from
these barbarous cruelties ind insults! See her all ready and alert to
follow any standard, if only there be a man to raise it!' Then
Machiavelli addresses himself to the chief of the Medici in person. 'Nor
is there at the present moment any place more full of hope for her than
your illustrious House, which by its valor and its fortune, favored by
God and by the Church, whereof it is now the head, might take the lead
in this delivery.' This is followed by one of the rare passages of
courtly rhetoric which, when Machiavelli condescends to indulge in them,
add peculiar splendor to his style. Then he turns again to speak of the
means which should immediately be used. He urges Lorenzo above all
things to put no faith in mercenaries or auxiliaries, but to raise his
own forces, and to rely on the Italian infantry. If Italian armies have
always been defeated in the field during the past twenty years, it is
not due so much to their defective courage as to the weakness of their
commanders. Lorenzo will have to raise a force capable of coping with
the Swiss, the Spanish, and the French. The respect with which
Machiavelli speaks at this supreme moment of these foreign troops,
proves how great was their prestige in Italy; yet he ventures to point
out that there are faults peculiar to each of them: the Spanish infantry
cannot stand a cavalry charge, and the Switzers are liable to be
disconcerted by the rapid attack of the wiry infantry of Spain. It is
therefore necessary to train troops capable of resisting cavalry, and
not afraid of facing any foot soldiers in the world. 'This opportunity,
therefore, must not be suffered to slip by; in order that Italy may
after so long a time at last behold her saviour. Nor can I find words to
describe the love with which he would be hailed in all the provinces
that have suffered through these foreign deluges, the thirst for
vengeance, the stubborn fidelity, the piety, the tears, that he would
meet What gates would be closed against him? What people would refuse
him allegiance? What jealousy would thwart him? What Italian would be
found to refuse him homage? This rule of the barbarians stinks in the
nostrils of us all. Then let your illustrious House assume this
enterprise in the spirit and the confidence wherewith just enterprises
are begun, that so, under your flag, this land of ours may be ennobled,
and under your auspices be brought to pass that prophecy of Petrarch:--
'Lo, valor against rage
Shall take up arms, nor shall the fight be long;
For that old heritage
Of courage in Italian hearts is stout and strong.
With this trumpet-cry of impassioned patriotism the
_Principe_ closes.
Hegel, in his 'Philosophy of History,' has recorded a judgment of
Machiavelli's treatise in relation to the political conditions of Italy
at the end of the mediaeval period, which might be quoted as the most
complete apology for the author it is possible to make. 'This book,' he
says, 'has often been cast aside with horror as containing maxims of the
most revolting tyranny; yet it was Machiavelli's high sense of the
necessity of constituting a state which caused him to lay down the
principles on which alone states could be formed under the
circumstances. The isolated lords and lordships had to be entirely
suppressed; and though our idea of Freedom is incompatible with the
means which he proposes both as the only available and also as wholly
justifiable--including, as these do, the most reckless violence, all
kinds of deception, murder, and the like--yet we must confess that the
despots who had to be subdued were assailable in no other way, inasmuch
as indomitable lawlessness and perfect depravity were thoroughly
engrained in them.'
Yet after the book has been shut and the apology has been weighed, we
cannot but pause and ask ourselves this question, Which was the truer
patriot--Machiavelli, systematizing the political vices and corruptions
of his time in a philosophical essay, and calling on the despot to whom
it was dedicated to liberate Italy; or Savonarola, denouncing sin and
enforcing repentance--Machiavelli, who taught as precepts of pure wisdom
those very principles of public immorality which lay at the root of
Italy's disunion and weakness; or Savonarola, who insisted that without
a moral reformation no liberty was possible? We shall have to consider
the action of Savonarola in another place. Meanwhile, it is not too much
to affirm that, with diplomatists like Machiavelli, and with princes
like those whom he has idealized, Italy could not be free. Hypocrisy,
treachery, dissimulation, cruelty are the vices of the selfish and the
enslaved. Yet Machiavelli was led by his study of the past and by his
experience of the present to defend these vices, as the necessary
qualities of the prince whom he would fain have chosen for the saviour
of his country. It is legitimate to excuse him on the ground that the
Italians of his age had not conceived a philosophy of right which should
include duties as well as privileges, and which should guard the
interests of the governed no less than those of the governor. It is true
that the feudal conception of Monarchy, so well apprehended by him in
the fourth chapter of the _Principe,_ had nowhere been realized in
Italy, and that therefore the right solution of the political problem
seemed to lie in setting force against force, and fraud against fraud,
for a sublime purpose. It may also be urged with justice that the
historians and speculators of antiquity, esteemed beyond their value by
the students of the sixteenth century, confirmed him in his application
of a positive philosophy to statecraft. The success which attended the
violence and dissimulation of the Romans, as described by Livy, induced
him to inculcate the principles on which they acted. The scientific
method followed by Aristotle in the Politics encouraged him in the
adoption of a similar analysis; while the close parallel between ancient
Greece and mediaeval Italy was sufficient to create a conviction that
the wisdom of the old world would be precisely applicable to the
conditions of the new. These, however, are exculpations of the man
rather than justifications of his theory. The theory was false and
vicious. And the fact remains that the man, impregnated by the bad
morality of the period in which he lived, was incapable of ascending
above it to the truth, was impotent with all his acumen to read the
deepest lessons of past and present history, and in spite of his
acknowledged patriotism succeeded only in adding his conscious and
unconscious testimony to the corruption of the country that he loved.
The broad common-sense, the mental soundness, the humane instinct and
the sympathy with nature, which give fertility and wholeness to the
political philosophy of men like Burke, are absent in Machiavelli. In
spite of its vigor, his system implies an inversion of the ruling laws
of health in the body politic. In spite of its logical cogency, it is
inconclusive by reason of defective premises. Incomparable as an essay
in pathological anatomy, it throws no light upon the working of a normal
social organism, and has at no time been used with profit even by the
ambitious and unscrupulous.