XLIII. All we have said of policy, as it relates to private people,
may be applied to princes, or superiors, who govern every kind of
state; and with respect to these also, the division of policy into
the high and the low, is apt and proper, as the first is secure, and
the second hazardous in them, in the same proportion, which it is with
respect to subjects or private men. Any ruler whatever, who is endued
with the three virtues, of prudence, justice, and fortitude, will be a
singular good politician, without ever having read any of those books,
which treat of reasons of state. The true arts of governing, are, to
chuse such ministers as are wise and upright, to reward merit, and
to punish crimes; to watch over, and attend to the interest of the
public, and to be faithful in promises. By these means, the respect,
the love, and the obedience of subjects, will be much more effectually
secured, than by all that compound farrago of political subtilties,
called reasons of state; a mystery, deposited in the minds of privy
counsellors, which, as if it was a most sacred thing, they never suffer
to be totally displayed; nor ever to go forth to the public, unless
covered with a thick veil; and is for the most part, no more than a
ridiculous phantom, or vain idol, which under the title of a Deity,
they exhibit for the adoration of the ignorant vulgar. Reason of state,
is the universal agitator, or primum mobile of a kingdom, and is the
reason for every thing, without being the reason of any thing. If it
is asked, why was such a thing done, the answer is, for reasons of
state; very well, but why was such another thing omitted to be done,
why for reasons of state also. Would it not be better to say, it was
done because justice required it, or because religion, clemency, or
some moral virtue dictated the doing it? The reason of the directions
of a minister to his inferiors, in all matters, is, that they are the
King’s commands. The reason why a Prince orders any thing to be done,
should be this, and this only, because the commandments and laws of
God, require it; for a Prince in a more rigorous sense, is the minister
of God, than his subalterns are ministers to him.
XLIV. If we are to understand, that reason of state means political
prudence, why not call it by that name? because the phrase political
prudence, implies or signifies a moral virtue, but the term, reason
of state, we don’t know the meaning of. This expression, _ragioni
di stato_, took its rise in Italy, but it does not seem as if they
entertained a high veneration for it there, since we are told, that the
holy Pontif Pius, could not bear to hear it mentioned; and was used to
say, that reasons of state were the inventions of perverse men, and the
very reverse of religion and the moral virtues. It was observable, that
Pope Pius, in no case stood in need of these political subtilties; for
without their aid, he was not only a great saint, but a distinguish’d
and exemplary ruler.
XLV. It was a remark of the celebrated Bacon, that the most desirable
governments which the church has in all times experienced, were under
those Popes, who having passed the greatest part of their lives in
monasteries, were reputed ignorant of political business; and that
these made excellent Princes, and recommended themselves much more
to the good opinion of posterity, by their wise regulations, than
those, who had been bred in the schools, and had exercised themselves
all their lives, in the management of public affairs; instancing as
examples of the truth of this assertion, Pius V. and Sextus V. who both
reign’d in the same age: _Imò convertamus oculos ad regimen pontificium
ac nominatim Pij V. vel Sixti V. nostro sæculo, qui sub initiis habiti
sunt pro fraterculis rerum imperitis, inveniemusque acta paparum ejus
generis magis esse solere memorabilia, quam eorum, qui in negotiis
civilibus, & principum aulis enutriti ad papatum ascenderint_ (_Lib._
I. _de Augment. Scient._) This testimony to the truth, is given by a
Calvinist Heretic, although abstracted from his religion, he was in
every sense a great, and most enlightened man, and one, who was not
more remarkable for his incomparable talents, than for his candour and
ingenuity.
XLVI. The reason he gives why the Popes, who before their elevation
to the throne, had lived in holy retirement, excelled in the mode and
goodness of their government, those, who before their rise, had always
been exercised in public business, entitles him to the appellations we
have just bestowed on him. He says, the want of civil instruction in
those Pontiffs, was more than compensated for by their virtues; because
Princes, who follow steadily, the plain and safe road of religion,
justice, and the other moral virtues, readily and expertly, without
the aid of studied policy, put in train, and dispatch all sorts of
business that may occur to them. They are sound and robust souls, who
have no more occasion for civil arts, than men who are healthy, and
blessed with good constitutions have for physic. _In eo tamen abundè
fit compensatio, quod per tutum, planumque iter religionis, justitiæ,
honestatis, virtutumque moralium, prompte, atque expedite incedant,
quam viam, qui constanter tenuerint, illis alteris remediis non magis
indigebunt, quam corpus sanum medicina._
XLVI. I almost blush, that a Heretic should talk in this strain, when
among the Catholics, we find so many politicians who abound in very
different maxims. But the case is, that the subtilties and artifices
which compose what is commonly called worldly policy, are a sort
of remedies, which sickly souls only, stand in need of. A vicious
government, which he who has the management of turns and winds to
answer his private purposes, cannot exist without the help of such
medicaments, which may with as much propriety be called drugs, as those
that are sold in an apothecary’s shop. But a sound understanding,
endued and justly tempered with the four elemental qualities, of
prudence, justice, fortitude, and sobriety, with only the assistance
of these virtues, will, without the succour of other arts, and without
embarrassment, surmount all the difficulties that can occur in
government.
XLVII. And since Bacon has mentioned him, let us take a cursory view
of the reign of Sextus the Vth. This spirit, so truly incomparable,
that it seems as if God had formed him for the purpose of governing
the whole world; in whom, the magnanimity of Cæsar, the prudence of
Augustus, and the justice of Trajan were joined, and who, in these
virtues, even excelled them; in a few months after his mounting the
throne, had gained the respect of all the Princes of Europe, and had
put the whole ecclesiastical state in better order, and under better
regulation, than it had been known to be blessed with or enjoy, for
many antecedent ages. Thefts, cheating, murders, subornations, and
licentious insolence, were so effectually rooted out and banished from
that great city, that it never till then, could with so much propriety
be called Holy Rome. All dread of extortion and injustice was lost,
and nobody feared, only God and the Pope; and as Gregory Leti tells
us, in his History of Sextus, women, and other defenceless persons,
could walk the streets at all hours of the night, as safely, as they
could walk in the cloisters of a Capuchin Convent. In the five years
which he reigned, he embellished Rome with many noble edifices, and
left the treasury some millions richer than he found it. I ask now, by
what political arts, and what ingenious devices, he performed all these
wonders? He knew no arts, save those of an indefatigable vigilance
and attention to the concerns of government; a fervent zeal for the
public good, and an unalterable rectitude and justice. I cannot tell,
whether what has been so much rumoured about Sextus having put on
false appearances before his advancement to the throne, be true, but
I believe it is not; and it is certain, that after he found himself
seated in the Papal chair, he was a man void of all dissimulation;
always generous, open, free and sincere, and one, who that his designs
should not appear occult, frankly exposed and laid them open; and
unless the virtue of prudence dictated caution, or the character of the
prelate demanded reserve, he concealed the purposes of his heart from
no man. This frankness, was natural to his genius, and he was the same
in that respect while he was a religious; and therefore, I cannot give
credit, to what is said of his practising duplicity while a Cardinal,
in order to obtain the Popedom. It is more probable, that they mistook
what was the real effect of his virtue, for dissimulation. They also
charge him with doing violence to his nature, by bearing all sorts of
injuries patiently, that he might acquire the character of a meek and
gentle man; but why should not all this be imputed, to his desire, in
obedience to the gospel precept, of imitating our Saviour? The severity
he observed when he was Pope, proves nothing to contradict this
sentiment; because bearing with offences that are merely personal, and
those which are committed against dignities, are very different things.
They also say, he feigned himself decrepid and worn out with age and
infirmities, to excite in his favour, the choice of the Cardinals;
from the prospect that his would be a short pontificate, and that they
should have a quick return of another conclave. But notwithstanding
what people say, I don’t believe the Cardinals are so much influenced
by this sort of policy as the world imagine, from their having so often
chosen Popes of good constitutions, and not far advanced in years,
provided at the time of their election, their judgment was arrived
at that state of maturity, which it is not common to attain but in a
more advanced age. On the other hand, it is probable, that Sextus who
was seventy-four when he ascended the Papal chair, was much broke. If
he afterwards seemed more robust, it might be, because having charged
himself with such weighty obligations, he used extraordinary exertions
to comply with what he had undertaken; and besides this, the before
cited Leti informs us, that to enable him to discharge the duties
incumbent on him, he fed more copiously, and took more nourishing
aliment, both with respect to meat and drink, when he was a Pope, than
he did while he was a Cardinal.
XLVIII. I have dwelt with pleasure on the eulogium of this singular
man, who was always the object of my admiration, although some have
been unjust enough, not to render him the praise due to his merit.
And here by the way, I cannot forbear congratulating the seraphic
religion, on having produced in the person of this Pontif, and in
that of Cardinal Cisneros, two politicians so eminent, that in my
opinion the world never saw greater; though neither the one or the
other have been without their enemies, who, envious of their merit,
have strove to tarnish their glories; but what I most admire in this
particular is, that so able a man as Don Antonio de Solis, should in
the third Chap. of his History of Mexico, paint the Cardinal, as a man
deficient in point of political abilities; notwithstanding he in all
other respects, heaps on him the highest encomiums. Foreign authors
do him more justice, and particularly, Flechier, Bishop of Nimes, who
with great judgment and discretion wrote his life, celebrates him, as
a most eminent and brilliant politician: and another modern French
author, having drawn a parallel of the characters of the two Cardinals,
Cisneros, and Richlieu, gives the preference to our countryman;
acknowledging, that he was equal to the other as a politician, and much
preferable to him as a devout man; though by the way, when he says
this, he pays no great compliment to the sanctity of Cisneros.
XLIX. From all that has been said on this subject, it is evident and
plain, that with an equality of talents, those politicians who proceed
upon the principles of honesty, and who pursue the road of rectitude
and truth, will with greater certainty, and more ease, attain their
ends, than those, who follow the rout of artifice and deceit; for the
first, is the sound or true policy, the other, the rotten or false.