that Italy, through the Roman Church, being wanting therein, has been
ruined.
Princes and commonwealths that would save themselves from growing
corrupted, should before all things keep uncorrupted the rites and
ceremonies of religion, and always hold them in reverence; since we can
have no surer sign of the decay of a province than to see Divine
worship held therein in contempt. This is easily understood when it is
seen on what foundation that religion rests in which a man is born. For
every religion has its root in certain fundamental ordinances peculiar
to itself.
The religion of the Gentiles had its beginning in the responses of the
oracles and in the prognostics of the augurs and soothsayers. All their
other ceremonies and observances depended upon these; because men
naturally believed that the God who could forecast their future weal or
woe, could also bring them to pass. Wherefore the temples, the prayers,
the sacrifices, and all the other rites of their worship, had their
origin in this, that the oracles of Delos, of Dodona, and others
celebrated in antiquity, held the world admiring and devout. But,
afterwards, when these oracles began to shape their answers to suit the
interests of powerful men, and their impostures to be seen through by
the multitude, men grew incredulous and ready to overturn every sacred
institution. For which reason, the rulers of kingdoms and commonwealths
should maintain the foundations of the faith which they hold; since
thus it will be easy for them to keep their country religious, and,
consequently, virtuous and united. To which end they should countenance
and further whatsoever tells in favour of religion, even should they
think it untrue; and the wiser they are, and the better they are
acquainted with natural causes, the more ought they to do so. It is
from this course having been followed by the wise, that the miracles
celebrated even in false religions, have come to be held in repute; for
from whatever source they spring, discreet men will extol them, whose
authority afterwards gives them currency everywhere.
These miracles were common enough in Rome, and among others this was
believed, that when the Roman soldiers were sacking the city of Veii,
certain of them entered the temple of Juno and spoke to the statue of
the goddess, saying, “_Wilt thou come with us to Rome?_” when to some
it seemed that she inclined her head in assent, and to others that they
heard her answer, “_Yea_.” For these men being filled with religious
awe (which Titus Livius shows us by the circumstance that, in entering
the temple, they entered devoutly, reverently, and without tumult),
persuaded themselves they heard that answer to their question, which,
perhaps, they had formed beforehand in their minds. But their faith and
belief were wholly approved of and confirmed by Camillus and by the
other chief men of the city.
Had religion been maintained among the princes of Christendom on the
footing on which it was established by its Founder, the Christian
States and republics had been far more united and far more prosperous
than they now are; nor can we have surer proof of its decay than in
witnessing how those countries which are the nearest neighbours of the
Roman Church, the head of our faith, have less devoutness than any
others; so that any one who considers its earliest beginnings and
observes how widely different is its present practice, might well
believe its ruin or its chastisement to be close at hand.
But since some are of opinion that the welfare of Italy depends upon
the Church of Rome, I desire to put forward certain arguments which
occur to me against that view, and shall adduce two very strong ones,
which, to my mind, admit of no answer. The first is, that, through the
ill example of the Roman Court, the country has lost all religious
feeling and devoutness, a loss which draws after it infinite mischiefs
and disorders; for as the presence of religion implies every
excellence, so the contrary is involved in its absence. To the Church,
therefore, and to the priests, we Italians owe this first debt, that
through them we have become wicked and irreligious. And a still greater
debt we owe them for what is the immediate cause of our ruin, namely,
that by the Church our country is kept divided. For no country was ever
united or prosperous which did not yield obedience to some one prince
or commonwealth, as has been the case with France and Spain. And the
Church is the sole cause why Italy stands on a different footing, and
is subject to no one king or commonwealth. For though she holds here
her seat, and exerts her temporal authority, she has never yet gained
strength and courage to seize upon the entire country, or make herself
supreme; yet never has been so weak that when in fear of losing her
temporal dominion, she could not call in some foreign potentate to aid
her against any Italian State by which she was overmatched. Of which we
find many instances, both in early times, as when by the intervention
of Charles the Great she drove the Lombards, who had made themselves
masters of nearly the whole country, out of Italy; and also in recent
times, as when, with the help of France, she first stripped the
Venetians of their territories, and then, with the help of the Swiss,
expelled the French.
The Church, therefore, never being powerful enough herself to take
possession of the entire country, while, at the same time, preventing
any one else from doing so, has made it impossible to bring Italy under
one head; and has been the cause of her always living subject to many
princes or rulers, by whom she has been brought to such division and
weakness as to have become a prey, not to Barbarian kings only, but to
any who have thought fit to attack her. For this, I say, we Italians
have none to thank but the Church. And were any man powerful enough to
transplant the Court of Rome, with all the authority it now wields over
the rest of Italy, into the territories of the Swiss (the only people
who at this day, both as regards religion and military discipline, live
like the ancients,) he would have clear proof of the truth of what I
affirm, and would find that the corrupt manners of that Court had, in a
little while, wrought greater mischief in these territories than any
other disaster which could ever befall them.