OF ECCLESIASTICAL PRINCIPALITIES
It now remains to us only 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 the 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 alone have a state without defending it, have subjects without
governing them, and the states, not being defended, are not taken from
them; the subjects not being governed do not disturb themselves, and
neither think of 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 ruin 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 Orsinis and the Colonnas, and as
there was constant quarrelling 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 Colonnas, a new pope would
succeed who was hostile to the Orsinis, which caused the Colonnas 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 on the occasion 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 aggrandise not the Church but the duke, what he did resulted in
the aggrandisement 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; he 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 conditions 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
armies, so he through his goodness and infinite other virtues will make
it both great and venerated.