in Christendom If Princes will seriously consider this matter I make no question but they will Rule with Clemency and Moderation and return to that excellent Maxim of the Ancients almost exploded in this Age that the interest of Kings and of their people is the same which truth it hath been the whole design of my Writings to convince them of I am charged then in the second place with impiety in villifying the Church and so to make way for Atheism I do not deny but that I have very frequently in my Writings laid the blame upon the Church of Rome not only for all the misgovernment of Christendom but even for the depravation and almost total destruction of Christian Religion it self in this Province but that this Discourse of mine doth or can tend to teach men impiety or to make way for Atheism I peremptorily deny and although for proof of my innocence herein I need but refer you and all others to my Papers themselves as they are now published where you will find all my reasons drawn from experience and frequent examples cited which is ever my way of arguing yet since I am put upon it I shall in a few lines make that matter possibly a little clearer and shall first make protestation that as I do undoubtedly hope by the merits of Christ and by Faith in him to attain eternal Salvation so I do firmly believe the Christian profession to be the only true Religion now in the world Next I am fully persuaded that all Divine verities which God then designed to teach the world are contained in the Books of Holy Scripture as they are now extant and received amongst us From them I understand that God created man in purity and innocence and that the first of that Species by their frailty lost at once their integrity and their Paradise and intaâ—l'd sin and misery upon their posterity that Almighty God to repair this loss did out of his infinite mercy and with unparallel'd grace and goodness send his only begotten Son into the world to teach us 〈…〉 to be a perfect example of virtue goodness and obedience to restore true Religion degenerated amongst the Iews into Superstition Formality and 〈…〉 for the salvation of Mankind and in sine to give to us the Holy Spirit to regenerate our Hearts support our Faith and lead us into all Truth Now if it shall appear that as the lusts of our first Parenâ—s did at that time disappoint the good intention of God in making a pure world and brought in by their disobedience the corruptions that are now in it so that since likewise the Bishops of Rome by their insatiable ambition and avarice have designedly as much as in them lies frustrated the merciful purpose he had in the happy restauration he intended the world by his Son and in the renewing and reforming of humane Nature and have wholly defaced and spoil'd Christian Religion and made it a worldly and a Heathenish thing and altogether uncapable as it is practised amongst them either of directing the ways of its Professors to virtue and good life or of saving thus Souls hereafter If I say this do appear I know no reason why I for detecting thus much and for giving warning to the world to take heed of their ways should be accused of Impiety or Atheism or why his Holyness should be so inraged against the poor Inhabitants of the Valleys in Savoy and against the Albigesi for calling him Antichrist but to find that this is an undoubted truth I mean that the Popes have corrupted Christian Religion we need but read the New Testament acknowledged by themselves to be of infallible truth and there we shall see that the Faith and Religion Preach'd by Christ and setled afterwards by his Apostles and cultivated by their Sacred Epistles is so different a thing from the Christianity that is now profess'd and taught at Rome that we should be convinc'd that if those Holy men should be sent by God again into the world they would take more pains to confute this Gallimaufry than ever they did to Preach down the Tradition of the Pharisees or the Fables and Idolatry of the Gentiles and would in probability suffer a new Martyrdom in that City under the Vicar of Christ for the same Doctrine which once animated the Heathen Tyrants against them Nay we have something more to say against these Sacrilegious pretenders to Gods power for whereas all other false worships have been set up by some politick Legislators for the support and preservation of Government this false this spurious Religion brought in upon the ruines of Christianity by the Popes hath deformed the face of Government in Europe destroying all the good principles and Morality left us by the Heathen themselves and introduced instead thereof Sordid Cowardly and impolitick Notions whereby they have subjected Mankind and even great Princes and States to their own Empire and never suffered any Orders of Maxims to take place where they have power that might make a Nation Wise Honest Great or Wealthy this I have set down so plainly in those passages of my Book which are complained of that I shall say nothing at all for the proof of it in this place but refer you thither and come to speak a little more particularly of my first assertion that the Pope and his Clergy have depraved Christian Religion Upon this subject I could infinitely wish now Letters begin to revive again that some Learned Pen would employ it self and that some person vers'd in the Chronology of the Church as they call it would deduce out of the Ecclesiastical Writers the time and manner how these abuses crept in and by what arts and Steps this Babel that reaches at Heaven was built by these Sons of the Earth but this matter as unsuitable to the brevity of a Letter and indeed more to my small parts and Learning I shall not pretend to being one who never hitherto studied or writ of Theology further than it did naturally concern the Politicks therefore I shall only deal by the New Tesâ—ament as I have done formerly by Titus Livius that is make observations or reflections upon it and leave you and Mr. Guilio and the rest of our Society to make the judgment not citing like Preachers the Chapter or Verse because the reading of Holy Scripture is little us'd and indeed hardly permitted amongst us To begin at the top I would have any reasonable man tell me whence this unmeasurable power long claim'd and now possess'd by the Bishop of Rome is derived first of being Christ's Vicar and by that as I may so say pretending to a Monopoly of the Holy Spirit which was promised and given to the whole Church that is to the Elect or Saints as is plain by a Clause in St. Peter's Sermon made the very same time that the miraculous gifts of the Spirit of God were first given to the Apostles who says to the Iews and Gentiles Repent
and be Baptized every one of you in the name of Iesus Christ for the remission of Sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost for this promise is to you and to your Children and to all that are afar off even as many as the Lord our God shall call Next to judge infallibly of Divine Truth and to forgive Sins as Christ did Then to be the Head of all Ecclesiastical persons and causes in the world to be so far above Kings and Princes as to Judge Depose and deprive them and to have an absoluâ—e jurisdiction over all the Affairs in Christendom in Ordine ad Spiritualia yet all this the Canonists allow him and he makes no scruple to assume whilst it is plain that in the whole New Testament there is no description made of such an Officer to be at any time in the Church except it be in the Prophecy of the Apocalyps or in one of St. Paul's Epistles where he says who it is that shall sit in the Temple of God shewing himself that he is God Christ tells us his Kingdom is not of this world and if any will be the greatest amongst his Disciples that he must be servant to the rest which shews that his followers were to be great in sanctity and humility and not in worldly power The Apostle Paul writing to the Christians of those times almost in every Epistle commands them to be obedient to the higher Powers or Magistrates set over them and St. Peter himself from whom this extravagant Empire is pretended to be derived in his firsâ— Epistle bids us submit our selves to every ordinance of man for the Lords sake whether it be to the King or c. and this is enjoyn'd although it is plain that they who govern'd the world in those days were both Heathen Tyrants and Usurpers and in this submission there is no exception or proviso for Ecclesiastical immunity The practice as well as Precepts of these Holy men shews plainly that they had no intention to leave Successors who should deprive Hereditary Princes from their right of Reigning for differing in Religion who without all doubt are by the appointment of the Apostle and by the principles of Christianity to be obeyed and submitted to in things wherein the fundamental Laws of the Government give them power though they were Iews or Gentiles If I should tell you by what Texts in Scripture the Popes claim the Powers before mentioned it would stir up your laughter and prove too light for so serious a matter yet because possibly you may never have heard so much of this Subject before I shall instance in a few They tell you therefore that the Jurisdiction they pretend over the Church and the power of pardoning Sins comes from Christ to St. Peter and from him to them Thou art Peter and upon this Rock I will build my Church I will give thee the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven whatsoever thou shalt bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever thou shalt loose on Earth c. From these two Texts ridiculously applyed comes this great Tree which hath with its Branches over-spread the whole Earth and kill'd all the good and wholsom Plants growing upon it The first Text will never by any man of sence be understood to say more than that the Preaching Suffering and Ministry of Peter was like to be a great foundation and Pillar of the Doctrine of Christ the other Text as also another spoken by our Saviour to all his Apostles whose sins ye remit they are remitted and whose sins ye retain they are retained are by all the Primitive fathers interpreted in this manner wheresoever you shall effectually Preach the Gospel you shall carry with you Grace and Remission of Sins to them which shall follow your instructions but the people who shall not have these joyful Tidings communicated by you to them shall remain in darkness and in their Sins But if any will contest that by some of these last Texts that Evangelical Excommunication which was afterwards brought into the Church by the Apostles was here praesignified by our great Master how unlike were those censures to those now thundered out as he calls it by the Pope these were for edification and not destruction to afflict the flesh for the salvation of the Soul that Apostolical ordinance was pronounced for some notorious Scandal or Apostacy from the Faith and first decreed by the Church that is the whole Congregation present and then denounced by the Pastor and reached only to debar such person from partaking of the Communion or fellowship of that Church till repentance should readmit him but was followed by no other prosecution or chastisement as is now practised But suppose all these Texts had been as they would have them how does this make for the Successors of St. Peter or the rest or how can this prove the Bishops of Rome to have right to such succession But I make haste from this subject and shall urge but one Text more which is The spiritual man judgeth all men but is himself judged of none from whence is inferred by the Canonists that first the Pope is the Spiritual man and then that he is to be Judge of all the world and last that he is never to be liable to any judgment himself whereas it is obvious to the meanest understanding St. Paul in this Text means to distinguish between a person inspired with the Spirit of God and one remaining in the state of Nature which latter he says cannot judge of those Heavenly gifts and graces as he explains himself when he says The Natural man cannot discern the things of the Spirit because they are foolishness unto him To take my leave of this matter wholly out of the way of my Studies I shall beg of you Zenobio and of Guilio and the rest of our Society to read over carefully the new Tesâ—ament and then to see what ground there is for Purgatory by which all the wealth and greatness hath accrew'd to these men what colour for the Idolatrous worship of Saints and their Images and particularly for speaking in their hymns and prayers to a piece of wood the Cross I mean Sâ—lve Lignum c. and then fac nos dignos beneficiorum Christi as you may read in that Office what colour or rather what excuse for that horrid unchristian and barbarous Engine called the inquisition brought in by the command and authority of the Pope the Inventor of which Peter a Dominican Fryer having been slain amongst the Albigesi as he well deserved is now Cannoniz'd for a Saint and stil'd San Pietro Martine In the dreadfull Prisons of this Inquisition many faithful and pious Christians to say nothing of honest Moral Moors or Mahometans are tormented and famish'd or if they out-live their sufferings burnt publickly to death and that only for differing in Religion from the Pope without having any crime or the least misdemeanor proved or
and indifference not espousing the heady opinions of any much less their passions and animosities I never sided with any Party further than that the Duty of my charge obliged me to serve the prevailing Party when posses'd of the Government of our City this I speak for those changes which happened between the flight of the said Piero de Medici and the horrid Parricide commited by Clement the 7th upon his indulgent Mother joyning with his greatest enemies and uniting himself with those who had used the most transcendent insolence to his own person and the highest violence and fury the Sun ever saw to his poor Courtiers and Subjects that so accompanied he might sheath his Sword in the bowels of his own desolate Country At that time and during that whole Seige I must confess I did break the consines of my Nutrality and not only acted as I was commanded barely but rouz'd my self and stir'd up others haraunging in the Streets places of the City the People to defend with the last drop of their blood the Walls of their Country and the Liberty of their Government taking very hazardous Journey to Ferruccio and then into the Mugello and other parts to bring in Succours and Provisions to our languishing City and acting as a Soldier which was a new profession to me at the age of above sixty when others are dispensed from it For all which I had so entire a satisfaction in my mind and conscience that I am perswaded this cordial made me able to support the sufferings which befell me after our Catastrophe and to rejoyce in them so far that all the malice and cruelty of our enemies could never draw one word from me unsutable to the honour I thought I merited and did in some sort enjoy for being instrumental to defend as long as it was possible our Altars and our Hearths But all that I have undergone hath been abundantly recompenced to me by the favour and courtesie of the most excellent Signior Cosimo who hath been pleased to offer me all the preferments the greatest ambition could aspire to which I did not refuse out of any scruple to serve so incomparable a Prince whose early years manifest so much Courage Humanity and Prudence and so Fatherly a care of the publick good but because I was very desirous not to accept of a charge which I was not able to perform my years and infirmities having now brought me to a condition in which I am fitter to live in a Cloyster than a Palace and made me good for nothing but to talk of past times the common vice of old Age So that I did not think it just or grateful to reward this excellent person so ill for his kindness as to give him a useless Servant and to fill up the place of a far better This is all I think fit to say of this matter I chuse to address it to you Zenobio for the constant friendship I have ever entertained with you and formerly with your deceased Father the companion of my Studies and ornament of our City And so I bid you farewel The first of April 1537. THE HISTORY OF FLORENCE CONTAINING An account of the Heroick Enterprizes Publick and Private Transactions with the Civil Dissentions Changes and Alterations in that GOVERNMENT ALSO AN Account of the Affairs of ITALY and the Actions Designs and contrivances of most of the PRINCES and STATES therein IN Eight Books By NICOLAS MACHIAVEL LONDON Printed for Iohn Starkey Charles Harper and Iohn Amery at the Miter the Flower-de-Luce and the Peacock in Fleetstreet 1680. THE EPISTLE TO CLEMENT VII BEing commanded by your Holiness whilst in a private condition to writ the History of Florence I addressed my self to it with all the art and diligence wherewith nature and experience had enduced me Having deduc'd it to the times in which upon the death of Magnifico Lorenzo de Medici the whole form and model of Italy was altered and being to describe the height and importance of what followed in a loftier and more vigorous stile I judged it best to reduce what I had written till those times into one Volume and present it to your Holiness that you might at least have a taste of the fruit you had sown your self and of my labour and cultivation In the perusal of this work your Holiness will see first to what ruine and convulsions our Country was exposed for many ages by the variations of Governments after the declension of the Roman Empire in the West You will see how your Predecessors the Venetians the Kingdom of Naples and the Dukedom of Milan took their turns of Empire and Soveraignty in this Province You will see your own Country refusing obedience to the Emperors by reason of the divisions and those divisions continuing till under the protection of your Family it began to settle into a Government And because it was your Holiness particular command that in my character of your Ancestors I should avoid all kind of flattery truepraise not being morepleasing to you than counterfeit is ungrateful fearing in my description of the bounty of Giovanni the wisdom of Cosimo the courtesie of Piero the magnificence and solidity of Lorenzo I may seem to have transgressed your holiness direction I do most humbly excuse my self both in that and whatever else in my descriptions may appear unfaithful to your holiness dissatisfaction for finding the memoirs and relations of those who in sundry Ages made any mention of them full of their commendations I must either present them as I found them or pass them by as if I envied them And if as some write under their great and egregious exploits there was always some latent and ambitious design contrary to the interest and liberty of the publick I know nothing of it and am not bound to relate it for in all my narrations I never desired to cloak or palliate a dishonourable action with an honourable pretence nor to traduce a good action tho to a contrary end But how far I am from flattery is to be seen in the whole course of my History especially in my speeches and private discourses which do plainly and without reservation describe with the sentences and order of their language the dignity and humour of the persons I avoid likewise in all places such words as are impertinent to the verity or reputation of history so that no man who considers my writings impartially can charge me with adulation especially if he observes how little or nothing I have said of your holiness own Father whose life was too short to discover him to the world I too downright to expatiate upon it Nevertheless had he done nothing more but given your holiness to the world that very thing outweighs all the actions of his Ancestors shall leave more ages of honour to his family than his malevolent fortune took years from his life I have endeavored Most Holy Sir as far as might be done without blemish
to the truth to please all people and it may so fall out I have pleased no body If it should I should not wondder seeing in my judgment it is impossible to write any thing of our own times without offence to several Yet I come forth cheerfully into to the field hoping that as I am honoured and employed by your holiness goodness I shall be defended by your holiness judgment and then with the same confidence courage as I have writ now I shall pursue my engagements if my life lasts your holiness continues amongst us The Author's INTRODUCTION WHen I first took upon me to write the History of Florence and its transactions both at home and abroad I thought to have begun at the year 1434 at which time the Family of the Medici exalted by the merits of Cosimo his father Giovanni was in greater authority that any other in that City believing that Messer Leonardo d' Arezzo and Messer Poggio two excellent Historians had given particular description of all the passages before But upon diligent perusal of their writings to inform my self of their orders and methods that thereby my own might have better approbation I found that in their narratives of the Florentine Wars and foreign negotiations they had been accurate enough but in their civil dissentions their intrinsick animosities and in the effects which followed them they were either totally silent or where any thing was mentioned it was with such brevity and abruptness as could yield neither profit nor recreation to the reader Which I conceive they did either out of an opinion that they were inconsiderable and unworthy to be transmitted to Posterity or else they apprehended a necessity of reflecting upon some great persons whose family would be disobliged thereby both which arguments if I may speak it without offence are beneath the grandeur and magnanimity of a great person For if any thing in History be delightfull or profitable it is those particular descriptions if any thing be usefull to such Citizens as have the Government in their hands it is such as represents the feuds and dissentions in the Cities that thereby they mâ—â—be enabled to maintain their own unity at other peoples expence if the example of any Common-wealth moves a man certainly that which is written of ones own makes a much stronger impression and if the factions of any State were ever considerable the factions in Florence were not to be pretermitted the greatest part of other States have not had above one which sometimes has advanced aud sometimes ruined the Government but Florence has had many divisions Everybody knows how in Rome after the expulsion of their King there arose division betwixt the Nobles and the people which continued till one of them was oppressed So it was in Athens and all the Commonwealths which flourished in those times but in Florence the first dissention was betwixt the Nobles the next betwixt the Nobles and Citizens and then betwixt the Citizens and the Plebs in all which one was no sooner superior but it divided again and the effects of those divisions were Murders and Banishments and dispersion of families such as never occurr'd in any City that can be remembred And truly in my judgment nothing demonstrates the power of our City so much as the consequences of those divisions which were enough to have subverted and destroyed any other in the world But ours grew still greater thereby so remarkable was the courage of the Citizens and so efficacious their industry for the advancement of their Country that those few which surviv'd the miseries of their Predecessors did more by their constancy courage towards the advancement of their interest than the malignity of those accidents could do to depress it And doubtless had Florence been so happy after it had freed it self from the Empire to have assum'd such a form of Government as would have preserv'd it in unity I know not any commonwealth either ancient or modern that would have exceeded it or have been comparable to it either in riches or power For it is observable after the Ghibilins were driven out of the Town in such numbers as all Tuscany and Lombardy were full of those exiles the Guelfs and such as were left behind in the expedition against Arezzo which was the year before the battle of Campaldino were able to drawout of their own Citizens 1200 Horse and 12000 Foot And afterwards in the war against Philippo Visconti Duke of Milan being to try their fortune rather withtheir riches than their arms which at that time were very much weakened in five years space which was the length of that war the Florentines expended five millions and 500000 Florens and when that War was composed to ostentate and publish the power of that Commonwealth they marched out with an army and besieged Lucca I do not see therefore for what reason these divisions should not be worthy of relation and if those Noble Authors were restrained by fear of offending the memory of such as they were to speak of they were mightily out and seem not to have understood the ambition of mankind and their desire to have the names of themselves and ancestors transmitted to Posterity nor did they remember that many people not having opportunity to make themselves eminent by good and laudable acts have endeavoured to compass it by any way how scandalous and ignominious soever Neither did they consider that the actions which carry greatness along with them as those of Governments and States what ends soever they have and which way soâ—ever they are described do still leave more honour than infamy to their Family the consideration of which things prevailed with me to alter my design and to begin my History from the very foundation of the City and because it is not my intention to transcribe what has been done before by other people I shall relate such things only as occurr'd within the City to the year 14â—4 mentioning the accidents abroad only so far as will be necessary for the intelligence of the other after which year I shall give a particular description both of the one and the other Besides for the better and more lasting understanding of this History before I treat of Florence I shall discourse of the means by which Italy fell under the dominion of those Potentates which govern'd it at that time all which shall be comprehended in my four first Books the first shall give a short recital of all transactions in Italy from the dissolution of the Roman Empire to the year 1434. The second shall give an account of all affairs from the foundation of the City of Florence to the end of the War against the Pope which commenc'd upon the expulsion of the Duke of Athens the third shall conclude with the death of Ladislaus King of Naples and in the fourth we shall end with the year 1434 from whence afterwards to our present times we shall give a particular