Durant W. The Renaissance. A History of Civilization in Italy from 1304-1576 A.D

It was a dreary isolation for one who had lived at the very core

of Florentine politics. Occasionally he would ride into Florence to

talk with old friends and explore any chance of re-employment. Several

times he wrote to the Medici, but he received no reply. In a

celebrated letter to his friend Vettori, then Florentine ambassador in

Rome, he described his life, and told how he came to write The

Prince:

-

Since my last misfortunes I have led a quiet country life. I rise

with the sun, and go into one of the woods for a few hours to

inspect yesterday's work; I pass some time with the woodcutters, who

have always some troubles to tell me, either of their own or their

neighbors'. On leaving the wood I go to a spring, and thence up to

my bird-snaring enclosure, with a book under my arm- Dante,

Petrarch, or one of the minor poets, such as Tibullus or Ovid. I

read their amorous transports and the history of their loves,

recalling my own to my mind, and time passes pleasantly in these

meditations. Then I betake myself to the inn by the roadside, chat

with passers-by, ask news of the places whence they come, hear various

things, and note the varied tastes and diverse fancies of mankind.

This carries me to the dinner hour, when, in the company of my

brood, I swallow whatever fare this poor little place of mine, and

my slender patrimony, can afford me. In the afternoon I go back to the

inn. There I generally find the host, a butcher, a miller, and a

couple of brickmakers. I mix with these boors the whole day, playing

at cricca and tric trac, which games give rise to a thousand

quarrels and much exchange of bad language; and we generally wrangle

over farthings, and our shouts can be heard in San Casciano town.

Steeped in this degradation my wits grow moldy, and I vent my rage

at the indignity of fate....

At nightfall I return home and seek my writing room; and divesting

myself on its threshold of my rustic garments, stained with mud and

mire, I assume courtly attire; and thus suitably clothed, I enter

within the ancient courts of ancient men, by whom, being cordially

welcomed, I am fed with the food that alone is mine, and for which I

was born, and am not ashamed to hold discourse with them and inquire

the motives of their actions; and these men in their humanity reply to

me; and for the space of four hours I feel no weariness, remember no

trouble, no longer fear poverty, no longer dread death; my whole being

is absorbed in them. And since Dante says that there could be no

science without retaining that which is heard, I have recorded that

which I have acquired from the conversation of these worthies, and

have composed a pamphlet De principatibus, in which I plunge as

deeply as I can into cogitations upon this subject, discussing the

nature of princedom, of how many species it consists, how these are to

be acquired, how they are maintained, why they are lost; and if you

ever cared for any of my scribbles, this one ought not to displease

you. And it should be especially welcome to a new prince; for which

reason I dedicate it to his Magnificence, Giuliano.... (December 10,

1513) `051976

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Probably Machiavelli has here simplified the story. Apparently he

began by writing his Discourses on the First Ten Books of Livy,

completing his commentary on only the first three books. He

dedicated these Discorsi to Zanobi Buondelmonti and Cosimo Rucellai,

saying: "I send you the worthiest gift I have to offer, inasmuch as it

comprises all that I have learned from long experience and

continuous study." He remarks that classic literature and law and

medicine have been revived to enlighten modern writing and practice;

he proposes likewise to resuscitate classic principles of

government, and apply them to contemporary politics. He does not

derive his political philosophy from history, but selects from history

incidents supporting the conclusions to which he has been led by his

own experience and thought. He takes his examples almost entirely from

Livy, sometimes in his haste basing arguments on legends, and

occasionally helping himself to morsels from Polybius.

As he proceeded with the Discourses, he perceived that they

would be too long, and too long delayed in their completion, to

serve as a practical gift to one of the ruling Medici. Therefore he

interrupted the work to write a summary that would embody his

conclusions; this would have a better chance of being read, and of

bringing a fair return in the friendship of the powerful family that

now (1513) ruled half of Italy. So he composed Il principe (as he

came to entitle the book) in a few months of that year. He planned

to dedicate it to Giuliano de' Medici, then ruling Florence; but

Giuliano died (1516) before Machiavelli could make up his mind to send

the book to him; so he rededicated it, and sent it, to Lorenzo, Duke

of Urbino, who made no acknowledgment of it. It circulated in

manuscript, and was surreptitiously copied; it was not printed till

1532, five years after the author's death. Thereafter it was among the

most frequently reprinted books in any language.

To his own description of himself we can add only the anonymous

portrait of him in the Uffizi Gallery. It shows a slender figure

with pale face, hollow cheeks, sharp dark eyes, thin lips tightly

closed; obviously a man of thought rather than of action, and of

keen intelligence rather than of amiable will. He could not be a

good diplomat because he was too visibly subtle, nor a good

statesman because he was too intense, grasping ideas fanatically as in

the portrait he tightly clasps the gloves that affirm his

semigenteel rank. This man who so often wrote like a cynic, whose lips

so often curled into sarcasm, who plumed himself on such perfect

mendacity that he could make people think he lied when he spoke the

truth, `051977 was in his heart of hearts a flaming patriot, who

made the salus populi the suprema lex, and subordinated all

morality to the unification and redemption of Italy.

There were many unlikable qualities in him. When Borgia was up he

idealized him; when Borgia was down he followed the crowd and

denounced the broken Caesar as a criminal and "a rebel against

Christ." `051978 When the Medici were out he condemned them

eloquently; when they were in he licked their boots for a post. He not

only visited brothels before and after marriage, but sent his

friends detailed descriptions of his adventures there. `051979 Several

of his letters are so coarse that not even his most voluminous and

admiring biographer has dared to publish them. Nearing fifty,

Machiavelli writes: "Cupid's nets still enthrall me. Bad roads

cannot exhaust my patience, nor dark nights daunt my courage.... My

whole mind is bent on love, for which I give Venus thanks." `051980

These things are forgivable, for man was not made for monogamy; but

less pardonable, though quite in harmony with the custom of the times,

is the complete absence, from all of Machiavelli's considerable

surviving correspondence, of any word of tenderness- of any word-

about his wife.

Meanwhile he turned his able pen to divers forms of composition, and

rivaled the masters in each. In a treatise on the art of war

( L'arte della guerra, 1520) he announced to states and generals,

from his ivory tower, the laws of military power and success. A nation

that has lost the martial virtues is doomed. An army requires not gold

but men; "gold alone will not procure good soldiers, but good soldiers

will always procure gold"; `051981 gold will flow to the strong

nation, but strength departs from the rich nation, for wealth makes

for ease and decay. Consequently an army must be kept busy; a little

war now and then will keep the martial muscles and apparatus in

trim. Cavalry is beautiful, except when faced with sturdy pikes; the

infantry must ever be regarded as the very nerve and foundation of

an army. `051982 Mercenary armies are the shame and sloth and ruin

of Italy; each state should have a citizen militia, constituted of men

who would be fighting for their own country, their own lands.

Trying his hand at fiction, Machiavelli wrote one of Italy's most

popular novelle, Belfagor arcidiavolo, bursting with satiric wit

on the institution of marriage. Turning to drama, he composed the

outstanding comedy of the Italian Renaissance stage, Mandragola. The

prologue struck a new note, making a novel curtsey to critics:

-

Should anyone seek to cow the author by evil-speaking, I warn you

that he, too, knows how to speak evil, and indeed excels in the art;

and that he has no respect for anyone in Italy, though he bows and

scrapes to those better dressed than himself. `051983

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The play is an astounding revelation of Renaissance morals. The

scene is laid in Florence. Callimaco, hearing an acquaintance praise

the beauty of Lucrezia, wife of Nicias, decides- though he has never

seen her- that he must seduce her if only to be able to sleep in

peace. He is disturbed to learn that Lucrezia is as famous for her

modesty as for her beauty; but he takes hope on being told that Nicias

frets over her failure to conceive. He bribes a friend to introduce

him to Nicias as a physician. He professes to have a potion that will

make any woman fertile; but, alas, the first man who lies with her

after she has taken it will soon afterward die. He offers to undertake

this mortal adventure, and Nicias, with the traditional kindness of

characters to their authors, consents to be replaced. But Lucrezia is

obstinately virtuous; she hesitates to commit both adultery and murder

in one night. All is not lost; her mother, lusting for progeny, bribes

a friar to advise her in the confessional to go through with the plan.

Lucrezia yields, drinks, lies with Callimaco, and becomes pregnant.

The story ends with everybody happy: the friar purifies Lucrezia,

Nicias rejoices in his vicarious parentage, and Callimaco can sleep.

The play is excellent in structure, brilliant in dialogue, powerful in

satire. What startles us is not the seductive theme, long hackneyed in

classical comedy, nor even the merely physical interpretation of love,

but the turn of the plot upon the readiness of a friar to counsel

adultery for twenty-five ducats, and the fact that in 1520 the play

was produced with great success before Leo X in Rome. The Pope was so

pleased with it that he asked Cardinal Giulio de' Medici to give

Machiavelli some employment as a writer. Giulio suggested a history of

Florence, and offered 300 ducats ($3,750?).

The resultant Storie Fiorentine (1520-5) was almost as decisive

a revolution in historiography as The Prince in political

philosophy. It is true that the book had vital defects: it was hastily

inaccurate, it plagiarized substantial passages from previous

historians, it was more interested in the strife of factions than in

the development of institutions, and it totally ignored cultural

history- as did nearly every historian before Voltaire. But it was the

first major history written in Italian, and its Italian was clear,

vigorous, and direct; it rejected the fables with which Florence had

embellished her origins; it abandoned the usual chronicle year-by-year

plan, and gave, instead, a smooth-flowing and logical narrative; it

dealt not merely with events but with causes and effects; and it

forced upon the chaos of Florentine politics a clarifying analysis

of conflicting families, classes, and interests. It carried the tale

along on two unifying themes: that the popes had kept Italy divided to

preserve the temporal independence of the papacy; and that the great

advances of Italy had come under princes like Theodoric, Cosimo, and

Lorenzo. That a book with such tendencies should have been written

by a man seeking papal ducats, and that Pope Clement VII accepted

its dedication without complaint, illustrates the courage of the

author and the mental and financial liberality of the Pope.

The History of Florence gave Machiavelli occupation for five

years, but it did not satisfy his longing to swim again in the muddy

stream of politics. When Francis I lost everything but honor and his

skin at Pavia (1525), and Clement VII found himself helpless against

Charles V, Machiavelli sent letters to the Pope and to Guicciardini,

explaining what could yet be done against the imminent

Spanish-German conquest of Italy; and perhaps his suggestion that

the Pope should arm, empower, and finance Giovanni delle Bande Nere

might have delayed destiny awhile. When Giovanni died, and the

German horde advanced upon Florence as a rich and plunderable ally

of the French, Machiavelli rushed to the city, and, at Clement's

request, prepared a report on how the walls might be restored to

make it defensible. On May 18, 1526, he was chosen by the Medicean

government to head a board of five "Curators of the Walls." The

Germans, however, by-passed Florence and headed for Rome. When that

city was sacked, and Clement was a prisoner of the mob, the republican

party in Florence once more expelled the Medici and restored the

republic (May 16, 1527). Machiavelli rejoiced, and hopefully applied

for his old post as secretary of the Ten for War. He was turned down

(June 10, 1527); his dealings with the Medici had lost him the support

of the republicans.

He did not long survive that blow. The vital spark of life and

hope flickered out in him, and left the flesh spiritless. He fell ill,

suffering violent spasms of the stomach. Wife, children, and friends

gathered round his bedside. He confessed to a priest and died,

twelve days after his rejection. He left his family in the utmost

poverty, and the Italy that he had labored to unite was in ruins. He

was buried in the church of Santa Croce, where a handsome monument,

marked with the words, Tanto nomini nullum par elogium - "No eulogy

would do justice to so great a name"- bears witness that an Italy at

last united has forgiven his sins and remembered his dream.

3. The Philosopher

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Let us examine the "Machiavellian" philosophy as impartially as we

can. Nowhere else shall we find so much independent and fearless

thinking on ethics and politics. Machiavelli was justified in claiming

that he had opened new routes on relatively untraveled seas.

It is almost exclusively a political philosophy. There is no

metaphysics here, no theology, no theism or atheism, no discussion

of determinism or free will; and ethics itself is soon shoved aside as

subordinate to, almost a tool of, politics. Politics he understands as

the high art of creating, capturing, protecting, and strengthening a

state. He is interested in states rather than in humanity. He sees

individuals merely as members of a state; except as they help to

determine its destiny, he pays no attention to the parade of egos

across the landscape of time. He wishes to know why states rise and

fall, and how they can be made to defer as long as possible their

inevitable decay.

A philosophy of history, a science of government, are possible, he

thinks, because human nature never changes.

-

Wise men say, not without reason, that whoever wishes to foresee the

future must consult the past; for human events ever resemble those

of preceding times. This arises from the fact that they are produced

by men who have been, and ever will be, animated by the same passions;

and thus they must necessarily have the same results.... `051984 I

believe that the world has always been the same, and has always

contained as much good and evil, although variously distributed

among the nations according to the times. `051985

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Among the most instructive regularities of history are the phenomena

of growth and decay in civilizations and states. Here Machiavelli

meets a very complex problem with a very simple formula. "Valor

produces peace; peace, repose; repose, disorder; disorder, ruin.

From disorder order springs; from order, valor ( virtu ); and from

this, glory and good fortune. Hence wise men have observed that the

age of literary excellence is subsequent to that of distinction in

arms; and that... great warriors are produced before

philosophers." `051986 In addition to the general factors in growth or

decay may be the action and influence of leading individuals; so the

excessive ambition of a ruler, blinding him to the inadequacy of his

resources for his aims, may ruin his state by leading it into war with

a stronger power. Fortune or chance also enters into the rise and fall

of states. "Fortune is the arbiter of one half our actions, but she

still leaves us to direct the other half." `051987 The more virtu

a man has, the less will he be subject to fortune or yield to it.

The history of a state follows general laws, determined by the

natural wickedness of men. All men are by nature acquisitive,

deceitful, pugnacious, cruel, and corrupt.

-

Whoever wishes to found a state and give it laws, must start with

assuming that all men are bad and ever ready to display their

vicious nature whenever they find occasion for it. If their evil

disposition remains concealed for a time, it must be attributed to

some unknown reason; and we must assume that it lacked occasion to

show itself; but time... does not fail to bring it to light.... The

wish to acquire is in truth very natural and common, and men always

acquire when they can; and for this they will be praised, not

blamed. `051988

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This being so, men can be made good- i.e., capable of living with

order in a society- only by the application, in sequence, of force,

deceit, and habit. This is the origin of a state: the organization

of force through army and police, the establishment of rules and laws,

and the gradual formation of habits, for the maintenance of leadership

and order in a human group. The more developed a state, the less force

will have to be used or visible in it; indoctrination and habit will

suffice; for in the hands of a capable lawgiver or ruler the people

are as soft clay in the hands of a sculptor.

The best means of habituating naturally wicked men to law and

order is religion. Machiavelli, whom his admirer Paolo Giovio calls

irrisor et atheos, a satirical atheist, `051989 writes

enthusiastically about religious institutions:

-

Although the founder of Rome was Romulus... yet the gods did not

judge the laws of this prince sufficient... and therefore they

inspired the Roman Senate to elect Numa Pompilius as his successor....

Numa, finding a very savage people, and wishing to reduce them to

civil obedience by the arts of peace, had recourse to religion as

the most necessary and assured support of any civil society; and he

established it upon such foundations that for many centuries there was

nowhere more fear of the gods than in that republic; which greatly

facilitated all the enterprises which the Senate or its great men

attempted.... Numa feigned that he held converse with a nymph, who

dictated to him all that he wished to persuade the people to.... In

truth there never was any remarkable lawgiver... who did not resort to

divine authority, as otherwise his laws would not have been accepted

by the people; for there are many good laws the importance of which is

known to the sagacious lawgiver, but the reasons for which are not

sufficiently evident to enable him to persuade others to submit to

them; and therefore do wise men, to remove this difficulty, resort

to divine authority.... `051990 The observance of religious

institutions is the cause of the greatness of republics; disregard

of these institutions produces the ruin of states. For where the

fear of God is wanting, there the country will be destroyed, unless it

be sustained by fear of the prince, which may for a time supply the

want of religion. But the lives of princes are short....

Princes and republics who wish to maintain themselves... must

above all things preserve the purity of religious observances, and

treat them with proper reverence.... `051992 Of all men who have

been eulogized, those deserve it most who have been the authors and

founders of religions. Next come such as have established republics or

kingdoms. After these the most celebrated are those who have commanded

armies and have extended the possessions of their country. To these

may be added literary men.... Conversely, those men are doomed to

infamy and universal execration who have destroyed religions, who have

overturned republics and kingdoms, who are enemies of virtue or of

letters. `051993

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Having accepted religion in general, Machiavelli turns upon

Christianity and excoriates it as having failed to make good citizens.

It diverted too much attention to heaven, and enfeebled men by

preaching the feminine virtues:

-

The Christian religion makes us hold of small account the love of

this world, and renders us more gentle. The ancients, on the contrary,

found their highest delight in this world.... Their religion beatified

none but men crowned with worldly glory, such as leaders of armies and

founders of republics; whereas our religion has rather glorified

meek and contemplative men than men of action. It has placed the

supreme good in humility and poorness of spirit, and in contempt for

worldly things; whereas the other placed it in greatness of mind, in

bodily strength, and in all that gives men daring.... Thus the world

has fallen a prey to the wicked, who have found men readier, for the

sake of going to paradise, to submit to blows rather than to resent

them.... `051994

Had the religion of Christianity been preserved according to the

ordinances of its Founder, the states and commonwealths of Christendom

would have been far more united and happy than they are. Nor can there

be a greater proof of its decadence than the fact that the nearer

people are to the Roman Church, the head of this religion, the less

religious are they. And whoever examines the principles on which

that religion is founded, and sees how widely different from those

principles its present practice and application are, will judge that

her ruin or chastisement is near at hand.... `051995 Possibly the

Christian religion would have been entirely extinguished by its

corruption, had not St. Francis and St. Dominic... restored it to

its original principles.... To ensure a long existence to religious

sects or republics, it is necessary frequently to bring them back to

their original principles. `051996

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We do not know whether these words were written before news had

reached Italy of the Protestant Reformation.

The rebellion of Machiavelli against Christianity is quite different

from the rebellion of Voltaire, Diderot, Paine, Darwin, Spencer,

Renan. These men rejected the theology of Christianity, but retained

and admired the Christian moral code. This attitude continued till

Nietzsche, and softened the "conflict between religion and science."

Machiavelli is not bothered by the incredibility of the dogmas; he

takes that for granted, but accepts the theology with a good stomach

on the ground that some system of supernatural belief is an

indispensable support of social order. What he rejects most decisively

in Christianity is its ethic, its conception of goodness as

Durant W. The Renaissance. A History of Civilization in Italy from 1304-1576 A.D

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