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1CONCERNING ECCLESIASTICAL PRINCIPALITIES It only remains now to speak of ecclesiastical principalities, touching which
2all difficulties are prior to getting possession, because they are acquired either by capacity or good fortune, and they
3can be held without either; for they are sustained by the ancient ordinances of religion, which are so all-powerful, and
4of such a character that the principalities may be held no matter how their princes behave and live. These princes alone
5have states and do not defend them; and they have subjects and do not rule them; and the states, although unguarded, are
6not taken from them, and the subjects, although not ruled, do not care, and they have neither the desire nor the ability
7to alienate themselves. Such principalities only are secure and happy. But being upheld by powers, to which the human
8mind cannot reach, I shall speak no more of them, because, being exalted and maintained by God, it would be the act of a
9presumptuous and rash man to discuss them. Nevertheless, if any one should ask of me how comes it that the Church has
10attained such greatness in temporal power, seeing that from Alexander backwards the Italian potentates (not only those
11who have been called potentates, but every baron and lord, though the smallest) have valued the temporal power very
12slightly--yet now a king of France trembles before it, and it has been able to drive him from Italy, and to ruin the
13Venetians--although this may be very manifest, it does not appear to me superfluous to recall it in some measure to
14memory. Before Charles, King of France, passed into Italy,[1] this country was under the dominion of the Pope, the
15Venetians, the King of Naples, the Duke of Milan, and the Florentines. These potentates had two principal anxieties: the
16one, that no foreigner should enter Italy under arms; the other, that none of themselves should seize more territory.
17Those about whom there was the most anxiety were the Pope and the Venetians. To restrain the Venetians the union of all
18the others was necessary, as it was for the defence of Ferrara; and to keep down the Pope they made use of the barons of
19Rome, who, being divided into two factions, Orsini and Colonnesi, had always a pretext for disorder, and, standing with
20arms in their hands under the eyes of the Pontiff, kept the pontificate weak and powerless. And although there might
21arise sometimes a courageous pope, such as Sixtus, yet neither fortune nor wisdom could rid him of these annoyances. And
22the short life of a pope is also a cause of weakness; for in the ten years, which is the average life of a pope, he can
23with difficulty lower one of the factions; and if, so to speak, one people should almost destroy the Colonnesi, another
24would arise hostile to the Orsini, who would support their opponents, and yet would not have time to ruin the Orsini.
25This was the reason why the temporal powers of the pope were little esteemed in Italy. [1] Charles VIII invaded Italy in
261494. Alexander the Sixth arose afterwards, who of all the pontiffs that have ever been showed how a pope with both
27money and arms was able to prevail; and through the instrumentality of the Duke Valentino, and by reason of the entry of
28the French, he brought about all those things which I have discussed above in the actions of the duke. And although his
29intention was not to aggrandize the Church, but the duke, nevertheless, what he did contributed to the greatness of the
30Church, which, after his death and the ruin of the duke, became the heir to all his labours. Pope Julius came afterwards
31and found the Church strong, possessing all the Romagna, the barons of Rome reduced to impotence, and, through the
32chastisements of Alexander, the factions wiped out; he also found the way open to accumulate money in a manner such as
33had never been practised before Alexander's time. Such things Julius not only followed, but improved upon, and he
34intended to gain Bologna, to ruin the Venetians, and to drive the French out of Italy. All of these enterprises
35prospered with him, and so much the more to his credit, inasmuch as he did everything to strengthen the Church and not
36any private person. He kept also the Orsini and Colonnesi factions within the bounds in which he found them; and
37although there was among them some mind to make disturbance, nevertheless he held two things firm: the one, the
38greatness of the Church, with which he terrified them; and the other, not allowing them to have their own cardinals, who
39caused the disorders among them. For whenever these factions have their cardinals they do not remain quiet for long,
40because cardinals foster the factions in Rome and out of it, and the barons are compelled to support them, and thus from
41the ambitions of prelates arise disorders and tumults among the barons. For these reasons his Holiness Pope Leo[2] found
42the pontificate most powerful, and it is to be hoped that, if others made it great in arms, he will make it still
43greater and more venerated by his goodness and infinite other virtues. [2] Pope Leo X was the Cardinal de' Medici.
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