Question
In lieu of the final research paper originally envisioned in this course, please write a 7 page paper on:
Given Machiavelli’s context and texts (especially The Prince, The Discorsi, plays and “Sermon on Penitence,” what can you conclude about his views on religion and the extent of his own piety?
Sources to be cited : at least Obligatory: The Prince, The discoursi, Sermon on Penitence a few relevant others of your choosing
Solution
Machiavelli’s Views on Religion and the Extent of his Piety
Scholars appear to disagree about the precise view of Machiavelli on religion. His readers, who view his writings at face value, focus on his claims that Christianity has made the civic spirit and martial prowess in Italy weaker. Instead of strengthening the civic spirit, Christianity opened it to priestcraft and foreign invasion. However, other scholars view his critique of Christianity as a way of expressing the irreligious, neopagan, immoral, or scientific Machiavelli (Orwin 1217). Among the supporters of this view consider Machiavelli’s anthropology as a way of making Augustine’s version of original sin more secular, devoid of the Garden of Eden, and the redemption that followed the fall of man. (Tarcov 193). Yet, another perspective of Machiavelli’s religious view considers his treatment of Christianity as a tool to promote favorable political behavior. Regardless of the many views of Machiavelli’s opinion of religion, the most evident in The Prince, The Discourse, plays, and “Sermon on Penitence” is religion as a means of promoting ideal political behavior. Machiavelli achieved his piety by observing and promoting a virtuous life.
Machiavelli presented a captivating blend of honesty and ambiguity in his views of religion in the politics of his time. He expressed a stand towards the subject that secular modernity would find familiar, but mystifying. Machiavelli’s view on religion was a message to leaders of republics or principalities to ignore religious dictates when essential but affirmed that a religious appearance was necessary for them. He also appeared to suggest that leaders should support their subjects to cling to religion. He praised ecclesiastical principalities as the means through which to secure happiness (Preus 173). However, he challenged Christianity as having made Italy more divided and corrupt. Regardless of the controversy surrounding his view of religion, he appeared to suggest that it was a critical part of the rulership of the republic. It was impossible to get rid of religion and its related moral dictates in the politics of his time.
Machiavelli believed that religion was human-made, and its value was in its capacity to support social order. Religion, according to him, was only valid if it would promote positive political behavior in society. He used religious leaders as the model of good leadership that religion promotes. In The Prince and The Discourses, he mentions “prophets” as the models of good leadership. He uses the examples of Moses, Cyrus the Great, Theseus, and Romulus as the most successful Princes that leaders should emulate (Machiavelli 200). He further suggested that they were the founders of politics and provide the mechanism through which later leaders should use in their leadership. However, he critiques the foreleaders (pagans and religious) because some of them engaged in battle and killed many people, which he considered immoral. He argued that religion brought cruel and wicked men into politics. Thus, his perspective of religion is that which dictated how people would behave politically.
Machiavelli introduced the concept of the fear of the Supreme in civic society. However, he replaced the fear of God with the fear of the Prince. Regardless, Machiavelli suggested that religious subjects should fear the source of authority. He further argued that having a religion, which promotes reverence to authority (especially with a strong enough Prince) was a necessary precondition for order in a republic. He also believed that although the Prince might not be inherently religious, he should promote religion among the subjects. He integrated religion into his accounts of princes (Strauss 226). Machiavelli mentioned that religion is critical for practical politics in any society because it taught the subjects how to behave towards their leaders. He argued that the fear of God (or leader) facilitated planning among rulers because they could rule over their subjects with great efficiency. Furthermore, religion played an essential role in commanding armies, animating the plebs, shaming the wicked, and keeping men good (Preus 173). Thus, religion determined the relationship between the ruler and the subjects.
Machiavelli’s view of religion focused on the ability to promote morality in people, especially those in leadership. He suggested that for political success, and security of people, rules of morality are necessary to create an effective civic society. He suggested that effective leadership should imitate the virtuous deeds of ancient captains, kings, legislators, and citizens. In the preface of the Discourses on Livy, Machiavelli laments that the leaders of his time had ignored the deeds of the greater leaders (Sumberg 172). He further explained that this arises “not so much from the weakness into which the present religion has led the world as it does from the judgment that imitation of the ancients is impossible, as if heaven, the sun, elements, and men varied in motion, order, and power from what they were anciently (Machiavelli 193). He suggested that Christianity weakened the world and impeded imitation of ancient morality in the leadership of the republic. He judged that it was impossible to imitate the ancient rulers because Christianity had weakened the rulership of the state. Furthermore, ancient views suggested that man is born, lives, and dies and that the process occurs in the same order always. Christianity contradicts the view by suggesting that although man is born, lives, and dies, rebirth occurs. Therefore, Machiavelli focused on the importance of morality in leadership, although Christianity weakened the view of ancient virtues in leadership.
Machiavelli focused on the implications of religion in the ability to live a prudent life. He suggested the existence of “extraordinary laws” that are unlike “civil and military orders” that Romulus introduced. Some scholars translate his views as religious laws that promoted morality in leadership. His views affirmed the truism that it would be impossible to order and use religious laws devoid of religion itself. However, his argument in relation to religion in leadership obligation remained vague (Strauss 226). For example, his view that Numa was a greater obligation for Rome than Romulus is unclear. His rank of Numa over Romulus relates to his contrast between a weak and an excellent prince. He also concludes that Romulus’s virtue allowed Numa to govern with “the arts of peace” (Machiavelli 195). Some scholars suggest that the statement meant that religion was simply the substitute of the weak for war and virtue. Machiavelli’s religious beliefs suggested the way of life for the people of Rome from a political perspective.
Machiavelli suggested the way religion should guide political leadership, including in battle. For example, in The Prince, he argued that Louis lost his Italian conquest because of erring, which means that he failed to follow the dictates of religion in rulership. He further concluded that the loss was not any miracle but reasonable and ordinary (Machiavelli, 200). Machiavelli claimed that religion presents an order of the things that makes them reasonable and ordinary. Humans should live according to these dictates to succeed in various aspects of life, especially political leadership. He explained political failure and success based on rationality and ignored any other explanation (Tarcov 195). Although he does not discount the possibility of divinity in ordering life, he argued that universal causes do not have a huge implication on the success or failure in leadership. Regardless of mentioning religion in The Prince, he suggested the Church’s limitation in teaching kings how to lead, such as following papal approval in various aspects of life like teaching them to depend on miracle rather than on their prudence and virtue.
Machiavelli affirmed the role of religion as a source of virtue in his numerous teachings. He suggested the power of religion in a claim regarding Agathocles of Syracuse in the eighth chapter of The Prince “one cannot call it a virtue to kill one’s citizens, betray one’s friends, to be without faith, without pity, without religion; these modes can enable one to acquire rule, but not glory” (Machiavelli 200). However, he wrote of Agathocles’s “virtue” suggesting that irreligion was a way of acquiring acquire rule. However, the state would hinder the achievement of glory. He wrote about the princes desiring the acquisition of both rule and glory. He added that acquisition of rule necessitates virtue in the perspective of the will and capability to use whichever means necessary to gain glory (Sumberg 27). The achievement of actual virtue required real religion instead of a perception of being religious. Many leaders would spend most of their lives striving to gain the two qualities, which they saw as the preconditions for greatness. Thus, virtue was a critical condition in the religious ideals that Machiavelli propagated.
The “Sermon on Penitence” provides an idea of the extent to which Machiavelli pursued his piety. He focused on the connection between politics and religion because the two are intimately related, and one could not become a moral politician without religious virtues. In his Exhortation to Penitence, he revealed his personal view of how a person can achieve real devotion (Sumberg 27). The book is a clear sermon developed and delivered to a religious confraternity. During the final years of his life, he composed the text that explained how he viewed his life from the perspective of piety and how he desired others to follow the same path. The Exhortation is an echo of personal devotion, his personal view of how religion contributed to a virtuous life, which is how he desired to live. He also concluded that a virtuous person would participate morally in social and political affairs.
The context that shapes the dimension of Machiavellian logic provides an analysis of how he pursued his piety. The concept of virtu emerged in what Machiavelli believed was necessary to a great person and political leader, such as the Prince. He developed his model of virtue, which he exemplified in his life. Machiavelli revealed the dependability of moral principles in the pursuit of moral life. He also used his life to present what he meant with a successful life. He might not have been a religious person, but he taught and lived a life of devotion, which exemplified morality and challenged other people to follow the same path. He pursued a fundamental truth, which was anchored in religious and political principles. The political message in The Prince, The Discourse, and “Sermon on Penitence” revealed a true believer in virtue as dictated by religious and political principles (Sumberg 31). For example, he challenged corrupt leadership because it violated the need for moral governance in the republic. Simply stated, Machiavelli lived what he preached, which is a moral life, as evidenced in his writing and teachings.
As a philosopher, Niccolò Machiavelli proposed numerous teachings about various aspects of life. Religion was one of his many teachings, but also the most controversial among the interpretations of his teachings. Although many scholars have understood his ideas of religion in The Prince, The Discourse, and “Sermon on Penitence” differently, the most powerful message is the role of religion in political life during his days. He suggested that although leaders could have the leeway to avoid religion in their rulership, they were expected to demand religious observance among their subjects. Thus, religion was an important condition to build a dedicated followership in the republic. He also suggested the need for religion because it promoted virtuous living among the leaders and the people. To a large extent, he focused on morality to achieve his personal devotion. The concept of virtù is constant in all his texts, the Prince, The Discourse, and “Sermon on Penitence.” Although people disagree about his particular stand on religion, they established that his work included numerous passages that mentioned religion and its role in political behavior in the republic.
Works Cited
Machiavelli, Niccolò. Discourses on Livy. Translated by Harvey C. Mansfield and Nathan Tarcov. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1996.
Machiavelli, Niccolò. The Prince. Translated by Harvey C. Mansfield, Jr. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1985.
Orwin, Clifford. 1978. “Machiavelli’s Unchristian Charity.” American Political Science Review 72: 1217–28.
Preus, J. Samuel. “Machiavelli’s functional analysis of religion: context and object.” Journal of the History of Ideas 40.2 (1979): 171-190.
Strauss, Leo. 1958. Thoughts on Machiavelli. Glencoe: Free Press.
Sumberg, Theodore A. “Machiavelli’s Sermon on Penance.” Perspectives on Political Science 23.4 (1994): 171-173.
Tarcov, Nathan. “Machiavelli’s Critique of Religion.” social research 81.1 (2014): 193-216.
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