The Downfall Of The Catholic Church: How The Renaissance Foreshadowed The Reformation

By comparing literature, changing ideas, values and attitudes all which reflect the current context is evident, none the more than in the Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli, a treatise for young princes on power, and Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare, a tragedy which actualises Machiavelli’s cynical ideologies. The prince was written during the Renaissance where there was a shift from scholasticism to humanism- a more logical and less religiously influence cultural movement. Similarly, Julius Caesar was written when the Elizabethan Era- the so called golden era of Britain- was coming to an end with no obvious heir to the throne. In light of this, we can acknowledge how literary techniques and features illustrated the contextual links to the texts. Deception is to politics what death is to life, unavoidable and completely justifiable.

Then as an attempt to regain a political post and my family’s good favour, Machiavelli wrote The Prince, which was inspired by the shrewd and cunning Cesare Borgia in 1532! Which helped to fuel his fame up to this day! The notorious book espoused his views that strong rulers should be harsh with their subjects and enemies, and that any action with no moral views is okay to do so if the leader thinks it is so. ‘The prince’ was manly for advice to me- Lorenzo De Medici .He wrote that fear and deception were the best ways to allow better political control and for any rulers to remain in power.

Concerning The Prince: Love and Fear In The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli, he discusses and describes several pieces of advice on how to be a successful prince. While there is plenty of advice to look at in The Prince, this paper will just focus on Machiavelli’s advice and thoughts on being a prince in chapter 17. In chapter 17 he discusses the question of which is better for a prince; to be loved or to be feared. Machiavelli believes both should be the answer, but since it is difficult for one person to achieve both, it is a better choice to be a feared prince because of the connections one would have with his people and less chance of betrayal, but being feared should not be misused as cruelty and hate should be avoided.

Within this essay, one will be able to identify as to why the story of The Prince may have conflicted with Catholicism and Christianity, causing the Catholicism not only to ban the book, The Prince, but also all of Machiavelli’s works in 1559 for over 300 years. Throughout the Medieval and Renaissance era of times, there were books that offered advice to rulers. During these times, one of the famous examples was the instructional manual written to rulers by Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam. It was called The Education of a Christian Prince (Instituo Principlis Christiani), published in 1516.

Niccolo Machiavelli was a standout amongst the well-known philosophers of the Italian Renaissance. He exhibited a drastically unique view of how a prince should run his state than other political philosophers of the time. From his perception of Italian governmental issues and the Medici Family, he believed that Italy required a ruler who could take control over the state and maintain its political power. With this new perspective of politics, Machiavelli wrote his most famous book, The Prince, to draw a line among politics and morals, and accentuated how human nature should attribute to the state should continue to maintain its statue by analyzing historical facts and events. Machiavelli seemed to have a critical look regarding human nature.

Insert Title Here Niccolo Machiavelli was a controversial man. He was the first person of his time to acknowledge and applaud the fact that refusing to follow Christian values made a ruler successful. During the 15th century, it was almost unheard of for a man to deny Christianity. Rulers especially were expected to be Christian men who would rule wisely because of their principles. While everyone else avoided this sensitive subject entirely, Machiavelli urged the people of his time to see the truth of one man ruling many people, which was often hidden behind the mask of battles, palaces, money, feasts, and charitable acts.

Science and reason are placed side by side as viable alternatives to the dictates of religion. Thus, the Roman Church represented an outmoded way of looking at the world. It was easy indeed to cite its abuses as evidence that faith represents bondage. Enlightenment represents freedom of thought and freedom of action. The emphasis shifted from God to man or more accurately, from the Church to man.

The Prince is a revolutionary political treatise by Machiavelli, sometimes considered to be one of the first works of modern political philosophy, that invoked extensive debate due to its controversial preferencing of reality’s truths above moral ideals. In this book, Machiavelli presents a series of claims about how a prince, a term in this setting generally used to mean any ruler or sovereign, should act in order to obtain glory, respect, and power. These claims have received widespread critical attention, namely because of his support for using, even needing to use, violent and often immoral actions in order to retain such power. He justifies this notion with the further claim that otherwise, without committing these immoral actions, a prince

The Prince, by Niccolò Machiavelli which was originally “distributed in 1513” (Machiavelli), is a formal discourse over how a leader will obtain and preserve government power with their subjects and the realm of which they rule. Machiavelli’s Qualities of the Prince emphasizes on what makes a good leader, and he especially claims that a prince should “make himself feared in such a manner that he will avoid hatred” and if “he must take someone’s life, he should do so when there are proper justification and manifest cause,” “but, above all, he should avoid the property of others.” Because a new prince has to use force to establish order, he cannot avoid acquiring a reputation for cruelty, Machiavelli insists, though he admits that it would be best for a leader to be both feared and loved, and that a leader could be both feared and loved if he succeeded in establishing and maintaining order where there had been none. However, since it is difficult to be both loved and feared, Machiavelli cautions, it is safer

Niccoolo Machiavelli is an Italian writer born in 1469 and one of the most influencing writers in the history of politics. Machiavelli finished writing his famous book “The Prince” in 1514, however, the book was published in 1532 after his death. Machiavelli wrote the prince as a guide for rulers to maintain and escalate their power, therefore, he was realistic and down to earth and instead of using ideal republics he spoke the truth of the human nature and how to survive the obstacles in order to become a great “prince”. Some people claim that Machiavelli is the devil and his book is evil full of fear and hatred, however, I firmly believe that Machiavelli’s theories are wisely balanced as he did not turn a blind eye on the importance of being

The Prince Machiavelli is the author of the book “The Prince”, which consists of inspiration from the Roman Empire in order to change Italy for the better. Machiavelli is inspired by how unified the Roman Empire was and realized that’s how it became so powerful. As a result Machiavelli wrote a book about what type of leader it would take to build a new and improved unified Italy. When Machiavelli wrote “The Prince” it was almost intended to recollect a hand book for rulers; however, his style of teaching was different than that of an “ethical” man.

Many consider The Prince a main contributor to today’s modern day politics. Although his ideas stir controversy and the pope saying it was written by the hand of the devil, is is difficult to ignore the truth Machiavelli says in his

Niccolò Machiavelli wrote a book which called The Prince. It is about the political ideology of Machiavelli's political realism, which means the effective truth is taken to be more important than any abstract ideal. In this book, he talks about the importance of the concept of virtú. He claimed that rulers have to suppress their personal virtues while sometimes committing improper acts in order to maintain powers and protect their principalities. In Discourses, Machiavelli becomes to extols the virtues of a republic.

It is the purpose of this paper is to review the book titled, The Prince, by Niccolo Machiavelli, translated by W. K. Marriott. Niccolo Machiavelli wrote The Prince well over 500 years ago during period after, which he had fallen out of a place of power in the very political arena of Italy in 1512. This book is too many who have recently read and interpreted the work, refer to it as a road map of sorts to gain, maintain, and control one’s self interest in a seat of power, Machiavelli’s entity for this, a prince. Although at times this roadmaps interpretation results in a vilified view, resulting in the adjective Machiavellian, used to describe calculating, deceiving, or merciless, it is by no means such a guide. In fact, the book could

The Prince taught that ethical principles of Christianity (or any religion for that matter) cannot be used in politics if one is trying to stay in power. It suggests that one must think like their enemy even if it is not adhering one’s principles. It is even said that “fear is greater than love” (Machiavelli 131). A leader that is feared has more control over people who believe that their leader loves because the people that are in fear will make sure that they are on the ruler’s good side. If the people thought that the rulers loved them they would feel that they could get away with more