title: Chloë Sevigny

text: After graduating from high school, Sevigny found work as a model, and appeared in music videos for Sonic Youth and The Lemonheads, which helped acquire her "it girl" status. In 1995, she made her film debut in "Kids", which earned her critical acclaim. A string of roles in small-scale features throughout the late 1990s, like 1996's "Trees Lounge", further established her as a prominent performer in the independent film scene. Sevigny rose to prominence with her portrayal of Lana Tisdel in the drama film "Boys Don't Cry" (1999), for which she received a nomination for the Academy Award For Best Supporting Actress.


title: Chloë Sevigny

text: Throughout the 2000s, Sevigny appeared in supporting parts in numerous independent films, including "American Psycho" (2000), "Demonlover" (2002); "Party Monster" and "Dogville" (both 2003); and "The Brown Bunny" (2004). Her participation in the last caused considerable controversy due to a scene in which she performed graphic unsimulated fellatio. From 2006 to 2011, Sevigny portrayed Nicolette Grant on the HBO series "Big Love", for which she won a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress in 2010. She also appeared in mainstream films such as David Fincher's "Zodiac" (2007), and the biopic "Mr. Nice" (2010).


title: Chloë Sevigny

text: After the conclusion of "Big Love", Sevigny went on to appear in numerous television projects, starring in the British series "Hit & Miss" (2012), and having supporting roles in "Portlandia" (2013), two seasons of "American Horror Story"; and in the Netflix series "Bloodline" (2015–2017). Sevigny made her directorial debut in 2016 with the short film "Kitty", followed by a second short film titled "Carmen". She had several supporting parts in 2017 before obtaining a lead role portraying Lizzie Borden in the independent thriller "Lizzie" (2018), followed by another lead role in Jim Jarmusch's horror comedy "The Dead Don't Die" (2019). Her third film as a director, a short titled "White Echo", competed for the Short Film Palme d'Or at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival.


title: Chloë Sevigny

text: Chloë Stevens Sevigny was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, on November 18, 1974, the second child of Janine ("née" Malinowski) and Harold David Sevigny (1940–1996). She has one older brother, Paul. According to Sevigny, she added the diaeresis to her first name later in life, and it was not on her birth certificate. Her mother is Polish-American, and her father was of French-Canadian heritage. Sevigny and her brother were raised in a strict Catholic household in affluent Darien, Connecticut, where her father worked first as an accountant, and then as an art teacher. Despite Darien's wealth, the Sevignys had a "frugal" household, and were considered "the poor bohemians in [an] extremely prosperous neighborhood". Sevigny has stated that her father "worked very hard to bring us up in that town ... He wanted us to grow up in a really safe environment."


title: Chloë Sevigny

text: As a child, Sevigny was diagnosed with scoliosis, but never received any surgical treatment for it. She often spent summers attending theater camp, with leading roles in plays run by the YMCA. She attended Darien High School, where she was a member of the Alternative Learning Program. While in high school, she often babysat actor Topher Grace and his younger sister. As a young teenager, she worked sweeping the tennis courts of a country club her family could not afford to join.


title: Chloë Sevigny

text: Sevigny described herself as a "loner" and a "depressed teenager" whose only extracurricular activities were occasionally skateboarding with her older brother and sewing her own clothes. In high school, she grew rebellious and began experimenting with drugs, particularly hallucinogens. She has said that her father was aware of her experimentation, and even told her that it was okay, but that she had "to stop if she had bad trips". Despite her father's leniency, her mother forced her to attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. Sevigny has later stated about her teenage drug use that "I had a great family lifeI would never want it to look as if it reflected on them. I think I was very bored ... I often feel it's because I experimented when I was younger that I have no interest as an adult. I know a lot of adults who didn't, and it's much more dangerous when you start experimenting with drugs as an adult." Sevigny's father died of cancer in 1996, when she was 22 years old.


title: Chloë Sevigny

text: As a teenager, Sevigny would occasionally ditch school in Darien and take the train into Manhattan. In 1992, at age 17, she was spotted on an East Village street by Andrea Linett, a fashion editor of "Sassy" magazine, who was so impressed by her style that she asked her to model for the magazine; she was later made an intern. When recounting the event, Sevigny recalled that Linett "just liked the hat I was wearing." She later modeled in the magazine as well as for X-Girl, the subsidiary fashion label of the Beastie Boys' "X-Large", designed by Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth, which she followed with an appearance in the music video for Sonic Youth's "Sugar Kane".


title: Chloë Sevigny

text: In 1993, at age 19, Sevigny relocated from her Connecticut hometown to an apartment in Brooklyn, and worked as a seamstress. During that time, author Jay McInerney spotted her around New York City and wrote a seven-page article about her for "The New Yorker" in which he dubbed her the new "it girl" and referred to her as one of the "coolest girls in the world." She subsequently appeared on the album cover of Gigolo Aunts' 1994 recording "Flippin' Out" and the EP "Full-On Bloom", as well as in a Lemonheads music video which further increased her reputation on New York's early 1990s underground scene.


title: Chloë Sevigny

text: Sevigny encountered screenwriter and aspiring director Harmony Korine in Washington Square Park during her senior year of high school in 1993. The two became close friends, which resulted in her being cast in the low-budget independent film "Kids" (1995), which was written by Korine and directed by Larry Clark. Sevigny played a New York teenager who discovers she is HIV positive. According to Sevigny, she was originally cast in a much smaller role, but ended up replacing Canadian actress Mia Kirshner. Just two days before production began, the leading role went to Sevigny, who was 19 at the time and had no professional acting experience. "Kids" was highly controversial; the film was given an NC-17 rating by the Motion Picture Association of America for its graphic depiction of sexuality and drug use involving teenagers. Despite this, the film was taken note of critically; Janet Maslin of "The New York Times" considered it a "wake-up call to the modern world" about the nature of the American youth in contemporary urban settings. Sevigny's performance was praised, with critics noting that she brought a tenderness to the chaotic, immoral nature of the film: "Sevigny provided the warm, reflective centre in this feral film." She received an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Supporting Female.


title: Chloë Sevigny

text: Sevigny followed "Kids" with actor/director Steve Buscemi's independent film "Trees Lounge" (1996), starring in a relatively small role as Buscemi's object of affection. During this time, director Mary Harron (after having seen "Kids") offered Sevigny a minor part in her film "I Shot Andy Warhol" (1996). Harron tracked Sevigny down to the SoHo clothing store Liquid Sky, where she was working at the time. Sevigny then gave her first audition ever, but ultimately decided to turn down the part; she would later work with Harron on "American Psycho" (2000). Instead of taking the part in "I Shot Andy Warhol," Sevigny starred in and worked as a fashion designer on "Gummo" (1997), directed and written by Harmony Korine, who was romantically involved with Sevigny during and after filming. "Gummo" was as controversial as Sevigny's debut; set in Xenia, Ohio, the film depicts an array of nihilistic characters in a poverty-stricken community, and presents themes of drug and sexual abuse as well as anti-social alienated youth. Recalling the film, Sevigny cited it as one of her favorite projects: "Young people love that movie. It's been stolen from every Blockbuster in America. It's become a cult film". The film was dedicated to Sevigny's father, who died prior to the film's release.


title: Chloë Sevigny

text: After "Gummo", Sevigny starred in the neo-noir thriller "Palmetto" (1998), playing a young Florida kidnapee alongside Woody Harrelson. Stephen Hunter of "The Washington Post" lambasted the film for having "bad writing," ultimately deeming it "somewhat dull and sluggish." She then had a leading role as a Hampshire College graduate in the sardonic period piece "The Last Days of Disco" (1998), alongside Kate Beckinsale. The film was written and directed by cult director Whit Stillman and details the rise and fall of the Manhattan club scene in the "very early 1980s". Stillman said of Sevigny: "Chloë is a natural phenomenon. You're not directing, she's not performing—it's just real." Janet Maslin of "The New York Times" wrote that Sevigny "is seductively demure" in her performance as Alice. The film was generally well received, but was not a box-office success in the United States, only grossing $3 million—it has since become somewhat of a success as a cult film.


title: Chloë Sevigny

text: Aside from film work, Sevigny starred in a 1998 Off-Broadway production of "Hazelwood Jr. High," which tells the true story of the 1992 murder of Shanda Sharer; Sevigny played 17-year-old Laurie Tackett, one of four girls responsible for torturing and murdering 12-year-old Sharer. Sevigny stated she was so emotionally disturbed after playing the role that she began attending Mass again.


title: Chloë Sevigny

text: Sevigny was cast in the independent drama "Boys Don't Cry" (1999) after director Kimberly Peirce saw her performance in "The Last Days of Disco." Sevigny's role in "Boys Don't Cry"—a biographical film of trans man Brandon Teena, who was raped and murdered in Humboldt, Nebraska in 1993—was responsible for her rise to prominence and her mainstream success. Sevigny played Lana Tisdel, a young woman who fell in love with Teena, initially unaware of the fact that he was a transgender man and continued the relationship after learning about his gender identity. "Boys Don't Cry" received high praise from critics, and was a moderate box-office success. The film was widely credited as featuring some of the best acting of the year, with Sevigny's performance singled out for praise. The "Los Angeles Times" stated that she "plays the role with haunting immediacy", Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun Times" stated that "it is Sevigny who provides our entrance into the story" and "Rolling Stone" wrote that she gives a "performance that burns into the memory". The role earned Sevigny supporting actress nominations for both an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award. She won an Independent Spirit Award, a Satellite Award, and a Sierra Award for her performance.


title: Chloë Sevigny

text: Following the success of "Boys Don't Cry", Sevigny appeared in 1999 in the experimental film "Julien Donkey-Boy", which reunited her with writer-director Harmony Korine. In the film, she played the pregnant sister of a man with schizophrenia. Though it never saw a major theatrical release, the film garnered some critical praise; Roger Ebert gave the film his signature thumbs up, referring to it as ""Freaks" shot by the "Blair Witch" crew", and continuing to say, "The odds are good that most people will dislike this film and be offended by it. For others, it will provoke sympathy rather than scorn". Sevigny also had a small part in the drama film "A Map of the World" (1999), which starred Sigourney Weaver.


title: Chloë Sevigny

text: In 2000, Sevigny played a supporting role in Mary Harron's "American Psycho", based on the controversial 1991 novel by Bret Easton Ellis. She portrayed the office assistant of the main character Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale), a 1980s Manhattan yuppie-turned-serial killer. Similarly to the novel on which it was based, the film was controversial because of its depiction of graphic violence and sexuality in an upper-class Manhattan society. Sevigny also appeared as a lesbian in the Emmy Award-winning television film "If These Walls Could Talk 2" (2000), the sequel to the HBO television drama-film "If These Walls Could Talk" (1996). Sevigny credited it as the only film she ever made for financial benefit, to help her mother with whom she lived in Connecticut in 1998–2000. Around 2000, Sevigny began a relationship with musician Matt McAuley of the noise-rock band A.R.E. Weapons. The two would remain a couple for eight years before separating in early 2008.


title: Chloë Sevigny

text: Following her appearance in "If These Walls Could Talk 2", Sevigny was approached for a supporting role in the 2001 comedy "Legally Blonde" alongside Reese Witherspoon and offered $500,000; she declined and the role was given to Selma Blair. Instead, she starred in Olivier Assayas' French techno thriller "Demonlover" (2002) alongside Connie Nielsen, for which she was required to learn her lines in French. Sevigny described shooting the film as "strange", in the sense that Assayas hardly spoke to her during the filming, which she said was difficult because of the lack of "input". After spending nearly three months in France to complete "Demonlover", Sevigny returned to New York to film the Club Kids biopic "Party Monster" (2003); coincidentally, she knew several of the people depicted in the film (Michael Alig and James St. James included), whom she had met during her frequent trips to New York City's club scene as a teenager.


title: Chloë Sevigny

text: Around 2002, Sevigny began collaborating with friend Tara Subkoff for the Imitation of Christ fashion label and conceptual art project, with their first collection being released in 2003. She served as the creative director for the line, which was referred to as being "more about performance art and cultural theory than clothes". In film, Sevigny had a role in Lars von Trier's parable "Dogville" (2003), playing one of the various residents of a small mountain town, alongside Nicole Kidman, Lauren Bacall, and Paul Bettany. The film received mixed reactions, and was criticized by Roger Ebert and Richard Roeper as being "anti-American". She also re-united with former "Boys Don't Cry" star Peter Sarsgaard for the biographical film "Shattered Glass" (2003), also alongside Hayden Christensen, about the career of Stephen Glass, a journalist whose reputation is destroyed when his widespread journalistic fraud is exposed. Sevigny played Caitlin Avey, one of Glass' co-editors.


title: Chloë Sevigny

text: In 2003, Sevigny took on the lead female role in the art house film "The Brown Bunny" (2003), which details a lonely traveling motorcycle racer reminiscing about his former lover. The film achieved notoriety for a scene which involves Sevigny performing fellatio on star and director Vincent Gallo. The film premiered at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival and opened to significant controversy and criticism from audiences and critics. Additionally, a promotional billboard erected over Sunset Boulevard, which depicted a censored still from the film's final scene, garnered further attention and criticism. Sevigny defended the film: In an interview with "The Telegraph" in 2003, when asked if she regretted the film, she responded:


title: Chloë Sevigny

text: Despite the backlash toward the film, some critics praised Sevigny's performance, including Manohla Dargis of "The New York Times": Roger Ebert, although critical of "The Brown Bunny", nevertheless said that Sevigny brought "a truth and vulnerability" to the film.


title: Chloë Sevigny

text: Sevigny continued on with various projects. She had a major supporting role in Woody Allen's two-sided tragicomedy "Melinda and Melinda" (2004). Critic Peter Bradshaw described the film as "strange... a half-hearted experiment populated by undernourished lab rats." She subsequently guest-starred on the popular television show "Will & Grace", and played small roles in Lars von Trier's "Manderlay" (2005) (a sequel to "Dogville" (2003)) and in Jim Jarmusch's "Broken Flowers" (2005). She also played one of the several lovers of New York doctor Herman Tarnower in the HBO television film "Mrs. Harris" (2005) alongside Annette Bening and Ben Kingsley. In "3 Needles" (2005), an anthology film about AIDS in various parts of the world, Sevigny had a major role as a Catholic nun visiting Africa. Her performance received good reviews; Dennis Harvey of "Variety" called her "convincing", while Kevin Thomas of the "Los Angeles Times" referred to her as "ever-daring and shrewd." In 2006, Sevigny played the lead character in the experimental indie-film "Lying" (2006) with Jena Malone and Leelee Sobieski, portraying a pathological liar who gathers three female acquaintances for a weekend at her upstate New York country house; the film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2006. She also had a starring role in Douglas Buck's 2006 remake of the Brian De Palma horror film "Sisters" (1973), playing a journalist who witnesses a murder.


title: Chloë Sevigny

text: In 2006, Sevigny began a five-season run in the HBO television series "Big Love", about a family of fundamentalist Mormon polygamists. She played Nicolette Grant, the conniving, shopaholic daughter of a cult leader and second wife to a polygamist husband, played by Bill Paxton. Sevigny also appeared in her first big-budget production, playing Robert Graysmith's wife Melanie in David Fincher's "Zodiac" (2007), based on the Zodiac Killer criminal case.


title: Chloë Sevigny

text: In October 2007, the French fashion house Chloé announced that Sevigny would be one of the spokesmodels for its new fragrance. Sevigny also released a clothing collection for Opening Ceremony in the fall of 2009. It included men's, women's, and unisex pieces, and received mixed reactions from critics. Sevigny returned to films in 2009, starring in the independent psychological thriller "The Killing Room", and Werner Herzog's "My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done", a crime horror film based on murderer Mark Yavorsky, produced by David Lynch.


title: Chloë Sevigny

text: In January 2010, Sevigny won a Golden Globe award for Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film for her performance in the third season of "Big Love". During a press conference following the award win, Sevigny addressed the repressed women living in the fundamentalist Mormon compounds: "These women are kept extremely repressed. They should be helped. They don't even know who the president of the United States is." In a later interview with The A.V. Club, Sevigny was asked if she felt that the show's message was that polygamy was "wrong". In response, Sevigny stated: "No, absolutely not. I think there are more parallels to gay rights and alternative lifestyles within "Big Love"—more so than 'Polygamy is wrong'. I think they actually condone people who decide to live this lifestyle outside of fundamentalist sects." During the same interview, Sevigny stated her disappointment with the series' fourth season, calling it "awful" and "very telenovela"—though she stated that she loves her character and the writing, she felt the show "got away from itself." Sevigny later regretted making the statements, saying she was very "exhausted" and "wasn't thinking about what [she] was saying"; she also apologized to the show's producers. "[I didn't want them to think] that I was biting the hand that feeds me, because I obviously love the show and have always been nothing but positive about it. And I didn't want anybody to misunderstand me or think that I wasn't, you know, appreciative."


title: Chloë Sevigny

text: While starring in the fourth season of "Big Love" in 2010, Sevigny also appeared major roles in two independent comedy films: "Barry Munday" and "Mr. Nice". In "Munday", she played the sister of a homely woman who is expecting a child by a recently castrated womanizer (opposite Patrick Wilson and Judy Greer). Her role in "Mr. Nice", as the wife of British marijuana-trafficker Howard Marks, had Sevigny starring alongside Rhys Ifans; the film was based on Marks' autobiography of the same name. Sevigny also had a voice part in the documentary film "Beautiful Darling" (2010), narrating the life of Warhol superstar Candy Darling through Darling's diaries and personal letters. The fifth and final season of "Big Love" premiered in March 2011.


title: Chloë Sevigny

text: In 2012, Sevigny starred in the British miniseries "Hit & Miss", playing a transgender contract killer. Mike Hale of "The New York Times" wrote of her performance: "Her naturally deep voice is a plus, and her characteristic mix of loucheness and gravity makes sense here, though it's less interesting in this role than it was in the bitterly voracious wife she played in "Big Love"." The same year, Sevigny guest-starred in an episode of "", which aired on April 18, 2012, and also appeared in the second and fifth seasons of "American Horror Story", which premiered in October 2012 and the latter in October 2015.


title: Chloë Sevigny

text: Sevigny appeared in a supporting role as a journalist in "Lovelace" (2013), a biographical film about pornographic film actress Linda Lovelace. The year also saw the release of "The Wait" (2013), Sevigny's second collaboration with director M. Blash, in which she starred alongside Jena Malone and Luke Grimes. It was a psychological thriller about two sisters who decide to keep their recently deceased mother in their house after receiving a phone call that she will be resurrected. Sevigny also had roles in television, appearing as a satellite character in the third season of the television sketch comedy show "Portlandia", and having a 5-episode guest role on the comedy series "The Mindy Project", in which she portrayed the ex-wife of the titular Mindy's love interest (played by Chris Messina). Kristi Turnquist of "The Oregonian" praised Sevigny in "Portlandia", stating that she "instantly adds dimension and interest" to the series.


title: Chloë Sevigny

text: In 2014, Sevigny starred as Catherine Jensen in the crime drama "Those Who Kill", which aired on the A&E Network. After being pulled from A&E after two episodes due to low ratings, it was then re-launched on A&E's sister network, Lifetime Movie Network. The series was subsequently cancelled after its 10 episode first season run. During the 29th International Festival of Fashion and Photography in April 2014, Sevigny served as a judge of the fashion jury, along with Humberto Leon and Carol Lim.


title: Chloë Sevigny

text: In March 2015, it was announced Sevigny would be returning to "American Horror Story" for its fifth season, "", as a main cast member. Sevigny portrayed a doctor whose son has been kidnapped. That same year, she also starred in the Netflix original series "Bloodline". In the spring of 2015, Sevigny published a picture book chronicling her life, containing photos of her as a high school student, on film sets, personal scripts, and other ephemera. She also appeared in Tara Subkoff's directorial debut "#Horror", playing the opulent mother of a teenage girl whose get-together with friends is interrupted by a murderer.


title: Chloë Sevigny

text: In early 2016, Sevigny appeared in the Canadian horror film "Antibirth" opposite Natasha Lyonne, which follows a small-town woman who becomes pregnant through unknown circumstances. Sevigny reunited with "The Last Days of Disco" director and fellow actresses Whit Stillman and Kate Beckinsale on "Love & Friendship", an adaptation of the Jane Austen novel "Lady Susan". Both films premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2016. In 2016 and 2017, respectively, Sevigny also reprised her role in "Bloodline", becoming a main cast member in the third and final season.


title: Chloë Sevigny

text: Sevigny made her directorial debut in 2016 with the short film "Kitty", which she adapted from Paul Bowles' 1980 short story. The film was selected to close the 2016 Cannes Film Festival, and was subsequently acquired by The Criterion Collection, which made it available for streaming on their user subscription channel. In late 2016, Sevigny directed her second short film, "Carmen", which was shot on location in Portland, Oregon. The film, released as part of a Miu Miu campaign, focuses on comedian Carmen Lynch.


title: Chloë Sevigny

text: Sevigny played supporting parts in multiple films in 2017. She co-starred as a horse jockey in the drama "Lean on Pete", based on the novel by Willy Vlautin,; in the ensemble drama "Golden Exits"; the comedy-drama "Beatriz at Dinner", about a Latina massage therapist who is invited to a dinner held by her wealthy employers; the drama "The Dinner", concerning a dinner between two couples recounting their children's involvement in a murder; and "The Snowman" (2017), where she played the twin sisters, one of whom was killed by a serial killer.


title: Chloë Sevigny

text: Sevigny starred as Lizzie Borden in "Lizzie" (2018), which premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, co-starring with Kristen Stewart. Sevigny had first expressed interest in developing and starring in a miniseries based on Borden in 2011. Michael O'Sullivan of "The Washington Post" wrote that Sevigny "is something of a closed book, delivering a stolid performance that can be read as either strong-willed or stonyhearted." Sevigny also appeared in a supporting role in "The True Adventures of Wolfboy", and starred as a small-town police officer facing a zombie apocalypse in Jim Jarmusch's comedy horror film "The Dead Don't Die" (2019). The latter film premiered as the opening feature at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, where Sevigny's third short film, "White Echo", also competed for the Palme d'Or for Best Short Film.


title: Chloë Sevigny

text: In 2019 (and 2022), Sevigny appeared in the Netflix show "Russian Doll", portraying the mother of the lead character. In 2020, Sevigny starred in "We Are Who We Are", a limited series directed by Luca Guadagnino, which premiered in September 2020 on HBO.


title: Chloë Sevigny

text: Sevigny has long been considered a fashion icon and regularly appears alternately on both best and worst-dressed lists. Commenting on criticisms of her fashion choices, she said in 2015: "I called my great aunt who lives in Florida over Christmas. I hadn't seen her in a while and she said, 'Oh, I never get to see you [in person] but I always see you in the back of "US Weekly". They're always making fun of you,' and I was like, 'You know me, I dress crazy.' It makes me feel bad."


title: Chloë Sevigny

text: Throughout her career, she has modelled for several high-profile designers, including Miu Miu, Louis Vuitton, Chloé, H&M, Proenza Schouler, Kenzo and Vivienne Westwood. Prior to her career as an actress, she had achieved fame for her unique style. While her sense of style in the early 1990s only reflected small downtown scenes and trends, it still made a significant impression on high class fashion chains which began to emulate Sevigny's look. Her interest in fashion and clothing, as well as her career as a fashion model in her late teenage years and early twenties, have led to a career as a prominent and well-respected fashion designer. She has expressed interest in fashion design throughout the entirety of her career, even dating back to her childhood: ""Little House on the Prairie" was my favorite show. I would only wear calico print dresses, and I actually slept in one of those little nightcaps!", she told "People" in 2007. Her unorthodox style (which garnered her initial notoriety in the early '90s) has often been referred to as very eclectic. Sevigny has since released several clothing lines designed by herself, both solo and in collaboration, and has earned a title as a modern fashion icon.


title: Chloë Sevigny

text: Critical reception of her fashion and style has been extensively written about by both designers and fashion stylists and has generally proved favorable. American designer Marc Jacobs wrote of Sevigny in 2001: "The fashion world is fascinated by her. Because not only is she talented, young and attractive, she stands out in a sea of often clichéd looking actresses." In terms of her own personal style, Sevigny cited the Australian film "Picnic at Hanging Rock" (1975), which features schoolgirls dressed in elaborate Victorian clothing, as a major inspiration; she has also cited it as one of her favorite films. She has also been outspoken in her favoritism of vintage clothing over designer pieces: "I still prefer to buy vintage over spending it all on one designer", she told "The Times". "I'll go to Resurrection or Decades and be like, 'Oh, I'm going to buy everything,' but a lot of it is extremely expensive, so I'll go to Wasteland and satisfy that urge and it's not too hard on the pocketbook. Then there's this place called Studio Wardrobe Department where everything is like three dollars".


title: Chloë Sevigny

text: Actor Drew Droege has, since 2011, performed in a web series titled "Chloë", featuring Droege's drag impersonation of Sevigny.


title: Chloë Sevigny

text: Sevigny endorsed Senator Bernie Sanders for President in the 2016 US presidential election and again in the 2020 election.


title: Chloë Sevigny

text: Sevigny began dating Croatian art gallery director Siniša Mačković in 2018. In January 2020, it was announced that Sevigny was expecting her first child with Mačković. They married on March 9, 2020, and on May 2, 2020, she gave birth to a son. She is Catholic and has said that she attends church.


title: Niccolò Machiavelli

text: Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli ( , , ; 3 May 1469 – 21 June 1527), occasionally rendered in English as Nicholas Machiavel ( , ; see below), was an Italian diplomat, author, philosopher and historian who lived during the Renaissance. He is best known for his political treatise "The Prince" ("Il Principe"), written in about 1513 but not published until 1532. He has often been called the father of modern political philosophy and political science.


title: Niccolò Machiavelli

text: For many years he served as a senior official in the Florentine Republic with responsibilities in diplomatic and military affairs. He wrote comedies, carnival songs, and poetry. His personal correspondence is also important to historians and scholars of Italian correspondence. He worked as secretary to the Second Chancery of the Republic of Florence from 1498 to 1512, when the Medici were out of power.


title: Niccolò Machiavelli

text: After his death Machiavelli's name came to evoke unscrupulous acts of the sort he advised most famously in his work, "The Prince". He claimed that his experience and reading of history showed him that politics have always been played with deception, treachery, and crime. He also notably said that a ruler who is establishing a kingdom or a republic, and is criticized for his deeds, including violence, should be excused when the intention and the result is beneficial to him. Machiavelli's "Prince" has been surrounded by controversy since its release. Some considered it to be a straightforward description of the evil means used by bad rulers; many read in it evil recommendations to tyrants to help them maintain their power. Even into recent times, some scholars, such as Leo Strauss, have restated the traditional opinion that Machiavelli was a "teacher of evil".


title: Niccolò Machiavelli

text: The term "Machiavellian" often connotes political deceit, deviousness, and realpolitik. Even though Machiavelli has become most famous for his work on principalities, scholars also give attention to the exhortations in his other works of political philosophy. While much less well known than "The Prince", the "Discourses on Livy" (composed ) has been said to have paved the way of modern republicanism. It has also significantly influenced authors who have attempted to revive classical republicanism, including Hannah Arendt.


title: Niccolò Machiavelli

text: Machiavelli was born in Florence, Italy, the third child and first son of attorney Bernardo di Niccolò Machiavelli and his wife, Bartolomea di Stefano Nelli. The Machiavelli family is believed to be descended from the old marquesses of Tuscany and to have produced thirteen Florentine Gonfalonieres of Justice, one of the offices of a group of nine citizens selected by drawing lots every two months and who formed the government, or Signoria; he was never, though, a full citizen of Florence because of the nature of Florentine citizenship in that time even under the republican regime. Machiavelli married Marietta Corsini in 1502.


title: Niccolò Machiavelli

text: Machiavelli was born in a tumultuous era. The Italian city-states, and the families and individuals who ran them could rise and fall suddenly, as popes and the kings of France, Spain, and the Holy Roman Empire waged acquisitive wars for regional influence and control. Political-military alliances continually changed, featuring condottieri (mercenary leaders), who changed sides without warning, and the rise and fall of many short-lived governments.


title: Niccolò Machiavelli

text: Machiavelli was taught grammar, rhetoric, and Latin, by his teacher, Paolo da Ronciglione. It is unknown whether Machiavelli knew Greek even though Florence was at the time one of the centers of Greek scholarship in Europe. In 1494 Florence restored the republic, expelling the Medici family that had ruled Florence for some sixty years. Shortly after the execution of Savonarola, Machiavelli was appointed to an office of the second chancery, a medieval writing office that put Machiavelli in charge of the production of official Florentine government documents. Shortly thereafter, he was also made the secretary of the "Dieci di Libertà e Pace".


title: Niccolò Machiavelli

text: In the first decade of the sixteenth century, he carried out several diplomatic missions, most notably to the Papacy in Rome. Florence sent him to Pistoia to pacify the leaders of two opposing factions which had broken into riots in 1501 and 1502; when this failed, the leaders were banished from the city, a strategy which Machiavelli had favored from the outset. From 1502 to 1503, he witnessed the brutal reality of the state-building methods of Cesare Borgia (1475–1507) and his father, Pope Alexander VI, who were then engaged in the process of trying to bring a large part of Central Italy under their possession. The pretext of defending Church interests was used as a partial justification by the Borgias. Other excursions to the court of Louis XII and the Spanish court influenced his writings such as "The Prince".


title: Niccolò Machiavelli

text: At the start of the 16th century, Machiavelli conceived of a militia for Florence, and he then began recruiting and creating it. He distrusted mercenaries (a distrust that he explained in his official reports and then later in his theoretical works for their unpatriotic and uninvested nature in the war that makes their allegiance fickle and often unreliable when most needed), and instead staffed his army with citizens, a policy that was to be repeatedly successful. By February 1506 he was able to have marching on parade four hundred farmers, suited (including iron breastplates), and armed with lances and small fire arms. Under his command, Florentine citizen-soldiers defeated Pisa in 1509.


title: Niccolò Machiavelli

text: Machiavelli's success did not last. In August 1512, the Medici, backed by Pope Julius II, used Spanish troops to defeat the Florentines at Prato. In the wake of the siege, Soderini resigned as Florentine head of state and left in exile. The experience would, like Machiavelli's time in foreign courts and with the Borgia, heavily influence his political writings.


title: Niccolò Machiavelli

text: The Florentine city-state and the republic were dissolved, and Machiavelli was deprived of office and banished from the city for a year. In 1513, the Medici accused him of conspiracy against them and had him imprisoned. Despite being subjected to torture ("with the rope", in which the prisoner is hanged from his bound wrists from the back, forcing the arms to bear the body's weight and dislocating the shoulders), he denied involvement and was released after three weeks.


title: Niccolò Machiavelli

text: Machiavelli then retired to his farm estate at Sant'Andrea in Percussina, near San Casciano in Val di Pesa, where he devoted himself to studying and writing his political treatises. He visited places in France, Germany, and Italy where he had represented the Florentine republic. Despairing of the opportunity to remain directly involved in political matters, after a time, he began to participate in intellectual groups in Florence and wrote several plays that (unlike his works on political theory) were both popular and widely known in his lifetime. Politics remained his main passion and, to satisfy this interest, he maintained a well-known correspondence with more politically connected friends, attempting to become involved once again in political life. In a letter to Francesco Vettori, he described his experience:


title: Niccolò Machiavelli

text: When evening comes, I go back home, and go to my study. On the threshold, I take off my work clothes, covered in mud and filth, and I put on the clothes an ambassador would wear. Decently dressed, I enter the ancient courts of rulers who have long since died. There, I am warmly welcomed, and I feed on the only food I find nourishing and was born to savour. I am not ashamed to talk to them and ask them to explain their actions and they, out of kindness, answer me. Four hours go by without my feeling any anxiety. I forget every worry. I am no longer afraid of poverty or frightened of death. I live entirely through them.


title: Niccolò Machiavelli

text: Machiavelli died on 21 June 1527 at the age of 58 after receiving his last rites. He was buried at the Church of Santa Croce in Florence. In 1789 George Nassau Clavering, and Pietro Leopoldo, Grand Duke of Tuscany, initiated the construction of a monument on Machiavelli's tomb. It was sculpted by Innocenzo Spinazzi, with an epitaph by Doctor Ferroni inscribed on it. The Latin legend reads: ("So great a name (has) no adequate praise" or "No eulogy (would be) a match for such a great name" or "There is no praise equal to so great a name.")


title: Niccolò Machiavelli

text: Machiavelli's best-known book "Il Principe" contains several maxims concerning politics. Instead of the more traditional target audience of a hereditary prince, it concentrates on the possibility of a "new prince". To retain power, the hereditary prince must carefully balance the interests of a variety of institutions to which the people are accustomed. By contrast, a new prince has the more difficult task in ruling: He must first stabilise his newfound power in order to build an enduring political structure. Machiavelli suggests that the social benefits of stability and security can be achieved in the face of moral corruption. Machiavelli believed that public and private morality had to be understood as two different things in order to rule well. As a result, a ruler must be concerned not only with reputation, but also must be positively willing to act unscrupulously at the right times. Machiavelli believed that, for a ruler, it was better to be widely feared than to be greatly loved; a loved ruler retains authority by obligation, while a feared leader rules by fear of punishment. As a political theorist, Machiavelli emphasized the "necessity" for the methodical exercise of brute force or deceit, including extermination of entire noble families, to head off any chance of a challenge to the prince's authority.


title: Niccolò Machiavelli

text: Scholars often note that Machiavelli glorifies instrumentality in state building, an approach embodied by the saying, often attributed to interpretations of "The Prince", "The ends justify the means". Fraud and deceit are held by Machiavelli as necessary for a prince to use. Violence may be necessary for the successful stabilization of power and introduction of new political institutions. Force may be used to eliminate political rivals, to destroy resistant populations, and to purge the community of other men strong enough of a character to rule, who will inevitably attempt to replace the ruler. Machiavelli has become infamous for such political advice, ensuring that he would be remembered in history through the adjective, "Machiavellian".


title: Niccolò Machiavelli

text: Due to the treatise's controversial analysis on politics, the Catholic Church banned "The Prince", putting it on the "Index Librorum Prohibitorum". Humanists also viewed the book negatively, including Erasmus of Rotterdam. As a treatise, its primary intellectual contribution to the history of political thought is the fundamental break between political realism and political idealism, due to it being a manual on acquiring and keeping political power. In contrast with Plato and Aristotle, Machiavelli insisted that an imaginary ideal society is not a model by which a prince should orient himself.


title: Niccolò Machiavelli

text: Concerning the differences and similarities in Machiavelli's advice to ruthless and tyrannical princes in "The Prince" and his more republican exhortations in "Discourses on Livy", a few commentators assert that "The Prince", although written as advice for a monarchical prince, contains arguments for the superiority of republican regimes, similar to those found in the "Discourses". In the 18th century, the work was even called a satire, for example by Jean-Jacques Rousseau.


title: Niccolò Machiavelli

text: Scholars such as Leo Strauss and Harvey Mansfield have stated that sections of "The Prince" and his other works have deliberately esoteric statements throughout them. However, Mansfield states that this is the result of Machiavelli's seeing grave and serious things as humorous because they are "manipulable by men", and sees them as grave because they "answer human necessities".


title: Niccolò Machiavelli

text: Another interpretation is that of Antonio Gramsci, who argued that Machiavelli's audience for this work was not even the ruling class, but the common people, because rulers already knew these methods through their education.


title: Niccolò Machiavelli

text: The "Discourses on the First Ten Books of Titus Livius", written around 1517, published in 1531, often referred to simply as the "Discourses" or "Discorsi", is nominally a discussion regarding the classical history of early Ancient Rome, although it strays very far from this subject matter and also uses contemporary political examples to illustrate points. Machiavelli presents it as a series of lessons on how a republic should be started and structured. It is a much larger work than "The Prince", and while it more openly explains the advantages of republics, it also contains many similar themes from his other works. For example, Machiavelli has noted that to save a republic from corruption, it is necessary to return it to a "kingly state" using violent means. He excuses Romulus for murdering his brother Remus and co-ruler Titus Tatius to gain absolute power for himself in that he established a "civil way of life". Commentators disagree about how much the two works agree with each other, as Machiavelli frequently refers to leaders of republics as "princes". Machiavelli even sometimes acts as an advisor to tyrants. Other scholars have pointed out the aggrandizing and imperialistic features of Machiavelli's republic. Nevertheless, it became one of the central texts of modern republicanism, and has often been argued to be a more comprehensive work than "The Prince".


title: Niccolò Machiavelli

text: Commentators have taken very different approaches to Machiavelli and not always agreed. Major discussion has tended to be about two issues: first, how unified and philosophical his work is, and second, concerning how innovative or traditional it is.


title: Niccolò Machiavelli

text: There is some disagreement concerning how best to describe the unifying themes, if there are any, that can be found in Machiavelli's works, especially in the two major political works, "The Prince" and "Discourses". Some commentators have described him as inconsistent, and perhaps as not even putting a high priority in consistency. Others such as Hans Baron have argued that his ideas must have changed dramatically over time. Some have argued that his conclusions are best understood as a product of his times, experiences and education. Others, such as Leo Strauss and Harvey Mansfield, have argued strongly that there is a very strong and deliberate consistency and distinctness, even arguing that this extends to all of Machiavelli's works including his comedies and letters.


title: Niccolò Machiavelli

text: Commentators such as Leo Strauss have gone so far as to name Machiavelli as the deliberate originator of modernity itself. Others have argued that Machiavelli is only a particularly interesting example of trends which were happening around him. In any case Machiavelli presented himself at various times as someone reminding Italians of the old virtues of the Romans and Greeks, and other times as someone promoting a completely new approach to politics.


title: Niccolò Machiavelli

text: That Machiavelli had a wide range of influences is in itself not controversial. Their relative importance is however a subject of on-going discussion. It is possible to summarize some of the main influences emphasized by different commentators.


title: Niccolò Machiavelli

text: Commentators such as Quentin Skinner and J.G.A. Pocock, in the so-called "Cambridge School" of interpretation, have asserted that some of the republican themes in Machiavelli's political works, particularly the "Discourses on Livy", can be found in medieval Italian literature which was influenced by classical authors such as Sallust.


title: Niccolò Machiavelli

text: The Socratic school of classical political philosophy, especially Aristotle, had become a major influence upon European political thinking in the late Middle Ages. It existed both in the Catholicised form presented by Thomas Aquinas, and in the more controversial "Averroist" form of authors like Marsilius of Padua. Machiavelli was critical of Catholic political thinking and may have been influenced by Averroism. But he rarely cites Plato and Aristotle, and most likely did not approve of them. Leo Strauss argued that the strong influence of Xenophon, a student of Socrates more known as an historian, rhetorician and soldier, was a major source of Socratic ideas for Machiavelli, sometimes not in line with Aristotle. While interest in Plato was increasing in Florence during Machiavelli's lifetime, Machiavelli does not show particular interest in him, but was indirectly influenced by his readings of authors such as Polybius, Plutarch and Cicero.


title: Niccolò Machiavelli

text: The major difference between Machiavelli and the Socratics, according to Strauss, is Machiavelli's materialism, and therefore his rejection of both a teleological view of nature and of the view that philosophy is higher than politics. With their teleological understanding of things, Socratics argued that by nature, everything that acts, acts towards some end, as if nature desired them, but Machiavelli claimed that such things happen by blind chance or human action.


title: Niccolò Machiavelli

text: Strauss argued that Machiavelli may have seen himself as influenced by some ideas from classical materialists such as Democritus, Epicurus and Lucretius. Strauss however sees this also as a sign of major innovation in Machiavelli, because classical materialists did not share the Socratic regard for political life, while Machiavelli clearly did.


title: Niccolò Machiavelli

text: Some scholars note the similarity between Machiavelli and the Greek historian Thucydides, since both emphasized power politics. Strauss argued that Machiavelli may indeed have been influenced by pre-Socratic philosophers, but he felt it was a new combination:


title: Niccolò Machiavelli

text: ...contemporary readers are reminded by Machiavelli's teaching of Thucydides; they find in both authors the same "realism," i.e., the same denial of the power of the gods or of justice and the same sensitivity to harsh necessity and elusive chance. Yet Thucydides never calls in question the intrinsic superiority of nobility to baseness, a superiority that shines forth particularly when the noble is destroyed by the base. Therefore Thucydides' History arouses in the reader a sadness which is never aroused by Machiavelli's books. In Machiavelli we find comedies, parodies, and satires but nothing reminding of tragedy. One half of humanity remains outside of his thought. There is no tragedy in Machiavelli because he has no sense of the sacredness of "the common." —


title: Niccolò Machiavelli

text: Amongst commentators, there are a few consistently made proposals concerning what was most new in Machiavelli's work.


title: Niccolò Machiavelli

text: Machiavelli is sometimes seen as the prototype of a modern empirical scientist, building generalizations from experience and historical facts, and emphasizing the uselessness of theorizing with the imagination.


title: Niccolò Machiavelli

text: Machiavelli felt that his early schooling along the lines of a traditional classical education was essentially useless for the purpose of understanding politics. Nevertheless, he advocated intensive study of the past, particularly regarding the founding of a city, which he felt was a key to understanding its later development. Moreover, he studied the way people lived and aimed to inform leaders how they should rule and even how they themselves should live. Machiavelli denies the classical opinion that living virtuously always leads to happiness. For example, Machiavelli viewed misery as "one of the vices that enables a prince to rule." Machiavelli stated that "it would be best to be both loved and feared. But since the two rarely come together, anyone compelled to choose will find greater security in being feared than in being loved." In much of Machiavelli's work, he often states that the ruler must adopt unsavory policies for the sake of the continuance of his regime.


title: Niccolò Machiavelli

text: A related and more controversial proposal often made is that he described how to do things in politics in a way which seemed neutral concerning who used the advice—tyrants or good rulers. That Machiavelli strove for realism is not doubted, but for four centuries scholars have debated how best to describe his morality. "The Prince" made the word "Machiavellian" a byword for deceit, despotism, and political manipulation. Leo Strauss declared himself inclined toward the traditional view that Machiavelli was self-consciously a "teacher of evil," since he counsels the princes to avoid the values of justice, mercy, temperance, wisdom, and love of their people in preference to the use of cruelty, violence, fear, and deception. Strauss takes up this opinion because he asserted that failure to accept the traditional opinion misses the "intrepidity of his thought" and "the graceful subtlety of his speech." Italian anti-fascist philosopher Benedetto Croce (1925) concludes Machiavelli is simply a "realist" or "pragmatist" who accurately states that moral values in reality do not greatly affect the decisions that political leaders make. German philosopher Ernst Cassirer (1946) held that Machiavelli simply adopts the stance of a political scientist—a Galileo of politics—in distinguishing between the "facts" of political life and the "values" of moral judgment. On the other hand, Walter Russell Mead has argued that "The Prince"s advice presupposes the importance of ideas like legitimacy in making changes to the political system.


title: Niccolò Machiavelli

text: Machiavelli is generally seen as being critical of Christianity as it existed in his time, specifically its effect upon politics, and also everyday life. In his opinion, Christianity, along with the teleological Aristotelianism that the Church had come to accept, allowed practical decisions to be guided too much by imaginary ideals and encouraged people to lazily leave events up to providence or, as he would put it, chance, luck or fortune. While Christianity sees modesty as a virtue and pride as sinful, Machiavelli took a more classical position, seeing ambition, spiritedness, and the pursuit of glory as good and natural things, and part of the virtue and prudence that good princes should have. Therefore, while it was traditional to say that leaders should have virtues, especially prudence, Machiavelli's use of the words "virtù" and "prudenza" was unusual for his time, implying a spirited and immodest ambition. Mansfield describes his usage of "virtu" as a "compromise with evil". Famously, Machiavelli argued that virtue and prudence can help a man control more of his future, in the place of allowing fortune to do so.


title: Niccolò Machiavelli

text: On the other hand, humanism in Machiavelli's time meant that classical pre-Christian ideas about virtue and prudence, including the possibility of trying to control one's future, were not unique to him. But humanists did not go so far as to promote the extra glory of deliberately aiming to establish a new state, in defiance of traditions and laws.


title: Niccolò Machiavelli

text: While Machiavelli's approach had classical precedents, it has been argued that it did more than just bring back old ideas and that Machiavelli was not a typical humanist. argues that the way Machiavelli combines classical ideas is new. While Xenophon and Plato also described realistic politics and were closer to Machiavelli than Aristotle was, they, like Aristotle, also saw philosophy as something higher than politics. Machiavelli was apparently a materialist who objected to explanations involving formal and final causation, or teleology.


title: Niccolò Machiavelli

text: Machiavelli's promotion of ambition among leaders while denying any higher standard meant that he encouraged risk-taking, and innovation, most famously the founding of new modes and orders. His advice to princes was therefore certainly not limited to discussing how to maintain a state. It has been argued that Machiavelli's promotion of innovation led directly to the argument for progress as an aim of politics and civilization. But while a belief that humanity can control its own future, control nature, and "progress" has been long-lasting, Machiavelli's followers, starting with his own friend Guicciardini, have tended to prefer peaceful progress through economic development, and not warlike progress. As Harvey wrote: "In attempting other, more regular and scientific modes of overcoming fortune, Machiavelli's successors formalized and emasculated his notion of virtue."


title: Niccolò Machiavelli

text: Machiavelli however, along with some of his classical predecessors, saw ambition and spiritedness, and therefore war, as inevitable and part of human nature.


title: Niccolò Machiavelli

text: Strauss concludes his 1958 book "Thoughts on Machiavelli" by proposing that this promotion of progress leads directly to the advent of new technologies being invented in both good and bad governments. Strauss argued that the unavoidable nature of such arms races, which have existed before modern times and led to the collapse of peaceful civilizations, show that classical minded men "had to admit in other words that in an important respect the good city has to take its bearings by the practice of bad cities or that the bad impose their law on the good."


title: Niccolò Machiavelli

text: Machiavelli shows repeatedly that he saw religion as man-made, and that the value of religion lies in its contribution to social order and the rules of morality must be dispensed with if security requires it. In "The Prince", the "Discourses" and in the "Life of Castruccio Castracani" he describes "prophets", as he calls them, like Moses, Romulus, Cyrus the Great and Theseus (he treated pagan and Christian patriarchs in the same way) as the greatest of new princes, the glorious and brutal founders of the most novel innovations in politics, and men whom Machiavelli assures us have always used a large amount of armed force and murder against their own people. He estimated that these sects last from 1,666 to 3,000 years each time, which, as pointed out by Leo Strauss, would mean that Christianity became due to start finishing about 150 years after Machiavelli. Machiavelli's concern with Christianity as a sect was that it makes men weak and inactive, delivering politics into the hands of cruel and wicked men without a fight.


title: Niccolò Machiavelli

text: While fear of God can be replaced by fear of the prince, if there is a strong enough prince, Machiavelli felt that having a religion is in any case especially essential to keeping a republic in order. For Machiavelli, a truly great prince can never be conventionally religious himself, but he should make his people religious if he can. According to he was not the first person to ever explain religion in this way, but his description of religion was novel because of the way he integrated this into his general account of princes.


title: Niccolò Machiavelli

text: Machiavelli's judgment that governments need religion for practical political reasons was widespread among modern proponents of republics until approximately the time of the French Revolution. This therefore represents a point of disagreement between Machiavelli and late modernity.


title: Niccolò Machiavelli

text: Despite the classical precedents, which Machiavelli was not the only one to promote in his time, Machiavelli's realism and willingness to argue that good ends justify bad things, is seen as a critical stimulus towards some of the most important theories of modern politics.


title: Niccolò Machiavelli

text: Firstly, particularly in the "Discourses on Livy," Machiavelli is unusual in the positive side he sometimes seems to describe in factionalism in republics. For example, quite early in the "Discourses," (in Book I, chapter 4), a chapter title announces that "the disunion" of the plebs and senate in Rome ""kept Rome free"." That a community has different components whose interests must be balanced in any good regime is an idea with classical precedents, but Machiavelli's particularly extreme presentation is seen as a critical step towards the later political ideas of both a division of powers or checks and balances, ideas which lay behind the US constitution, as well as many other modern state constitutions.


title: Niccolò Machiavelli

text: Similarly, the modern economic argument for capitalism, and most modern forms of economics, was often stated in the form of "public virtue from private vices." Also in this case, even though there are classical precedents, Machiavelli's insistence on being both realistic and ambitious, not only admitting that vice exists but being willing to risk encouraging it, is a critical step on the path to this insight.


title: Niccolò Machiavelli

text: Mansfield however argues that Machiavelli's own aims have not been shared by those he influenced. Machiavelli argued against seeing mere peace and economic growth as worthy aims on their own, if they would lead to what Mansfield calls the "taming of the prince."


title: Niccolò Machiavelli

text: Machiavelli's ideas had a profound impact on political leaders throughout the modern west, helped by the new technology of the printing press. During the first generations after Machiavelli, his main influence was in non-republican governments. Pole reported that "The Prince" was spoken of highly by Thomas Cromwell in England and had influenced Henry VIII in his turn towards Protestantism, and in his tactics, for example during the Pilgrimage of Grace. A copy was also possessed by the Catholic king and emperor Charles V. In France, after an initially mixed reaction, Machiavelli came to be associated with Catherine de' Medici and the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre. As reports, in the 16th century, Catholic writers "associated Machiavelli with the Protestants, whereas Protestant authors saw him as Italian and Catholic". In fact, he was apparently influencing both Catholic and Protestant kings.


title: Niccolò Machiavelli

text: One of the most important early works dedicated to criticism of Machiavelli, especially "The Prince", was that of the Huguenot, Innocent Gentillet, whose work commonly referred to as "Discourse against Machiavelli" or "Anti Machiavel" was published in Geneva in 1576. He accused Machiavelli of being an atheist and accused politicians of his time by saying that his works were the "Koran of the courtiers", that "he is of no reputation in the court of France which hath not Machiavel's writings at the fingers ends". Another theme of Gentillet was more in the spirit of Machiavelli himself: he questioned the effectiveness of immoral strategies (just as Machiavelli had himself done, despite also explaining how they could sometimes work). This became the theme of much future political discourse in Europe during the 17th century. This includes the Catholic Counter Reformation writers summarised by Bireley: Giovanni Botero, Justus Lipsius, Carlo Scribani, Adam Contzen, Pedro de Ribadeneira, and Diego de Saavedra Fajardo. These authors criticized Machiavelli, but also followed him in many ways. They accepted the need for a prince to be concerned with reputation, and even a need for cunning and deceit, but compared to Machiavelli, and like later modernist writers, they emphasized economic progress much more than the riskier ventures of war. These authors tended to cite Tacitus as their source for realist political advice, rather than Machiavelli, and this pretense came to be known as "Tacitism". "Black tacitism" was in support of princely rule, but "red tacitism" arguing the case for republics, more in the original spirit of Machiavelli himself, became increasingly important.


title: Niccolò Machiavelli

text: Modern materialist philosophy developed in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, starting in the generations after Machiavelli. This philosophy tended to be republican, but as with the Catholic authors, Machiavelli's realism and encouragement of using innovation to try to control one's own fortune were more accepted than his emphasis upon war and factional violence. Not only was innovative economics and politics a result, but also modern science, leading some commentators to say that the 18th century Enlightenment involved a "humanitarian" moderating of Machiavellianism.


title: Niccolò Machiavelli

text: The importance of Machiavelli's influence is notable in many important figures in this endeavor, for example Bodin, Francis Bacon, Algernon Sidney, Harrington, John Milton, Spinoza, Rousseau, Hume, Edward Gibbon, and Adam Smith. Although he was not always mentioned by name as an inspiration, due to his controversy, he is also thought to have been an influence for other major philosophers, such as Montaigne, Descartes, Hobbes, Locke and Montesquieu.


title: Niccolò Machiavelli

text: Although Jean-Jacques Rousseau is associated with very different political ideas he was also influenced by him, although he viewed Machiavelli's work as a satirical piece in which Machiavelli exposes the faults of a one-man rule rather than exalting amorality.


title: Niccolò Machiavelli

text: In the seventeenth century it was in England that Machiavelli's ideas were most substantially developed and adapted, and that republicanism came once more to life; and out of seventeenth-century English republicanism there were to emerge in the next century not only a theme of English political and historical reflection—of the writings of the Bolingbroke circle and of Gibbon and of early parliamentary radicals—but a stimulus to the Enlightenment in Scotland, on the Continent, and in America.


title: Niccolò Machiavelli

text: Scholars have argued that Machiavelli was a major indirect and direct influence upon the political thinking of the Founding Fathers of the United States due to his overwhelming favoritism of republicanism and the republican type of government. According to John McCormick, it is still very much debatable whether or not Machiavelli was "an advisor of tyranny or partisan of liberty." Benjamin Franklin, James Madison and Thomas Jefferson followed Machiavelli's republicanism when they opposed what they saw as the emerging aristocracy that they feared Alexander Hamilton was creating with the Federalist Party. Hamilton learned from Machiavelli about the importance of foreign policy for domestic policy, but may have broken from him regarding how rapacious a republic needed to be in order to survive. George Washington was less influenced by Machiavelli.


title: Niccolò Machiavelli

text: The Founding Father who perhaps most studied and valued Machiavelli as a political philosopher was John Adams, who profusely commented on the Italian's thought in his work, "A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America". In this work, John Adams praised Machiavelli, with Algernon Sidney and Montesquieu, as a philosophic defender of mixed government. For Adams, Machiavelli restored empirical reason to politics, while his analysis of factions was commendable. Adams likewise agreed with the Florentine that human nature was immutable and driven by passions. He also accepted Machiavelli's belief that all societies were subject to cyclical periods of growth and decay. For Adams, Machiavelli lacked only a clear understanding of the institutions necessary for good government.


title: Niccolò Machiavelli

text: The 20th-century Italian Communist Antonio Gramsci drew great inspiration from Machiavelli's writings on ethics, morals, and how they relate to the State and revolution in his writings on Passive Revolution, and how a society can be manipulated by controlling popular notions of morality.


title: Niccolò Machiavelli

text: In the 20th century there was also renewed interest in Machiavelli's play "La Mandragola" (1518), which received numerous stagings, including several in New York, at the New York Shakespeare Festival in 1976 and the Riverside Shakespeare Company in 1979, as a musical comedy by Peer Raben in Munich's antiteater in 1971, and at London's National Theatre in 1984.


title: Niccolò Machiavelli

text: Machiavelli is most famous for a short political treatise, "The Prince", written in 1513 but not published until 1532, five years after his death. Although he privately circulated "The Prince" among friends, the only theoretical work to be printed in his lifetime was "The Art of War", which was about military science. Since the 16th century, generations of politicians remain attracted and repelled by its neutral acceptance, and also positive encouragement, of the amorality of powerful men, described especially in "The Prince" but also in his other works.


title: Niccolò Machiavelli

text: His works are sometimes even said to have contributed to the modern negative connotations of the words "politics" and "politician", and it is sometimes thought that it is because of him that "Old Nick" became an English term for the Devil. More obviously, the adjective "Machiavellian" became a term describing a form of politics that is "marked by cunning, duplicity, or bad faith". "Machiavellianism" also remains a popular term used casually in political discussions, often as a byword for bare-knuckled political realism.


title: Niccolò Machiavelli

text: While Machiavellianism is notable in the works of Machiavelli, scholars generally agree that his works are complex and have equally influential themes within them. For example, J.G.A. saw him as a major source of the republicanism that spread throughout England and North America in the 17th and 18th centuries and Leo , whose view of Machiavelli is quite different in many ways, had similar remarks about Machiavelli's influence on republicanism and argued that even though Machiavelli was a teacher of evil he had a "grandeur of vision" that led him to advocate immoral actions. Whatever his intentions, which are still debated today, he has become associated with any proposal where "the end justifies the means". For example, Leo wrote:


title: Niccolò Machiavelli

text: In English Renaissance theatre (Elizabethan and Jacobian), the term "Machiavel" (from 'Nicholas Machiavel', an "anglicization" of Machiavelli's name based on French) was used for a stock antagonist that resorted to ruthless means to preserve the power of the state, and is now considered a synonym of "Machiavellian".


title: Niccolò Machiavelli

text: Christopher Marlowe's play "The Jew of Malta" (ca. 1589) contains a prologue by a character called Machiavel, a Senecan ghost based on Machiavelli. Machiavel expresses the cynical view that power is amoral, saying "I count religion but a childish toy,/And hold there is no sin but ignorance."


title: Niccolò Machiavelli

text: Somerset Maugham's last book "Then and Now" fictionalizes Machiavelli's interactions with Cesare Borgia, which formed the foundation of "The Prince".


title: Niccolò Machiavelli

text: Niccolò Machiavelli plays a vital role in the young adult book series "The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel" by Michael Scott. He is immortal, and is working in national security for the French government.


title: Niccolò Machiavelli

text: Niccolò Machiavelli aids Cesare Borgia and protagonist Nicholas Dawson in their dangerous intrigues in Cecelia Holland's 1979 historical novel "City of God". David Maclaine writes that in the novel, Machiavelli "is an off-stage presence whose spirit permeates this work of intrigue and betrayal ... It is a brilliant introduction to the people and events that gave us the word 'Machiavellian.'" Machiavelli appears as an Immortal adversary of Duncan MacLeod in Nancy Holder's 1997 "Highlander" novel "The Measure of a Man", and is a character in Michael Scott's novel series "The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel" (2007–2012). Machiavelli is also one of the main characters in "The Enchantress of Florence" (2008) by Salman Rushdie, mostly referred to as "Niccolò 'il Macchia", and the central protagonist in the 2012 novel "The Malice of Fortune" by Michael Ennis.


title: Niccolò Machiavelli

text: Television dramas centring on the early Renaissance have also made use of Machiavelli to underscore his influence in early modern political philosophy. Machiavelli has been featured as a supporting character in "The Tudors" (2007–2010), "Borgia" (2011–2014) and "The Borgias" (2011–2013), and the 1981 BBC mini series "The Borgias".


title: Niccolò Machiavelli

text: Machiavelli appears in the popular historical video games "Assassin's Creed II" (2009) and "" (2010), in which he is portrayed as a member of the secret society of Assassins.


title: Niccolò Machiavelli

text: A highly fictionalised version of Machiavelli appears in the BBC children's TV series "Leonardo" (2011–2012), in which he is "Mac", a black streetwise hustler who is best friends with fellow teenagers Leonardo da Vinci, Mona Lisa, and Lorenzo di Medici. In the 2013 episode "Ewings Unite!" of the television series "Dallas", legendary oil baron J. R. Ewing wills his copy of "The Prince" to his adopted nephew Christopher Ewing, telling him to "use it, because being smart and sneaky is an unbeatable combination." In "Da Vinci's Demons" (2013–2015) – an American historical fantasy drama series that presents a fictional account of Leonardo da Vinci's early life – Eros Vlahos plays a young Niccolò "Nico" Machiavelli, although the character's full name is not revealed until the finale of the second season.


title: Niccolò Machiavelli

text: The 1967 "The Time Tunnel" episode "The Death Merchant" stars character actor Malachi Throne as Niccolò Machiavelli, who has been time-displaced to the Battle of Gettysburg. The character's personality and behaviour seem to portray Cesare Borgia rather than Machiavelli himself, suggesting that the writers may have confused the two.


title: Niccolò Machiavelli

text: Machiavelli is played by Damian Lewis in the 2013 BBC radio play "The Prince" written by Jonathan Myerson. Together with his defence attorney Lucrezia Borgia (Helen McCrory), he presents examples from history to the devil to support his political theories and appeal his sentence in Hell.


title: Niccolò Machiavelli

text: The historical novel "The City of Man" (2009) by author Michael Harrington fully portrays the complex personalities of the two main characters – Girolamo Savonarola and a formative Niccolò Machiavelli – in opposition during the turbulent last decade of 15th-century Florence. The portrayal of Machiavelli draws from his later writings and observations of the chaotic events of his youth before rising from obscurity to be appointed as Second Chancellor of the Florentine Republic at the age of twenty-nine, only one month after Savonarola's execution. Major characters include Lorenzo de' Medici, his son Piero, Michelangelo, Sandro Botticelli, Pico della Mirandola, Marsilio Ficino, Pope Alexander VI (Rodrigo Borgia), Cesare Borgia (model for "The Prince"), Piero and Tommaso Soderini, Il Cronaca and the diarist, Luca Landucci.


title: Niccolò Machiavelli

text: The American rapper Tupac Shakur read Machiavelli while in prison and became greatly influenced by his work. Upon his release from prison, Tupac honoured Machiavelli in 1996 by changing his own rap name from 2Pac to Makaveli.


title: Niccolò Machiavelli

text: In the 1993 crime drama "A Bronx Tale", local mob boss Sonny tells his young protégé Calogero that while he was doing a 10-year sentence in jail, he passed the time and stayed out of trouble by reading Machiavelli, whom he describes as "a famous writer from 500 years ago". He then tells him how Machiavelli's philosophy, including his famous advice about how it is preferable for a leader to be feared rather than loved if he cannot be both, have made him a successful mob boss.


title: Niccolò Machiavelli

text: Machiavelli also appears as a young Florentine spy in the third season of "Medici", where he is portrayed by Vincenzo Crea. He is addressed as "Nico" in all appearances except the season finale, where he reveals his full name.


title: Niccolò Machiavelli

text: Besides being a statesman and political scientist, Machiavelli also translated classical works, and was a playwright ("Clizia", "Mandragola"), a poet ("Sonetti", "Canzoni", "Ottave", "Canti carnascialeschi"), and a novelist ("Belfagor arcidiavolo").


title: Niccolò Machiavelli

text: "Della Lingua" (Italian for "On the Language") (1514), a dialogue about Italy's language is normally attributed to Machiavelli.


title: Niccolò Machiavelli

text: Machiavelli's literary executor, Giuliano de' Ricci, also reported having seen that Machiavelli, his grandfather, made a comedy in the style of Aristophanes which included living Florentines as characters, and to be titled "Le Maschere". It has been suggested that due to such things as this and his style of writing to his superiors generally, there was very likely some animosity to Machiavelli even before the return of the Medici.


title: Saint Peter

text: Saint Peter (died between AD 64 and 68), also known as Peter the Apostle, Peter the Rock, Simon Peter, Simeon, Simon, or Cephas, was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus Christ, and one of the first leaders of the early Christian Church. He is traditionally counted as the first bishop of Romeor popeand also as the first bishop of Antioch. Based on contemporary historical data, his papacy is estimated to have spanned from AD 30 to his death, which would make him the longest-reigning pope, at anywhere from 34 to 38 years; however, the length of his reign has never been verified.


title: Saint Peter

text: According to Christian tradition, Peter was crucified in Rome under Emperor Nero. The ancient Christian churches all venerate Peter as a major saint and as the founder of the Church of Antioch and the Church of Rome, but differ in their attitudes regarding the authority of his successors. According to Catholic teaching, Jesus promised Peter a special position in the Church.


title: Saint Peter

text: In the New Testament, the name "Simon Peter" is found 19 times. He appears repeatedly and prominently in all four gospels as well as the Acts of the Apostles. He is the brother of Saint Andrew, and both were fishermen. The Gospel of Mark in particular was traditionally thought to show the influence of Peter's preaching and eyewitness memories. He is also mentioned, under either the name Peter or Cephas, in Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians and the Epistle to the Galatians. The New Testament also includes two general epistles, First Peter and Second Peter, that are traditionally attributed to him, but modern scholarship generally rejects the Petrine authorship of both. Nevertheless, Evangelicals and Catholics have always affirmed Peter's authorship, and recently, a growing number of scholars have revived the claim of Petrine authorship of these epistles.


title: Saint Peter

text: Outside of the New Testament, several apocryphal books were later attributed to him, in particular the Acts of Peter, Gospel of Peter, Preaching of Peter, Apocalypse of Peter, and Judgment of Peter, although scholars believe these works to be pseudoepigrapha.


title: Saint Peter

text: The New Testament presents Peter's original name as Simon ( in Greek). In only two passages, his name is instead spelled "Simeon" ( in Greek). The variation possibly reflects "the well-known custom among Jews at the time of giving the name of a famous patriarch or personage of the Old Testament to a male child [i.e., Simeon<nowiki>]</nowiki> along with a similar sounding Greek/Roman name [in this case, Simon]".


title: Saint Peter

text: He was later given by Jesus the name "Cephas", from the Aramaic . In translations of the Bible from the original Greek, his name is maintained as "Cephas" in 9 occurrences in the New Testament, whereas in the vast majority of mentions (156 occurrences in the New Testament) he is called , from the Greek and Latin word for a rock or stone () to which the masculine ending was added, rendered into English as "Peter".


title: Saint Peter

text: The precise meaning of the Aramaic word is disputed, some saying that its usual meaning is "rock" or "crag", others saying that it means rather "stone" and, particularly in its application by Jesus to Simon, like a "jewel", but most scholars agree that as a proper name it denotes a rough or tough character. Both meanings, "stone" (jewel or hewn stone) and "rock", are indicated in dictionaries of Aramaic and Syriac.


title: Saint Peter

text: Catholic theologian Rudolf Pesch argues that the Aramaic word "Cephas" would mean "precious stone" to designate a distinguishing person. This cannot be sufficiently proven from Aramaic, however, since the use of the Aramaic root as a personal name has not been proven and there are hardly any known examples of the word being used to mean "precious stone".


title: Saint Peter

text: The combined name ("Símon Pétros", Simon Peter) appears 19 times in the New Testament. In some Syriac documents he is called, in English translation, Simon Cephas.


title: Saint Peter

text: In the New Testament, he is among the first of the disciples called during Jesus' ministry. Peter became the first listed apostle ordained by Jesus in the early Church.


title: Saint Peter

text: Peter was a Jewish fisherman in Bethsaida (John 1:44). He was named Simon, the son of a man named Jonah or John. The three Synoptic Gospels recount how Peter's mother-in-law was healed by Jesus at their home in Capernaum (Matthew 8:14–17, Mark 1:29–31, Luke 4:38); this passage clearly depicts Peter as being married or widowed. 1 Corinthians 9:5 has also been taken to imply that he was married.


title: Saint Peter

text: In the Synoptic Gospels, Peter (then Simon) was a fisherman along with his brother, Andrew, and the sons of Zebedee, James and John. The Gospel of John also depicts Peter fishing, even after the resurrection of Jesus, in the story of the Catch of 153 fish. In Matthew and Mark, Jesus called Simon and his brother Andrew to be "fishers of men" (–, Mark 1:16–17).


title: Saint Peter

text: In the Confession of Peter he proclaims Jesus to be the Christ (Jewish Messiah), as described in the three Synoptic Gospels: Matthew 16:13–20, Mark 8:27–30 and Luke 9:18–21. It is there, in the area of Caesarea Philippi, that he receives from Jesus the name Cephas (Aramaic ), or Peter (Greek ).


title: Saint Peter

text: In Luke, Simon Peter owns the boat that Jesus uses to preach to the multitudes who were pressing on him at the shore of Lake Gennesaret (Luke 5:3). Jesus then amazes Simon and his companions James and John (Andrew is not mentioned) by telling them to lower their nets, whereupon they catch a huge number of fish. Immediately after this, they follow him (Luke 5:4–11). The Gospel of John gives a comparable account of "The First Disciples" (John 1:35–42). In John, the readers are told that it was two disciples of John the Baptist (Andrew and an unnamed disciple) who heard John the Baptist announce Jesus as the "Lamb of God" and then followed Jesus. Andrew then went to his brother Simon, saying, "We have found the Messiah", and then brought Simon to Jesus.


title: Saint Peter

text: Three of the four gospels—Matthew, Mark and John—recount the story of Jesus walking on water. Matthew additionally describes Peter walking on water for a moment but beginning to sink when his faith wavers (Matthew 14:28–31).


title: Saint Peter

text: At the beginning of the Last Supper, Jesus washed his disciples' feet. Peter initially refused to let Jesus wash his feet, but when Jesus told him: "If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me", Peter replied: "Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head" (John 13:2–11). The washing of feet is often repeated in the service of worship on Maundy Thursday by some Christian denominations.


title: Saint Peter

text: The three Synoptic Gospels all mention that, when Jesus was arrested, one of his companions cut off the ear of a servant of the High Priest of Israel (Matthew 26:51, Mark 14:47, Luke 22:50). The Gospel of John also includes this event and names Peter as the swordsman and Malchus as the victim (John 18:10). Luke adds that Jesus touched the ear and miraculously healed it (Luke 22:49–51). This healing of the servant's ear is the last of the 37 miracles attributed to Jesus in the Bible.


title: Saint Peter

text: Simon Peter was twice arraigned, with John, before the Sanhedrin and directly defied them (Acts 4:7–22, Acts 5:18–42). After receiving a vision from God that allowed for the eating of previously unclean animals, Peter takes a missionary journey to Lydda, Joppa and Caesarea (Acts 9:32–Acts 10:2), becoming instrumental in the decision to evangelise the Gentiles (Acts 10). Simon Peter applied the message of the vision on clean animals to the gentiles and follows his meeting with Cornelius the Centurion by claiming that "God shows no partiality".


title: Saint Peter

text: According to the Acts of the Apostles, Peter and John were sent from Jerusalem to Samaria (Acts 8:14). Peter/Cephas is mentioned briefly in the opening chapter of one of the Pauline epistles, Epistle to the Galatians, which mentions a trip by Paul the Apostle to Jerusalem where he meets Peter (Galatians 1:18). Peter features again in Galatians, fourteen years later, when Paul (now with Barnabas and Titus) returned to Jerusalem (Galatians 2:7–9). When Peter came to Antioch, Paul opposed Peter to his face "because he [Peter] was in the wrong" (Galatians 2:11).


title: Saint Peter

text: Acts 12 narrates how Peter, who was in Jerusalem, was put into prison by Agrippa I (AD 42–44), but was rescued by an angel. After his liberation Peter left Jerusalem to go to "another place" (Acts 12:1–18). Concerning Peter's subsequent activity there is no further connected information from the extant sources, although there are short notices of certain individual episodes of his later life.


title: Saint Peter

text: The Gospels and Acts portray Peter as the most prominent apostle, though he denied Jesus three times during the events of the crucifixion. According to the Christian tradition, Peter was the first disciple to whom Jesus appeared, balancing Peter's denial and restoring his position. Peter is regarded as the first leader of the early Church, though he was soon eclipsed in this leadership by James the Just, "the Brother of the Lord". Because Peter was the first to whom Jesus appeared, the leadership of Peter forms the basis of the Apostolic succession and the institutional power of orthodoxy, as the heirs of Peter, and he is described as "the rock" on which the church will be built.


title: Saint Peter

text: Peter is always listed first among the Twelve Apostles in the gospels and in the Book of Acts. He is also frequently mentioned in the gospels as forming with James the Elder and John a special group within the Twelve Apostles, present at incidents at which the others were not present, such as at the Transfiguration of Jesus, at the raising of Jairus' daughter and at the agony in the Garden of Gethsemane. Peter often confesses his faith in Jesus as the Messiah.


title: Saint Peter

text: Peter is often depicted in the gospels as spokesman of all the Apostles. John Vidmar, a Catholic scholar, writes: "Catholic scholars agree that Peter had an authority that superseded that of the other apostles. Peter is their spokesman at several events, he conducts the election of Matthias, his opinion in the debate over converting Gentiles was crucial, etc."


title: Saint Peter

text: The author of the Acts of the Apostles portrays Peter as the central figure within the early Christian community.


title: Saint Peter

text: All four canonical gospels recount that, during the Last Supper, Jesus foretold that Peter would deny him three times before the following cockcrow ("before the cock crows twice" in Mark's account). The three Synoptics and John describe the three denials as follows:


title: Saint Peter

text: In the Gospel of Luke is a record of Christ telling Peter: "Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren." In a reminiscent scene in John's epilogue, Peter affirms three times that he loves Jesus.


title: Saint Peter

text: Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians contains a list of resurrection appearances of Jesus, the first of which is an appearance to Peter. Here, Paul apparently follows an early tradition that Peter was the first to see the risen Christ, which, however, did not seem to have survived to the time when the gospels were written.


title: Saint Peter

text: In John's gospel, Peter is the first person to enter the empty tomb, although the women and the beloved disciple see it before him. In Luke's account, the women's report of the empty tomb is dismissed by the apostles, and Peter is the only one who goes to check for himself, running to the tomb. After seeing the graveclothes he goes home, apparently without informing the other disciples.


title: Saint Peter

text: In the final chapter of the Gospel of John, Peter, in one of the resurrection appearances of Jesus, three times affirmed his love for Jesus, balancing his threefold denial, and Jesus reconfirmed Peter's position. The Church of the Primacy of St. Peter on the Sea of Galilee is seen as the traditional site where Jesus Christ appeared to his disciples after his resurrection and, according to Catholic tradition, established Peter's supreme jurisdiction over the Christian church.


title: Saint Peter

text: Peter was considered along with James the Just and John the Apostle as pillars of the Church. Legitimised by Jesus' appearance, Peter assumed leadership of the group of early followers, forming the Jerusalem "ekklēsia" mentioned by Paul. He was soon eclipsed in this leadership by James the Just, "the Brother of the Lord." According to Lüdemann, this was due to the discussions about the strictness of adherence to the Jewish Law, when the more conservative faction of James the Just took the overhand over the more liberal position of Peter, who soon lost influence. According to Dunn, this was not an "usurpation of power", but a consequence of Peter's involvement in missionary activities. The early Church historian Eusebius (c. AD 325) records Clement of Alexandria (c. AD 190) as saying:


title: Saint Peter

text: James D. G. Dunn proposes that Peter was a "bridge-man" between the opposing views of Paul and James the Just [italics original]:


title: Saint Peter

text: Paul affirms that Peter had the special charge of being apostle to the Jews, just as he, Paul, was apostle to the Gentiles. Some argue James the Just was bishop of Jerusalem whilst Peter was bishop of Rome and that this position at times gave James privilege in some (but not all) situations.


title: Saint Peter

text: In a dialogue between Jesus and his disciples (), Jesus asks, "Who do people say that the Son of Man is?" The disciples give various answers. When he asks "Who do "you" say that I am?", Simon Peter answers, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God." Jesus then declares:


title: Saint Peter

text: A common view of Peter is provided by Jesuit Father Daniel J. Harrington, who suggests that Peter was an unlikely symbol of stability. While he was one of the first disciples called and was the spokesman for the group, Peter is also the exemplar of "little faith". In , Peter will soon have Jesus say to him, "O you of little faith, why did you doubt?", and he will eventually deny Jesus three times. Thus, in light of the Easter event, Peter became an exemplar of the forgiven sinner. Outside the Catholic Church, opinions vary as to the interpretation of this passage with respect to what authority and responsibility, if any, Jesus was giving to Peter.


title: Saint Peter

text: In the Eastern Orthodox Church this passage is interpreted as not implying a special prominence to the person of Peter, but to Peter's position as representative of the Apostles. The word used for "rock" ("petra") grammatically refers to "a small detachment of the massive ledge", not to a massive boulder. Thus, Orthodox Sacred Tradition understands Jesus' words as referring to the apostolic faith.


title: Saint Peter

text: "Petros" had not previously been used as a name, but in the Greek-speaking world it became a popular Christian name, after the tradition of Peter's prominence in the early Christian church had been established.


title: Saint Peter

text: The leadership of Peter forms the basis of the Apostolic succession and the institutional power of orthodoxy, as the heirs of Peter, and is described as "the rock" on which the church will be built.


title: Saint Peter

text: Catholics refer to him as chief of the Apostles, as do the Eastern Orthodox and the Oriental Orthodox. In Coptic Orthodox Church liturgy, he is once referred to as "prominent" or "head" among the Apostles, a title shared with Paul in the text ("The Fraction of Fast and Feast of the Apostles Peter and Paul in the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria"). Some, including the Orthodox Churches, believe this is not the same as saying that the other Apostles were under Peter's orders.


title: Saint Peter

text: According to the Epistle to the Galatians (), Peter went to Antioch where Paul rebuked him for following the conservative line regarding the conversion of Gentiles, having meals separate from Gentiles. Subsequent tradition held that Peter had been the first Patriarch of Antioch. According to the writings of Origen and Eusebius in his "Church History (III, 36)" Peter had founded the church of Antioch.


title: Saint Peter

text: Later accounts expand on the brief biblical mention of his visit to Antioch. The "Liber Pontificalis" (9th century) mentions Peter as having served as bishop of Antioch for seven years, and having potentially left his family in the Greek city before his journey to Rome. Claims of direct blood lineage from Simon Peter among the old population of Antioch existed in the 1st century and continue to exist today, notably by certain Semaan families of modern-day Syria and Lebanon. Historians have furnished other evidence of Peter's sojourn in Antioch.


title: Saint Peter

text: The "Clementine literature", a group of related works written in the fourth century but believed to contain materials from earlier centuries, relate information about Peter that may come from earlier traditions. One is that Peter had a group of 12 to 16 followers, whom the Clementine writings name. Another is that it provides an itinerary of Peter's route from Caesarea Maritima to Antioch, where he debated his adversary Simon Magus; during this journey he ordained Zacchaeus as the first bishop of Caesarea and Maro as the first bishop of Tripolis. Fred Lapham suggests the route recorded in the Clementine writings may have been taken from an earlier document mentioned by Epiphanius of Salamis in his "Panarion" called "The Itinerary of Peter".


title: Saint Peter

text: Peter may have visited Corinth, and maybe there existed a party of "Cephas". First Corinthians suggests that perhaps Peter visited the city of Corinth, located in Greece, during their missions.


title: Saint Peter

text: Dionysius, bishop of Corinth, in his Epistle to the Roman Church under Pope Soter (A.D. 165–174), declares that Peter and Paul founded the Church of Rome and the Church of Corinth, and they have lived in Corinth for some time, and finally in Italy where they found death:


title: Saint Peter

text: In a tradition of the early Church, Peter is said to have founded the Church in Rome with Paul, served as its bishop, authored two epistles, and then met martyrdom there along with Paul.


title: Saint Peter

text: The Catholic Church speaks of the pope, the bishop of Rome, as the successor of Saint Peter. This is often interpreted to imply that Peter was the first Bishop of Rome. However, it is also said that the institution of the papacy is not dependent on the idea that Peter was Bishop of Rome or even on his ever having been in Rome.


title: Saint Peter

text: There is no obvious biblical evidence that Peter was ever in Rome, but the first epistle of Peter does mention that "The church that is at Babylon, elected together with you, saluteth you; and so doth Marcus my son." It is not certain whether this refers to the actual Babylon or to Rome, for which Babylon was a common nickname at the time, or to the Jewish diaspora in general, as a recent theory has proposed.


title: Saint Peter

text: While the church in Rome was already flourishing when Paul wrote his Epistle to the Romans about AD 57, he greets some fifty people in Rome by name, but not Peter whom he knew. There is also no mention of Peter in Rome later during Paul's two-year stay there in Acts 28, about AD 60–62. With regards to the latter, Acts 28 does not specifically mention any of Paul's visitors.


title: Saint Peter

text: The writings of the 1st century Church Father Ignatius of Antioch (c. 35 – c. 107) refer to Peter and Paul giving admonitions to the Romans, indicating Peter's presence in Rome.


title: Saint Peter

text: Irenaeus of Lyons (c. 130 – c. 202) wrote in the 2nd century that Peter and Paul had been the founders of the Church in Rome and had appointed Linus as succeeding bishop.


title: Saint Peter

text: Clement of Alexandria (c. 150 – c. 215) states that "Peter had preached the Word publicly at Rome "(A.D. 190).""


title: Saint Peter

text: According to Origen (184–253) and Eusebius, Peter "after having first founded the church at Antioch, went away to Rome preaching the Gospel, and he also, after [presiding over] the church in Antioch, presided over that of Rome until his death". After presiding over the church in Antioch for a while, Peter would have been succeeded by Evodius and thereafter by Ignatius, who was a disciple of John the Apostle.


title: Saint Peter

text: Lactantius, in his book called "Of the Manner in Which the Persecutors Died", written around 318, noted that "and while Nero reigned, the Apostle Peter came to Rome, and, through the power of God committed unto him, wrought certain miracles, and, by turning many to the true religion, built up a faithful and stedfast temple unto the Lord."


title: Saint Peter

text: Eusebius of Caesarea (260/265–339/340) relates that when Peter confronts Simon Magus at Judea (mentioned in Acts 8), Simon Magus flees to Rome, where the Romans began to regard him as a god. According to Eusebius, his luck did not last long, since God sent Peter to Rome, and Simon was quenched and immediately destroyed.


title: Saint Peter

text: According to Jerome (327–420): "Peter went to Rome in the second year of Claudius to overthrow Simon Magus, and held the sacerdotal chair there for twenty-five years until the last, that is the fourteenth, year of Nero."


title: Saint Peter

text: An apocryphal work, the "Actus Vercellenses" (7th century), a Latin text preserved in only one manuscript copy published widely in translation under the title Acts of Peter, sets Peter's confrontation with Simon Magus in Rome.


title: Saint Peter

text: In the epilogue of the Gospel of John, Jesus hints at the death by which Peter would glorify God, saying: "when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go." This is interpreted by some as a reference to Peter's crucifixion. Theologians Donald Fay Robinson and Warren M. Smaltz have suggested that the incident in Acts 12:1–17, where Peter is "released by an angel" and goes to "another place", really represents an idealized account of his death, which may have occurred in a Jerusalem prison as early as AD 44.


title: Saint Peter

text: Early Church tradition says that Peter died by crucifixion (with arms outstretched) at the time of the Great Fire of Rome in the year 64. This probably took place three months after the disastrous fire that destroyed Rome for which the emperor (Nero) wished to blame the Christians. This "" (regnal day anniversary) was an important one, exactly ten years after Nero ascended to the throne, and it was "as usual" accompanied by much bloodshed. Traditionally, Roman authorities sentenced him to death by crucifixion at Vatican Hill. In accordance with the apocryphal Acts of Peter, he was crucified head down. Tradition also locates his burial place where the Basilica of Saint Peter was later built, directly beneath the Basilica's high altar.