feat_summary_path: finished_summaries/sparknotes/The Prince/section_4_part_2.txt
feat_book_id: The Prince.chapter xi
feat_summary_id: chapter xi
feat_summary: {"name": "Chapter XI", "url": "https://web.archive.org/web/20210303115306/https://www.sparknotes.com/philosophy/prince/section5/", "summary": "Concerning Ecclesiastical Principalities  Ecclesiastical principalities, regions under the control of the Catholic Church, are different from other kinds of principalities. Taking control of these principalities is difficult, requiring either unusual good fortune or prowess. Machiavelli sarcastically remarks that principles of religion, rather than governments, rule ecclesiastical principalities, so the prince does not even need to govern. Ecclesiastical principalities do not need to be defended, and their subjects require no administration. Nonetheless, these states are always secure and happy. Since these principalities are \"sustained by higher powers which the human mind cannot comprehend,\" delving further into why this is the case would be presumptuous. It is useful, however, to look at how the Church has obtained its great temporal power. Italy was once divided among the pope and the city-states of Venice, Naples, Milan, and Florence. Each of these powers was wary of the others and prevented the intervention of any foreign power. Papal power was fairly weak during this time, due to disagreement among the Roman barons and the short duration of papacies. But Popes Alexander VI and Julius II greatly increased the power of the Church by using armed force to weaken the other factions, accumulating wealth to strengthen the Church's own position, and nurturing factionalism within any remaining factions. Thus, the current Church, under the leadership of Pope Leo X, has been made strong through the force of arms. It is now hoped that Pope Leo will use his goodness and virtue to maintain its power.", "analysis": "Although Chapter X focuses partly on maintaining the well-being of the people in a city during a period of difficulty, Machiavelli views this only as a necessary step in making the city itself strong and immune from attack. One surprising characteristic of The Prince is how completely it defines the city as an entity existing to serve its ruler rather than its populace. The discussion of fortification emphasizes this conception of the city: obtaining the support of the people is not a goal in itself but rather a means for ensuring that the city remain fortified and resistant to foreign conquest. The purpose of convincing the people that their hardships are temporary, for example, is not to lighten the burden of the people whose city is besieged, but rather a way to ensure the defense of the city. The ultimate goal is not happiness but patriotism: the defense of the state and its ruler. While Machiavelli often advocates the use of military force, he also recognizes that military strength alone cannot maintain a state's strength. Although the fortification of cities has a military value, Machiavelli focuses on fortification as a tool by which a prince can solidify popular support in times of war or siege"}
text: 
  It only remains now to speak of ecclesiastical principalities, touching
  which all difficulties are prior to getting possession, because they
  are acquired either by capacity or good fortune, and they can be held
  without either; for they are sustained by the ancient ordinances of
  religion, which are so all-powerful, and of such a character that the
  principalities may be held no matter how their princes behave and live.
  These princes alone have states and do not defend them; and they have
  subjects and do not rule them; and the states, although unguarded, are
  not taken from them, and the subjects, although not ruled, do not care,
  and they have neither the desire nor the ability to alienate themselves.
  Such principalities only are secure and happy. But being upheld by
  powers, to which the human mind cannot reach, I shall speak no more of
  them, because, being exalted and maintained by God, it would be the act
  of a presumptuous and rash man to discuss them.
  
  Nevertheless, if any one should ask of me how comes it that the
  Church has attained such greatness in temporal power, seeing that from
  Alexander backwards the Italian potentates (not only those who have been
  called potentates, but every baron and lord, though the smallest)
  have valued the temporal power very slightly--yet now a king of France
  trembles before it, and it has been able to drive him from Italy, and
  to ruin the Venetians--although this may be very manifest, it does not
  appear to me superfluous to recall it in some measure to memory.
  
  Before Charles, King of France, passed into Italy,(*) this country was
  under the dominion of the Pope, the Venetians, the King of Naples, the
  Duke of Milan, and the Florentines. These potentates had two principal
  anxieties: the one, that no foreigner should enter Italy under arms; the
  other, that none of themselves should seize more territory. Those about
  whom there was the most anxiety were the Pope and the Venetians. To
  restrain the Venetians the union of all the others was necessary, as it
  was for the defence of Ferrara; and to keep down the Pope they made use
  of the barons of Rome, who, being divided into two factions, Orsini and
  Colonnesi, had always a pretext for disorder, and, standing with arms in
  their hands under the eyes of the Pontiff, kept the pontificate weak and
  powerless. And although there might arise sometimes a courageous pope,
  such as Sixtus, yet neither fortune nor wisdom could rid him of these
  annoyances. And the short life of a pope is also a cause of weakness;
  for in the ten years, which is the average life of a pope, he can with
  difficulty lower one of the factions; and if, so to speak, one people
  should almost destroy the Colonnesi, another would arise hostile to the
  Orsini, who would support their opponents, and yet would not have time
  to ruin the Orsini. This was the reason why the temporal powers of the
  pope were little esteemed in Italy.
  
       (*) Charles VIII invaded Italy in 1494.
  
  Alexander the Sixth arose afterwards, who of all the pontiffs that
  have ever been showed how a pope with both money and arms was able to
  prevail; and through the instrumentality of the Duke Valentino, and by
  reason of the entry of the French, he brought about all those things
  which I have discussed above in the actions of the duke. And although
  his intention was not to aggrandize the Church, but the duke,
  nevertheless, what he did contributed to the greatness of the Church,
  which, after his death and the ruin of the duke, became the heir to all
  his labours.
  
  Pope Julius came afterwards and found the Church strong, possessing all
  the Romagna, the barons of Rome reduced to impotence, and, through the
  chastisements of Alexander, the factions wiped out; he also found
  the way open to accumulate money in a manner such as had never been
  practised before Alexander's time. Such things Julius not only followed,
  but improved upon, and he intended to gain Bologna, to ruin the
  Venetians, and to drive the French out of Italy. All of these
  enterprises prospered with him, and so much the more to his credit,
  inasmuch as he did everything to strengthen the Church and not any
  private person. He kept also the Orsini and Colonnesi factions within
  the bounds in which he found them; and although there was among them
  some mind to make disturbance, nevertheless he held two things firm: the
  one, the greatness of the Church, with which he terrified them; and the
  other, not allowing them to have their own cardinals, who caused the
  disorders among them. For whenever these factions have their cardinals
  they do not remain quiet for long, because cardinals foster the factions
  in Rome and out of it, and the barons are compelled to support them, and
  thus from the ambitions of prelates arise disorders and tumults among
  the barons. For these reasons his Holiness Pope Leo(*) found the
  pontificate most powerful, and it is to be hoped that, if others made it
  great in arms, he will make it still greater and more venerated by his
  goodness and infinite other virtues.
  
  
  
feat_summary_name: Chapter XI
target: Concerning Ecclesiastical Principalities  Ecclesiastical principalities, regions under the control of the Catholic Church, are different from other kinds of principalities. Taking control of these principalities is difficult, requiring either unusual good fortune or prowess. Machiavelli sarcastically remarks that principles of religion, rather than governments, rule ecclesiastical principalities, so the prince does not even need to govern. Ecclesiastical principalities do not need to be defended, and their subjects require no administration. Nonetheless, these states are always secure and happy. Since these principalities are "sustained by higher powers which the human mind cannot comprehend," delving further into why this is the case would be presumptuous. It is useful, however, to look at how the Church has obtained its great temporal power. Italy was once divided among the pope and the city-states of Venice, Naples, Milan, and Florence. Each of these powers was wary of the others and prevented the intervention of any foreign power. Papal power was fairly weak during this time, due to disagreement among the Roman barons and the short duration of papacies. But Popes Alexander VI and Julius II greatly increased the power of the Church by using armed force to weaken the other factions, accumulating wealth to strengthen the Church's own position, and nurturing factionalism within any remaining factions. Thus, the current Church, under the leadership of Pope Leo X, has been made strong through the force of arms. It is now hoped that Pope Leo will use his goodness and virtue to maintain its power.
feat_summary_analysis: Although Chapter X focuses partly on maintaining the well-being of the people in a city during a period of difficulty, Machiavelli views this only as a necessary step in making the city itself strong and immune from attack. One surprising characteristic of The Prince is how completely it defines the city as an entity existing to serve its ruler rather than its populace. The discussion of fortification emphasizes this conception of the city: obtaining the support of the people is not a goal in itself but rather a means for ensuring that the city remain fortified and resistant to foreign conquest. The purpose of convincing the people that their hardships are temporary, for example, is not to lighten the burden of the people whose city is besieged, but rather a way to ensure the defense of the city. The ultimate goal is not happiness but patriotism: the defense of the state and its ruler. While Machiavelli often advocates the use of military force, he also recognizes that military strength alone cannot maintain a state's strength. Although the fortification of cities has a military value, Machiavelli focuses on fortification as a tool by which a prince can solidify popular support in times of war or siege