Machiavelli's Rejection

            Rejection on Christian values

Machiavelli was one of the first to depart from the idea of politics as nothing more than an instrument in the plan of God. He was concerned with defining power, and expressing his idea that politics should be seen as an activity in its own right. He is an exponent of humanism, a belief system based on principle that people’s spiritual and emotional needs can be fulfilled without following a religion. He feels that politics should deal with facts rather than with abstractions; he is interested in the present state of man, rather than the religious ideal. He believes in an extreme separation of church and state, which was an opinion that did not win him favor among the religious.

It cannot be denied that religion has an influence over the way a government functions. Machiavelli examines these various ideas concerning the role of religion and principalities in his book, The Prince. He believes that it is good to encourage morality and religious principles among the people. He thinks that these are necessary factors for keeping the people productive and obedient. He even stated that the religiously ruled ecclesiastical principalities are desired, for the laws of religion already govern their people, and therefore less subject to mutiny or civil disobedience.

However, while Machiavelli is in favor of religion on part of the people, it seems he views it more as a mere tool than as a true institution of faith. He looks upon religion as a tool that could be utilized to keep the public from becoming unruly, since religion tends to constantly strike the fear of damnation into its followers. Supporting the idea of Machiavelli’s callous view of religion is the fact that he feels the ruler himself has no obligation to live by the same religious ethics a do his people. The ruler is above such things as religion, morality, and even good and evil. Machiavelli promotes such religiously unsanctioned methods as the use of cruelty, deceit or even murder, as long as they are used intelligently and secretly enough to have results beneficial to the user.

As Machiavelli wrote, “… in actions of all men, and especially of princes, where there is no court to appeal to, one looks to the end. So let princes win and maintain its rate; the means will always be judge honorable”. In other words, the justifies the means; if a prince can gain power and maintain his state to the fullest, he will always be praised and rewarded, and the methods used to gain his power, however dubious they may be, become null and void. In fact, Machiavelli writes,”… it is not necessary for a prince to have all the above mentioned qualities in fact, but it is indeed necessary to appear to have them. Nay, dare I say this, that by having them and always observing them, they are harmful; and by appearing to have them, they are useful as it is to appear merciful, faithful, humane, religious…”. With this quote, Machiavelli expresses his opinion that it is not only acceptable for a ruler to demonstrate immoral tactics to gain power, once he is in power, moral attributes such as ethics humanity and even religion are not only unnecessary, but harmful.