to Baronius: "Senza rispetto alcuno insegna a non
servar ne fede, ne charita, ne religione; et dice che di queste cosi,
gli huomini se ne debbono servire per parer buoni, et per le grandezze
temporali, alle quali quando non servono non se ne dee fare stima. Et
non e questo peggio che heretica dottrina? Vedendosi che cio si
comporta, sono accetate come opere approvate dalla Santa Madre chiesa."
Muzio, who at the same time recommended the _Decamerone_, was not acting
from ethical motives. His accusation succeeded. When the Index was
instituted, in 1557, Machiavelli was one of the first writers condemned,
and he was more rigorously and implacably condemned than anybody else.
The Trent Commissioners themselves prepared editions of certain
prohibited authors, such as Clarius and Flaminius; Guicciardini was
suffered to appear with retrenchments; and the famous revision of
Boccaccio was carried out in 1573. This was due to the influence of
Victorius, who pleaded in vain for a castigated text of Machiavelli. He
continued to be specially excepted when permission was given to read
forbidden books. Sometimes there were other exceptions, such as
Dumoulin, Marini, or Maimbourg; but the exclusion of Machiavelli was
permanent, and when Lucchesini preached against him at the Gesu, he had
to apply to the Pope himself for licence to read him. Lipsius was
advised by his Roman censors to mix a little Catholic salt in his
Machiavellism, and to suppress a seeming protest against the universal
hatred for a writer _qui misera qua non manu hodie vapulat_. One of the
ablest but most contentious of the Jesuits, Raynaud, pursued his memory
with a story like that with which Tronchin improved the death of
Voltaire: "Exitus impiissimi nebulonis metuendus est eius aemulatoribus,
nam blasphemans evomuit reprobum spiritum."

In spite of this notorious disfavour, he has been associated with the
excesses of the religious wars. The daughter of the man to whom he
addressed _The Prince_ was Catharine of Medici, and she was reported to
have taught her children "surtout des traictz de cet athee Machiavel."
Boucher asserted that Henry III. carried him in his pocket: "qui
perpetuus ei in sacculo atque manibus est"; and Montaigne confirms the
story when he says: "Et dict on, de ce temps, que Machiavel est encores
ailleurs en credit." The pertinently appropriate quotation by which the
Queen sanctified her murderous resolve was supplied, not by her father's
reject