ility that _The Prince_ has
had a more direct action upon real life than any other book in the
world, and a larger share in breaking the chains and lighting the dark
places of the Middle Ages. It is a truism to say that Machiavellism
existed before Machiavelli. The politics of Gian Galeazzo Visconti, of
Louis XI. of France, of Ferdinand of Spain, of the Papacy, of Venice,
might have been dictated by the author of _The Prince_. But Machiavelli
was the first to observe, to compare, to diagnose, to analyse, and to
formulate their principles of government. The first to establish, not a
divorce, but rather a judicial separation between the morals of a man
and the morals of a government. It is around the purpose and possible
results of such a separation in politics, ethics, and religion that the
storm has raged most fiercely. To follow the path of that storm through
near four centuries many volumes would be needed, and it will be more
convenient to deal with the more general questions in summing up the
influence of Machiavelli as a whole. But the main lines and varying
fortunes of the long campaign may be indicated. During the period of its
manuscript circulation and for a few years after its publication _The
Prince_ was treated with favour or at worst with indifference, and the
first mutterings were merely personal to the author. He was a scurvy
knave and turncoat with neither bowels nor conscience, almost
negligible. But still men read him, and a change in conditions brought a
change in front. He had in _The Prince_, above all in the _Discorsi_,
accused the Church of having ruined Italy and debauched the world. In
view of the writer's growing popularity, of the Reformation and the
Pagan Renaissance, such charges could no longer be lightly set aside.
The Churchmen opened the main attack. Amongst the leaders was Cardinal
Pole, to whom the practical precepts of _The Prince_ had been
recommended in lieu of the dreams of Plato, by Thomas Cromwell, the
_malleus monachorum_ of Henry VIII. The Catholic attack was purely
theological, but before long the Jesuits joined in the cry. Machiavelli
was burnt in effigy at Ingoldstadt. He was _subdolus diabolicarum
cogitationum faber_, and _irrisor et atheos_ to boot. The Pope himself
gave commissions to unite against him, and his books were placed on the
Index, together, it must be admitted, with those of Boccaccio, Erasmus,
and Savonarola so the company was goodly. But meanwhile, and perhaps