i, that the greatness of the Church prevented Italy from
becoming a nation under one head, showing, however, at the same time
that the Italians had derived much benefit from their division into
separate states.[2] To the concurrent testimony of these great
philosophic writers may be added the evidence of a practical statesman,
Ferdinand, king of Naples, who in 1493 wrote as follows:[3] 'From year
to year up to this time we have seen the Popes seeking to hurt and
hurting their neighbors, without having to act on the defensive or
receiving any injury. Of this we are ourselves the witness, by reason of
things they have done and attempted against us through their inborn
ambition; and of the many misfortunes which have happened of late in
Italy it is clear that the Popes are authors.' It is not so much however
with the political as with the moral aspect of the Church that we are at
present concerned: and on the latter point Guicciardini may once more be
confronted with his illustrious contemporary. In his aphorisms he
says:[4] 'No man hates the ambition, avarice, and effeminacy of the
priests more than I do; for these vices, odious in themselves, are most
unseemly in men who make a profession of living in special dependence on
the Deity. Besides, they are so contradictory that they cannot be
combined except in a very extraordinary subject. My position under
several Popes has compelled me to desire their aggrandizement for the
sake of my own profit.[5] Otherwise, I should have loved Martin Luther
like myself--not that I might break loose from the laws which
Christianity, as it is usually interpreted and comprehended, imposes on
us, but that I might see that horde of villains reduced within due
limits, and forced to live either without vices or without power.'

[1] Guicc. _Op. Ined._ vol. i. p. 27.

[2] In another place (_Op. Ined._ vol. i. p. 104) Guicciardini
describes the rule of priests as founded on violence of two
sorts; 'perche ci sforzano con le armi temporali e con le
spirituali.' It may be well to collect the chief passages in
Machiavelli and Guicciardini, besides those already quoted,
which criticise the Papacy in relation to Italian politics. The
most famous is at the end of the fourth book of the _Istoria d'
Italia_ (Edn. Rosini, vol. ii. pp. 218-30). Next may be placed
the sketch of Papal History in Machiavelli's _Istorie
Fiorentine_ (lib. i. cap. 9-25). The eleventh c