Had religion been maintained among the princes of Christendom on the
footing on which it was established by its Founder, the Christian States
and republics had been far more united and far more prosperous than they
now are; nor can we have surer proof of its decay than in witnessing how
those countries which are the nearest neighbours of the Roman Church,
the head of our faith, have less devoutness than any others; so that
any one who considers its earliest beginnings and observes how widely
different is its present practice, might well believe its ruin or its
chastisement to be close at hand.

But since some are of opinion that the welfare of Italy depends upon the
Church of Rome, I desire to put forward certain arguments which occur to
me against that view, and shall adduce two very strong ones, which, to
my mind, admit of no answer. The first is, that, through the ill example
of the Roman Court, the country has lost all religious feeling and
devoutness, a loss which draws after it infinite mischiefs and
disorders; for as the presence of religion implies every excellence, so
the contrary is involved in its absence. To the Church, therefore, and
to the priests, we Italians owe this first debt, that through them we
have become wicked and irreligious. And a still greater debt we owe them
for what is the immediate cause of our ruin, namely, that by the
Church our country is kept divided. For no country was ever united
or prosperous which did not yield obedience to some one prince or
commonwealth, as has been the case with France and Spain. And the Church
is the sole cause why Italy stands on a different footing, and is
subject to no one king or commonwealth. For though she holds here her
seat, and exerts her temporal authority, she has never yet gained
strength and courage to seize upon the entire country, or make herself
supreme; yet never has been so weak that when in fear of losing her
temporal dominion, she could not call in some foreign potentate to aid
her against any Italian State by which she was overmatched. Of which we
find many instances, both in early times, as when by the intervention
of Charles the Great she drove the Lombards, who had made themselves
masters of nearly the whole country, out of Italy; and also in recent
times, as when, with the help of France, she first stripped the
Venetians of their territories, and then, with the help of the Swiss,
expelled the French.

The Church, therefore, never being