Chapter 11 — Ecclesiastical Principalities

Ecclesiastical principalities are unique, Machiavelli observes, in that the standard difficulties of principalities do not apply to them. They are acquired by ability or fortune but need neither to maintain themselves, because the ordinances of religion sustain them through means that neither the mind can reach nor the hands overthrow. He does not say this approvingly or disapprovingly — he simply notes it as an empirical observation about a category of state that operates by different rules than secular principalities.

The historical analysis that follows traces the papacy's rise from relative impotence to dominance over Italian politics. Before the French invasion of 1494, the papacy had temporal authority in the Papal States but was effectively contained by the balance of power among the Italian states. Alexander VI used his son Cesare as the instrument of a systematic territorial expansion, employing French arms and his own resources to pacify the Romagna and crush the great Roman noble families. Though Alexander died before completing the project, he had established the papacy as a major temporal power in a way that had not existed before.

Julius II inherited Alexander's gains and built on them with his own methods — personal military energy, bold political manoeuvre, and a willingness to lead armies in the field. He extended the papal territories, reasserted control over Bologna, fought Venice, and organised the Holy League against France. Machiavelli's conclusion — that whoever Pope Leo X (the current pope) may be, he finds the Church formidably strong — is a backhanded acknowledgment that the institutional power accumulated by his predecessors exceeds what any individual pope could have created or can easily squander.