CHAP. XI.
Of Ecclesiastical Principalities.
It only remains for me to treat of ecclesiastical principalities, which are more easy to preserve than to acquire, the reason of which is; on the one hand, that we can only arrive at the government of them by personal merit, or some fortunate event. On the other hand, this species of government is founded on ancient religious institutions, which operate so powerfully that a prince may preserve his consideration with very little trouble, in what manner soever he may govern. Ecclesiastical princes are the only ones who possess states without defending them, and subjects without governing them; they are the only ones whose territories are respected, and whose subjects have neither the inclination nor the means of shaking off their dominion. In one word; there is no happiness nor security for princes excepting in this kind of states. As they are governed by supernatural means, to which poor fallible reason cannot presume to attain, it would be presumption and temerity in me to argue upon it.
However, if any one were to ask me how the temporal power of the church has grown so formidable since the pontificate of Alexander VIth, as to make even France tremble; to drive her armies out of Italy and overwhelm the Venetians, though before this period not only the princes of that country but the poorest barons, and the most insignificant of the nobles, looked with indifference upon the bishop of Rome, at least in regard to his temporal power, I will not hesitate to reply, though the facts I may narrate are generally known.
Before Charles VIII. King of France, entered Italy, the sovereignty was divided between the King of Naples, the Pope, the Venetians, the Duke of Milan, and the Florentines: the political system of those princes, was confined, to the prevention of the entrance, of any foreign power into Italy, and the aggrandizement of any one of themselves at the expence of another.
Those who created the most discontent. were the Pope and the Venetians, and to restrain the excesses of the latter nothing less was necessary than a league between all the rest, as we have seen in the defence of Ferrara. As to the pope, his forces consisted of the Roman barons, who being divided into two factions, the Orsini and the Colonni, were always in arms to revenge their own quarrels, even under the eye of the pope, whose authority was iinaxailuig, anid who was compelled to suffer these intestine feuds.
From time to time popes arose, such as Sixtus the Fifth, who repressed these abuses, but the short duration of the pontifiicate was insuficient to destroy the cause. The efforts of these pontifs were confined to the humiliation of one of the rival factions, which triumphed in its turn under his successor. It was thus that the military strength of the popes was exhausted; and with it all degree of consideration, both internal and external.
Things were in this situation when Alexander the Sixth was raised to the pontifical chair: none of those who preceded or folowed him, have shewn like him what a pontiff can do with men and money. I have mentioned elsewhere his conduct on the entry of the French into Italy by the Duke Valentino: undoubtedly his intention was less to aggrandize the church than the duke; yet she did not profit the less by it, on the death of that nobleman and the pontiff.
Julius the Second, the successor of Alexander, found therefore the dominions of the church increased by the addition of all Romagnia, and the factions of the Roman barons extinguished by the acute. wisdom and courage of his predecessor, who also taught him political economy. Julius improved upon all the plans of Alexander; he added Bologna to the states of the holy see, rendered the Venetians unable to disturb his repose, and drove the French out of Italy; a success the more glorious, as this pope laboured more for the good of the church than his own private interest.
Julius left the Orsini and the Colonni as he found them, when he ascended the papal throne; and though the seeds of ancient divisions yet subsisted, they could not shoot forth under so powerful a government, and which had taken the wise precaution of withholding a cardinal's cap from each party; which dried up the source of those dissensions that previous to his predecessor had convulsed the church; for the cardinals availed themselves of the credit and the influence which that dignity gave them to foment, both within and without, those disturbances in which the nobles of both factions were obliged to take part. So that we may safely aver that the discord between the barons always originated in the ambition of the prelates.
The reigning pontiff therefore found the church in the meridian of power; but if Alexander and Julius gave it stability by their courage, every thing promises us that Leo the Tenth will crown the work by his goodness, and by a thousand other estimable qualities.