Adrian Comollo

“ For Machiavelli the unity of a nation is the summum bonum and the basic condition for a Country to prosper. [3]
With bitter humorism he invites those who don't share his point of view to try an experiment: transfer the Roman court "in the land of the Swiss," a people he considers extremely upright and disciplined, "and they would see how in a short time the evil morals of the court would create more confusion in that province than any other accident that could arise." [4]
When it comes to religion Machiavelli is not the cold time-server that some would have people believe. ”

“ His accusations against the contemporary Popes went beyond their private obscenities, but Guicciardini gets to the point of accusing them of laying waste the whole of Italy: "Because of their greed suggesting them to raise their relatives from private positions to princes . . . they have been causing, for a long time, new wars and disorders in Italy." [26]
As we draw conclusions, we can say that both Machiavelli and Guicciardini strongly criticize the Pope's temporal power, as a matter of principle, and even more as a reality. ”

“ As Dante before, Guicciardini compares the church before Constantin to the one after that is in gradual and clearer antithesis with the gospel teachings: the Supreme Pontiffs before Constantin were, following Peter's example, "great for charity, humility, patience, spirit and miracles . . . stripped of temporal power," [15] while the ones who followed "dismissed little by little the care for the well being of souls and the divine precepts, and turned all their attention towards worldly grandeur, not using their spiritual authority if not to serve their temporal power. ”

“ Obviously our writer is too involved with, we could even say, compromised, by the Roman court to be able to go beyond an outburst of wholesome anger, but through this thought we see a noble soul and a certain moral vigor. He has to hide his feelings under a form of nicodemism, but at the same time he doesn't give up handing down to posterity a powerful accusation that might stir up someone to make justice. ”

“ But even if this was no the case, (as an historian he bases his ideas only upon unquestionable facts) history shows how, throughout the centuries, the relationship between papacy and empire changed according to acts of force and not to solid and unchangeable juridical principles. For several centuries after Constantin "the pontiffs were not only obsequious but subject to the emperors," [18] and were by them elected directly or at least not without their consent, according to the laic custom of the roman order. ”

“ Many of them, aware of their social duties both as Christians and as writers, do not hesitate to censure, more or less rigorously, the distance between the church of their times and the evangelic model. ”

“ Francis of Assisi, Jacopone da Todi and Dante, are strewn with major and lesser writers who show a lively interest in Christian values and in the Roman Catholic church, which claims to be the standard-bearer and promotor of such values. ”

“ In the play it's only Fra Timoteo's (who betrays his own "spiritual daughter" for money) diabolic malice that induces Lucrezia to commit adultery, the sin symbol of subversion of family and society. The greed of Fra Timoteo, who is considered a typical representative of the clergy, lies at the root of the whole society's ruin. ”

“ But even under the Carolinian emperors, the pontiffs "even though they were closer to them as associates and no more in total subjection, they still consented to wait for their confirmation and to be subject to their judgment." [20] A change took place when the empire went to the Germans. Because the emperors were not powerful, they couldn't be obeyed by the pontiffs who "started getting strong without the empire's protection" and this confusion of powers started many wars. ”