It was not one .of those methodistical moralists
who in every age think themselves called to declaim against the
wickedness of the time, but it was Machiavelli, who, in one of his
best-considered works, said openly: 'We Italians are irreligious and
corrupt above others.' Another man would perhaps have said, 'We are
individually highly developed; we have outgrown the limits of morality
and religion which were natural to us in our undeveloped state, and we
despise outward law, because our rulers are illegitimate, and their
judges and officers wicked men.' Machiavelli adds, 'because the Church
and her representatives set us the worst example.'
Shall we add also, 'because the influence exercised by antiquity was in
this respect unfavorable'? The statement can only be received with many
qualifications. It may possibly be true of the humanists, especially as
regards the profligacy of their lives. Of the rest it may perhaps be
said with some approach to accuracy that, after they became familiar
with antiquity, they substituted for holiness--the Christian ideal of
life--the cult of historical greatness. We can understand, therefore,
how easily they would be tempted to consider those faults and vices to
be matters of indifference, in spite of which their heroes were great.
They were probably scarcely conscious of this themselves, for if we are
summoned to quote any statement of doctrine on this subject, we are
again forced to appeal to humanists like Paolo Giovio, who excuses the
perjury of Giangaleazzo Visconti, through which he was enabled to found
an empire, by the example of Julius Caesar.
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