Niccolo Machiavelli and Religion

“Hypocrisy is the tribute which vice pays to virtue.” --French thinker and writer, La Rochefoucauld

While many suppose that religion and politics are opposed to one another, the renaissance prince, Niccolo Machiavelli would disagree. Machiavelli lived in Florence, Italy; he was born there in 1469, the son of an established Tuscan family, and died in the city in 1527. His father was a lawyer working under the Medici regime. The Machiavelli family considered themselves to be republicans, that is to say they favored a republic form of government over despots.

While nearly 500 years have passed since his life, some things are more perennial than he. His world was one of the famous Florentine princes who succeeded in ruling over Italy's various city-states, or polis as Aristotle had referred to them 500 years earlier. As a modern nation-state Italy had yet to come into her own. She existed as a geographic place on the European map, composed of a number of cities, each which behaved as independent entities unto themselves. Thus to travel from one city to another, was to voyage into a foreign territory without citizenship beyond the city of one's birth.

It is in this world that the Roman Popes as well as the Florentines came to influence, one with religion and the others with political might bought by great financial acumen. It is also this world that is the setting for the Christian bible.

The advent of Martin Luther's famous dissent in the German states brought further angst to the renaissance world. Astonishingly Machiavelli's books were placed on the Index of Prohibited Books in 1559; the inquisition nearly led to the erasure of his books, and the Council of Trent later affirmed their inclusion on the Index. In 1579 French Protestants wrote and widely circulated pamphlets against the writings of Niccolo Machiavelli; even bard William Shakespeare mentions Machiavelli in his works! Over time his writings have been variously viewed as” the “devil,” pragmatic, amoral, and satirical, among others

As a religious thinker, Machiavelli was in his day, necessarily involved with religion. Under monarchy or emperorship, the Roman tradition of dictating religion to the masses was common, widely enforced and widely followed. It was this for which Machiavelli was most hostile.

Forgiveness, Sorting Through Your Secrets

"Some harm that people do to themselves or others may appear to 
outsiders to be less grave..." -- Forgiving Yourself by Beverly Flannigan

Many people find it difficult to forgive themselves for the simple, secret reason that they felt some benefit or pleasure from the now regretted experience. It may have been a sense of power, control, emotion, energy or mastery. It may have been a degree of delight in depriving another of a benefit such as needed material items, or the plain truth.

Keeping secrets for these reasons may make a later impulse to self-forgiveness more difficult; self forgiveness is self-confrontation and requires for many, a measure of courage. We don't like what we see in the mirror, yet we live with it day after day. Forgiving Yourself by Beverly Flannigan, discusses forgiveness and includes the issue of secrets.
 "Some harm that people do to themselves or others may appear to outsiders to be less grave than it is to the person unable to forgive himself. You may have been told that you 'did the best you could' or 'didn't know.' You may not have been able to listen to other peoples' condolences because you knew something no one else knew about the situation. For example, you may have felt momentarily good about hurting someone or physically aroused, assaulted, or angry at a person."

If what you know about your situation, you keep 'secret,' it likely is at the center of your inability to forgive yourself. Flannigan recommends to such transgressors that they write down as much as they can remember about the situation, include all the details without fearing the memory; express those parts of yourself in writing that you think or thought then, were unacceptable.
She advises the writing be kept in a safe place; refer to it as often as needed, adding details or feelings which you may have not recalled at first writing. This may take weeks as things surface in your mind.

Concluding this discussion Flannigan notes that, "With each phase of forgiving yourself, you come closer and closer to truth. Eventually you will expose more of your truth to another person."
  For now, the hard work of confronting what you most dislike in yourself takes you closer to the time you feel genuine relief and can say to yourself, "I feel whole, I forgive myself."