taking a pen from the table, he mended it to his own fashion, and wrote:
"thomas cromwell to his most excellent friend, master william bates, greeting. i am removed to the farmhouse of la strada at san casciano for a short time, having left florence on account of the great heat and an indisposition of my stomach, caused by a surfeit of raw ham and figs: for it is the custom of this people, when the figs ripen, to make an excursion to their villas, or the farms of their tenants, and having brought with them a number of small hams, smoked and excellently well flavoured, which they cut into thin slices, they sit in the shade of a fig-tree, and make a great feasting. messer frescobaldi carried me to such a feast at one of his neighbouring villas, and i, whether from the novelty of the dish, which savours 198deliciously, and is exciting to the palate, or from a natural intemperance of appetite, having eaten immoderately of figs and ham, and having drunk a vast quantity of wine, was seized on my return to florence with violent pains and cramps in the stomach, accompanied by much retching and colic. messer frescobaldi, having sent for his physician to come to me, i was blooded eight ounces, and am now somewhat recovered, though in much need of rest, and the coolness of the country air.
"but since i am charged with the execution of your business rather than with the recreation of mine own health, let me say that the matter of the lucca merchants is settled, on the terms mentioned in the enclosed treaty, and such produce as you require will be sent as occasion offers, whether by france or antwerp, depending upon the state of the rival nations; but in so far as is possible the goods will be shipped at genoa by the fuggers, and carried thence to antwerp, to be reladed at your own charge, and carried to your brother at boston, or on a ship of the fuggers' trading with england, in which case they will be delivered to yourself at the sign of the blue anchor, in chepeside. 199the late ordinances directing that all shrouds shall be made of woollen, and forbidding the export of raw wool out of england, and the question of the staple, have caused much ill-feeling against english merchants, both at antwerp and florence; wherefore i think it would be wise to commission the fuggers to buy for you, and to colour your goods with their name, more especially in the baltic trade. the same offices will, at your request, be undertaken by messer frescobaldi here and throughout italy, both with the cloth merchants of florence and the glass workers and silk merchants of venice; but, in matters connected with your trade with the latter town, messer frescobaldi demands that you place a sum of money in his bank, sufficient to cover the charges of the import and the export duty, or, that such moneys as he may advance on your behalf for the payment of these imposts be charged against you at one and a half per cent. above the current rate, so that in the one case he hath the use of your money, and in the other a large interest upon his own. you will easily see by the treaty that i have relinquished to him rather the shadow than the substance of what he desired; but i do feel it my duty to 200beseech you that in every wise you show him such convenience and fair dealing as you may, without hurt to your own prosperity, since by your acting in this fashion he will be the less likely to repudiate the contract as a cheat devised for his beguiling.
"returning to mine own affairs. i am the guest of one niccolo machiavelli, an honest and courteous man, with much wit, and knowledge of the ancients. he was sometime in the service of the late republic, but was after suspected, and removed from his office by the medici faction. having been racked on a false charge of treason, he retired hither, and by a frugal expenditure hath somewhat mended his fortune, so that he is embarrassed neither by the cares of wealth, nor the vexations of poverty. at first, however, since a republican and popular government considers all the citizens to be its servants, as much through their own duty as from any hope of a fair remuneration, he, having been able to save little of his pay, was in great straits, so that he was forced to rise ere it was light, and spread nets for thrushes and quails, superintend his idle workmen, and busy himself with a thousand trifling cares: wherefore i think it more profitable 201to serve a tyrant than a free people. he hath now acquired by his own efforts that leisure which his public service and former poverty denied him, so that he can pass his day in pleasant discourse, studying the diverse manners and habits of men, or reading in his library, in which he doth greatly delight. the library itself, in which i am now writing, is a long, airy room, having a pleasant aspect toward the south-west; but it overlooks the courtyard, and one is continually disturbed through the day by the foolish cackle of hens and other farmyard racket. he told me that he chose the room on his first coming hither, whereat his wife made a great clamour complaining that he had taken for his own uses the one serviceable room in the house, which is indeed the truth. she is well looking and i would willingly see more of her; but she is a notable woman, and, as is usual with her sex, occupied all day long by a thousand nothings, whereat i think he is marvellously contented, esteeming himself fortunate in that she differs from the majority of wives, who continually invade the privacy of men, and use our apartments as their own. set against the walls are great chests of carven and painted wood, which 202contain his manuscripts and printed books, the latin poets as well as the historians and orators, besides those italian authors who have gained an eternity of fame, more especially dante alighieri and petrarch. here, among this choice store of what the world hath accounted noble in thought or action, we sit far into the night with a flagon of wine between us, and such entertainment as our own wits provide, relishing in our conversation both the sal nigrum of momus, and the sal candidum which mercurius gave.
"at first, seeing the ingenious and subtle mind of my friend, i was at a loss to account for his apparent failure in assuring his own fortune; but, knowing him better, i see that his judgment, never at fault in dealing with things afar off, may be perplexed and misled when it comes to bear upon present affairs; being so great in himself he doth sometimes forget of what poor account in europe are his countrymen to-day. he is at present making a series of discourses upon politics, which he reads in the gardens of cosimo rucellai, where the meetings of the academy are held. it was at one of these meetings, after the company had dispersed, that i first had speech of him; in which traverses, though the chief 203subject of his discourse is livy's history of the roman republic, he draweth his examples from many sources, and showeth how mankind hath always been prone to the same faults, and in like circumstances will always act in a like manner without regard for the lessons and warnings of the past.
"in the intervals of preparing these discourses against their occasions, and of refining those which he hath read, he giveth much time and labour to the polishing of a little treatise or manual for princes; a work full of seasonable matter, which i have read with much profit and agreement, for he reasons not, as the schoolmen use, from some abstract theory of the universe, with which all events must be forced into harmony, but gathering together the facts of common experience, he derives from the perfect understanding of them the principles of his philosophy; wherefore i say that he hath invented a new science, and added a tenth muse to the choir of apollo. and to show you the satiric nature of the man, i must tell you, that having dedicated his treatise of the prince to lorenzo di piero de' medici, in the hope of some advancement and reward, and being disappointed of this hope, in the dedication of his discourses to zanobi buondelmonte 204and cosimo rucellai he says, 'though i have been mistaken on many occasion, yet certainly i have made no error in offering my discourses to you. for in this i think to have shown some gratitude for benefits received, and to have abandoned the path habitually trodden by those who make a trade of writing, and whose custom it is to dedicate their works to some prince, to whom, in the blindness of their ambition or of their avarice, and in the pouring out of their empty flatteries, they attribute all the virtues, instead of making him blush for his vices. to avoid falling into that vulgar fault i have made choice, not indeed of a prince, but of those who merit to be princes.... moreover, historians give greater praise to hieron, a plain citizen of syracuse, than to perseus, king of macedonia, for hieron lacked none of the qualities of kingliness, except the name, while perseus had no other than the kingdom.' so doth he think to repay them for their neglect.
"this satiric quality doth characterise all his writing, whether he be dealing with the sacred or the profane; indeed he doth make no difference between the books of moses and the books of livy, but treats both in the same way, as the record of past events; and 205though god forbid that i should seem to doubt the truth of scripture, yet it is my opinion that the writings of moses are not to be apprehended by the plain man, being full of mystery and divinity, which only a clerk can expound. thus, in one place, after enumerating the great law-givers of old; moses, cyrus, romulus, theseus, and the like, he adds: 'and though perhaps i ought not to name moses, he being merely an instrument for carrying out the divine commands, he is still to be admired for those qualities which made him worthy to converse with god; but if we consider cyrus and the others who have acquired or founded kingdoms, they will all be seen to be admirable, and if their actions and the particular institutions of which they were the authors be studied, they will be found not to differ from those of moses, though he was instructed by so great a teacher.'
"this is either too simple, or too subtile, for men of godly and pious dispositions. indeed, i think that by indulging his delight in irony he hath made himself distrusted; for the depravity of human nature is such, that, where two interpretations can be put upon words, mankind will ordinarily choose the sense which 206is evil instead of that which is good. witness the following, on ecclesiastical princedoms: 'all the difficulties of ecclesiastical princedoms precede their acquisition: for they are acquired by merit or good fortune, but are maintained without either, being upheld by the venerable ordinances of religion, which are all of such a nature and efficacy that they secure the authority of their princes in whatever way they may act or live. these princes alone have territories which they do not defend, and subjects whom they do not govern; yet, though undefended, their territories are not taken from them, nor are their subjects concerned at not being governed or led to think of throwing off their allegiance; nor is it in their power to do so. accordingly these princedoms alone are secure and happy. but inasmuch as they are sustained by agencies of a higher nature than the mind of man can reach, i forbear to speak of them; for, since they are set up and supported by god himself, he would be a rash and presumptuous man who should venture to discuss them.' it hath a double edge, and though some may be found to declare the intention innocent, since the book is addressed to a relative of the pope, i would rather infer from that the greater daring 207of the author. but lest you yourself, who are curious in such matters, should doubt whether the intention be malicious or innocent, i shall explain further his opinions, both in the matter of moses, and in the matter of ecclesiastical princedoms. for in two discourses at the rucellai gardens, at which i was present, he returned to these subjects, and said: 'in fact no legislator has ever given his people a new body of laws, without alleging the intervention of the divinity; for otherwise they would not have been accepted. it is certain that there exist many benefits of which a wise and prudent man foresees the consequences, but nevertheless of which the evidence is not sufficiently striking to convince all minds. to resolve that difficulty the wise man hath recourse to the gods.... the florentines believe themselves to be neither ignorant nor rude, and, nevertheless, fra girolamo savonarola made them believe that he had conversations with god. i do not pretend to decide if he were right or wrong, for one should not speak without respect of so extraordinary a man. i only say, that a great multitude of people believed him, without having seen anything supernatural which could justify their belief; but his whole life, 208his knowledge, and the subject of his discourses, should have been enough to make them give credence to his words. one must never be astonished at having failed to-day, where others once succeeded; for mankind, as i have said in my preface, are born, live, and die, according to the same laws.'
"and if you, master bates, would ask me how it is possible that such matters should be so spoken of, openly, in this country, which licence would not be permitted elsewhere, i shall offer in reply his own words on ecclesiastical princedoms. for he says: 'certainly, if religion had been able to maintain itself as a christian republic, such as its divine founder had established, the states which professed it would have been happier than they are now. but how is she fallen! and the most striking proof of her decadence is to see that the peoples bordering on the church of rome, that capital of our religion, are precisely the least religious. if one examines the primitive spirit of her institutions, and when he sees how far her practice hath departed from them, he might easily believe that we are approaching a time of ruin or of retribution. and, since some assert that the happiness of italy depends on the church of rome, i should 209bring against that church several reasons which offer themselves to my mind, among which there are two extremely grave, and which i think, cannot be denied. first, the evil examples of the court of rome have extinguished in this country all devotion and all religion, which fact carries in its train innumerable inconveniences and disorders; and as, wherever religion reigns one must believe the existence of good, so wherever it hath disappeared one must suppose the presence of evil. we owe it then, we other italians, to the church and to the priests that we are without religion or morals, but we owe them one other obligation, which is the source of our ruin; it is that the church has always stirred up, and stirs up incessantly, the division of this unhappy country.'
"my mind doth see you, sitting, perchance, in your garden, by the dial, as is your wont after the business of the day is over, and mocking me, that i have found a new prophet. but, indeed, it doth seem so to me, and i am content to sit in his company gleaning the ripe ears of his wisdom. and if i have out-wearied your patience with my praise of him, whose every word hath the force of a deed, let me remind you of a summer day in the 210garden of your old house at boston, how we plucked the apricocks from the espaliers, while you read to me the discourses of sir thomas more upon augustine's de civitate dei, when, if i did not gape, it was but from politeness and my great respect for yourself. for this man doth stand among his countrymen like a giant in a city of pigmies, overlooking their petty disputations, and reading the future from the mirror of the past. he doth foresee the ruin of the church, the birth of empires, the dawn of a new greatness for the world, the emancipation of the peoples from the ecclesiastical tyranny of to-day. he standeth like one prophetic upon pisgah. he doth see that the world must be freed from this pestilence of monks. he says: 'our religion, having shown us the truth and the only way of salvation, hath lessened in our eyes the worth of worldly honours.... the ancient religions offered divine honours only to those illustrious with worldly glory, such as famous captains, and leaders of the republic; our religion, on the contrary, only sanctifies the humble, and men given to contemplation rather than to an active life; she hath placed the summum bonum in humility, in the contempt for worldly things, and even in abjection; 211while the pagans made it consist in greatness of soul, in bodily strength, and in all that might help to make men brave and robust. and if our religion asks us to have strength, it is rather the strength to suffer evils than to do great things. it seems that this new morality has made mankind weaker, and given the world over as a prey to the wicked.'
"all these sayings have sunk deep into my mind, as you may well perceive by the length of this letter. he hath taught me that, since the conditions of life are always the same, a man who hath strength and wit may rise to the same eminence in these days as the heroes of old time did in the past.
"i have sent to my lord the cardinal a present of furs, which i pray you see conveyed to him with my humble duty. the cloak of furs is for yourself, and the necklace of amber beads for your good lady. your advice i follow in my way of life; but, my good will, sometimes i do regret the old times, when you and i were younger, and fond of wenches; or, perchance, when they were fonder of us. three things i look forward to seeing next spring: the fresh face of an english country maid, a royal pageant 212on the thames, and a bank of primroses with the rain on them."
folding the paper neatly, he addressed it; and taking a sardonyx gem from his finger sealed up the edges with four seals. then returning the ring to his finger, he considered his small, white, fat hands, pursing up his lips, with a curious air of meditative self-satisfaction. lifting up his eyes again, after this pleasant relaxation of the mind, he found machiavelli, who had entered softly so as not to disturb him if he were writing, looking at him with a gently ironic smile; and he started, somewhat annoyed that even for a moment he should have been taken off his guard.
"if you are occupied, messer, i shall not disturb you. do not move. i hope that you have asked for whatever you may have desired. marietta tells me that you have been busy with your correspondence."
"i have also read a little," answered cromwell.
"ah, i see! the de monarchia. i marvel always, messer, that in spite of the overwhelming evidence of human depravity, men are to be found in every age who base their conceptions of the ideal state upon the hypothesis that mankind is naturally good."
213"it is at least certain that each individual considers himself good," cromwell said.
a light smile was the only reply. machiavelli wore a long florentine cloak reaching down to the ankles; loosening it a little he flung the ends back over the arms of his chair, and stretched his legs. his clothes were of the finest florentine cloth, well-made, but a little worn--black and dark green in colour; he wore a collar of fine linen fitting close about the neck; his cloak was of brown home-spun. every detail showed a scrupulous care for his appearance, but also a frugality of means. cromwell, equally sober in his black and tawny, allowed himself little vanities; a gold chain with pendant jewels, and the white lawn collar neatly goffered, as also were the wrist-bands.
"do you think this treatise a foolish book?" asked cromwell bluntly.
"dante was great in everything," answered machiavelli. "he could not write foolish things; but he could be mistaken in his reasons, and as to the capacity of human nature. his ideal emperor, his ideal pope, would be gods, not men. his notion of the church stripped of its temporal possessions is a chimera. as religion exists to-day, 214asserting its precedence over the state, or even its opposition to the state, it splits society in two, and divides it against itself. the religion of the pagans was merged in patriotism, and before a greater stability in social affairs is possible, mankind must either return to that ideal, or religion be considered as a matter for every individual to practise as he thinks best."
he spoke with little or no inflection of the voice, resting his chin on one hand. as he sat always with his head slightly bent, when he looked at his companion, with bright eyes under compressed brows, his face had an expression of stealthy alertness.
"yes," said cromwell; "if we turn away from italy, and consider the other nations, we find that in every country the church has an organisation, powerful and rich, which the state has to bribe; but since the church has this organisation, acting directly on the mass of the people, and willing to support the state, in exchange for certain privileges and immunities, our princes find it convenient to govern by its help; and since the greater part of government consists of temporary expedients, statesmen will not be led easily to forego this convenience."
215"that little book was written when boniface viii. sat in the chair of peter. it is simply a protest against the ambition and arrogant pretensions of the popes. innocent iii. and gregory vii. could launch their thunders against kings more or less successfully; but the anger of boniface went out like a flame fallen in water; his selfish lust for power led to his complete downfall, and the victory of philip. but philip's victory caused a revulsion of feeling in the pope's favour, so that dante, though he hath thrust boniface into hell, yet calleth him christ's vicar, and doth compare his sufferings to christ's passion. even philip did not attack him openly, but used covert weapons, sciarra and all the colonnesi being his secret allies, and carrying with them the gonfalon of the church; in what he did openly, philip used traditional means, as summoning a council, and accusing the pope of heresy. still, i say to you that henceforth the great states will war continuously against the church."
"and how should they attack her? upon what side is the church to be assailed?"
"through the monks. 'the fat bellies of the monks' are become a proverb in europe. every people itch with the vermin. they 216have made the practice of poverty the most lucrative of trades. their greed, their lewdness, and their obscenity, are the matter of every ballad, and the butt of every wit. and yet they are one of the chief supports of the church, ever replenishing her treasuries with the offerings of the poor, and the fruit of their traffic in pardon and indulgences."
"i have observed," said cromwell, "that, though kings have often despoiled the monasteries, such depredations have not increased their popularity; for, though the people do not defend the property of the monks when it is attacked, after a time the weight of their opinion is on the side of the church, and they accuse the officers of the state of rapacity and harshness, and the king himself of greed."
"the people are too often ground between the upper and nether mill-stones of church and state," said machiavelli; "to them both tyrannies are equally hateful. and, also, messer, the plundering of the monasteries hath nearly always been an act of kingly greed, to furnish the material for war and forge the instruments of a harsher tyranny. but let the king make his people his accomplices...."
he finished the sentence with a smile.
217"yes," said the other slowly; "yes."
he considered his soft, white hands, and pondered the matter as if it were an ordinary question of daily business. his fleshy face with a bright colour about the cheek-bones, the small, pointed nose, the watchful eyes, revealed nothing; but the mere quietness with which he considered the question was, in a sense, a revelation. lifting his eyes again he spoke quietly.
"i see here," he said, turning the pages of the de monarchia, "that dante attributes the great power of the roman empire to the direct action of the divine providence. the empire to him is a thing divinely ordained, and augustus is the divine monarch."
"one must either attribute all things or nothing to providence," said machiavelli. "it was the opinion of plutarch that the romans confessed their obligations to fortune by consecrating a great number of temples and statues to that goddess. it was to the courage of her soldiers that rome owed the empire, and it was to the wisdom and conduct of her administrators and law-givers that she owed its preservation. if fortune or god rule the world, then man hath no remedy against the evils of his time, and his prudence 218avails him nothing. i am in part inclined to this opinion, since every day we see things happen contrary to all human expectation; yet, at the same time, man is in some measure free. what i say, then, is this: that fortune is mistress of little more than half of our actions, and man himself is master of all the rest. in all things we may observe the action of certain laws, to which man is subject, but within the limits of which he hath a certain freedom. so, as a sailor, knowing the changes of the tide and wind; how it bloweth from the shore at evening, and from the sea at dawn; and knowing also the mysterious currents in the sea, and the hidden shallows, and the free channels, and the stars by which he is to steer, may bring his venture into port, where one ignorant of these things would suffer shipwreck, the wise man judging of times and opportunities will use caution or courage, as best may serve the occasion. he will prosper most whose mode of acting is adapted to the change of times; but no man is found so prudent as to know how to adapt himself to all changes, both because he is naturally inclined to follow one course, and because having prospered in it hitherto he cannot be persuaded to change. moreover, 219fortune is a blind and irresistible force, while the divine providence of dante is mild and beneficent; and though we have instances of fortune we have none of providence; and to assert that fortune directed the growth of the roman empire is to say a childish thing, for fortune creates nothing, it rather destroys; but it is man, adapting himself to fortune, who is the creator. though we may say that fortune doth in a large measure control the works of man, we cannot say that the divine providence hath inspired or maintained in power, by its singular favour, any people. but every people succeeds or fails according to its wisdom in dealing with events as they occur, and in guarding against all probabilities of mischance."
while he was speaking, his son, piero, came into the room with some wine for them, which he put upon the table. he was not unlike his father, with a small, close-cropped head and slightly aquiline nose, but the face had the softer outline and delicacy of youth; something in the clean-cut features, the thoughtful brows, and firm lips, reminded cromwell of a little head of augustus upon a gem which he had seen at rome, but even more, of a small head of caligula, that debased 220and weaker image of augustus. machiavelli smiled, took his son's hand, and talked to him in that spirit of grave banter which is customary with men when they talk to children, and the boy answered him readily enough, with responsive smiles, and laughingly, but yet a little embarrassed by the presence of their guest. presently his hand was released, and he slipped silently out of the room.
"it is sad when one thinks of the great empires of the past fallen into decay, and all their work perished, so that nothing of them can be said to remain except a shadowy legend and a name."
"yes, it is sad; but it hath always been so," answered machiavelli. "everything is subject to change and death. do you know these lines of dante, since you study him?
"'atene e lacedemone, che fenno
le antiche leggi, e furon sì civili,
fecero al viver bene un picciol cenno
verso di te, che fai tanto sottili
provvedimenti, che a mezzo novembre
non giunge quel che tu d'ottobre fili.'
"they are nothing but a song in our ears. and yet we may comfort ourselves. for i believe that the world has always been the 221same and has always contained an equal mass of good and evil, but i believe also that this good and evil passes from one country to another, as we may see by the records of these kingdoms of antiquity, which, as their manners changed, passed from one to the other, but the world itself remained the same. there is only this difference, that whereas first the seat of the world's greatness was at assyria, whence it passed to the medes, thence into persia, until finally it came to rome and italy, and though no other empire has followed which has proved lasting, yet now the greatness of the world is diffused through many nations, in which men live in orderly and civil fashion. everything is subject to change and the vicissitudes of fortune; but passing from change to change all things return more or less to their former state."
"i remember the lines. tell me, messer: dante calleth virgil his master; do you think the poetry of dante similar and equal to virgil?"
machiavelli moved a little in his chair.
"there is a virgil by your hand, messer," he said. "open it. look at the print and paper; it was printed at venice. so i like to read that splendid verse. and yet dante 222scarcely seems a poet to be read in print. i should like to possess his works written in a fine, neat, clerkly script, upon vellum, with little illuminations in the margin, angels in vermilion and ultramarine upon a golden ground; initial letters with quaint floral devices woven about them, heraldic monsters, the gryphon with his car, beatrice walking by the stream in the earthly paradise. he chose virgil as his master because, to him, virgil was the sole roman to whom the prophecy of christ's coming had been revealed by the divine will; because virgil himself had pictured the state of man after death; and, finally, because virgil had been the singer of that empire which dante so greatly reverenced. the poetry of dante has nothing of classical proportion; its unity is simply the unity of a philosophical system; its progress is like a pageant. but it is full of a sudden wilful beauty, a delight in natural things, moments of birdlike music when he speaks of birds, as in the lines:
"'nell'ora che comincie i tristi lai
la rondinella presso alla mattina,
forse a memoria de' suoi primi guai.'
and when he describes the flight of cranes, or of the lark:
223"'quale allodetta, che in aere si spazia
prima cantando, e poi tace contenta
dell' ultima dolcezza, che la sazia.'
it is like that delicate work of the illuminators, full of a kind of homeliness, a clear and luminous beauty; but it is not the same thing as virgil's lines:
"'.... et bibit ingens
arcus: et e pastu decedens agmine magno
corvorum increpuit densis exercitus alis.'
i do not think that dante is a lesser poet; but he hath not, and never can have, the same universal appeal. he is terrible, full of swiftness, and energy, and hatred; devouring his subject like a flame. no poet hath lines so horrible, so inhuman as:
"'due dì li chiamai poi che fur morti:
poscia, più che il dolor, potè il digiuno.
quand' ebbe detto ciò, con gli occhi torti
riprese il teschio misero coi denti,
che furo all' osso, come d'un can, forti.'
it is an exultation of hatred, a luxury in disgust, a joy in brutal vengeance which cannot be paralleled. turn from it to these lines out of the paradiso:
"'o dolce amor, che di riso t' ammanti,
quanto parevi ardente in quei flailli,
ch' aveano spirto sol di pensier santi.'
224and you have some notion of his wide range from tumult into calm. will you not drink a little wine?"
"this wine is excellent," said cromwell. "as a rule i find the italian wine a little harsh; but this is suave and of a delicate flavour. you are a great lover of poetry, messer. i see that your volumes of tibullus and ovid are much worn."
"i carry them out with me when i go fowling, and read them beside the snares."
"i have little time for such pleasures, alas!" said cromwell. "yet i, too, have great need of the poets, sometimes. i have read the commedia closely. tell me, messer, since you have spoken of dante's political principles as enunciated in the de monarchia, did not they suffer a change in the commedia?"
"man's ideals are broken as he hath greater experience of life. dante, like all enthusiasts, fashioned to his own mind a picture of the ideal state, upon the hypothesis, as i have said before, that all men are naturally good. but if you consider his poem you will find that it is nothing but a record of crimes and their punishment, while even the crystal air of heaven is disturbed by denunciations of evil. his notion that the civil power is of god, and 225that the church should be subject to it, is expressed later with even a more vehement conviction in the paradiso, by justinian, the supreme legist. in the de monarchia he says: 'si romanum imperium de jure non fuit, peccatum adae in christo non fuit punitum'; and in the commedia for having withstood the empire, brutus with cassius still howls in hell, and 'piangene ancor la trista cleopatra.' but, after his years of exile and wandering, he seems to have surrendered his faith in a kingdom, which should be of this world, and sought for justice and the triumph of the good beyond the grave, as so many others have, likewise; for in the next world we shall all be justified. dante's poem is not like the ?neid, an epic: it is an apocalypse. the companion of his voyage is less the gentle virgil, the maiden of the maiden city, than some later st john, continuing his fulminations from patmos, judging all nations and condemning them. it is only in rare moments that he can speak a tender language as he does of the florence of an earlier day, standing in peace, sober, chaste, with no houses void of a family; with her nobles in leather jerkins, and their ladies at the cradle, or the distaff, telling their handmaidens the tales of troy, and rome, and 226fiesole. such is the manner of poets: to praise times past in preference to the present, and usually without reason. a little later, you will hear peter condemning his successors, who imitate him in that calling which he followed before he followed the call of christ, rather than in his later life:
"'non fu nostra intenzion, ch'a destra mano
dei nostri successor parte sedesse,
parte dall' altra del popol cristiano:
nè che le chiavi, che mi fur concesse
divenisser segnacolo in vessillo,
che contra i battezzati combattessi:
nè ch' io fossi figura di sigillo
ai privilegi venduti e mendaci.'
everything in the poem is a condemnation of this world. a sense of complete isolation has overcome the writer. he stands alone, neither guelf nor ghibelline, but a party to himself: the first italian."
he paused, drank a little wine, and smiled tolerantly.
"i, too, began life in attaching myself to a party; and when my party was expulsed i became a florentine, and now, having considered all the cities of italy, i am an italian. but the great mass of my countrymen are still as dante saw them, split up into numerous 227factions, weak by divisions, a ready prey to any comer."
cromwell stroked his chin meditatively and, discreet, said nothing.
"when our dreams have faded, messer," continued the other, "we can only sit aloof, watching the comedy of life with at best a tolerant contempt, but more often hiding, under a mask of cynicism and sarcasm, the maimed heart that is in us."
the other was a little embarrassed, after a moment he spoke quickly.
"it seems, to my mind, messer, that dante's poem hath no progress, no dramatic progress; beyond the pedestrian interest of the scenes described there is no motion."
"thought can be dramatic as well as action," replied the other; "but i am inclined to agree with you. consider the poem as a whole system of thought starting from 'the master of those who know' and ending in the beatific vision; consider it, next, as a denunciation of all the lusts and depravity of the world, typified, and made incarnate in historical characters: francesca, voyaging for ever through the dusky air, on a wind that seems to symbolise her own passion; ugolino, turning his strong teeth upon that wretched 228skull: consider, finally, the little illuminations which have made me compare the poem to a missal or a book of hours; the terse phrase, the very simplicity of which bites like an acid, so keen it is. then, i think, you will see how various was his mind. his poem is like a great life; his words like actions, sometimes terrible and inhuman, sometimes like a mother's tenderness with her child."
cromwell suddenly broke into a smile.
"yes, yes, as you say, messer, it is a whole system of thought. nay, even more, it is the whole structure of a past age. but how simple! how childish! the people of that time seem to me like a few men gathered together at night round an open fire; at hand is a cheerful warmth, and light, but a few paces away is the darkness full of terrors, and on the borders of darkness are monstrous shadows. they sit crouched about the fire, telling idle tales to beguile their fears, thinking that beyond that little glow of radiance is nothing, whereas, at no great distance from them is such another company round another fire. we have explored the darkness, and now the dawn is beginning."
"magnus nascitur ordo," said machiavelli, 229smiling. "how many ages have said the same thing?"
"but it is here. the new order is born. i am no scholar, messer, but i have heard dean colet and erasmus. the recovery of the greeks hath let knowledge like a light into many dark places; the whole political fabric is dissolving, and flowing away into the limbo of dead conceptions. the secular power, which dante wished, and which you wish, to see established, is here."
"yes, it is here," answered machiavelli; "but what is it going to do? mankind is constantly labouring at an unknown task; and, in seeking to be free, doth often but rivet its own fetters more securely."
"what do you mean?"
"take as an example the conflict between the senate and people of rome. marius having been made the champion of liberty is followed by sulla the master of reaction; the fight is long, bitter, and when finally the people triumph they find themselves under the absolute rule of one man. now this results from the fact that men worship the name of freedom, rather than the thing itself; those who fight in the cause of liberty are fighting for their own establishment in power 230and, being established, they seek to protect themselves, and fortify their position as the central authority; and, having been raised up by the popular voice, they are stronger than the power which they have supplanted; thus it happens that the people warring against their government in the cause of liberty do but increase the power which they have aimed to destroy. the present struggle is to rid the state of the interference of the church: to found greater states. the popes have destroyed italy by playing off faction against faction, and city against city, in the hope that by this method they might become supreme over all; but having introduced disorder into every town, and destroyed all civic morality, they have also lessened their own power; for these states and cities were the church's bulwarks against the invader. now, whatever may be the issue of present affairs, the pope must become subject either to the emperor or to the king of france. this is the nemesis of their policy. the liberty of the state will be achieved, at least in a great measure; but the state being stronger will be more absolute, more tyrannous. the solvent of the new learning, as you call it, will be smiled upon by kings, so long as it doth help 231them to rid themselves of the pope; but it will be repressed the moment that it shows any desire to alter or limit the power of the states."
"yes," answered cromwell; "but if they once let in the flood, it will be too late to think of building a dam."
"when i was a young man i remember to have heard politian," said machiavelli. "but i think that the enthusiasm which began with petrarch, and continued into my younger days, has died down. it is true that our studies are better organised: we have the academies; but learning in italy at the present day is rather a polite accomplishment than a serious business. it hath not penetrated the mass of people. to them, the two bases of the social order are still the pope and the emperor, as in dante's day; and they condemn the new learning as tending to overthrow these bases, and so destroy the whole fabric of society. the monks point to erasmus as the cause of the present troubles in germany."
"erasmus doth seem to me to be the one wise man," answered cromwell. "he steereth a middle course, condemning the fanatics on both sides. it is his wish to avoid any tumult, and merely to further the growth of 232light and reason; for he is persuaded the whole evil of the time comes from ignorance. colet, such another man, was persecuted with accusations of heresy, so that he thought well to withdraw himself from the public eye. but neither of these men desired to overthrow the papacy or to promote a schism; for they thought, if i remember aright, that such methods, with their incidental violence, would only prejudice the cause they had at heart; their aim was to act upon the church from within, to reform its abuses, to root out this pestilent brood of monks, and to promote a healthy growth of lay opinion. to erasmus the german schismatics are no whit less ignorant or less intolerant than his old enemies the monks, and equally entangled in the webs of vain theological sophistries. he believes that the great influences are secret, and of slow growth, gradually penetrating all things; and he seeketh to form a party of intellectual men, who shall work within reasonable limits, acting as a new leaven to leaven the whole lump."
"i have little faith in such an influence, except as a preparation for the combat," said machiavelli. "what i praise in erasmus is that clearness of judgment, which insists that 233the bible should be read as any other book, that each man should go direct to the source, and fill his own vessel; for by that means they will recognise the chicanery, which isolates texts and phrases, and distorts their sense. but not by any gentle methods will the regeneration of europe come to pass. there is a stir, a commotion of minds, abroad, which is testing the pretensions of the church, and rejecting them one by one. the sands are shifting beneath the foundations of a structure we thought builded upon a rock; and though as yet the fabric stands, it showeth great rents. so: the pope and emperor remain to the majority the bases of the social order, as i have said, and soon it will be perceived by all men that the humanists, in playing with questions of grammar, have trenched upon matters of faith: a crime not serious in itself, but exceedingly grave when after reflection we learn that it compromises temporalities. men have not yet clearly seen this danger, though a few, perhaps, have suspected it. and, when the reaction against humanism sets in, upon what arm will the humanists rely to defend them?
"they will by that time have created not only a large following, but a temper among 234the people. i myself, messer, have great hopes of our young king of england, who hath grown under the influence of men similar to erasmus. he hath a royal nature, a dominant will, a power not only of making his people's aspirations his own, but that supreme gift in a ruler which can make what is to his own private advantage seem a matter tending to further the public good. though as yet he be not fully tried, this much i will venture to prophesy of him, that no hindrances in the path he chooses will prevent him, and that no man in his realm of england who fails him once will fail him again."
"you are either very fortunate, or very unfortunate, to have such a prince," said machiavelli, with a smile. "but humanism is of recent growth in your country. it must be followed by reform. and, if your king hath that quality of true kingliness, which maketh the aspirations of his people his own, would he withstand reaction?"
"i cannot conceive that one of his nurture and character should be found on any side but that of reform."
a light, incredulous smile played upon the other's face.
"it might be politic," he suggested.
235but cromwell protruded his under-lip obstinately.
"i cannot conceive the possibility," he said.
machiavelli shrugged his shoulders, leaned back in his chair, and looked at his guest over joined finger-tips.
"he hath written against luther, but rather for the reasons of erasmus than for those of the monks," said cromwell slowly. "it is even conceivable that if he once take up the business of reforming the church in england, he may be forced into a more extreme position; i mean into a denial of the pope's authority, and a position similar to that of the followers of luther. in that case, i admit, the war will be between two extreme parties; but it would be difficult to say which he would support, or how far he would be compelled to go. certain it is to me that he will ally himself with whatever party is likely to serve his own ends, and will not forsake them until they have gained him what he requires. then, indeed, he may cast aside the tool, which he hath blunted by use, and choose one keener; yet, in reality, he would be but sacrificing the show for the substance; and his vicegerent will always be the man who discerns his will and executes it. thus, his policy will be 236consistent, though his ministers change; for at times perhaps, since the people always blame those who surround a prince as the abusers of his confidence, he may find it necessary for him to discard, or even to sacrifice one, whose sole fault is in the thoroughness with which he carries out the royal will, for often in history we read of the sacrifice of a minister in order to lull popular feeling. witness the example, which you yourself give, in your treatise of the prince; where you show how messer remiro d'orco, cesare borgia having set him over romagna, by the sternness of his measures soon cleansed it of evil-doers and reduced it to order, for which his master, fearful lest the harshness of his lieutenant should be attributed to himself, rewarded him with axe and block, exposing the severed head in the market-place of cesena. thus, though he had himself commanded the severities which his lieutenant practised, he escaped the odium consequent to them, and was hailed by the people as their deliverer."
they sat for a little time, silent, in the gathering dusk.
"still," said cromwell thoughtfully, "there must be ways of avoiding the ingratitude of 237a master: either by the minister imputing to the king openly, and upon every possible occasion, all actions, whether of good or evil; or else by his fortifying himself with powerful friendships, and seeking in every way to gain the voice of popular favour, so that becoming greater than his master he may withstand him."
machiavelli shifted a little in his chair, and the darkness hid an ironic smile.
