Friday, October 29, 2010

Prince Question 5: Use Machiavelli to argue against the Beatitudes

The Beatitudes are verses in the bible preaching the better qualities of man and how these will lead to the ultimate paradise heaven after death. However the ideas of Machiavelli do not agree with many of the concepts we see in the Beatitudes.

The Beatitudes state that,” Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.” (The Beatitudes).However, Machiavelli’s arguments would certainly disagree with this. For example,” Those who by valorous ways become princes, like these men, acquire a principality with difficulty, but they keep it with ease.”(Machiavelli Chapter VI) In Machiavelli’s opinion one who works hard to acquire his principality or any success in general will have an easier maintaining it under his control. A meek person on the other hand could only have come to power through fortune or deceit and therefore will have a difficult time holding onto this power. If we take Machiavelli’s ideas as fact meek people will never inherit the earth.

The Beatitudes also state that, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.”(The beatitudes) This also completely disagrees with the ideas of Machiavelli. Machiavelli’s ideas say that a proper prince use unjust methods cruelty to keep his position. ”We have not seen great things done in our time except by those who have been considered mean; the rest have failed.”(Machiavelli XVI) According to Machiavelli if a prince is always righteous and inherently good that Prince will inevitably fail.

Prince Question 4: Use the Beatitudes to argue against Machiavelli

Machiavelli’s ideas were revolutionary renaissance literature, and the foundation of modern political science, but many of his ideas are not supported by the bible. The beatitudes can be used to argue against Machiavelli from a biblical point of view.

Machiavelli praises cruelty as more than acceptable but a necessary method of ruling your principality however in the Beatitudes wants us to believe, ”Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God” (The Beatitudes Mathew 5:3-12). This directly contradicts Machiavelli’s ideas on cruelty, and using deceit and murder for your own gain. Machiavelli himself says, “We have not seen great things done in our time except by those who have been considered mean; the rest have failed.” (Chapter XVI Machiavelli) According to the Beatitudes a prince, one who supposedly has “the divine right of kings” will not be going to heaven if they follow Machiavelli’s ideas fanatically.
T
he Beatitudes also say,” Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.” (The Beatitudes). Machiavelli is not a very optimistic man and it reflects in his writing, he believes one can rise to become a successful person either through inheritance or through the help of citizens and nobles. Machiavelli fails to grasp the idea of chance and simple luck as a valid way to gain power and influence. Take the most popular renaissance artists of that time. Michelangelo, Leonardo, Brunalleschi; All were discovered by rich patrons and all started out as middle class Italian citizens. They became wealthy and powerful through their art but who’s to say there were not smarter or more talented artists waiting to be discovered?

France Powerpoint Project

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Prince Question 3: Concerning genorosity

Machiavelli in general believes generosity is a trait that a prince should not exercise honestly unless something can be gained from it, “liberality exercised in a way which does not bring you the reputation for it, injures you”(Chapter 16). Machiavelli then goes on to argue that a prince who is very generous in improving the lives of the people overall will eventually need to increase taxes to afford these amenities. This will cause the people to begin to hate you says Machiavelli as they generally ignore what is being done for them.

However, according to Machiavelli there are some situations in which being generous can be advantageous,” seeing that with his economy his revenues are enough, that he can defend himself against all attacks, and is able to engage in enterprises without burdening his people; thus it comes to pass that he exercises liberality towards all from whom he does not take…” (Machiavelli ch.16) In this he is saying that a prince should bide his time and accumulate wealth and once there is a healthy surplus of wealth the Prince can then use this to appear generous to his subjects however the Prince should be wary not to overspend.

In a nutshell Machiavelli is saying that Generosity can be very useful as long as when a Prince is generous he makes sure to spread the word and to create an advantage out of it and the Prince should only be generous when he can afford it and when it is plausible to do so.

Prince Question 2: A prince's greatest ally

According to Machiavelli a Prince’s greatest ally should be his own people because if one is loved by his people he will not need to dear them. Machiavelli says as long as a ruler is liked by the people that ruler will be hard to depose or kill and “he who is highly esteemed is not easily conspired against; for, provided it is well known that he is an excellent man and revered by his people, he can only be attacked with difficulty.” (Machiavelli ch.19) he also mentions that when a Prince becomes the lord of a new principality to disarm the people can be disastrous as the people believe you do not trust them. However if they are unarmed arming them can gain you allies in them as they believe you trust them and will keep the ones who are faithful to you already faithful. The point Machiavelli stresses most is to keep the people happy and even if one is not a benevolent ruler to appear to the majority as one in order to keep the people loyal.

Without the people the Prince is only a Prince of himself which is why it is important for a prince to have his people as allies and not as potential backstabbers, Machiavelli says you build forts when you fear your people and you don’t need forts when your people love you, because they will protect you.

Prince Question 1: Cesare Borgia

Of the 3 men mentioned I believe Cesare Borgia would be the most successful in our modern world. Borgia was decisive, cruel, smart and ambitious which nowadays would not arguably be the most pleasant traits to live in society but they can get you places in the social order.

The choice of Borgia over Oliveratto and D’Orca comes from the fact that both of these men were somewhat successful in their own ways, however, in my opinion Cessare one ups them in many aspects. Oliveratto was a military commander and he only managed to hold his principality for 1 year until he lost it while D’Orca only commanded a principality in another’s name until his employer had him killed as a scapegoat.

The cruelty of Borgia is mentioned in the Prince,” cruel; notwithstanding, his cruelty reconciled the Romagna, unified it, and restored it to peace and loyalty” (Machiavelli) and although cruelty to us may seem unjust Machiavelli believed that the ability to be cruel was a key trait of a ruler. He uses Borgia as an example of how cruelty can be used to create success. His other traits are what most would consider necessities of a prince in order to control and secure his principalities from others.

As to what kind of profession Borgia would pursue nowadays I’d probably put him in some kind of organized crime as his cruelty would be commonplace among criminals and his political skills and decisiveness would eventually get him close to the top.

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Was Henry VIII justified in divorcing Catherine and making himself head of the Church of England?

Was Henry VIII justified in divorcing Catherine and making himself head of the Church of England?

Henry the 8th all powerful King of tudor England was used to getting what he wanted even if he had to be controversial. His wife Catherine was unable to produce him a male heir and Henry wanted a divorce. To achieve this Henry tore down the catholic roots of the English church and under the Act of Supremacy placed himself as head of the newly formed Anglican Church which changed the course of history for England and Europe. The question: was he justified in these acts?

When his wife Catherine of Aragon was unable to produce him a male heir Henry wanted to divorce her in favor of his prospective new wife Anne Boleyn who was already pregnant. However, England was a catholic country and divorce was against the catholic religion. On the other hand, what Henry could do was procure and annulment from the pope which basically made his original marriage to Catherine illegitimate. Unfortunately for Henry during this time the Pope was under house arrest by the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V who happened to be the nephew of Catherine of Aragon. Under pressure by Charles V the pope refused to grant Henry his desired annulment. This meant that the only way for Henry to get what he wanted he had to break away for the Catholic Church.

Henry was a very religious and suspicious man and according to the bible verse Leviticus 20:21,” If a man marries his brother's wife, it is an act of impurity; he has dishonored his brother. They will be childless.” This caused Henry to believe that as long as he was married to his brother’s old wife he would never father a male heir. Leviticus 20:21 was probably a major catalyst in Henry the 8th's decision to break away from the Church in order to divorce his “barren” wife no matter the consequences.

Through the Act of Supremacy and the Act in Restraint in Appeals Henry the 8th successfully broke his country away from the Pope and Catholicism. The Act of Restraint and Appeals not only helped transfer power to Henry but due to political maneuvering by his advisor Thomas Cromwell the act went through parliament which supposedly was the voice of the people. This made it seem that not only a few people wanted to break away from the church but it was of popular opinion.

Henry the 8th was the King of a superpower of the medieval world and one of the greatest goals of any medieval monarch was to achieve a lineage and to have heirs in place to continue your bloodline. In Henry’s opinion having an heir was more important than having his wife Catherine of Aragon especially because of his religious superstitions and Leviticus 20:21. Moreover, this is why even though he cast his old wife aside I believe Henry the 8th was justified in his decision to divorce his wife Catherine because of the time period and circumstances Henry believed he had no choice. However, I believe Henry was unjustified in breaking his entire country from the Catholic Church for his own personal ends. Through clever political maneuvering him and his advisors were able to make it seem that it was what England wanted but as we will see in the future his decision will be costly in blood for the people of England.

Brian Cadden


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