The central theme of Machiavelli's The Prince is that to succeed in acquiring and then retaining power, the prince or leader must use whatever means are at his disposal, even if those means are not regarded by the Church as virtuous. It was this concept that rendered his text controversial in an era in which lip service to spiritual virtues was more common than actual adherence to such virtues. Machiavelli (102 û 104) argued that while a prince, to be successful need not necessarily be loved or feared, he should command the respect of others within his principality in order to retain control of it. Further, the prince should "determine to avoid anything which will make him hated an despised (Machiavelli, 102). Machiavelli (50 û 52) wrote, in essence, that a successful prince would almost always find himself feared by others, particularly those who knew or felt themselves to be a weaker presence or in a position of some disadvantage vis-a-vis the stronger prince. Machiavelli (97) stated that "A prince, therefore, should have no other object or thought, nor acquire skills in anything, except war, its organization, and its discipline." In other words, the sole duty or set of duties that a prince must address focus upon ensuring that his principality will succeed in its competition with others or that his rule will be free from attack from within or without. If attacked, the prince must be able to deploy those skills needed to fend off even the most aggressive rival. Machiavelli influenced the behavior of many real world princes and leaders in his era, but he had little impact upon the Roman Church.
Machiavelli, Niccolo. The Prince. New York: Penguin, 1973.
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