Machiavelli
Machiavelli goes against the traditional mindset that a prince derived his power from God. Machiavelli believed that the rulers were given no divine right. He said that a ruler achieved his power through his own efforts and skills. The traditional thinkers believed that the ruler had to abide by Christian morals like the virtues. On the other hand, Machiavelli said that they did not have to abide by these Christian standards. Machiavelli was in contradiction with many other beliefs of medieval philosophers and politicians. Traditional medieval thinkers believed that the Christian standards of morality were the guidance's to political life. Traditional medieval thinkers believed that God chose the ruler and he had divinity because of that. They believed that an important standard of Christianity was to be merciful. They believed that the ruler was to be merciful because God wanted it that way. God doesn't want the ruler to be cruel. They believed that in general, religion was to be the ruler's method of control.
Therefore, he suggested that it be better to be feared. According to Machiavelli "Hannibal had an enormous army, composed of men of all nations and fighting in foreign countries, there never arose any dissention". Machiavelli believed that the good ruler ignored questions of good and evil because those questions distracted the ruler from dealing with the necessities like state problems concerning the welfare of the people. On the other hand, the Florentine people who were preoccupied about they're public image and not being cruel allowed a city to be destroyed. the Florentine people, who, to avoid the name of cruelty allowed Pistoia to be destroyed. Everything had to do with religion when there were decisions to be made. In The Prince Machiavelli states that a "Cesare Borgia was considered cruel, but his cruelty had brought order to the Romagna" Machiavelli also gave an example in The Prince of ". To him, the successful ruler was disinterested in the issues of morality and immorality. This idea of a ruler being cruel, not following Christian standards and virtues was contrary to the conception of a successful ruler by the traditional medieval thinkers. This is because with a reputation of being soft, no man can lead a powerful and successful army. One of the situations was not in trying to become a successful ruler. " To Machiavelli there is a difference between being hated and feared. The medieval thinkers believed that the successful ruler was someone who acquired faith, mercy, and other Christian virtues in his rule.
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