Editing Niccolò Machiavelli (section)

===Religion===

Machiavelli shows repeatedly that he saw religion as man-made, and that the value of religion lies in its contribution to social order and the rules of morality must be dispensed with if security requires it.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Km5itjMehYUC&q=discourses+on+livy|title=Discourses on Livy, Book 1, Chapter 11–15|last=Machiavelli|first=Niccolò|year= 2009|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0226500331|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ehzOd8DVlNkC&q=the+prince+mansfield|title=The Prince: Second Edition|last=Machiavelli|first=Niccolò|year= 2010|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0226500508|pages=69–71|language=en}}</ref> In ''The Prince'', the ''Discourses'' and in the ''[[Life of Castruccio Castracani]]'' he describes "prophets", as he calls them, like [[Moses]], [[Romulus]], [[Cyrus the Great]] and [[Theseus]] as the greatest of new princes, the glorious and brutal founders of the most novel innovations in politics, and men whom Machiavelli assures us have always used armed force, being willing to kill those who did not ultimately agree with their vision.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M3pxBAAAQBAJ&dq=Romulus%2C%20Theseus%20%E2%80%93%20%E2%80%9Cand%20the%20like.%E2%80%9D%20These%20founders%20are%20not%20just%20princes%3B%20Machiavelli%20calls%20them%20%E2%80%9Cprophets.%E2%80%9D%20They%20are%20the%20bring-%20ers%20of%20God%20or%20the%20gods%3B%20they%20are%20the%20founders%20of%20new%20religions%20at%20the%20same%20time%20as%20new%20political%20orders%20...&pg=PA207 | title=The Key Texts of Political Philosophy | isbn=978-1-107-00607-2 | last1=Pangle | first1=Thomas L. | last2=Burns | first2=Timothy W. | date=2015 | publisher=Cambridge University Press }}</ref><ref>Especially in the ''Discourses'' III.30, but also ''The Prince'' Chap.VI</ref> He estimated that these sects last from 1,666 to 3,000 years each time, which, as pointed out by Leo Strauss, would mean that Christianity became due to start finishing about 150 years after Machiavelli.<ref>{{Harvtxt|Strauss|1987|p=314}}</ref> Machiavelli's concern with Christianity as a religion was that it made the Italians of his day "weak and effeminate", delivering politics into the hands of cruel and wicked men without a fight, as well as celebrated humility and otherworldly things, instead of being focused on the tangible world.<ref>See for example {{Harvtxt|Strauss|1958|p=206}}.</ref> While Machiavelli's own religious allegiance has been debated, it is assumed that he had a low regard of contemporary Christianity.<ref>Parsons, W. B. (2016). Machiavelli's gospel: The critique of Christianity in the prince. Boydell & Brewer.</ref>

While fear of [[God]] can be replaced by fear of the prince, if there is a strong enough prince, Machiavelli felt that having a religion is in any case especially essential to keeping a republic in order.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Vavouras |first1=Elias |last2=Theodosiadis |first2=Michail |date=October 2024 |title=The Concept of Religion in Machiavelli: Political Methodology, Propaganda and Ideological Enlightenment |journal=Religions |language=en |volume=15 |issue=10 |pages=1203 |doi=10.3390/rel15101203 |doi-access=free |issn=2077-1444}}</ref> For Machiavelli, a truly great prince can never be conventionally religious himself, but he should make his people religious if he can. According to {{Harvtxt|Strauss|1958|pp=226–227}} he was not the first person to explain religion in this way, but his description of religion was novel because of the way he integrated this into his general account of princes.

Machiavelli's judgment that governments need religion for practical political reasons was widespread among modern proponents of republics until approximately the time of the [[French Revolution]]. This, therefore, represents a point of disagreement between Machiavelli and late modernity.<ref>{{Harvtxt|Strauss|1958|p=231}}</ref>