d books had issued from
European presses, before anybody undertook to print the Greek Testament.
In the days when every State made the unity of faith its first care, it
came to be thought that the rights of men, and the duties of neighbours
and of rulers towards them, varied according to their religion; and
society did not acknowledge the same obligations to a Turk or a Jew, a
pagan or a heretic, or a devil worshipper, as to an orthodox Christian.
As the ascendency of religion grew weaker, this privilege of treating
its enemies on exceptional principles was claimed by the State for its
own benefit; and the idea that the ends of government justify the means
employed was worked into system by Machiavelli. He was an acute
politician, sincerely anxious that the obstacles to the intelligent
government of Italy should be swept away. It appeared to him that the
most vexatious obstacle to intellect is conscience, and that the
vigorous use of statecraft necessary for the success of difficult
schemes would never be made if governments allowed themselves to be
hampered by the precepts of the copy-book.

His audacious doctrine was avowed in the succeeding age by men whose
personal character stood high. They saw that in critical times good men
have seldom strength for their goodness, and yield to those who have
grasped the meaning of the maxim that you cannot make an omelette if you
are afraid to break the eggs. They saw that public morality differs from
private, because no Government can turn the other cheek, or can admit
that mercy is better than justice. And they could not define the
difference or draw the limits of exception; or tell what other standard
for a nation's acts there is than the judgment which Heaven pronounces
in this world by success.

Machiavelli's teaching would hardly have stood the test of Parliamentary
government, for public discussion demands at least the profession of
good faith. But it gave an immense impulse to absolutism by silencing
the consciences of very religious kings, and made the good and the bad
very much alike. Charles V. offered 5000 crowns for the murder of an
enemy. Ferdinand I. and Ferdinand II., Henry III. and Louis XIII., each
caused his most powerful subject to be treacherously despatched.
Elizabeth and Mary Stuart tried to do the same to each other. The way
was paved for absolute monarchy to triumph over the spirit and
institutions of a better age, not by isolated acts of wickedness, but