The Secular Reformation and the Influence of Machiavelli

Title
The Secular Reformation and the Influence of Machiavelli
Publication Date
2002
Author(s)
Maddox, W Graham
Type of document
Journal Article
Language
en
Entity Type
Publication
Publisher
University of Chicago Press
Place of publication
United States of America
UNE publication id
une:1321
Abstract
That Macchiavelli (1469-1527) and Luther (1483-1546) were contemporaries is seldom remarked in modern political theory, although John Neville Figgis did make Luther an accomplice to Macchiavelli's aggrandizement of the secular prince. From quite different motives, both set out to deconstruct the political authority of the Church of Rome and both adopted an appeal to antiquity over the head, as it were, of the medieval Christian establishment. Yet, while Luther's authority derived from pristine Christian writings and the unmediated working of the spirit, Macchiavelli, wishing to bypass Christianity altogether, had recourse to classical, mainly Latin, texts, and to the antique record of the political actions of wise men.
Link
Citation
The Journal of Religion, 82(4), p. 539-562
ISSN
0022-4189
Start page
539
End page
562

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