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.
Everything had to do with religion when there were decisions to be made. The medieval thinkers believed that the successful ruler was someone who acquired faith, mercy, and other Christian virtues in his rule.
In summary, Machiavelli believed cruelty was to replace mercifulness by the ruler an order for the ruler to be successful. 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. To behave immorally was never Machiavelli's intent, His methods seemed rash in some instances but they were simply for the greater good.
Machiavelli went against the majority of the traditional medieval thinkers' ideas. Machiavelli eliminated moral principles from politics. 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. Instead of using religion in a
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