《君主论·第三章·混合君主国》第9节
Let any one now consider with what little difficulty the king could have maintained his position in Italy had he observed the rules above laid down, and kept all his friends secure and protected; for although they were numerous they were both weak and timid, some afraid of the Church, some of the Venetians, and thus they would always have been forced to stand in with him, and by their means he could easily have made himself secure against those who remained powerful. But he was no sooner in Milan than he did the contrary by assisting Pope Alexander to occupy the Romagna. It never occurred to him that by this action he was weakening himself, depriving himself of friends and of those who had thrown themselves into his lap, whilst he aggrandized the Church by adding much temporal power to the spiritual, thus giving it greater authority. And having committed this prime error, he was obliged to follow it up, so much so that, to put an end to the ambition of Alexander, and to prevent his becoming the master of Tuscany, he was himself forced to come into Italy. And as if it were not enough to have aggrandized the Church, and deprived himself of friends, he, wishing to have the kingdom of Naples, divided it with the King of Spain, and where he was the prime arbiter in Italy he takes an associate, so that the ambitious of that country and the malcontents of his own should have somewhere to shelter; and whereas he could have left in the kingdom his own pensioner as king, he drove him out, to put one there who was able to drive him, Louis, out in turn.
注释摘要
这一段是马基雅维利对法国国王路易十二在意大利的整个事业所作的一个集中诊断。他的论证思路很清晰：先假设一个相反的、合理的情境，再揭示路易十二实际上做了什么，然后追踪这个错误如何一环扣一环地逼迫他进一步犯错。在前文，马基雅维利已经提出了一整套治理语言、法律、风俗均不相同的混合君主国的方法：君主要亲自驻跸、派殖民团而非驻军、做弱小邻邦的保护者、削弱区域内已有的强…