《君主论·第十一章·教会的君主国》第2节
Before Charles, King of France, passed into Italy, this country was under the dominion of the Pope, the Venetians, the King of Naples, the Duke of Milan, and the Florentines. These potentates had two principal anxieties: the one, that no foreigner should enter Italy under arms; the other, that none of themselves should seize more territory. Those about whom there was the most anxiety were the Pope and the Venetians. To restrain the Venetians the union of all the others was necessary, as it was for the defence of Ferrara; and to keep down the Pope they made use of the barons of Rome, who, being divided into two factions, Orsini and Colonnesi, had always a pretext for disorder, and, standing with arms in their hands under the eyes of the Pontiff, kept the pontificate weak and powerless. And although there might arise sometimes a courageous pope, such as Sixtus, yet neither fortune nor wisdom could rid him of these annoyances. And the short life of a pope is also a cause of weakness; for in the ten years, which is the average life of a pope, he can with difficulty lower one of the factions; and if, so to speak, one people should almost destroy the Colonnesi, another would arise hostile to the Orsini, who would support their opponents, and yet would not have time to ruin the Orsini. This was the reason why the temporal powers of the pope were little esteemed in Italy.
注释摘要
这一段要解释的是一个关键的历史前提：在法国国王查理八世率军侵入意大利之前，为什么教皇在世俗权力上显得那样虚弱，甚至被意大利本土的各个势力轻易摆布。马基雅维利在这里并非进行道德评断，而是进行一种冷静的结构性诊断。他要论证的是，教皇国的孱弱根本不是因为某任教皇个人无能，而是由其身处的位置、罗马内部贵族的分裂性结构，以及教皇任期本身的短暂所共同导致的。 在马基雅…