never mentions the Church and the pope directly, she does not view them as threatening to a proper lady. Her ideas follow suit with others during the Middle Ages because of the importance placed upon the Church during the period and the idea that the Church should dominate all aspects of life. Religion in its purest form dominated a good princess life, while the establishment of the Church remained a good princes enemy.Up until the Renaissance and the Protestant Reformation, Christians emphasized God and fate. Machiavelli attempted to adapt modern thought when he attacked the idea that chance, or fortune, controled the fate of a prince. He acknowledged that luck does in fact play a part in the affairs of men, but he maintained that human free will also had strong implications. He asserted, I think it may be true that fortune determines one half of our actions, but that, even so, she leaves us to control the other half (Machiavelli 74). Machiavellis logic clearly signified a modern notion of humankind, although giving luck half of the control over our lives may seem a little liberal. Free will was hardly recognized in Gods plan. God and fate were considered to be the only sources of human action. Even though Machiavelli clearly supported Renaissance ideas in this instance, he still admits that a successful prince can easily be ruined if not prepared for whatever luck may have in store for him.Machiavellis The Prince successfully expressed many ideas of the Renaissance. He detailed how the government should work and what past leaders had done to lead to their downfall. He emphasized the problems of an ecclesiastical government and how the prince should do everything in his power to suppress the Church and the pope for the good of the State. Machiavellian ideas also coincided with that of other Renaissance authors in that it was necessary for the prince to be both feared and loved....
