# CHAPTER I —_For a Sect or Commonwealth to last long, it must often be

CHAPTER I.—_For a Sect or Commonwealth to last long, it must often be
brought back to its Beginnings._


Doubtless, all the things of this world have a limit set to their
duration; yet those of them the bodies whereof have not been suffered
to grow disordered, but have been so cared for that either no change at
all has been wrought in them, or, if any, a change for the better and
not for the worse, will run that course which Heaven has in a general
way appointed them. And since I am now speaking of mixed bodies, for
States and Sects are so to be regarded, I say that for them these are
wholesome changes which bring them back to their first beginnings.

Those States consequently stand surest and endure longest which, either
by the operation of their institutions can renew themselves, or come to
be renewed by accident apart from any design. Nothing, however, can be
clearer than that unless thus renewed these bodies do not last. Now the
way to renew them is, as I have said, to bring them back to their
beginnings, since all beginnings of sects, commonwealths, or kingdoms
must needs have in them a certain excellence, by virtue of which they
gain their first reputation and make their first growth. But because in
progress of time this excellence becomes corrupted, unless something be
done to restore it to what it was at first, these bodies necessarily
decay; for as the physicians tell us in speaking of the human body,
“_Something or other is daily added which sooner or later will require
treatment._”[10]

 [10] “Quod quotidie aggregatur aliquid quod quandoque indiget
 curatione.”


As regards commonwealths, this return to the point of departure is
brought about either by extrinsic accident or by intrinsic foresight.
As to the first, we have seen how it was necessary that Rome should be
taken by the Gauls, that being thus in a manner reborn, she might
recover life and vigour, and resume the observances of religion and
justice which she had suffered to grow rusted by neglect. This is well
seen from those passages of Livius wherein he tells us that when the
Roman army was ‘sent forth against the Gauls, and again when tribunes
were created with consular authority, no religious rites whatever were
celebrated, and wherein he further relates how the Romans not only
failed to punish the three Fabii, who contrary to the law of nations
had fought against the Gauls, but even clothed them with honour. For,
from these instances, we may well infer that the rest of the wise
ordinances instituted by Romulus, and the other prudent kings, had
begun to be held of less account than they deserved, and less than was
essential for the maintenance of good government.

And therefore it was that Rome was visited by this calamity from
without, to the end that all her ordinances might be reformed, and the
people taught that it behoved them not only to maintain religion and
justice, but also to esteem their worthy citizens, and to prize their
virtues beyond any advantages of which they themselves might seem to
have been deprived at their instance. And this, we find, was just the
effect produced. For no sooner was the city retaken, than all the
ordinances of the old religion were at once restored; the Fabii, who
had fought in violation of the law of nations, were punished; and the
worth and excellence of Camillus so fully recognized, that the senate
and the whole people, laying all jealousies aside, once more committed
to him the entire charge of public affairs.

It is necessary then, as I have said already, that where men dwell
together in a regulated society, they be often reminded of those
ordinances in conformity with which they ought to live, either by
something inherent in these, or else by some external accident. A
reminder is given in the former of these two ways, either by the
passing of some law whereby the members of the society are brought to
an account; or else by some man of rare worth arising among them, whose
virtuous life and example have the same effect as a law. In a
Commonwealth, accordingly, this end is served either by the virtues of
some one of its citizens, or by the operation of its institutions.

The institutions whereby the Roman Commonwealth was led back to its
starting point, were the tribuneship of the people and the censorship,
together with all those laws which were passed to check the insolence
and ambition of its citizens. Such institutions, however, require fresh
life to be infused into them by the worth of some one man who
fearlessly devotes himself to give them effect in opposition to the
power of those who set them at defiance.

Of the laws being thus reinforced in Rome, before its capture by the
Gauls, we have notable examples in the deaths of the sons of Brutus, of
the Decemvirs, and of Manlius Frumentarius; and after its capture, in
the deaths of Manlius Capitolinus, and of the son of Manlius Torquatus
in the prosecution of his master of the knights by Papirius Cursor, and
in the impeachment of the Scipios. Such examples as these, being signal
and extraordinary, had the effect, whenever they took place, of
bringing men back to the true standard of right; but when they came to
be of rarer occurrence, they left men more leisure to grow corrupted,
and were attended by greater danger and disturbance. Wherefore, between
one and another of these vindications of the laws, no more than ten
years, at most, ought to intervene; because after that time men begin
to change their manners and to disregard the laws; and if nothing occur
to recall the idea of punishment, and unless fear resume its hold on
their minds, so many offenders suddenly spring up together that it is
impossible to punish them without danger. And to this purport it used
to be said by those who ruled Florence from the year 1434 to 1494, that
their government could hardly be maintained unless it was renewed every
five years; by which they meant that it was necessary for them to
arouse the same terror and alarm in men’s minds, as they inspired when
they first assumed the government, and when all who offended against
their authority were signally chastised. For when the recollection of
such chastisement has died out, men are emboldened to engage in new
designs, and to speak ill of their rulers; for which the only remedy is
to restore things to what they were at first.

A republic may, likewise, be brought back to its original form, without
recourse to ordinances for enforcing justice, by the mere virtues of a
single citizen, by reason that these virtues are of such influence and
authority that good men love to imitate them, and bad men are ashamed
to depart from them. Those to whom Rome owed most for services of this
sort, were Horatius Cocles, Mutius Scævola, the two Decii, Atilius
Regulus, and divers others, whose rare excellence and generous example
wrought for their city almost the same results as might have been
effected by ordinances and laws. And if to these instances of
individual worth had been added, every ten years, some signal
enforcement of justice, it would have been impossible for Rome ever to
have grown corrupted. But when both of these incitements to virtuous
behavior began to recur less frequently, corruption spread, and after
the time of Atilius Regulus, no like example was again witnessed. For
though the two Catos came later, so great an interval had elapsed
before the elder Cato appeared, and again, so long a period intervened
between him and the younger, and these two, moreover, stood so much
alone, that it was impossible for them, by their influence, to work any
important change; more especially for the younger, who found Rome so
much corrupted that he could do nothing to improve his fellow-citizens.

This is enough to say concerning commonwealths, but as regards sects,
we see from the instance of our own religion that here too a like
renewal is needed. For had not this religion of ours been brought back
to its original condition by Saint Francis and Saint Dominick, it must
soon have been utterly extinguished. They, however, by their voluntary
poverty, and by their imitation of the life of Christ, rekindled in the
minds of men the dying flame of faith; and by the efficacious rules
which they established averted from our Church that ruin which the ill
lives of its prelates and heads must otherwise have brought upon it.
For living in poverty, and gaining great authority with the people by
confessing them and preaching to them, they got them to believe that it
is evil to speak ill even of what is evil; and that it is good to be
obedient to rulers, who, if they do amiss, may be left to the judgment
of God. By which teaching these rulers are encouraged to behave as
badly as they can, having no fear of punishments which they neither see
nor credit. Nevertheless, it is this renewal which has maintained, and
still maintains, our religion.

Kingdoms also stand in need of a like renewal, and to have their laws
restored to their former force; and we see how, by attending to this,
the kingdom of France has profited. For that kingdom, more than any
other, lies under the control of its laws and ordinances, which are
maintained by its parliaments, and more especially by the parliament of
Paris, from which last they derive fresh vigour whenever they have to
be enforced against any prince of the realm; for this assembly
pronounces sentence even against the king himself. Heretofore this
parliament has maintained its name as the fearless champion of the laws
against the nobles of the land; but should it ever at any future time
suffer wrongs to pass unpunished, and should offences multiply, either
these will have to be corrected with great disturbance to the State, or
the kingdom itself must fall to pieces.

This, then, is our conclusion—that nothing is so necessary in any
society, be it a religious sect, a kingdom, or a commonwealth, as to
restore to it that reputation which it had at first, and to see that it
is provided either with wholesome laws, or with good men whose actions
may effect the same ends, without need to resort to external force. For
although this last may sometimes, as in the case of Rome, afford an
efficacious remedy, it is too hazardous a remedy to make us ever wish
to employ it.

And that all may understand how much the actions of particular citizens
helped to make Rome great, and how many admirable results they wrought
in that city, I shall now proceed to set them forth and examine them;
with which survey this Third Book of mine, and last division of the
First Decade of Titus Livius, shall be brought to a close. But,
although great and notable actions were done by the Roman kings,
nevertheless, since history has treated of these at much length, here I
shall pass them over, and say no more about these princes, save as
regards certain things done by them with an eye to their private
interest. I shall begin, therefore, with Brutus, the father of Roman
freedom.