The Prince is a political treatise written by the Italian diplomat, Niccolo Machiavelli, and published in 1532. The purpose of The Prince was to teach rulers how to take control and establish their authority but, unlike other guides of this era, it told them to focus on developing their image and to act good or bad, as the circumstance demanded. This is precisely why the pope added the Prince to the List of Banned Books in 1559: it emphasised deception over Christian morality and argued that politics was outside of the control of the Church. Such a radical idea greatly angered the pope.
The Prince was also banned in Protestant England by Cardinal Pole. The Prince had been a great source of inspiration to King Henry VIII who had put many of his ideas into practice. As Cardinal Pole viewed Henry as a tyrannical ruler, he came to view Machiavelli as evil and banned the book in an effort to reduce its impact.
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