Discourses on Livy · Chapter
Chapter XXVII: That men seldom know how to be wholly good or wholly bad explained
Machiavelli recounts Pope Julius II's bold and unguarded entry into Perugia to depose Giovanpagolo Baglioni, who, despite having ample opportunity to kill or capture the Pope, failed to act.
What happens
Machiavelli recounts Pope Julius II's bold and unguarded entry into Perugia to depose Giovanpagolo Baglioni, who, despite having ample opportunity to kill or capture the Pope, failed to act. The author reflects on Baglioni's inability to commit a truly great or wicked deed, suggesting that men often lack the capacity for either complete virtue or complete villainy.
Themes in this chapter
Leadership and Moral Character
Explores the inability of men like Baglioni to act with either complete goodness or complete wickedness, highlighting a deficiency in moral or strategic greatness.
Necessity and Reason of State
Pope Julius II's impetuous action and Baglioni's failure to seize a decisive moment illustrate the role of boldness and missed opportunities in political affairs.
Characters to notice
- Pope Julius II
Entered Perugia unguarded to expel the Bentivogli and remove Giovanpagolo Baglioni, acting with characteristic impetuosity.
- Giovanpagolo Baglioni
Tyrant of Perugia who failed to exploit the opportunity to crush Pope Julius II, despite being a profligate and murderer.
Key passages
“men know not how to be splendidly wicked or wholly good, and shrink in consequence from such crimes as are stamped with an inherent greatness or disclose a nobility of nature.”
People rarely have the capacity to be either completely virtuous or completely evil, and they avoid actions that require a kind of grand, noble wickedness.
Machiavelli's central reflection on human nature and the failure of Giovanpagolo Baglioni to act decisively.