From the middle of the sixteenth century until the
French Revolution Machiavellism represented a pow-
erful current in intellectual life. In the 1580's Machia-
vellism was so much acknowledged as a recognizable,
distinct attitude that the term Machiavellist appeared
in print (1581 in France in Nicolas Froumenteau's Fi-
nances; 1589 in England in a treatise by Thomas Nash).
Although Machiavelli's exclusive concern had been
politics, the mystery which the condemnation of his
writings wrapped around him fostered the belief that
his teachings were applicable to any kind of human
activity. The common denominator of all Machiavellist
attitudes was doubt that successful action was compat-
ible with living according to a strictly moral code.
Despite agreement on this basic assumption, and de-
spite the fact that the development of Machiavellian
attitudes toward life and of a Machiavellian outlook
on politics went hand in hand, a historical presentation
of the unfolding of Machiavellism might most conve-
niently separate the story of (1) Machiavelli as teacher
of human behavior from that of Machiavelli as political
counselor, and in the area of Machiavellian politics it
might be advisable to make a distinction between (2)
Machiavelli's views on the management of the internal
affairs of a society and (3) Machiavelli's notions about
the conduct of foreign policy.
