The Source of a Princes Happiness and Misery in...

Augustine’s City of God and Aquinas’s On Kingship ideas on how a prince should rule contrast with Niccolo Machiavelli’s described The Prince. Augustine breaks down the true source of a prince’s happiness as revolving around God while Machiavelli focuses on the prince’s material lusts. In On Kingship, Aquinas describes the sources of a prince’s misery being suspicion, jealousy and lust. Machiavelli disagrees, saying those emotions makes a prince happy. Augustine talks about a prince’s happiness in book 5 chapter 24 in the City of God. He states five goals that do not lead to happiness: ruling a long time, dying a peaceful death, having a successor, conquering ones enemies, or guarding their territory. A prince that cares about these superficial goals will never be able to obtain true happiness because they neglect the needs of their soul. True happiness can be found in God’s grace. He would never place material things as a goal o f His true followers. Augustine states that in order for a prince to find this happiness, he needs to: fear, love and worship God and extend His kingdom; rule justly; have humility towards his accomplishment; pardon as many crimes as possible and to punish enemies when necessary to uphold the government and defend the republic, not for a prince’s selfish desires. Machiavelli disagrees with Augustine’s idea of a prince’s happiness. He see the true source of happiness as a prince perusing every lust and desire he has and doing everything he can to