Machiavelli's book initially received the Pope's blessing

The Prince is a political treatise whose writing initially sparked the Pope's approval, who permitted its printing in 1531. The work was then vigorously criticized by the English cardinal Reginald Pole, who described it as a writing emanating from Satan in a text published in 1552. These violent condemnations finally led to the inclusion of the author's works on the Index by Pope Paul IV in 1559.