Niccolo Machiavelli's Belfagor: Story of the Devil Who Took a Wife Summary

Machiavelli was an Italian statesman and writer in the 15th and 16th centuries. His most famous work, The Prince, is a detailed account of the various ways a king maintains his power. Though the work earned Machiavelli a reputation for being an amoral, ruthless statesman, such a reputation is undeserved; Machiavelli was simply describing the way kings ruled as best he could. He was not endorsing it.

The rulers of Hell learn of a vision seen by a holy man. He saw that of all the many souls that went to Hell, most or all of them were damned on account of having a wife. The devils, thinking that this would make them look bad, decide to investigate this to see if there...