ABSTRACT
Machiavelli and Hobbes engaged in very different ways in the construction of a political science, theorizing the necessity of religion in order to ensure the government of the City and the Commonwealth. This chapter discusses the specific function that Machiavelli and Hobbes give to religion. Roman religion was not the annihilation of tumults but a strategy to resolve the claims for public recognition that the plebs raised through them. On the contrary, the Hobbesian sovereign has to neutralize and annihilate any conflict using the moral suasion of religion. The Machiavellian civil religion is a religion of the City in which all the parts are necessary to build and preserve safety and freedom. The difference between Hobbes and Machiavelli as the Hobbesian religion is an instrument by which self-obedience leads to the delegation of all power to the sovereign, while, on the contrary, the Machiavellian religion leads to a full assumption of collective political responsibility.
