The greatness of Machiavelli and the despotic disease of his politics--both princely and republican -- Montesquieu's attack on the political errors of Hobbes -- Religious ideas and the force of Christian ones in modern Europe -- The ideas of early Christianity, their absorption in Roman Law, and their abusive reverberations in modern Europe -- Montesquieu's opposition to Plato's belles idées and their diffusion -- Aristotle's "manner of thinking" and the deleterious use of his ideas.