Neither atheist nor pagan, as so many have defined him, Viroli's Machiavelli locates his God in the Republican Christian tradition that existed in Florence. A tradition founded on the principle whereby the true Christian is a good citizen that serves the common good and freedom. God participates in human affairs, he supports and awards those who govern justly, he desires men to make the earthly city similar to the divine one. Machiavelli adumbrates a religion of virtues without which the free Republics could not be born, nor live, nor defend themselves against corruption. Not as a supporter of a new theology but as a prophet of a true religion of patriotic love, of a new way of moral and political living, that rediscovers and actively pursues the values of charity and justice.