On the Monarchy of Spain

Campanela considered Luther to be a harbinger of the Antichrist. Spain had proved its ability to take on the Ottomans at the pivotal Battle of Lepanto in 1571. The Italian princes were too weak, even collectively, to defend Christian interests against Ottoman aggression. He was particularly outraged by Machiavelli's advice that rulers should instrumentalize religion as a way of binding together a political community. His utopia is neither a Principiate nor a Republic, but a full-blown theocracy.